US Open - R3 - Andy vs. Taylor Dent

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

US Open - R3 - Andy vs. Taylor Dent

indiana · Tennis legend

As I wrote elsewhere but you beat me to it smile

I'd say this draw is pretty taylor made and certainly I can't see it putting a dent in Andy's chances smile

In the 2nd round Dent beat Navarro 11-9 in a fifth set tiebreaker which is no great recommendation, having beaten Lopez in four sets in Round 1.

Clearly this is his comeback year after a few matches late on last year. He has 3 victories against top 50 opponents in the year. Last week in New Haven against Ljubicic ranked 50 then and his best week when beating Almagro and Robredo in Miami before losing to Federer in last 16.

His best ranking was 21 in 2005 which is the year he had his 2 losses to Andy ( at Queens and Cincinnatti ) then aged 18 in his first year on the ATP tour.

Big serve and volleyer. His match with Navarro had 255 net approaches ( blast from the past ! ) Actually he was 2nd in this match with 109 net approaches of which 75 were successful.

Has fastest serve of the tournament ( if you trust these speed gun thingies at ) 147 MPH and 2nd in no of aces though had quite a few sets to rack up that total. By the way, Andy is fifth at 137 mph ( all quite close after Dent and Roddick ) which shows he's getting real pace on his serve which along with his ace count does tie in with folk saying he's really going for it to counter my moans about his first serve percentage.

Anyway, I reckon he's ripe for picking. Andy is generally good at matching up against big servers who don't bring a huge lot else to the table ( eg. Karlovic, Roddick in red mist times before he unfortunately decided to construct rallies )

Should be good atmosphere with Dent getting a lot of home support which might help Andy avoid going AWOL for too long at any point.

Andy in straight sets for me.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

And yet again, Andy is the middle-of-the-night-in-UK match - second match in the evening session.

So yet another match of his I'm not going to see furious

philwrig · Hall of fame

Have you noticed that both the main protagonists for the mens and ladies titles Fed and Serena have only played one night match and Fed was scheduled first the only men's match to receive that honour. IMO it is clearly a disadvantage for Andy to have to keep playing these late matches not knowing what time you will start and probably not getting to bed until 3 in the morning. They tend to be more emotional given the drama thay can involve bacause it's the night session which can lead to more mental tiredness late in the tournament. The only positive is the cooler temperatures but as the daytime temps aren't particularly high at the moment this is only a minor positive.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

With all the top Americans in Federer's half of the draw, it's not surprising that he hasn't been the main attraction for the night session with Roddick taking that instead (and surely now Isner will following his win over Roddick), so he'll end up playing the day matches.

Federer playing first was an experiment in the night session to see whether fans would stick around for the women's match afterwards...the fact it hasn't been done again perhaps indicates that it might not have worked.

I'd imagine Nadal will be the night match in the next round and Murray will be the day match, but with Murray in the weaker half of the draw (in terms of TV draws for the USA), it's not surprising he's going to have more night matches.

Sheddie · administrator

Madeline wrote:

And yet again, Andy is the middle-of-the-night-in-UK match - second match in the evening session.

So yet another match of his I'm not going to see

I have no sympathy, you should learn to stay up into the night especially for the US and the Aussie Opens.

Try this, I'm going to nap from 8pm till 1 then watch the Andy match (probably 2-4.30ish) then sleep 4.30am - 7 and I've nearly got my 8 hours sleep before work on Monday morning !

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Too old to learn!

I used to stay up but now I'm on medication that knocks me out (not purposely, a side-effect). If I stayed up I would fall off the computer chair and break a few bones! If I don't take the pills I am likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Hmmm, difficult choice. I think I would miss more Andy matches that way!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Again no night match for Fed tomorrow and guess what he knows he will definitely not play before 2.30p.m . If that isn't preferential treatment I don't know what that is.

indiana · Tennis legend

Don't really think it's a biggee.

If for TV / spectaors they more often schedule precise times for Federer and apparently the Williams sisters then that's what being a star brings.

And I do think it is more TV ( especially ) / spectators rather than any leaning to favouring the players.

At Wimbledon, TV basically dictated Andy always being in the evening and the fact that he was always on Centre Court even surprised some of us a bit and was arguably some advantage to him.

Yes, it overall does help their match preparation, but it does also help their opponents in each individual match, opponents who will generally be less experienced of the whole situation.

In the long run, more continuallly knowing when their matches are may save a few nerves but I am afraid I can't get remotely really worked up about it, nor the night match situation, though guess I wouldn't want Andy continually the night match ( probably Nadal on Tuesday and maybe good to have most of his quota early on in the tournament ).

Andy's opening 3 matches have all been scheduled for Arthur Ashe ( as Federer and Nadal ), which is good and some might argue gives him an advantage before a potential match with Del Potro who has had all his matches so far on Louis Armsrong.

Basically it's still about winning tennis matches.

Sheddie · administrator

hmm not sure what to do now, stayed up watching Cljisters-Williams - quality match !!! But now if I watch Andy I'll have just 5hrs sleep with busy day at work tomorrow

dilemmas !

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Hope you decided to go to bed, Sheddie. It's now 2.15, Zvonareva has missed 6(?) match points and it's into a 3rd set. Pennetta is delaying things further with a medical time-out. I so wish I'd gone to bed and set my alarm. Can't give up now but the rest of the day will be a washout.

-- Edited by goldfish on Monday 7th of September 2009 01:22:31 AM

Mikeduke · County player

Woo finally, here we go. Come on Andy!

Mikeduke · County player

How's Andy playing, is there anyone still up watching this?

Andy breaks in the third set

6-3 6-2 3-2

Mikeduke · County player

thats got to be it as Andy break again *5-2

Andy is serving at 24% in this set...

Sheddie · administrator

I stayed up and watched it

Really pleased I did, v entertaining match. You hardly ever see a player like Dent on tour now and its a shame. A good serve-volleyer vs baseliner clash always provides quality viewing.

Dent has superb touch at the net, his drop volleying and coverage was superb and unlike most players on tour he actually covered the cross-court pass, Murray's favourite shot and was frustrating the Scot for a little while. It took Murray a set to realise it but then he started mixing up the direction of his passes, putting a few down the line and had a lot more success from then on

In the end Murray's returning was just too good especially by the 3rd set when he was seeing the ball like a balloon. Dent's play from the baseline got progressively more erratic and he didn't really match Andy in any of the baseline exchanges

Crowd seemed a bit flat, I guess unsurprisingly after the marathon Pennetta match beforehand and Dent never really looked like troubling Andy