Week 34 - US Open men's qualifying - Hard

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Week 34 - US Open men's qualifying - Hard

christian · Intermediate Club Player

Great results to wake up to, and really pleasing that the positive signs of late seem to be turning into decent results. Not trying to get carried away, or set them up for a fall, but pre draw I think many would have agreed that on form, and with a reasonable draw both players should qualify, they are now one match away from that being a reality. I don't mean it will be a poor show if both/neither make it, but fingers crossed they keep the form/run going.

korriban · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:
Brilliant result from both men (2 out of 2 just keep going . . .)

Dan is still up and tweeting so I bet he has physio and food and winding down and all that to take care of before hitting the bed. A new experience, I expect, but I bet he's enjoying it - and so he should - just think where he was a few months ago . . .

Talking of which, back at Roland Garros we had not a single player in the qualies (and barely one in the main draw) and now here we are with three (the Three Musketeers ?) in the US final Q round. . .

Delighted for both of them!

As previously posted, James will have to solve the puzzle that is Devvarman. He is a great mover and retriever, and likes to take control of rallies by placing the ball with very little pace, but lots of variety, angles and changes of direction......waiting for an UE or more often his opponent losing patience and going for too much or attacking off the wrong ball. A passive approach would be disasterous, but over-attacking with minimal margin would equally play into the Indian's hands. Very very tricky, and probably infuriating to play. Glad Leon is around. If James does get ahead in sets or even approaches the winning line he CANNOT start playing overly safe and tentative tennis, which seems to be his usual modus operandi, and also his biggest achilles heel. The good news is that he absolutely won't be blasted off court, so in that sense his destiny is completely in his own hands - serve well, attack with control and pressurise until the last point - and he has a great shot!

Dan will be playing someone who beat the highest seed in this bracket, coming back from a MP down. Dan should be well used to players who come back from MP down by now!! As Steven points out, Menendez has pedigree and recent form on hard courts, and with the momentum from his back-to-the wall victory yesterday, he'll certainly be a handful. But once again, with Dan's current form I believe its also probably on his own racquet, which is all you can hope for really. He'll need to get as much recovery and sleep as possible, which I know he's been struggling with on this trip. Once again, great that Leon and the team are around to guide and support.

Can we dare to hope?

On another note - disappointing that Mr Rothenberg reported that not a single British journalist was around to watch Dan make it to FQR. I accept that many will only be flying out for the Main Draw, but one or two well known names are already in situ, Mr Harman for a number of days already. I realise that they need to network with the great and the good, and evenings are very important both for meetings, and in the US for making deadlines - but in some of the sarcastic twitter exchanges between Neil and Evo, you could easily conclude that one of the parties genuinely believes that the player is privileged if the the journalist decides to watch them, rather than the journalist being privileged for being paid to watch and report on professional tennis. After a week which has included the fiasco and humiliation of a well-known and highly experienced and respected journalist falling for the oldest trick in the book, and deciding to go cap in hand to his editor to get front page space for an exclusive scoop, which was obviously always just a "fed" PR scam to anyone with half a brain [pride and vanity perhaps trumping judgement in this case], I would have hoped at least that journalist would have consumed some humble pie, stuck to the day job, and watched Evo play!!! Maybe it's just me.

Benten · Improver

Great wins for dan and James yesterday lets hope they can both get the wins required today to get them over the finish line and into the main draw. This brings me to the reason I've posted forgive me for my lack of knowledge on this matter but how is it decided who the successful qualifiers will play in round 1? Is it a random draw once all the matches are finished or has it already been decided who will each other, if that's the case who would the 2 Brits face if successful in qualifying?

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Great to see wins from both the guys. I'm a little apprehensive as to Evo's chances of recovery though after such a late finish.

In answer to your question Benten, the qualifiers are placed by random draw after all qualifying matches are completed. However, the draw has been done as the spots available are:

v. Igor Sijsling (NED)
v. Martin Klizan (SVK)
v. Lukas Lacko (SVK)
v. James Blake (USA)
v. Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)
v. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) [23]
v. Milos Raonic (CAN) [10]
v. Jerzy Janowicz (POL) [14]
v. Jack Sock (USA)
v. David Ferrer (ESP) [4]
v. Robin Haase (NED)
v. Kei Nishikori (JPN) [11]
v. Vasek Pospisil (CAN)

then 2 Qualifier v. Qualifier matches to complete the set of 16 qualifiers and 1 lucky loser

Benten · Improver

Thanks for the answer imoen I had no idea how it worked. I hear what you say about Dans lack of rest but I'm sure he'll be fighting fit and raring to go, he's a young lad with good recovery powers, who's one victory away from entering a grand slam tournament, he can rest at the weekend!!! Seriously though its going to be tough for both of them, as long as they give it their best and have a real good go we cant complain win or lose. Fingers crossed for two wins and a good first round draw. You never know they could even meet in R1.

Spectator · All-time great

4 am is a pretty late night (or early morning) even for the young. But if he's not on until 8:00 pm, he should be able to get some rest.

korriban · Challenger level

Yes. There are 3 or 4 very winnable matches among the MD opponents for the qualifiers, plus the 2 sets of Q vs Q matches as well - which means at least 2 of the qualifiers WILL progress and overall about half have a fighting chance of progressing. Not bad odds.

Furthermore by a quirk of the random selection, 9 of the 17 Q/LL players have been allocated to just one quarter of the draw, which in turn is by far the weakest quarter - Ferrer and Gasquet.......so you could even make a case for one of the qualifiers having a shot at a QF or even SF.......it's all about the dream!

Jack Buxton · Club Coach

Evo has been retweeting in the last few hours so assume the boy is still on a high and cant sleep :)

korriban · Challenger level

Jack Buxton wrote:
Evo has been retweeting in the last few hours so assume the boy is still on a high and cant sleep :)

With a late start tonight, he can lie in until at least midday locally and still have plenty of time to fuel up, practice, talk tactics, watch some Wardy and still fully prepare for his match.....I'm sure the team have it all under control.......and he's been complaining about jet lag for weeks, so I'm not surprised after such a late one and all the excitement.

RJA · Hall of fame

korriban wrote:
On another note - disappointing that Mr Rothenberg reported that not a single British journalist was around to watch Dan make it to FQR. I accept that many will only be flying out for the Main Draw, but one or two well known names are already in situ, Mr Harman for a number of days already. I realise that they need to network with the great and the good, and evenings are very important both for meetings, and in the US for making deadlines - but in some of the sarcastic twitter exchanges between Neil and Evo, you could easily conclude that one of the parties genuinely believes that the player is privileged if the the journalist decides to watch them, rather than the journalist being privileged for being paid to watch and report on professional tennis. After a week which has included the fiasco and humiliation of a well-known and highly experienced and respected journalist falling for the oldest trick in the book, and deciding to go cap in hand to his editor to get front page space for an exclusive scoop, which was obviously always just a "fed" PR scam to anyone with half a brain [pride and vanity perhaps trumping judgement in this case], I would have hoped at least that journalist would have consumed some humble pie, stuck to the day job, and watched Evo play!!! Maybe it's just me.

Don't worry Korriban. If Evo makes it through to the main draw Mr Harman will be telling us all about it. A journalist of his standard and connections doesn't need to lower himself to actually watching qualifying matches.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Another solid win for Evo, according to Liz on twitter it was an ugly win, so satisfying to come through when you haven't played your best. But he will probably have to play better today, with more pressure, with much more at stake. Not worried about recovery as Evo generally has bundles of energy on court so with a 5pm start he'll be fine.
I'd say Evo's match was 50/50(although bookies make it 58% in his favour) and Wardy say about 42/58 (bookies agree).
I think if Evo doesn't wilt under the pressure and plays near his best he will win.

PaulM · Tennis legend

This is great. US Open qualies has traditionally been a good haunting ground for the British women so nice to see the men catching-up at last.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Yes it has, under Leon the lads are really starting to catch fire, which is a very positive trend.

LouieG · County player

Is Ward's court televised?