Weeks 35 & 36 - US Open Tennis Championships, Flushing Meadows, NYC - Hard

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Weeks 35 & 36 - US Open Tennis Championships, Flushing Meadows, NYC - Hard

jb288 · Satellite level

Bolkvadze through to the second round...she was impressive beating Heather, pleased to see her progress.

Andy Parker · Club Coach

The withdrawals must be close to a record for a Grand Slam after the draw is made. It almost makes a mockery of the last qualifying round as 6 losers are now in the draw. If this is due to the rules regarding prize money after the draw is made, then it needs to be changed to stop this farce.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Unfortunately it is looking like a dud at the moment. A really encouraging start, on serve at the second sit down, but since then, Serena has won 5 games in a row to lead 6-1 *1-0 in 31 mins.

Jajon · Club Coach

You know, through all the political and social turmoil worldwide atm, watching Serena dismantle Sharapovas game for the last 15 years gives me an inner peace. Somethings are constant. Who knew ?!

indiana · Tennis legend

Andy Parker wrote:
The withdrawals must be close to a record for a Grand Slam after the draw is made. It almost makes a mockery of the last qualifying round as 6 losers are now in the draw. If this is due to the rules regarding prize money after the draw is made, then it needs to be changed to stop this farce.

As folk here have said before, let MD acceptance players withdraw due to injury before the Q draw is made ( indeed no real reason I can see for not fairly well before the draw is made ) and still receive half the R1 prize money.

Further thoughts - I believe LLs just receive half the R1 money if they lose at that stage so there is some balancing effect, whereas alternate MD entrants would be due full prize money so costing more but would not some sort of cintingency fund to pay the injured withdrawals half R1 money be better than the current situation??

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 27th of August 2019 01:52:12 AM

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

LLs that lose in the first round receive the prize money they won in qualifying plus 50% of R1 prize money, but the total capped at R1 prize money should it be more. Should a LL win then they only receive main draw points and prize money.

To answer AV's earlier Q, if a place opens up after the LL draw is made at the end of qualifying, it is filled by the next highest ranked FQR loser to have signed in before the start of that day's play.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Andy Parker wrote:
The withdrawals must be close to a record for a Grand Slam after the draw is made. It almost makes a mockery of the last qualifying round as 6 losers are now in the draw. If this is due to the rules regarding prize money after the draw is made, then it needs to be changed to stop this farce.

But not so much of a farce as 6 players retiring five games into their match, or even losing 1&1, while barely playing.

So Kerber out too. The French commentators got very excited (and even Ferro got a win too)

And Serena did her stuff.

flamingowings · All-time great

So how was Serena/Maria? Was it as one sided as the scoreline?

Jajon · Club Coach

flamingowings wrote:
So how was Serena/Maria? Was it as one sided as the scoreline?

Sharapova didnt win a point on her second serve. It really was a demolition

ROSAMUND · Futures level

I notice that Jo has won a round in each of the Grand Slams in 2019. i.e . in the same year. This is an achievement for a British female player as the last person to manage this was Jo Durie in 1983. Of course Jo and the late Elena Baltacha are the only British females to win a round in each of the Grand Slams in the 21st century.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Perhaps Jo was wise to give the Bronx a miss and concentrate her energies on the US Open. I notice that Camila Giorgi played some long matches there and had nothing left for her match against Maria Sakkari.

Andy Parker · Club Coach

I wonder if Maria will retire now - regardless of the result or the way the match went, it was always going to be fascinating to me to see what will probably be the last ever Grand Slam clash of two of the great players of the modern era.

The sands of time are ticking for them both now - Serena is obviously still really good and desperate to beat Margaret Court's Grand Slam record of 24 singles titles, but she is very old in tennis terms and I am fascinated to see if she can beat that record and get to 25.

Maria hasn't really returned to her form since the meldonium ban and not only does she seem to decline in the third sets of long matches, but she is very capable of being battered off court quickly likelast night. If you were a coach, I am not sure what you could do to get her back to the top echelons of tennis (play a lot more?), and if you can't do that, I'm really not sure if you were Maria, whether you'd want to continue playing as an unseeded player or wildcard. Retirement announcement shortly - I think so.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Tuesday 27th of August 2019 11:10:53 AM

flamingowings · All-time great

ROSAMUND wrote:
Perhaps Jo was wise to give the Bronx a miss and concentrate her energies on the US Open. I notice that Camila Giorgi played some long matches there and had nothing left for her match against Maria Sakkari.

TBF Sakkari is a tough match up for Giorgi at the best of times -she hasn't won more than a handful of games in the previous times they met either.

flamingowings · All-time great

Jajon wrote:
flamingowings wrote:
So how was Serena/Maria? Was it as one sided as the scoreline?
Sharapova didnt win a point on her second serve. It really was a demolition

Thanks. I called it a dud match when it was announced. Maria hasn't been the same since her shoulder surgery and definitely not since she came back from her ban.