Day 5 at Flushing Meadows promised much – excellent betting opportunities, many top stars in action, Tiger Tim in round two and the rare prospect of a competitive night match.
Match of the morning without question was tournament second favourite and carrier of my hopes, Novak Djokovic, facing Radek Stepanek.
Having lost the first set on a breaker, Djokovic’s racquet went in the fourth game of the second set and you can see why he was getting vexed. Stepanek must be so annoying to play against, what with all the jogging up and down, bizarre celebrations, Henman-like fist pumps and in your face tennis.
A great service return winner up the line gave Novak the mini break in the second set breaker, but in the very next point Stepanek roared back, winning an extremely long rally. Stepanek’s little jumps and facial expressions went into overdrive as he took the lead, but a helpful net cord levelled it at the changeover, before both players gained and lost the lead and finally Stepanek put an easy volley into the net to hand the set to the Croatian.
There appeared to be a long way to go in that one, so I headed over to Grandstand for the ever watchable Marat Safin against Stanislas Wawrinka and I was greeted with the prowling, shouting, racquet smashing Safin that I had missed the other day. At 3-5 down, Safin had a break back point that he netted and the racquet bore the brunt of his frustration. It was to no avail through, as Safin’s decline continued with a straight sets defeat.
Back on Louis Armstrong, Stepanek served for the third set, but Djokovic broke the Czech for the first time in the match to level at 5-5, before losing his own serve and with it the set. This was looking bad – my main bet on the men’s side, down 2-1 in sets and having regular treatment from the trainer.
It looked like the end for Djokovic when he lost his serve in the first game of the fourth set, but immediately the Czech gave his serve away and was warned for hammering a ball into the crowd in frustration. I had a little extra on Djokovic for the tournament at 25 in the hope of a recovery.
An incredible rally set up a 0-30 chance and a big jump for joy from Djokovic at 6-5 and the very next point he had three set points to take us all the way and another missed volley from ‘The Alien’ meant a final set shootout.
Each and every possible vantage point was utilised on Armstrong, including standing room behind Row Z and the back row of Arthur Ashe to get a view of this classic encounter and the players received a standing ovation before the final set breaker, which Djokovic took easily and my bet was intact.
After four and a half hours I was in need of some respite and took a well-earned break before returning for Henman v Tsonga and sadly this turned out to be Tim’s last ever match at an ATP event, as Tsonga took it in four, largely with the help of some incredible serving. The end of an era and the man I first enjoyed watching in ’96 against Kafelnikov at SW19 leaves the tour after a fantastic career.
The last match of the day promised to be a competitive one, given Nadal’s well documented injury problems, but could Tipsarevic do enough to take him out, as the Serb has had injury problems of his own since Wimbledon?
This one turned into a battle of who could go the longest without calling the trainer and Michael Nowotny will be claiming over time after this one, as both competitors were regularly patched up during the changeovers. Nadal with his knees and then his finger and Tipsarevic with his dodgy ribs. Nadal will surely not last the distance in this event and Tipsy seemed to be there for the appearance fee – not the classic I was expecting and the Serb quit on his stool in the third set.
At this point I was hoping that Sky would switch to the Hewitt v Calleri match, which was looking like much the best of the night matches, but disappointingly for me they didn’t. Hewitt went on to lose after winning the first set and that has to go down as the shock of the day, but probably good news for an exhausted Djokovic.
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