US Open Day 6 - Sharapova falls

Labor Day weekend in New York and a sell out crowd had a feast of tennis to enjoy on Day 6 of the US Open.

The most intriguing of the early matches for my money looked to be Maria Sharapova v Agnieszka Radwanska. The Russian had had things all her own way so far this week, but the Pole looked a more competitive opponent and so it proved, as she served for the first set at 5-3.

Sharapova broke back, but her big forehands were not finding the mark and she served four double faults in the first set – perhaps due to the windy conditions - which combined to give Radwanska a set point that she took with a nice backhand pass down the line.

A Radwanska victory would be great for my bet on Kuznetsova and also because I had placed a small wager on the Pole for this match at 12 and for the event outright at 720 a few days earlier.

Another double from Maria meant that she had to dig deep and move into turbo shriek mode to hold her first service game of the second set and she turned up the power to break Radwanska. The serve was still a problem though, along with too many unforced errors and the Pole was gifted break points twice in Sharapova’s next service game. She couldn’t take them and Sharapova cruised through the set as the Pole’s level dropped off.

It looked all over when Maria broke again, but out of nowhere, Radwanska started playing again and earned three break points at 2-2 in the decider. Another double handed the break to Radwanska and she was in with a chance of a shock.

Sharapova had to fight off another three break points at 2-4, before yet another double fault handed Radwanska the double break and the chance to serve it out. Maria’s dad obviously wasn’t confident of a comeback and he left at 15-0; he was right to make himself scarce, as Sharapova gave the match to Radwanska with more unforced errors.

Once I’d finished congratulating myself on that result, I decided that the next port of call should be Tommy Haas v Seb Grosjean on Grandstand and it turned into an entertaining match, with Grosjean coming from two sets down to force a decider.

It was nice to see the Frenchman playing good tennis again after a poor year that has seen him slip to number 78 in the world and at times he seemed back to his best.

So, we had two twenty-nine year old guys wearing baseball caps back to front arguing with the umpire over net cords and it was the German who emerged victorious by 6-3 in the fifth.

Straight over to Ashe just in time to watch John Isner annoy Federer with his service bombs and take the Swiss ace to a first set breaker, which incredibly Isner took by 7-4 and had Barry Cowan rather over excitedly talking up an Isner victory.

Having no confidence whatsoever in the American’s ability to break Federer, I went back to Grandstand as soon as Isner lost the very next service game. I had money on Tamira Paszek, so switched courts whilst Federer went on the comeback trail.

The fact that I never returned to Ashe is testament to either the exciting Paszek v Schnyder match or the fact that watching Isner is little short of depressing. Whichever, the young Austrian prodigy came back from a set down to take out an ever-nervy Schnyder in a final set breaker.

Next up on Grandstand was Andy Murray in his third round match with Hyung-Taik Lee and in typical Murray style, he lost the first set amidst a prolonged strop at umpire, Steve Ulrich, for not overruling on a couple of Murray serves.

It was all happening out there – Murray limping like a puppy who’s had his paw trodden on; lunatics in the crowd getting over excited; Brad Gilbert holding his head on his hands and a fiercely pro-Lee support group. Great stuff, but the Scot was on the ropes and two sets down.

He pulled a set back and then the racquet went at the start of the fourth after Murray had lost his break advantage, before running into the umpire’s chair (again) and then booting a bin over after reaching a drop shot.

It was all to no avail and after holding off match points, Murray lost his own serve and the match and it was straight over to Ashe to see my wager on Shahar Peer come in right at the death in a final set tie break shootout.

What a day and Sky called it quits instead of showing Blake v Koubek, so an unexpectedly early night for me at 3.15 a.m.