Into the second week then at Flushing Meadows and the Labor Day holiday saw fourth round outings for the likes of Federer, Roddick and Blake, along with the ladies in the bottom half of the draw, who were looking to take advantage of an easier than anticipated route to the final.
Svetlana Kuznetsova was first up today on an extremely blustery Ashe and I was looking for a straightforward victory here to boost my chances of profit this week. The Russian’s opponent was the Hingis-conquering Victoria Azarenka, who seemed to be a bit overawed by the occasion and as a result, was thumped in straight sets.
Over on Armstrong, Agnes Szavay and Julia Vakulenko were attempting to reach the quarter finals and a date with Sveta – something I’m quite pleased that I’ve never experienced – and this was a nervy, error strewn encounter, possibly exacerbated by the windy conditions.
Once again I was lumbered with Kent Brockman on commentary and that combined with the poor standard of tennis made me switch off and wait for Roddick v Berdych to start. Szavay and Vakulenko were making me nervous and I couldn’t take it. If Kuznetsova doesn’t beat the winner out of these two, I’ll be very disappointed.
I was hoping that Berdych would dump the aggravating Roddick/Connors combo out of the tournament and I’ve never been so glad to hear the dulcet tones of Leif Shiras and Peter Fleming from the box.
Not known as much of a fighter when the chips are down, my hopes appeared to be forlorn when Berdych chucked away the opening game of the match and called the trainer after about five minutes. He did recover to serve for the set, but couldn’t hack it and was easily broken, leading to a tie break.
Berdych had the first set point on his own serve and in typical style, bottled it by netting a forehand, thus giving Roddick the opportunity, which he took. That is the difference between these two.
In the second set, Berdych strolled around as if badly injured – reminiscent of Jose Acasuso at his trudging best and quit after just two games. Thank you very much again Berdych! Wonder what the problem was this time? In growing toenail perhaps or a slight headache?
That cost me and what better way to recover than by watching someone else shouting in anguish and smashing their racquet in frustration. Enter Tommy Haas and he was playing home favourite, James Blake, on his own patch - surely a recipe for a Haas temperament explosion or two.
After the bizarre exit of Berdych, I was in no mood to suffer fools – enter the ludicrous ‘J-Block’ – James Blake’s rambunctious frat boy supporters club. Welcome to the US Open during week two.
The J Block looked like they had good cause to celebrate, as Blake went a set and a break up, but as always, Blake had a bad patch and Haas broke back and suddenly from nowhere the German was back in it and his racquets were safe - for the time being.
Haas served for the set at 5-3 and failed to see it out, but immediately broke the New Yorker to take the second set and silence the cretinous J Block, for the moment at least.
This match was proving tough to call and Blake came back to take the third set, before losing his serve in the first game of the fourth, to hand the initiative straight back to Haas, which he just held onto, courtesy of a millimetre on hawkeye. The German went on to bagel Blake and set up a decider.
No favourites in NY of course and every Haas winner was greeted by deathly silence, in stark contrast to the cheers after each point for Blake. Some of the crowd though were getting on Blake’s back after losing eight games in a row and this seemed to rouse him from his slumber.
It went to a breaker and Haas found his way to match point with a delicious backhand lob. Blake survived the first by the smallest of margins on hawkeye, but the very next point, Haas fired down an ace, which was challenged by Blake, however it just caught the line and it was game, set and match Haas.
After a straightforward victory for Anna Chakvetadze, it was time for Roger Federer to prove once again that he has no dress sense whatsoever, as he decided to turn up in all black again. I suppose it beats that ludicrous white jacket that he insists on sporting at Wimbledon.
Tonight’s lamb to the slaughter was Feliciano Lopez and he rather unwisely arrived wearing the same gear as Tomas Berdych. In fact it could have been the exact same gear, as it wouldn’t have needed washing after the Czech’s brief use of it.
Playboy Lopez loves the big occasion though and he stormed the first set 6-3 and had Federer in all sorts of trouble with that big lefty serve and he was swinging from the hip and hitting the target until Fed stepped it up a notch to take the second 6-4.
Federer, as ever, wasn’t rattled and moved through the gears to take it the match in four sets and set up a meet with Roddick.
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