US Open Tennis

Maj Gen P K mallick, VSM (Retd)

We are now at the business end of US Open tennis championship. Today the second set of QFs will be played to determine the semifinals line up in the bottom half of the draw. 

Baby Fed Grigor Dimitrov has beaten the GOAT Roger Federer in 5 sets. 

Before the tournament started nobody in his wildest dream would have put money on Dimitrov to reach semis in current form. The 78th ranked Bulgarian lost 7 of his last 8 first round matches in first round. The other one he lost was in second round! 

He is called baby Fed because of his similar style of play like Roger Federer. His serve, volley, slices, forehand, one handed backhand, speed on court are remarkably similar. He was touted as next big thing when he won the year ending 2017 Nitto ATP finals. Then inexplicably he came under tough weather. He has been No 3 in the world. He had reached two grand slam semifinals in 2014 and 2017. He has won two junior grand slams. He has the pedigree to reach the top. 

This year he had hired Andre Agassi and Radek Stepanek as Coach. Both were missing from his box today. When asked in post match talk he was evasive, meant you have to ask them for an answer. 

The handsome athletic Dimitrov has a reputation of a playboy. He has dated some of the most gorgeous women including Russian tennis star Shararova. Presently he is dating glamorous Nicole Scherzinger, 13 years his senior who is American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress and television personality.
  
Dimitrov has never beaten Roger in his last 9 meetings.

Today the Bulgarian was right on the money. Roger started well, won the first set relatively comfortably at 3. Dimitrov hit back wining second set at 6-4. Roger started making some now characteristics unforced errors, many on his favourite forehand side. But he regrouped and won the third set at 3. 

In the fourth set Federer was broken in his first service game. Roger was finding difficult to hold his serve. At down 2-4 Roger fought gamely for a very long service game to hold and on the 10th game Roger was up 0-40 on Dimitrov serve. He could not convert, one on Dimitrov forehand was there far the taking. One wonders why did he go for lines in the open court. Roger had two more break points in that game but could not convert. Dimitrov did not take a step back, played aggressively and won the game. Dimitrov won the fourth set at 4. 

Federer, though did not show, but his injury was ominous. He was making far too many unforced errors. His first serve lost its sting and kept coming back. Second serves were not Fed special high kicking serves. 

At the start of 5th Set Federer took an injury time out and called the medic. He went to the locker room for treatment. Not often you can see that happening with Roger. He came back but it was obvious that he was struggling with his upper back near his neck. When your game is so finely turned one physical discomfort makes your game haywire. To his credit Roger did not throw in the towel through he was broken in his first two service games. A proud man that he is, Roger did hold his next two service games but the stadium knew the inevitable and thinned out before the match was finished.

Roger, as always, was gracious in defeat. He said, “This is Grigor’s moment, not my body’s moment.” 

With the shock exit due to injury by Novac and Roger I am now willing to bet my last penney on Rafa. The way he is playing now even a fully fit Roger or Novac world have found him difficult to stop for his 19th grand slam. He is literally pulverising the North American hard courts. He has won a Master 1000, skipped the next one to give himself rest and is fully prepared to have a go in this year’s US Open. 

Advantage of all these three great players is that they read the game so well and can change their game plan during the match accordingly. Against the hard serving 6 ft 4 inches Cilic when Nadel lost his only set in the tournament he found that he is too far behind while returning the rocks served by Cilic and was giving him time. He immediately started receiving the serves near the base line and result was there to see. In this current form he is not willing to give one or two games to his opponents in the third Set. 

Rafa is up against the 5 ft 7 inches twinkle footed Argentine Schwartz. Schwartz will keep running, but he does not have the firepower and the weapons to beat Rafa. It will be a straight set win. Last set at 1. 

In the other quarter finals the great entertainer, the finest athlete in tennis circuit the French man Monfils will be facing the solid Italian Berrettini. Frankly I have not heard of the Italian much. But I was quite impressed by how he took out the young Russian Rublev in round of 16. Rublev is a heavy hitter in both flanks, has a big service. He had beaten Kyrgios in a hard hitting duel in earlier round not to mention he defeated Roger in the Masters 1000 preceding US Open. Roger very seldom gets beaten by pace in hard court. That day Rublev did not allow Federer to come back in the game. 

Berrettini made Rublev helpless. Everything Rublev was throwing in kept coming back with varied speed. When the opportunity came the Italian was ruthless in pouncing. Rublev did not know what to do. Problem with these young stars is they do not have plan B or all court game. Cannot change the pace of the game, serve and volley, slice, drop shots etc to change opponent’s game plan. They play single track one dimensional game. 

6’ 4’’ lanky Russian Medvedev is going through a very punishing schedule. In the last two Masters 1000 in hard court he was runner up in one and won another beating Novac, no easy task. But he is suffering from fatigue and injury. When fully fit he can take on anybody in the hard court including Rafa. For some inexplicable reasons he has decided to take on the raucous NY tennis fans. That would not help him. 

It is difficult to predict who will win this QFs on the other half. My money is on Monfils against Berrettini because of his entertainment quotient. His girlfriend from Ukraine fifth seed Elina Svitolina has allready reached semifinals. It will make a nice pair. Svitolina will face a stern test from the great Serena Williams.

Does Medvedev or Dimitrov have any chance against Nadal in the final. 

No way. 19th grand slam title is already in the bag of Rafa. Only he has to turn up and play his customary game including tucking his shorts, hair bands, keeping the water bottles in a certain manner etc. 

The old guard has started showing their years. After a monumental slugfest in Wimbledon finals, Federer on his serve had two match points,  could not convert and lost the finals. Novac Djokovic is showing signs of injury. Rafa always has injury concerns. Who would  take their places ? 

After some promise the Greek Tsitsipas is showing bad habits. His behaviour on court is obnoxious, changing shoes, taking repeated toilet breaks etc shows him in poor light. He is not winning also. 

The powerful Russian Karen Khachanov, the stylish one handed backhand left hander from Canada Denis Shapovalov, the tall lanky German Zverev ------- all show promise and then disappoint. 

The only player who is capable of beating all the three big guns of tennis is the mercurial Aussie Kyrgios. He has the game to do it. But then he is the enfant terrible. Don’t see him doing anything remarkable. In fact some of his behavior and utterances are downright despicable. Another lie "Nasty" Nastase? 

Why is it that the new balls are not coming up! Is it that there is so much money they already get that they don’t care. Is it they do not want to work so hard as these Last of the Mohicans do ? Are they happy enjoying life and don’t care about becoming No1 and remain there. 

Do you have the answer ? I don’t have. 

Serena Williams has the best chance this year to get her 24th grand slam. After 2017 win in Australian Open she went through a difficult child birth. She lost last year's US Open finals and this year's Wimbledon finals. She will be hungry. She knows this is her best chance. None of the surviving ladies singles players have ever reached a grand slam finals. However, these new set of players are fearless, will not be in awe of the great Serena. She had an ankle injury scare, was not tested in quarterfinals by  China's Wang Qiang  who was blown away 0 and 1. She is not playing at her best. Making too many unforced errors. Even that should suffice for her US open title because of the power in her ground strokes and that famous Serena serve. Serena won her  first Grand Slam title in New York 20 years back!.

My best wishes to Serena.