After an annoying few days thanks to rainy weather, the US Open finally got back underway today, with many matches to complete. Nadal/Muller, Murray/Young, Roddick/Ferrer, and Isner/Simon all scheduled to finally play their fourth round matches. Three of the four matches were able to start on Wednesday, however they could only play 15 minutes with the unpredictable weather.
Rafa Nadal overcame a 3-0 deficit to start the match to win in three sets, two of them relatively easily. I am a little disappointed because Rafa was down in the first set, but realistically I knew Rafa would win, but hoped that he would falter. His next opponent in the quarterfinals is Mr. Andy Roddick, who took out David Ferrer 63 64 36 63. Roddick was really solid and seems to be in great form heading into the match with Nadal. Without a doubt he will have his chances and will be really motivated with the American crowd behind him.
In the other two fourth round encounters, Andy Murray rolled through Donald Young with ease, as expected, and big John Isner stormed through 3 tiebreaks to take the match vs Gilles Simon in four sets. Great win for Isner and he is sure to give Murray a test, and, like with Roddick, the crowd will be very much behind him.
Now that I have gotten through that quickly, the prime-time match of the tournament: Roger Federer vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. This clash has all the media-hype in the tennis world with Jo defeating Roger at Wimbledon from two sets down and then taking Fed down again in Montreal again, just like he did in 2009. Without a doubt this is the biggest match of the tournament so far and maybe the biggest match of Federer's 2011 campaign, with this being his final chance for a major. If he wants one, he will have to defeat the enemy.
In order to win, Roger will need to play with the same efficiency he had vs Monaco. He must serve in the mid 60's or even high 70's, and must hit his groundstrokes with authority. Coming into net successfully will also be key. From the ground however, by hitting his groundstrokes with auhority does not mean that Roger must overpower Jo. Jo has a game that has as much variety as power, so if Roger can use the slice well, as he did vs Monaco, he should be alright from the back of the court.
I know many Federer fans are nervous about the match, but I honestly think Roger will be in his best form right from the first point and will take the match handedly in 3 or 4 sets.
Let's hope we see the best of Darth Federer tonight! My prediction:
6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 Federer.
Big props, Kyle. I felt Tsonga was full of free-flowing confidence, but Fed's mental game was flawless tonight. He got inside Tsonga's head.
ReplyDeleteAs you astutely noted, Fed did come to net, and usually behind something very solid. Tsonga felt the heat and normally couldn't pass Federer. It was part of a larger plan to take away rhythm from Tsonga. Annacone earned his paycheck tonight!
Keep the good stuff coming!