US Open 2014

Muguruza won't be eating anyone alive. She lost to Lucic, who you would imagine is now completely incapable of winning another match without UE-ing herself to death, because, well, it's Lucic.

And Giorgi managed to lose to Rodionova. Halep's nightmare draw clearing itself for her.

Okay, what good matches are happening.

right now, Cirstea/Watson is probably the best televised one? but I don't feel sad that I still have a bit of work to do

(or time to keep an eye on the scores and see which ones stay close/upset-brewing)

Yeah, I'll switch over to Cirstea/Watson for now.

id prob watch lu/Garcia-lopez or niemenen/karlovic

is Lu/GGL streamed anywhere? I can't see it as an option

well, Cirstea hammered Watson, it seems

#32 seed Zhang Shuai is now 0-12 in Slam matches in her career (while her qualifier compatriots Wang Qiang and Zheng Saisai have both scored wins on their main draw debut). To be fair to her, none of those losses are that terrible, she just has rotten luck with draws...

Oh Sweta

DFing on MP in a third-set TB to lose in R1 on the 10-year anniversary of your USO title is very...in-character

Vesnina has gone from 6-0 5-0 up to 6-0 5-5. Why is this not being televised.

Isner takes the first and I die a little inside

I just need Isner to get off my TV. Campaign to always schedule him on outside courts

Vesnina avoids the meltdown, wins 7-5.

whoa, Coric a set up on Rosol. NO STREAM THO UGH

34yo Dominican Victor Estrella Burgos, the oldest ever USO debutant, gets his first ever Slam win over Sijsling :)

Coric storming to victory over Rosol, up 6-4 6-1 5-2. Super-impressive givenn Rosol's form.

Meanwhile, Azarenka is being dictated to by Misaki Doi lmao.

i watched some of doi play v nicole gibbs in new haven, she looked solid tbh

15yo CiCi Bellis is a double break up on Cibulkova :o AGAIN NO STREAM

Two DFs in the TB from Vika, she was 2-0 up... Doi is playing fearlessly

Three DFs and Doi has the set!

Vika is toast, right

The scoreline flatters her if anything, Doi is treeing and Vika is a total shadow of herself as she has been since her comeback

man if Vika goes out in round 1 this will have been a successful US Open for me

I mean, I could envisage Doi's high-risk game slipping if she gets nervous and Vika outsteadying her, but it's like Vika doesn't even have weapons any more. Not that they were huge in the first place but when you can't dictate against Doi...

Doi definitely tightening up now

Vika serves for the set...two DFs. Back on serve

Found a stream for Bellis/Cibulkova at 3-3 in the third...they rigged up a hand-held camera out there http://cricfree.sx/live/watch/the_u.s._open_tennis/52247

Bellis playing like a boss, wow

Fucking hell, she's good tho

this is remarkable, historic

She's done it

I really didn't have any doubt she'd finish it off, she was composed the whole way

youngest player to win a US Open match since kournikova in 1996

She was just blazing winners by the end.

Youngest player to win a match in the women's draw since Kournikova in 1996

ha xp

she was generating crazy power, you would think it was just redlining but it seems to be just how she plays

I wonder who was the last player to be this young and in the top 2 of the juniors?

She doesn't even seem that powerfully built like eg Konjuh (who I think is the answer to your question)

I did notice that she seems to have huge hands

oh wow I didn't realize Konjuh was still just 16

and now 17 year old Jared Donaldson is pushing Monfils. Great I/O FH

anyone see any of Serena/Townsend? Scoreline not a surprise but I wonder whether how much of Taylor's promise showed.

Interesting quote from Coric's interview, seems to support what I've long thought about the tours getting older - really talented teenagers should still be able to make their mark:

Q. Your first 12 months really playing pro tournaments full time, I mean, what is the biggest thing you have learned about life on the tour and about your game in these last 12 months?

BORNA CORIC: Well, I learned on the tour that, you know, it's maybe tougher in the sense that all the guys are not gonna just give you the match if you win first set or if there is some bad call or something. So, you know, I just learned that. And also, I saw that they are not so much better than the juniors. Of course they are better, but if you get used to it, you can change it quite quickly.

Azarenka's interview is kind of self-parodically grumpy: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/interviews/2014-08-26/201408261409095697250.html

Taylor smacked the shit out of the ball in the first set but Serena's serve was working, so there wasn't much she could do; eventually Taylor started spraying unforced errors and I turned off the 2nd set for a previous engagement.

Way more exciting to watch than Sloane Stephens. (shocker, I know)

Peng playing really well vs a lacklustre Aga...for now.

Bencic/Nara was a pretty absorbing first set.

For some reason I hadn't checked the Peng/Radwanska h2h and all four of their matches have gone three sets, and the one time they played at the USO (2010), Peng won!

Peng teetering between closing/choking...

And falls on the side of closing. That pass to set up her last MP was >>>>>>>

Stephens lost to LARSSON? The last six games from 2-0 up? That is a woeful loss even by her standards

Weird times...

btw has anyone seen Mario Ancic? He lives in NYC now doesn't he? still miss that dude

so many absolutely dreadful first serves from cilic
difficult to respect him for that reason alone

he doesnt just miss his first serves he hits them into the net about 15 inches above the ground

Ancic is a lawyer now isn't he?

Third Croatian Slam winner in history. Iva Majoli, Goran Ivanisevic, Marin Cilic. And the next generation of Croats is waiting in the wings...

nu-Cilic will be interesting.

Hope Kei can put it together in future, just not at the races today.

I always think Cilic is older than he is. He's more in Nishikori's generation than he is in Wawrinka's. So he'll have a lot of time to embed himself as nu-Cilic, not just a veteran peaking late in the day.

Kei looked spent, didn't do enough with Cilic's weak second serve which is what he did well against Djokovic. I really hope he gets another chance one day.

I hope he gets to another Slam final and doesn't exhaust himself en route, yes. Very satisfying to see him there before Dimitrov and Raonic.

Liked the wild DF on the first championship point. Little homage to Goran.

haha

lol xp

Ancic was apparently celebrating in the Columbia cafeteria, haha: https://twitter.com/callejonshair/status/509117063341015041

Goran ws hilariously nervous. Like chill out man, hes got this.

Haaa was just coming here to post that tweet Roz

Goran's face as Cilic was serving for it bringing back memories of him serving for Wimbledon!

So Croatia has an RG title, a Wimbledon and a USO. Over to you to bring home the AO, Konjuh or Coric or Vekic...

Roll of honour:

Men's singles: Marin Cilic
Women's singles: Serena Williams
Men's doubles: Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan
Women's doubles: Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina
Mixed doubles: Sania Mirza & Bruno Soares
Boys' singles: Omar Jasika
Girls' singles: Marie Bouzkova
Boys' doubles: Omar Jasika & Naoki Nakagawa
Girls' doubles: Ipek Soylu & Jil Belen Teichmann

Gotta be the first Turkish Slam title of any kind for Soylu in the girls' doubles.

god it is still so weird to see Cilic's name there.

No repeat winners this year!

AO: Li Na, Wawrinka
RG: Nadal, Sharapova
Wimbledon: Kvitova, Djokovic
USO: Cilic, Serena

New rankings:

1. Novak Djokovic (1)
2. Rafael Nadal (2)
3. Roger Federer (3)
4. Stan Wawrinka (4)
5. David Ferrer (5)
6. Tomas Berdych (7)
7. Milos Raonic (6)
8. Kei Nishikori (11)
9. Grigor Dimitrov (8)
10. Andy Murray (9)
11. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10)
12. Marin Cilic (16)
13. Ernests Gulbis (12)
14. Juan Martin Del Potro (13)
15. Roberto Bautista Agut (19)
16. John Isner (15)
17. Fabio Fognini (17)
18. Gael Monfils (24)
19. Kevin Anderson (20)
20. Feliciano Lopez (21)
21. Richard Gasquet (14)
22. Tommy Robredo (18)
23. Alexandr Dolgopolov (22)
24. Philipp Kohlschreiber (25)
25. Leonardo Mayer (26)
26. Gilles Simon (31)
27. Lukas Rosol (27)
28. Nicolas Almagro (29)
29. Julien Benneteau (28)
30. Guillermo Garcia Lopez (33)
...
32. Mikhail Youzhny (23)
36. Dominic Thiem (45)
46. David Goffin (56)
53. Nick Kyrgios (60)
69. Victor Estrella Burgos (80)
150. Alexander Zverev (157)
167. Yoshihito Nishioka (245)
176. Borna Coric (204)
206. Nikolay Davydenko (183)

And the tennis wagon continues to Hong Kong, Québec City and Tashkent - where Wimbledon girls' champion Jelena Ostapenko has just won her first WTA match over Peer...

Bit harsh on whoever is at #31, Lex.

Not sure what Cilic has to defend points-wise this autumn but to not be top 10 / into the ATP Finals by year-end would be bizarre for a male Slam winner. Thomas Johansson the last, maybe?

#31 is Karlovic! (I just did the top 30 + points of interest elsewhere, one of which was Youzhny's fall...)

Cilic is only #11 in the Race despite having nothing to defend (almost literally - he was still banned this time last year, only came back in Paris and won one match). Murray is only #10. London YEC better prepare itself for Murray not to make it.

Johansson got into the YEC as an alternate after Agassi w/d - I think you have to go back to Kuerten in '97 to find someone who didn't qualify in any capacity. Can't remember what happened in '98 - neither Korda nor Rafter were at the YEC, I presume Korda had been banned by then and Rafter was injured because I'm sure he was top 10?

It could happen on the women's side this year too, with Li only #6 in the race and still out (and rumoured to be on the verge of retirement). Ironic given the fuss made over bringing it to Asia this year.

Ah, Johansson did make it - right.

Yeah, Rafter was top three at that time, I think. Lost a tight match at Paris Indoor vs Todd Martin first week of November so he was fit at that point (and no Davis Cup F to distract). Korda wasn't banned until '99 but wasn't actually ranked high enough to make the YEC in '98; his ranking took a knock when he failed to defend his Stuttgart title in the October (I know this makes no diff re: race points, but basically he was top 10 as a result of Stuttgart '97 + AO '98). He was #13 by Nov '98, despite the Slam. So he might be the one.

(Also, Korda only won another four matches in 10 events after losing in the '98 Wimb QF to Henman and testing +ve for nandrolone, though the test result wasn't made public until the end of the year (I guess Korda knew?) and I think his Wimb points stood until then. Oh, Petr.)

Lex where do you get the rankings from, read this in a report:

Cilic’s victory means Andy Murray will drop out of the top 10 for the first time in six years, with Cilic climbing to ninth, one place behind Nishikori.

ATP website confirms list above. Did wonder, seeing as the tournament ended on a Monday and the rankings are published on a Monday, whether perhaps they were incomplete, but the jump in Cilic's points (1800 to over 3000) suggests that it's all in there.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx

but I've worked out why it's wrong there - the ATP still put new rankings up on Monday and presumably will just add another 800pts to Cilic later today. Which is a terrible way of doing it, but hi tennis authorities. I thought that was an unusually small climb for Cilic!

So yeah, Cilic up to 9, Dimitrov 10, Murray at 11 and out of the top 10 for the first time since 2008.

xp I haven't looked at the points, I just went to the rankings thread on MTF...it's pretty sad when amateur statisticians on both tennis forums are so much more reliable than the ATP and WTA themselves

Ah, right!

Would it kill them to release the ranking on a Tuesday after the only Monday-finish Slam?

Especially as a few times in the past the rankings have been released on a Tuesday because they forgot to do it on a Monday!