Monday, September 6, 2010

2010 US Open: Day 8

This is kind of an uninspired post.

After the bust that was Kim Clijsters vs. Ana Ivanovic (not that I'm complaining about the outcome), Caroline Wozniacki vs. Maria Sharapova did much better, although not to the extent that people predicted. The match was a bit of a see-saw, with break points galore (not that much breaking though--I think Wozniacki was 3 for 12 and Sharapova was 1 for 9 or something). Sharapova did her bit by double faulting left and right, including a spectacular three in a row (which reminded me of club tennis, hah), and in most rallies it felt like a matter of time before she dumped a shot into the net. I'm not saying that she handed Wozniacki the match, though. Wozniacki induced those errors by being clean and consistent, and letting Sharapova get impatient and/or wait for a mistake to happen, which was bound to given enough time.

Anyway, the point is, throughout all the up-and-downness of the match, and the commentators' insistence that Sharapova is one of the greatest fighters on tour (which I don't contest, although it is worth mentioning that Wozniacki is a pretty good fighter herself), I never really got the sense that Wozniacki would lose. I didn't even really feel that she would lose the second set. She looked steady and inspired, and more than ever I couldn't really see how Wozniacki is criticized for being a pusher.

What makes this win even better for Wozniacki is that she can finally start to chip away at the criticisms that she has never defeated a top player, including Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic, and the Williams. Wozniacki and Jankovic have pretty similar game styles, I think, but at this point in their careers and seasons I think Wozniacki would easily come out on top. This could be tested, of course, if Jankovic hadn't eye-rollingly lost to Kaia Kanepi.

In other matches...

Why are Daren Cahill and the McEnroes talking about Roger Federer and Jurgen Melzer liking mustard, but no ketchup? And then something about hot dogs? I must have missed something.

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