TENNIS US OPEN – The action in the bottom half of the women’s draw has been hot on Day 5. The temperatures again remain moderate like Day 4 but it seems as though there was a strong wind as top seeds and favourites fell by the wayside in a violent manner. From New York, Cordell Hackshaw
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The biggest story of the day has to be the 3rd round dismissal of Venus Williams (19) by Sara Errani (13). Williams came into this match with a 3-0 lifetime record against the Italian. Playing in front of home crowd and considering her past success her at the Open, Williams was the definite favourite. However, Williams had one of the worst starts to a match ever. She dropped the opening set 0-6 in 26 minutes. Williams was simply too erratic with 18 errors alone in the 1st set. She won only 8 points on serve whilst Errani dropped only 5 points on her serve. Who would have thought that Sara Errani could be outserving Venus Williams? “[F]irst set I start very good, very aggressive … She didn’t put too many first serves, so maybe that was a bit [of] the key,” Errani said. Of the 23 first serves that Williams attempted to put in, she only made 7; a staggering 30%.
As if the opening set was not a weird aberration in and of itself, the 2nd set rolled around and it was more of the same but only this time, Williams was the one in control. The American bageled Errani, 6-0, in 29 minutes. Williams lost only 9 points on serve and Errani only won 6 points on serve. The match was level and after two sets, no two players had won games in any of the set. Oddly enough, this is not the first match with such a strange scoreline that Williams has been involved in. In the 4th round of the 2009 US Open, Williams fell to Kim Clijsters 0-6 6-0 4-6 in the 4th round.
The 3rd set finally saw both players holding serve in their respective opening service game. Then there were four successive breaks of serve. It was not until the 7th game of the set that Williams held serve again to lead 4-3. She then broke Errani for the third consecutive time to lead 5-3 with a chance to close out the match. However, Williams problematic serve came under extreme scrutiny again as Errani broke her to get back on serve. Williams said after the match “I think at that point I went for too much … I hit some balls, you know, I think maybe early in the rally.” The aggressive returning that saw Williams break Errani 6 of the last 7 times, the Italian served was gone. Williams was appearing timid on court and Errani regained confidence to be the more aggressive one.
Williams held serve and again could not break Errani to finish the match. Hence at 6-6 in the 3rd set, a tiebreak was necessary to decide the winner. Errani got a 2-0 lead when Williams committed 2 errors on her backhand. She would extend this lead to 5-2 when again made 2 more errors on her backhand. Williams then won the next 3 points for 5-5. The crowd was beside itself. They were chanting and cheering Williams on with everything they had. In this clutch moment, Errani with two serves and the chance to close it out, the Italian withstood the pressure to secure the win with two amazing winners, 6-0 0-6 7-6(5).
Errani’s opponent in the Round of 16 is a bit of a surprise as she will play qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who upset the Simona Halep (2) in straight sets, 7-6 6-2. Fans were still reacting to the Williams/Errani result when they realized that the world’s number 2 was sent packing. Halep was leading 5-2 in the 1st set and had two set points but failed to convert allowing Lucic-Baroni to gain the necessary confidence boost to knock out a top player. “[S]he came back really well and she started to hit every ball. Everything was in for her. It wasn’t my best day, but still I did everything I could on court,” Halep said. In the 2nd set, Lucic-Baroni continued to hit out and Halep wilted under the pressure. The Croat closed out the match in just over an hour and 34 minutes. Lucic-Baroni noted after the match, “I finally been able to play the tennis that I love the way I love to play … being very aggressive and consistent at the same time.”
No sooner had this match concluded than yet another upset took place. Angelique Kerber (6) was dismissed in straight sets by Belinda Bencic 6-1 7-5. Bencic raced out to a 3-0 lead before Kerber got on the scoreboard but this made little difference as the momentum was clearly in Bencic’s favour. She closed out the set by taking the next three games. In the 2nd set, Kerber seemed to be on the comeback trail as she was up 5-2. However, poor play from the German continued to plagued her as Bencic fought her way back into the set and claimed the match by winning the last 5 games. “[I]t feels amazing. I played a really good match right from the start, and then I had a little bit timeout in the second. But I’m happy that I came back. It’s amazing that after last year I played juniors here, and this year I’m in the fourth round. So it’s incredible,” Bencic said after the match.
Unseeded Shuai Peng followed up her 2nd round upset of Agnieszka Radwanska by taking out another seeded player in the 3rd round. Roberta Vinci (28) lost 4-6 3-6 in an hour and 14 minutes. “I was for sure really happy win today. Before the match, actually I was nervous. I really want to win because I know I have the chance,” Peng said after the match. An interesting note about all these 3rd round upset victims, they all struggled in the earlier part of the tournament. In particular Halep, Kerber and Williams all struggled mightily in their opening round matches having to come through in 3 sets. Vinci had a tough 3-set match in the 2nd round.
All the other winners in the draw stayed on course as the higher seeded player won in relatively easy fashion. Maria Sharapova (5) in last women’s match of the day, took out Sabine Lisicki (26) in straight sets 6-2 6-4. Sharapova used to the night matches on the Arthur Ashe stadium looked quite at home as Lisicki struggled to maintain any momentum in the match. Sharapova will next face Caroline Wozniacki (10) who took out Andrea Petkovic (18) also in straight sets 6-3 6-2.
Luci Safarova (14) is continuing her success at the majors this year as she knocked out Alizé Cornet (22) in a hard fought encounter 6-3 6-7 6-4. Safarova will take on Peng in the Round of 16 for a place in the quarterfinals. The other winner on the day was Jelena Jankovic (9), 2008 finalist who is quietly moving through the draw. She dismantled Johanna Larsson 6-1 6-0 in under an hour. After the match Jankovic stated, “[I]t’s quite hot out there … I wanted to get the job done as soon as possible. I was very focused from the beginning to till the end.”
