What a day for men’s tennis last night at the U.S. Open. First up we had Novak Djokovic going against Tommy Robredo in a match that looked to be lopsided before it started. But Tommy Robredo didn’t get the script and pushed Novak all the way to 5 sets before sucumbing. He had some very tough words for Novak afterwards, accusing Novak of cheating.
Federer was up next and he must have been watching Novak closely as he was almost knocked out the very same way Djokovic was close to. He survived in 5 sets against, get this, Igor Andreev. While he is still in the tournament, this U.S. Open is looking awfully similiar to the Australian Open 2008. So I do expect Federer to fall in the semis yet again, against Djokovic or Roddick.
Roddick had the simplest days against Gonzalez. Historically, Gonzo has never fared well against big servers such as Roddick and Karlovic, and he was broken so many times last night that I lost count. He did however win seven games in 3 sets, which is one more than I thought he would win.
Davydenko was not as lucky as the three above. He lost to Gilles Muller in 4 sets, and he choked big time in the tie-break. Davydenko has had a tough year, but he was my pick to upset Federer in the quarters. Unfortunately, all the issues caught up with him and he lost his focus against Muller. Gilles Muller is good but he is not that good to beat the soon to be former No. 5 in the world that easily.
So far, Roddick and Murray have been the most impressive players in the tournament, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they play on Sunday for the right to raise the U.S. Open trophy.
What did you think of the matches last night? Did Djokovic feigned his injury? Should he be fined?