US Open 2012 daily report: day two
The major stories from the second day of the 2012 US Open at Flushing Meadows, New York...
Venus Williams still has it. That was one of the over-riding messages from the second day of play at the US Open, the former champ dispatching fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-3, 6-1 in imperious fashion to win her first-round match, and remedy some of the hurt from her first-round exit at Wimbledon. Handed the ignominy of being unseeded for just the third time in 14 appearances, Williams recovered from a 0-2 deficit at the start, reeling off 12 points in a row as she moved into a 5-2 lead in the first set. Notching up the fastest female serve of the tournament so far, Mattek-Sands began to struggle with blisters, and Venus completed the win in 62 minutes.
"The first two games I couldn't quite get it right," Venus said afterwards. "She played some good shots, some good serves. [At two] love and I'm serving, I feel like I'm going to hold and maybe it's going to be even soon. I feel good on my serve."
"I was a little nervous in the beginning, just coming back to the Open after last year," Venus said. "It was a big deal for me. So to get back out there in front of the crowd was a wonderful feeling."
Having reached the third round of the Olympic tennis at Wimbledon, and the semi-finals in Cincinnati earlier this month, Venus will be hopeful of going some way to repeat her extraordinary run to the semi-finals here in New York two years ago.
But standing in her way next is the in-form Angelique Kerber, last year’s semi-finalist. So the elder Williams admits she isn’t putting too much pressure on herself.
"Winning matches is fun, so... I'm here to win some matches, and that's the ultimate fun. That's the whole goal."
Sister Serena was expected to have little difficulty against fellow American Coco Vandeweghe in the evening's second night match, following Novak Djokovic and Paolo Lorenzi.
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Kerber’s run of form brought Anne Keothavong’s stay at the US Open to an end rather more quickly than the Brit would have liked, the German stomping through 6-2, 6-0. Disappointed but realistic, Keothavong said she simply couldn’t compete at her level.
“It’s probably one of the toughest first round draws you could ask for here. She’s won more matches than anyone else this year. We played three sets in Copenhagen earlier this year, there was some good tennis. But where we’re both at in confidence and in our games was reflected in the outcome today,” Keothavong said.
“I made too many errors. She missed hardly anything.”
But the British No.2 was adamant that any talk of retirement is premature.
“Tennis can be so fickle, your feeling can change after just one match,” she said. “I still enjoy what I do. Losing doesn’t get any easier, it’s disappointing. But overall I’m a pretty happy person, I’m not crying myself to sleep because I lost a tennis match.
“I’m never going to have this time again. While I can still compete then why not.”
The tennis fates were kinder to qualifier Johanna Konta, playing her second Grand Slam under the Union Jack, the Hungarian born former Aussie knocking out Timea Babos 6-2, 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam second round. Konta saved 10 set points at 3-5 in the second set, and proved that she has plenty to give in tennis terms.
“She’s definitely improved a lot,” Keothavong commented about her compatriot. “She has a big game, she’s a big strong girl. She’s someone who I think can do well.”
“This is my first US Open,” Konta said. “I’m happy I’m able to deal with the situations and circumstances so far. I hope I can continue to do so. She definitely picked up her game in the second set, I definitely dropped mine in certain parts. But I was able to get myself back into it, able to then level out. It came back to I guess who was the better player.
“I’m definitely growing as a player. That’s mainly to do with my mindset and the way I’m training and also the team I have around me. But there’s a lot more work to do.”
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Milos Raonic survived a big scare to win his first US Open main draw match, seeing off the hard-working Colombian Santiago Giraldo in five sets. The atmosphere on Court 11 was as hot as the temperature as the Canadian laboured through the five sets, finally finding what was necessary to see off Giraldo 6-4 in the fifth. It was by no means a great performance from Raonic, the 15th seed, who delivered 15 double faults in the three hours and 25 minutes. But he did what was needed.
In another of the day’s marathon matches, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez produced the longest win of the tournament, coming from two sets to love down to beat 10th seed Juan Monaco 7-6(3) in the fifth.
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But there were no scare survivals for Caroline Wozniacki. The 2009 finalist was summarily dismissed 2-6, 2-6 by Irina Camelia Begu, and is likely to fall out of the top 10 as a result.
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One name you might remember from Wimbledon is that of Jimmy Wang, who qualified for the main draw of The Championships this year. The 27-year-old made it through qualifying here in New York too, and went on to upset Ivo Karlovic in four sets, despite being an entire foot shorter than the tallest man in the draw.
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American fans were relieved to see Sam Querrey get past Rendy Lu, also known as Yen-Hsun, in four sets, while Sloane Stephens continued to mark herself out as one to watch by defeating 22nd seed Francesca Schiavone in straight sets. There was an even more impressive win for wild card Dennis Novikov, the USTA Boys’ 18&U champion, who beat Jerzy Janowicz in four sets.
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Just what does Nicolas Mahut eat for breakfast? The marathon man struck again, leading Philipp Petzschner, the German sporting nifty compression socks, before losing the next two to go to a fifth. But it wasn’t to be this time, the German coming back to win in five and make the second round.
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There were quick-fire wins for, among others,… Agnieszka Radwanska, Andy Roddick, Tomas Berdych, Ana Ivanovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Sofia Arvidsson, Galina Voskoboeva, Roberta Vinci, Ekaterina Makarova, Angelique Kerber, Jelena Jankovic, Olga Govortsova, Venus Williams, Yaroslava Shvedova, Julien Benneteau, Andrea Hlavackova, Ayumi Morita, Vera Dushevina, Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
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Most of the players are embracing being in New York in various ways, be it through shopping, eating out, or generally enjoying the American atmosphere. But Radek Stepanek took it to a new level with his statue of liberty-emblazoned shirt. It was simply unmissable. He lost to Nicolas Almagro in four sets, the Spaniard doing his best to take the Czech’s head off.
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Could the brothers Harrison be the next brothers Bryan? They certainly made quite an entrance to Flushing Meadows, knocking out the fourth seeds, Poles Fyrstenberg and Matkowski in three sets, 7-6, 2-6, 7-6. Watch this space. They could face the Brits Fleming and Hutchins in the third round.
There was also a crowd-pleasing win for bionic man Brian Baker, who won his doubles with fellow American Rajeev Ram. They are also in the Fleming and Hutchins section.
And, three out of three for American duos, Donald Young and Nicholas Monroe upturned seventh seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in three sets.
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On this day in US Open history
In 1991, Jimmy Connors beat Patrick McEnroe, ranked No.174, five days shy of his 39th birthday. Will Roger Federer still be playing when he’s 30?
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Bye bye to…
David Nalbandian, who didn’t manage to play a match at this year’s US Open, withdrawing from tomorrow’s order of play with an abdominal injury.
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Coming up tomorrow
Arthur Ashe
Victoria Azarenka v Kirsten Flipkens, Xavier Malisse v John Isner, Laura Robson v Kim Clijsters in the day, followed by Maria Sharapova v Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Andy Murray v Ivan Dodig at night.
Louis Armstrong
David Ferrer v Kevin Anderson, Alize Cornet v Petra Kvitova, Edina Gallovits-Hall v Sam Stosur
Grandstand
Janko Tipsarevic v Guillaume Rufin, Li Na v Casey Dellacqua, the Williams sisters, and Ryan Harrison v Benjamin Becker
Other notables
Nadia Petrova on Court 17, Tommy Haas on Court 17, Lleyton Hewitt on Court 13, Brian Baker on Court 11, Marion Bartoli on Court 11, the Bryan brothers on Court 4, GB’s Dominic Inglot on Court 7, Sania Mirza and Colin Fleming on Court 7, Grigor Dimitrov on Court 8, Jamie Murray on Court 12, Wimbledon champions Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen on Court 16.
