Weepy Safina, Nadal Move On at US Open
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Querrey Tests Nadal, Fish Jumps Monfils at US Open
Two Americans made their mark Monday at the US Open, one in a win and the other in a loss.
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Mardy Fish advanced to his first US Open quarterfinal with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over Gael Monfils. Fish played an efficient, attacking game against the Frenchman, who helped the American by tanking through portions of the match, frustrated over an apparent knee injury.
Sam Querrey exited the US Open Monday, but not before putting a scare into world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-3 win for the Spaniard.
“Very tough,” Nadal said of the No. 55-ranked 20-year-old Querrey. “Sam is a big player, a big server. He has a great future.”
Fish will next face the world No. 1 Nadal.
“I feel like a guy with my style of play is someone that he doesn’t want to see,” Fish said of Nadal. “You got to be able to finish points quickly. He’s going to last longer than anybody. He wants to keep the points as long as possible and run the guys down, kind of body blow after body blow…I don’t intend to let him do that. I’m going to come in and I’m going to not necessarily [play] a Kamikaze-type tennis, but I’m going to try to keep the points as short as possible.”
Advancing in the featured night match was Scot Andy Murray, whose pinpoint accuracy was too much for Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
“I’ve played really well all summer,” Murray said. “It’s been a good summer and hopefully I can continue in the next round.”
Matches to look for Tuesday are (15) Tommy Robredo vs. (3) Novak Djokovic, (23) Igor Andreev vs. (2) Roger Federer, and (8) Andy Roddick vs. (11) Fernando Gonzalez.
Williams, Safina Into Quarters at US Open
The Williams sisters led the way into the quarterfinals Monday at the US Open, with No. 4 Serena Williams easing past France’s Severine Bremond 6-1, 6-2, and No. 7 Venus Williams strolling by No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 6-3.
The sisters will meet in the quarters.
“We have to meet in the quarters but this would be a huge milestone for me to win this championship,” Venus said. “That’s how I see it, as trying to win the tournament.”
Also into the quarters were No. 6 seed Dinara Safina who eventually overwhelmed Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5, 6-0, and No. 16 Flavia Pennetta who did likewise to the service-yipping No. 32 seed Amelie Maursemo 6-3, 6-0.
“She make a lot of mistake today,” said Pennetta, who will appear in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. “So for sure she doesn’t play her best match or best tennis. Anyway, I think I was very focused on my game, and that’s why I won.” Mauresmo had 14 double faults in the match.
Safina said she was so exhausted, she started crying during her morning warm-up hit.
“After the warm-up I just started to cry,” Safina said. “I said, ‘I cannot push anymore myself.’ He said, ‘We know that you’re not a machine. Just go out there and don’t thinking.’ He told me again, ‘Just please don’t show me any emotions, like these negative emotions. If you want, don’t show even positive. Just go on the court and do whatever you can this day.’…I could not stop from crying, yeah. So I guess he knows how to handle my emotions.”
Matches to look for Tuesday are (5) Elena Dementieva vs. (15) Patty Schnyder, and (29) Sybille Bammer vs. (2) Jelena Jankovic.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Private promoters will be banned from organizing tennis tournaments in India after promoters for the ATP Bangalore tournament pulled the plug on the event over “security concerns” which were otherwise believed to be an inability to attract top players for the event…The Grand Slams are on alert after Roger Federer, a new member of the ATP Player Council, says one of his missions will be to close the huge pay discrepancy between pro golf and pro tennis: “I know that tournaments all around the world are raising prize money more and more. We’re obviously very happy where tennis has gone over 40 years ago, so that’s a good thing. But I agree that I still think the biggest tournaments, (Grand Slams) are supposed to share a little bit more with the players. We’ll see how it goes in the future. We’ll definitely have conversations over the next year or so, as we usually have. There’s a quite a bit of change in the ATP at the moment. I think that’s one of the issues on top of the agenda.”
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