Grand Slam U.S Open 2010

Mulan · Post time 8-9-2010 02:27 PM

Reply 80# honey_jelly

Verdasco comes back to two sets down to beat Ferrer

AP - Tuesday, September 7, 2010

NEW YORK (AP)—Fernando Verdasco sprinted toward the drop shot, slid on the concrete and barely got to the ball—then whipped it around the net post and back inside the sideline.
For a clean winner. On match point. In a fifth-set tiebreaker.
What a way to celebrate “Spain Day” at the U.S. Open.

One of the best matches of the tournament ended with arguably the best shot of the tournament—Verdasco’s winner in a 5-7, 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over No. 10 David Ferrer in the first of two all-Spanish matchups Tuesday night at Flushing Meadows.

The match lasted 4 hours, 23 minutes and showcased the country’s tennis at its best.

Verdasco trailed 4-2 in the fifth set and 4-1 in that tiebreaker before rallying for only his second career victory when trailing by two sets.

“Just fighting,” Verdasco said. “And don’t think too much about first two sets and just trying all the time.”

For his efforts, Verdasco will play No. 1 Rafael Nadal or No. 23 Feliciano Lopez in the first all-Spanish quarterfinal in U.S. Open history. Waiting to go on court for their fourth-round match, Nadal and Lopez watched on TV in the locker room as their Davis Cup teammates played out the end of their classic.
“I’m happy for Fernando, but at the same time sorry for David, because he deserved to win, too, no?” Nadal said.

Nadal’s surge to the top of tennis has helped Spain produced six men in the world’s top 25. Nadal’s at the top of the list. The fact that he’s getting pushed by players in his own country hasn’t escaped notice this week.

“Clearly, Rafa and Fernando Verdasco are Spain’s best athletes,” said American Mardy Fish after he, too, was bounced Monday. “Obviously, soccer is their biggest sport, but tennis is right there. I mean, Rafael Nadal is arguably the biggest sporting athlete they’ve ever had.”

All this, including the soccer part, is connected, according to one widely held theory.

It’s the classic case of success breeding success, which brings more notice to the country and, thus, compels everyone from the government to the individual parent to spend more time and money on all sports. The uptick in Spanish tennis, meanwhile, might date to the leadup to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, when upgrading facilities for a relatively new sport to the Olympic program took priority.

Then came Rafa.

Much as Arnold Palmer did for golf in America in the 1960s, Nadal’s emergence in Spain has helped bring what was once viewed as an elite sport to the masses. More courts have been built and court time that used to be prohibitively expensive now comes more cheaply. More teachers are being trained and more players being lured. Young, elite athletes see there’s a route to success that used to be reserved mostly for soccer.

“They have a lot of courts. They have a lot of good facilities to practice well,” said Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who defeated Spaniard Tommy Robredo earlier on Tuesday. “I think it’s not really expensive to practice in Spain for Spanish people. In Russia now it’s much expensive to practice in Moscow. Not everybody can do this.”

More kids practicing gradually leads to a larger pool of elite teenagers, which in turn produces pros.
Verdasco and Ferrer are two of Spain’s best—and they put on a memorable show.

Verdasco’s final winner put him almost on top of Ferrer’s sideline chair. The winner stood up and the two shared a long embrace. Verdasco went out to the middle of the court and dropped to his knees. Ferrer hurried off the court.

“It really hurts,” he said, “but there have been others.”

Watching this Spanish show with interest are player-development officials in the United States, where much has been made this summer of the slump the country is going through. Spain’s six players in the round of 16 tied the most for a foreign country since the Open era began in 1968. The U.S. tennis program, meanwhile, made its biggest headlines earlier this year when Andy Roddick briefly dropped from the top 10, leaving no U.S. man in the top 10 for the first time since the rankings began in 1973. And when Sam Querrey lost his fourth-round match Tuesday, it marked the second straight year in which no American has made the quarterfinals.

Is it a coincidence that one of the key architects of the U.S. Tennis Association’s development program is Jose Higueras, a Spaniard?

Higueras is pushing a concept called “shot tolerance” that has become popular in Spain. Basically, it’s teaching young players to find a middle ground between being too aggressive and too passive, something easier to learn in regions where kids grow up playing on slow clay surfaces.

“They’re taught it at the beginning,” Higueras said. “I mean, for them, accountability about missing is very, very important. And it also comes with the surface that you grow up with. If you grow up on hard courts, on a fast surface, missing becomes a lot more normal because the courts are faster and you don’t have much chance to get set up. While on clay, the misses are normally not as acceptable.”
But as this week—and the last few years—have illustrated, it’s not just success on clay that pushes the Spaniards. Of Nadal’s eight Grand Slam titles, two have come on the slick grass at Wimbledon and one in Australia, where the hard courts are faster than clay, though not as fast as the surface at Flushing Meadows. He still needs a U.S. Open title to complete the career Grand Slam.

Of course, if Nadal doesn’t get it done this year, there are plenty of other candidates.

“In many ways, I think Spain has a lot of tennis players who play, people practicing, who like to play tennis,” Robredo said. “But that doesn’t help us win matches. Out of the million people playing, you have to be good to be at the top level, so, we’re happy because we’re the ones who’ve done it.”

huhuhu... mesti tgk repeat nih...

sok_suci · Post time 10-9-2010 11:29 PM

choyy jah uolss dok kutuk2 kak vee..! heyy xde makna ServeRena nak boikot2 the Open okayy..

gigih nk tgok Vee vs Kim awal pagi nti..udah2 le korang merembat rendang dan lemang tu

Mulan · Post time 11-9-2010 12:59 AM

tgh tunggu gak ni ladies semifinals. tak tau la kot tertidur pulak sket lagi.

i tak brp caya serena boikot us open just bcoz marah USTA. pasai dia mesti nak kena defend points... dahlah kat masters & tournament kekecik takmo main bebetul... nanti kalo ranking jatuh merudum, kan ke jumpa higher seeds kat pusingan awal... lagi susah nak defend points kat next year punya grand slams.

not likely la serena takmo menang GS dah... 1 thing for sure... minah ni mesti mau menang & benci kalah punya...

ontah la eh..

cyclops_psycho · Post time 11-9-2010 03:31 PM

Thank you Bepa @ Vera Zvonareva,you juz save WTA by defeating
The Pusher Caroline Pushniacki & is a win for tennis actually!!
Now,please win it all,good luck in tomorrow final against Kim!
I love Kim,but for the time being i really wanted Vera to win the Open!
I'm new fan of her now, huhuhuuuu
If she win the Open,she'll be reach a career high as world #2! Vera truly
deserved it since she already reach 2nd straight major final in a row..

cyclops_psycho · Post time 11-9-2010 03:35 PM

well,dh lama x masuk forum ni..looking foward men's semifinal,harap2 final will be Rafa vs Federer!

cyclops_psycho · Post time 11-9-2010 03:49 PM

FYI,henti2 ar korang specatiom tentang Williams Sisters..huhhuuu
takde maknanya dia org nl boikot USO,rasanya semua sedia maklum sbb withdraw from the Opem coz injury kat kaki dia,terkena serpihan kaca kat tapak kaki dia,tak sangka lak boleh jd begitu
serius kecederaan beliau! Huhuuu,dgr kak Ree will?make comeback kat Tokyp nnt tp still in doubt.
Yang pasal Indian Wells tu plak,dia org boikot smpai la ni tu sbb issue racism.

cyclops_psycho · Post time 11-9-2010 03:50 PM

Post Last Edit by cyclops_psycho at 11-9-2010 15:54

FYI,henti2 ar korang wat speculation tentang Williams Sisters..huhhuuu
takde maknanya dia org nk boikot USO,rasanya semua sedia maklum sbb dia withdraw from the Open coz injury kat kaki dia,terkena serpihan kaca kat tapak kaki dia,tak sangka lak boleh jd begitu serius kecederaan beliau! Huhuuu,dgr2 gak kak Ree will make comeback kat Tokyo nnt tp still in doubt.
Yang pasal Indian Wells tu plak,dia org boikot smpai la ni tu sbb issue racism.

honey_jelly · Post time 12-9-2010 10:50 AM

juara utk bahagian pompuan jatuh kepada kim clijsters..congrats

utk men's final goes tooooooo...

vs

vamoss nadal!

cyclops_psycho · Post time 12-9-2010 11:48 AM

Post Last Edit by cyclops_psycho at 12-9-2010 11:51

oh Vera,what a lopside final match since 1963!!
Kim just too good & well deserved for the title!!
Kim will be world #2 by monday & Vera will reach career high @ #4 in the world. ; )
it seem like Vera will be a new Safina?? ; P

Nadal pls grab the USO title & complete ur Slam!!