Let us get this out of the way. Spin got Slammed
 |
| SPIN
Right now that we have that out of the way, let us get to the important stuff
We were going to write about the matches to watch, but we prefer to talk about the matches that we hope all our readers actually watched. First up is the epic that was Duval v. Stosur. Duval, a young 17 year old Haitian refugee, who, if you do follow women’s tennis played Kim Clijsters last year on Arthur Ashe stadium and comported herself remarkably well. This time around, she not only composed herself, but took out 2011 USO champion Sam Stosur.
As Duval said in her post match interview with Pam Shriver, Stosur did not play her best on the day, but credit Duval for making the most of this opportunity and notching a huge win in her young career. Last year after she played Clijsters ,she said that she needed to work on her serve and she did. It is never ever going to be Serena like but the placement was there and her groundies were gorgeous. Her return of serve is equal to that of Azarenka and after watching her match I am convinced that she watched how Azarenka returned the serve of Stosur by placing it directly at her feet which does not give Stosur time to run around her backhand to hit her lethal forehand. During the last game, Duval saved three break points with good play and closed out the match by hitting a forehand winner.
Duval next faces Hantuchova in what should be a winnable match and we can only hope that the high that she is now experiencing serves her well in her next match. If Duval can win that match, she may face Sachia Vickery, who had a nice win over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. Vickery won the 18 group USTA wildcard.
Simona Halep gave a lot of folks who picked her as a dark horse to make the quarter final of this year’s tournament heart burn after going down a set and seemed unable to hold serve against Heather Watson. Credit to Halep for going back to basics in her game and running Watson, who has been off the Tour for awhile with mono, and who is not yet back to full fitness, ragged in the latter part of the second set and much of the third. There is a lot to like about Halep’s game and one only has to hope that her dismal performance today was as a result of playing New Haven, which leads us to the next match that we should have picked as a match to watch, that being Kvitova v Doi.
As is the norm, Kvitova cruised through the first set, winning it 6-2 and no one really knows what happened after that but it seemed as if the object of the game simply escaped Kvitova and every single ball found its way in the bleachers, the sidelines or at the bottom of the net. Credit Doi who forced most of these errors from Kvitova’s racquet by taking the ball early and moving Petra around the court. Kvitova took her usual break between the second and third sets (because she has been playing a lot of those recently) and came back out, broke Doi's serve and it was basically one way traffic from that point on.
Caroline Wozniacki almost had to play a third set today against Ying -Ying Duan, the so-called Chinese Lindsay Davenport. Wozniacki’s retrieving saved her against Duan’s laser shots. Duan served for the second set but lost it without getting to set point. In Wozniacki’s next service game, Duan got to set point but hit her backhand into the net after Wozniacki’s backhand hit the line. During the second set, Wozniacki received a soft warning from the chair umpire, Louise Engzell, for illegal coaching,. According to Virginia Wade, Wozniacki played well as Duan kept firing shots on a consistent basis. In the first part of the match, Duan barely missed her shots. Early in the second set, Duan won the first three games hitting winners while cutting down her unforced errors.
Aces Matches to Watch on Day 3
3 matchups to watch
Laura Robson vs Caroline Garcia – In the first round, Robson started out slowly against Dominguez Lino but when Dominguez Lino served for the set at 5-4, Robson won the last 9 games of the match showing us why she defeated Clijsters and Li at last year United States Open. Garcia had a straight forward win over the American wildcard Rogers. Murray, who Robson won a silver medal at Olympics in mixed doubles, called Garcia a future number one when Garcia was giving Sharapova a difficult match at the French Open in 2011. Hopefully, we can see this matchup more in the future.
Eugenie Bouchard vs Angelique Kerber – In the first round, Bouchard had to rally from a set to defeat Pliskova by getting a late break in the deciding set. Kerber had an easy time serving breadsticks to Hradecka. The only competition Kerber had was trying to finish her match before the rain fell which canceled play until Day 2. With Bouchard playing solid and Kerber not matching her 2012 results, this matchup has upset alert written all over it.
Jamie Hampton vs Kristina Mladenovic – In the first round, Hampton looked very good in defeating Arruabarrena in straights as she dictated the action. After a good clay and grass season, Hampton has struggled during US hard court season. Mladenovic won a three set match over Medina Garrigues in where every set had a breadstick involved. Mladenovic has won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon with Nestor, four WTA tour doubles titles and is climbing the rankings in singles. This is a matchup of heavy hitters where the first strike is essential.
Below are Spin’s Picks for Day 3 of the USO
Serena Williams v Galina Voskoboeva
Yaroslava Shvedova v P.Mayr-Achleitner
Jamie Hampton v Kristina Mladenovic
Urszula Radwanska v Sloane Stephens
Venus Williams v Jie Zheng
Coco Vandeweghe v Carla Suarez Navarro
Kaia Kanepi v Anna Schmiedlova
Eugenie Bouchard v Angelique Kerber
Agnieszka Radwanska v M.Torro-Flor
Ashleigh Barty v A.Pavlyuchenkova
Ekaterina Makarova v Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Paula Ormaechea v Sabine Lisicki
Jelena Jankovic v Alisa Kleybanova
Kurumi Nara v Sorana Cirstea
Laura Robson v Caroline Garcia
Sofia Arvidsson v Na Li |
