Thursday, August 28, 2014

USO DAY 3 REVIEW AND DAY 4 PREVIEW

by Karen


If you missed it last night, Venus’ match against Timea Bascinsky was must see tv.  Watching Venus in full flight in some of the points played brought many fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and some of us watching from our living rooms on our feet.  The athleticism and ball striking of Venus in that match was amazing.  Who would have thought that this 34 year old wunderkind still had that kind of tennis inside her?  Venus moves on to the third round where things will get a bit trickier for her. Her next opponent is Sara Errani. If Venus manages to pull out that win it will see her through to the round of 16.  How amazing is that?

Alexandra Dulgheru gave Maria Sharapova all she could handle in her second round match.  If Sharapova does not get her game together, she will no doubt be ousted in the next round by Sabine Lisicki who seems determined in proving that she can play on surfaces other than grass. 

Aga Radwanska continues her dismal performance at the US Open by losing to Shuai Peng in straight sets.  Sloane Stephens was also ousted by No. 96 Johanna Larsson in an epic 3 set battle on Arthur Ashe Stadium. The piling on of Sloane has begun and frankly I am sick of it. 

Day 4 features play from the top half of the draw and sees some very tasty match ups. The Order of Play is below as well as Spin’s Picks

Arthur Ashe

Christina McHale v. Victoria Azarenka
Vania King v. Serena Williams
Sorana Cirstea v. Eugenie Bouchard

Louis Armstrong

Karolina Pliskova v. Ana Ivanovic
Aleksandra Krunic v. Madison Keys

Grandstand

Petra Kvitova v. Petra Cetkovska

Court 11

Coco Vandeweghe v Carla Suarez Navarro
Flavia Pennetta v. Shelby Rogers

Court 13

Varvara Lepchenko v. Mona Barthel
Casey Dellacqua v Qiang Wang
Polona Hercog v Ekaterina Makarova

Court 5

Samantha Stosur v
Kaia Kanepi
Marina Erakovic v Elena Vesnina

Court 17


Nicole Gibbs v A.Pavlyuchenkova
Catherine Bellis v Zarina Diyas

What to Watch

Can American wunderkind Catherine Bellis follow up her performance against Dominika Cibulkova in her next match.  The hard hitting Diyas has been an up and comer for some time and it is good that all her talents will be on a show court for the world to see.  I think Diyas’ experience will prevail in this one.

Samantha Stosur v. Kaia Kanepi should be a good battle if Kanepi shows up to play.  This will be a hard fought battle as you have two hard hitters with lots of variety in their games. 

Upset Alert

Eugenie Bouchard looked really good in her first round match.  It could be because she is getting her game back together at a Grand Slam, or it may have been that her opponent was held together with kinesio tape and could not offer much in the way of resistance.  That being said, is Sorana Cirstea ready to perform under the lights?  Is she ready to show us that her run to the Toronto finals last year, as well as her epic quarterfinal run to the 2009 French Open was not a fluke.  We wait with bated breath.  This could either be a long 3 set affair or a blow out of epic proportions.  Either way, it should be fun to watch.


Is Victoria Azarenka getting match tough?  Her match against Misaki Doi had her calling upon that toughness, which made her No.1 and the winner of 2 Grand Slam titles to the fore.  Her match against Christina McHale has upset written all over it and while I expect Azarenka’s experience playing on the big stage to prevail, she is playing an American and she will be playing in the heat of the day.  Even though I have picked Azarenka to win this one, I think she will have a tough time of it and may end up losing.

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