The mens 4th round was finally wrapped up on Thursday after two frustrating days of rain. The drama continued yesterday though as Andy Roddick and David Ferrer were forced to move from the Louis Armstrong court to court 13 after hairline cracks were found in the court with water seeping through. Roddick was furious at the situation and even more so when the clueless organisers brought them back to try and play with Roddick shouting "I am baffled!". Roddick managed to harness his anger by defeating David Ferrer, 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-3 in what was a surprise victory for me. Roddick will now play Rafael Nadal in the Quarters who started to show some of his best form with a 7-6 6-1 6-2 victory over Giles Muller.
I really expected David Ferrer to win this one but credit to Roddick for reaching the Quarters after a poor year so far. I really felt like Roddick's best days are behind him and that his weapons don't threaten the top players anymore however here he is the US Open quarters again...
In the other 4th round matches, Andy Murray eased into the Quarters after a straightforward win against the lacklustre Donald Young, 6-2 6-3 6-3. He will play John Isner who beat Giles Simon, 7-6 3-6 7-6 7-6. The first men's semi-final was also decided and will be a rematch of last year's classic encounter between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Federer exacted revenge on Jo-Wilfred Tsonga with a 6-4 6-3 6-3 victory, meanwhile Djokovic was forced to battle past his compatriot, Janko Tipsarevic who had to retire trailing 6-7 7-6 0-6 0-3. I only watched the three games of the fourth set but there were some sensational rallies and a fantastic amount of respect between both players, which made for an absorbing encounter... it was such a shame that Janko was hampered by an injury.
Tipsarevic was playing some excellent tennis in his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final but was forced to retire hurt.
The US Open schedule has now been changed with the mens final on Monday and the womens final on Sunday. It is a good decision by the USTA because it would have been awful for the bottom half of the mens draw to have played 4 best of 5 set matches in 4 consecutive days. The only concern I have is putting the mens semis during the day session on Saturday and the womens semis on Saturday night with the winners of the womens semis having less than 24 hours to prepare for the Sunday afternoon final... I imagine once again it is all dominated by the TV coverage with the prospect of a Caro v Serena semi taking over what would have been the womens final on Saturday night
I am away this weekend so will not be able to blog for the next couple of days... I will be back on Sunday to give my round-up to the tournaments and both womens and mens final reviews. Enjoy :)))
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