Misery at the US Open

I finally made my visit to this year's US Open yesterday and it turned out to be pathetic! I guess I should have trusted Federer for delivering a damp squib :-( As I had mentioned in an earlier post about my adventures in trying to attend the Sania vs. Sharapova match, I had booked tickets for Thursday as I wanted to catch a competitive match live. And, the men's quarterfinals seemed the only option available that would not cost me a fortune. Due to a sudden spurt of work, I began contemplating on Wednesday that I might as well sell the ticket. However, the schedule for Thursday showed up on the US Open webpage sometime on Wednesday evening, and the thought of getting to see a Federer vs. Nalbandian match enticed me into going for it. How I wish now that I had gone ahead and sold the ticket!

Watching the matches of Federer in the earlier rounds at this year's Open, it was apparent that he was nowhere near his best. He really had to scrap for a win even against mortals such as Santoro and Kiefer. Also, until an year ago, Nalbandian had Federer's number consistently. Before yesterday's match, the record between the two was 5-2 in favor of Nalbandian; the 2 wins for Federer coming after the 5 defeats. So, I was certainly justified in hoping that this would be a hotly contested encounter. Sadly, Federer chose precisely the wrong match to return to his sublime form :( I hardly remember Federer making an errors while Nalbandian piled on the double faults and groundstrokes in the net to help out. After the match started off on a great note with Nalbandian breaking Federer's serve, it was pretty much downhill from there.

The only exciting part of the match was that there were 6 Argentinians sitting behind me who were in really high "spirits"! They cheered every point that Nalbandian won wildly. Those points unfortunately were two few to stretch the match beyond two hours. The match that followed this one was a senior's doubles match, which I certainly had no intention of watching. I have no clue how they can schedule such a ridiculous match for a night session on Center Court!

So, I was at the USTA Tennis Center for just a little more than 3 hours. The Federer-Nalbandian match was to begin at 7:30 and so, I was at the venue by 6:30. During the one hour before the match, I saw Conchita Martinez/Ruano Pascal losing to two females that I had never heard of (BTW, Ruano Pascal is going to partner Sania in doubles at some WTA event in Kolkata. Sania is certainly beginning to get the right contacts!), saw John McEnroe catching some tennis practice before heading into the studio for his commentary stint with USA, and walked by Billie Jean King. While returning from this miserable outing, I was to endure more because of a fire on the tracks in New York Penn Station. Having left Flushing Meadows at around 9:45, I reached home at
1:30am!

What depresses me more about yesterday's match, is that all the other 3 men's quarterfinals before this one had been rivetting. All of them had been 5-setters going right down to the wire. I managed to catch only the Agassi-Blake match on TV though and it was awesome. Just my luck that I ended up attending a match featuring Federer. If Federer's dominance continues for much longer, I might begin to abhor him just the way I loathe Michael Schumacher. I am the perennial supporter of the underdog!

BTW, to end this post, I must remark that I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of women's tennis at this year's Open. The Clijsters vs. Venus match especially was a classic. The athleticism of Clijsters is really amazing. The player I hate most though on the women's side is Dementieva. She has a joke of a serve and her game is all about consistency. Not entertaining in anyway and certainly not worth watching. I am glad Pierce managed to prevent her from making it to the finals. Of course, I am happy for Clijsters too that she made it to the finals. Hopefully she can finally do away with her Grand Slam jitters tomorrow night.

Cheers,
Harsha