On a sweltering day in New York, seven more five-set matches were played yesterday at the U.S. Open. One would think the heat would cause points to be quicker and matches to be shorter, but that has not been the case. The depth of the game has given us some great first round matchups and guys are slugging it out to the end despite the extreme conditions.
Novak Djokovic looked cooked, down 2 sets to 1 and a break in the fourth, and wilting in the heat as he is prone to do. He dug down deep, stayed mentally strong, and managed to outlast his countryman, Viktor Troicki.
American and #19 seed Mardy Fish dominated Jan Hajek in the first, fourth, and fifth sets, but lost the second and third. In one of the more final scorelines you'll see, Fish took the match, 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1. Look for Fish to make a nice run after getting though a tough first-rounder and facing a favorable draw.
Fernando Verdasco, the #8 seed, hung tough and took out the Italian Fabio Fognini in five sets.
David Nalbandian, the #31 seed, played mostly in the evening when it was cooler, but still went the distance with Rik De Voest. Nalbandian, who has been a hot player as of late, looked to be in real trouble in the fifth set, but pulled through 6-4 to stay alive.
The charasmatic Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis, wasn't as fortunate. The Bagh Man, seeded 16th and coming off a great U.S. Open Series this summer, was up two sets to one on the French veteran, Arnaud Clement, but let the match slip away and was sent packing. It had to be a very disappointing loss for Baghdatis, who has had some great moments in majors, but loses in the first round too often.
Talk about disappointments, Ernests Gulbis, the Latvian, seeded 24th, lost in straight sets to another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy. Gulbis, a very talented player who had an outstanding clay court season, failed to win a single match at a Grand Slam this year. That tells me he's not putting in the hard yards off the court and he may be lacking the mental toughness it takes to battle the big boys.
Rafael Nadal took the court in the night match against Russian and self-proclaimed madman, Teymuraz Gabashvili. I saw this same matchup in Miami a couple of years ago, with Nadal cruising to a relatively easy straight set win. Last night, Nadal had to fight a little harder, with a game Gabashvili going for broke. Rafa won the first two sets in tiebreaks before winning the third, 6-3. He served consistently bigger than we've seen in the past, averaging around 130 mph for the match. If he serve at the speed and maintain his usual high first serve percentage, look out, he might just complete his Career Slam after all.
But the biggest story of the day was the heat. Nearly everyone seemed to struggle with the temperatures and humidity. Julien Benneteau threw up on the court, then gutted out a four-set victory over the 28th seed Radek Stepanek.
The coverage on ESPN just began a short time ago, but already they're reporting even higher temperatures and higher humidity today. Victoria Azarenka, the #10 seed on the women's seed, and a popular pick to challenge for the title, passed out on the court this morning. She was down 5-1 to Gisela Dulko in the first, wobbled, and collapsed. She was carted off the court in a wheelchair. Heat exhaustion may have played a big part in her demise, but apparently she took a fall in warmups and needed medical attention, so there seems to be more to the story. In these conditions, it's survival of the fittest. One way or another, this tournament is going to come down to the last man and woman standing.
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