**Official 2007 US Open***

[Zach Belden]

i knew this would be a clinic.

[Bill Murphy]

[ QUOTE ]
Man I feel bad for Roddick. He really looked down there walking off the court. This was really about as good as he can play and unfortunately he is just not good enough to beat Fed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, gotta go the George Best-Charles Barkley route--have fun, try hard, make lots of fans & money, bang lots groupies and not let the fact the other guy's too good get ya down.

[DcifrThs]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This set may be like 6-2 if Andy gets down on himself.

[/ QUOTE ]

One set off.

[/ QUOTE ]

yea thats rough. it was amazing that he went that long w/o getting broken.

just a few other random thoughts on this since i just found this thread:

1) <3 agassi. he is a true champ and the best years of tennis (obv just for me) were him and sampras going back and forth. i didn't personally live through the borg, conners, mcenroe era so i can't comment, but agassi was always what i'd consider a true champion. i hope he becomes a commonplace announcer for more than just his character & talent as a player. his analysis of what roddick needed to do to win was said better than any i've heard to date.

2) women's matches were great this open. i can't wait to see henin put a hurt on venus, though i love to see the williams sisters play. their dad is like the man. he taught them to basically say f*ck off, play this game like a man and kill the ball every chance you get. so i think venus/henin will be great to watch.

3) i'm very disappointed in blake. i think he has some sort of mental block in place which prevents him from breaking through. i really like his enthusiasm and talent & speed, but it just isn't together in a full game.

4) roddick is the freaking MAN. i love him like i loved philipousis (sp?)...but more. i <3 a powerful serve that just debilitates an opponent. his service stats were sick for those first 2 sets. his ground strokes were also fantastic. just one thing about his game though that seems to need work (not like i'm some guru lol) is the "transition" game of coming to net. i didn't notice till i think agassi brought it up but during the fed match it really showed. he was trepidatiious at times coming in (and got lucky fed put the ball in the net a few times) and simply made a few bad approach decisions.

anyways, he played one HELL of a match against the best in the world. he deserved to at least get a set.

5) that brings me to the robot that is freaking roger federer. who the f*ck is this guy to be so damn good. just wow. he gets shots back that anybody else couldn't even touch. further, his return game is just wow. 146, 142, 136 ALL of them put back in play. the man is just a tennis god at this point.

6) i also love nadal. i wish he wasn't injured. that sad face he made in the 4th almost made me cry *tear*. all kinds of cramping and knee issues blah blah blah.

basically, i'm very happy to be seeing this level of tennis being played day in and day out.

awesome.

Barron

[thedarknight]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
As a hardcore tennis fan, I'm not really all that excited with Djokovic and Federer either. The best men's matchups were in the first week, especially with Donald Young and John Isner giving something for people to be excited about. It would've been nice if Ginepri made it deep in the other half, or at least have Roddick and Blake in the other half of the draw battling Nadal and Djokovic.

Last year, we got to see Blake vs. Federer and Roddick in the finals. This could be worse than that 2004 Open with Hewitt in the finals.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, tennis is only interesting to watch when there are american players involved.

(rolls eyes)

at the risk of coming across as offensive, i think a lot of fans need to open their eyes and acknowledge that players from other countries are entertaining, too.

if you don't think nadal-ferrer was beyond sick, i don't know what to tell you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well since most posters here are from the US, I am sure they are more interested in the US players. When I watch the FIBA tournament, I am not wowing at Puerto Rico. Last night's match with Ferrer and Nadal was certainly amazing, but I wasn't certainly rooting for anyone. If it were say Blake or Andy I would be shouting for every shot.

This might be just the case for me, but I am not going to jump up and down for Nadal and Federer. I will acknowledge "HOly [censored], that's an amazing shot." I definitely appreciate the talents from other countries. But they just don't resonate as strongly for me as the American tennis players.

Roddick's strategy was the all-out brute power game. Seemed kind of like what he brought to 2004 Wimbledon. He would try to hit 20 winners, but of course Rfed gets all the balls. Andy is just not good enough at net to close out one of those defensive shots. It's too bad, I certainly think Arod was good enough to beat Djokovic tonight.

I really don't think Djokovic has that much of a chance, yeah he beat Rfed at Montreal, but Djokovic barely got by Stepanek and had a tough one against Monaco. Rfed has taken his game up a notch.

[Commuter]

Is it just me or did federer look really bad ass w/ that all black thing tonight. Maybe its because the only tennis I usually watch is wimbledon, so im not used to anything but white. And theres no doubt in my mind that federer is the greatest living athlete today. You can always tell the truly great athletes by how effortless they make everything seem. And man, no one makes it look easier or more graceful than federer.

[southerndog]

Wow, Venus looked really hot.

[DcifrThs]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
As a hardcore tennis fan, I'm not really all that excited with Djokovic and Federer either. The best men's matchups were in the first week, especially with Donald Young and John Isner giving something for people to be excited about. It would've been nice if Ginepri made it deep in the other half, or at least have Roddick and Blake in the other half of the draw battling Nadal and Djokovic.

Last year, we got to see Blake vs. Federer and Roddick in the finals. This could be worse than that 2004 Open with Hewitt in the finals.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, tennis is only interesting to watch when there are american players involved.

(rolls eyes)

at the risk of coming across as offensive, i think a lot of fans need to open their eyes and acknowledge that players from other countries are entertaining, too.

if you don't think nadal-ferrer was beyond sick, i don't know what to tell you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well since most posters here are from the US, I am sure they are more interested in the US players. When I watch the FIBA tournament, I am not wowing at Puerto Rico. Last night's match with Ferrer and Nadal was certainly amazing, but I wasn't certainly rooting for anyone. If it were say Blake or Andy I would be shouting for every shot.

This might be just the case for me, but I am not going to jump up and down for Nadal and Federer. I will acknowledge "HOly [censored], that's an amazing shot." I definitely appreciate the talents from other countries. But they just don't resonate as strongly for me as the American tennis players.

Roddick's strategy was the all-out brute power game. Seemed kind of like what he brought to 2004 Wimbledon. He would try to hit 20 winners, but of course Rfed gets all the balls. Andy is just not good enough at net to close out one of those defensive shots. It's too bad, I certainly think Arod was good enough to beat Djokovic tonight.

I really don't think Djokovic has that much of a chance, yeah he beat Rfed at Montreal, but Djokovic barely got by Stepanek and had a tough one against Monaco. Rfed has taken his game up a notch.

[/ QUOTE ]

it's too bad. whoever won the federer/rodick match was gunna win the open. no question.

7-6, 7-6, 6-2 isn't "he shoulda won" it's "he coulda won"

that last set plays out entirely differently if it was 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-7. roddick woulda been pumped he had a chance to beat federer. he was just beaten down and felt he couldn't win from 2 sets down.

the tiebreakers weren't runaways. you play them 10 times and roddick wins probably 3-4 of them. just wasn't in the cards.

i love fed, but if there was one person i'd have wanted to win other than fed (excluding nadal), it would be andy.

i don't know who my favorite player is on tour right now. dynsaties are great so i always root for federer, but who doesn't love somebody like nadal. especially since he can probably claim to be the greatest ever clay player. he's like 107-3 on that surface in 2 years. i'd love to know what those 3 matches were like.

anyways, great stuff.

Barron

[jogsxyz]

[ QUOTE ]
Roddick hasn't always been this bad on returning serves has he? This stand-eight-feet-behind-the-baseline things seems new.

[/ QUOTE ]

Roddick is 6 ft behind the baseline against players with weak serves. Connors tried to get Roddick to step in for returns. But Roddick does what he wants. Against Federer Roddick needs to step in and take the ball earlier else he'll never win.

[thedarknight]

I like Roddick, he's a great competitor...but I simply do not think he works as hard as Federer. Last night Andre et al were talking how it seems Rfed is never out of breath or cramping on the court. The guy probably is on drugs or training himself to hell in Dubai, while Andy is going out at night getting caught with a Sports Illustrated Model. WHO IS HOT.

Andy hasn't improved that much since 2003...actually I think he was better back then, since he was just blowing everyone off the court. I"m not what exactly happened, either he got worse or everyone got better or just a combination of the 2.

[thedarknight]

Arod is giving her his rod