=======
US OPEN (Flushing Meadows, New York, USA; outdoor hard; Grand Slam)
======= http://www.usopen.org/
First round (Wednesday 30th August)
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+ DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [17] d. Bethanie Mattek [WC], 7-5 6-3

I followed live scores at www.usopen.org. The match started at 18:57
EDT. Here are my comments as I wrote them at the time:


First Set:
HANTUC _*@*@*____@* 7
MATTEK *_____*@*@__ 5

Mattek serving 0-0: 30/0, held.
Daniela serving 0-1: 30/15, 40/15, held.
Mattek serving 1-1: 15/0, 30/40 (BP), 40/40, ad Daniela (BP), broken.

Glad to see Daniela's not too wasteful of her break-points today! ;-)

Daniela serving 2-1: 0/15, 15/30... held.
Mattek serving 1-3: 0/30 -> 30/30, 30/40 (BP), broken.
Daniela serving 4-1: 15/0, 30/30, 40/30, held.
Mattek serving to stay in the first set at 1-5: 30/0, 30/15, held.
Daniela serving for the first set at 5-2: 0/15, 15/30, 30/30,
30/40 (BP), broken.

Typical Daniela - holds serve easily throughout the set,
then "decides" to make life difficult for herself!

Mattek serving to stay in the first set at 3-5: 15/0, 15/15, 30/15,
30/30, 40/30, 40/40, ad Mattek, held.
Daniela serving for the first set at 5-4: 0/40 (3 BPs), 30/40,
broken.

5-1 to 5-5 - it seems to be turning into a full-blown choke! ':-(

Mattek serving 5-5: 15/0, 15/40 (2 BPs), broken.

Daniela desperately needed that game to stem the tide.

Daniela serving for the first set at 6-5: 40/0 (3 SPs), Daniela won
the first set 7-5 at 19:41 (44m).

That's more like it! :-)

Now, will the relief of finally closing out that first set carry
Daniela through the second, or will the momentum of the fightback
favour Mattek? I predict the former...


Second Set:
HANTUC @* * * *@ 6
MATTEK __* * *__ 3

Mattek serving 0-0: 0/15, 30/15, 30/30, 40/40, ad Daniela (BP),
broken.

And in the twinkling of an eye, Daniela has gone from a very anxious
5-5 to a set and a break up! :-)

Daniela serving 1-0: 30/0, held.
Mattek serving 0-2: 15/0, 15/15, 40/15, held.
Daniela serving 2-1: 0/15, 15/15, 15/40 (2 BPs) -> 40/40,
ad Mattek (BP #3), Deuce #2, ad Daniela, held.

Well recovered by Daniela! So close to giving up a break in this set
as well.

Mattek serving 1-3: 30/0, 30/15, 40/15 -> 40/40, ad Daniela (BP),
Deuce #2, ad Mattek, held.

I can't be sure that Daniela had break-point there, as it seemed to
flash up very quickly on the scoreboard and then revert to deuce.

Daniela serving 3-2: 15/15, 30/15, 40/30, 40/40, ad Daniela, held.
Mattek serving 2-4: 0/15, 15/30, 30/30, 40/40, ad Mattek, held.
Daniela serving 4-3: 0/15, 15/15, 15/30, 30/30, 30/40 (BP), 40/40,
ad Daniela, held.

I have sensed the threat of a break back for Mattek throughout this
set, but it hasn't materialised, as Mattek is doing a better job of
squandering break-points than Daniela! ;-)

Mattek serving to stay in the match at 3-5: 15/15, 30/30, 40/30,
40/40, ad Daniela (MP), Deuce #2, ad Mattek, Deuce #3,
ad Daniela (MP #2), Daniela won 7-5 6-3 at 20:34 (1h37m) -
just 4 minutes after Maria Sharapova won!


Statistics
----------

Daniela got 56% of her first serves in, winning 64% of the points
when she did so, and 61% on second serve (Mattek 54%, 73% and 29% -
she paid the price for a weak second serve).

Both players dropped their percentages of first serves in
significantly from the first set to the second, in favour of a
higher percentage of points won on first serve.

They served 5 aces each, but Mattek committed 7 double faults,
Daniela just one.

Their average service-speeds were very similar: first serve 102mph
for Mattek, 100mph for Daniela, second serve 84mph for both. But
whereas Daniela's fastest serve was 105mph, Mattek blasted one at
119mph - the fastest by any woman so far this tournament along with
Serena Williams!

Daniela had a very positive W:UE ratio of 35:22 (Mattek 24:25),
which is a good sign ahead of her match against Serena Williams.

Daniela broke 5 times from 12 break-points, which is a pretty
efficient conversion-rate by her standards! ;-) Mattek was much more
wasteful, breaking only twice from 8 break-points (when fighting
back from 1-5 to 5-5 in the first set).

There was evidently some good net-play in this match, with Daniela
winning 7 of 10 points at the net, Mattek 16 of 22.

In points, Daniela won 79-67 (first set 38-32, second set 41-35).

-----------------
Second-round draw (to be played on Thursday)
-----------------
Top half
--------

* AMÉLIE MAURESMO [1] v Meghann Shaughnessy (anyone but Mauresmo!)
* Mara Santangelo v Sybille Bammer
* DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [17] v Serena Williams [WC] (PODME DANIELA!!)
* Nakamura,Aiko v ANA IVANOVIC [16] (both nice; my loyalty is to Ana)

* Yuliana Fedak v DINARA SAFINA [12] (davai Yuliana!)
* Viktoriya Kutuzova v Jarmila Gajdošová (davai Viktoriya!)
* Youlia Fedossova [Q] v Kaia Kanepi
* Virginie Razzano v MARTINA HINGIS [8]

* MARIA SHARAPOVA [3] v Emilie Loit (DAVAI MARIA!!)
* ELENA LIKHOVTSEVA [32] v Nicole Pratt [LL] (davai Elena!)
* LI,NA [24] v Eleni Daniilidou
* MARY PIERCE [13] v Eva Birnerová [Q] (allez Mary!)

* Victoria Azarenka v Jamea Jackson
* ANNA CHAKVETADZE [23] v Alyona Bondarenko (both nice, but my
loyalty is firmly to Anna)
* TATIANA GOLOVIN [27] v Agnieszka Radwanska (allez Tatiana!)
* Virginia Ruano Pascual v NADIA PETROVA [5] (ˇvamos Virginia!)


Bottom half
-----------

* SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA [6] v Lauren Albanese [WC]
* Anastassia Rodionova v ZHENG,JIE [29]
* Kirsten Flipkens [Q] v JELENA JANKOVIC [19] (go Kirsten!)
* NICOLE VAIDIŠOVÁ [9] v Alina Jidkova (both nice; my loyalty is to
NICOLE)

* Aravane Rezai v Lucie Šafárová (both nice; may the better win!)
* MARIA KIRILENKO [20] v Séverine Brémond (both nice; my loyalty is
to Maria)
* VERA ZVONARËVA [33] v Jill Craybas (DAVAI VERA!!)
* Emma Laine v ELENA DEMENTIEVA [4]

* PATTY SCHNYDER [7] v Sofia Arvidsson
* MARION BARTOLI [26] v Varvara Lepchenko [Q] (both nice; my loyalty
is to Marion)
* KATARINA SREBOTNIK [22] v Ekaterina Bychkova (dajmo Katarina!)
* Jelena Kostanic v LINDSAY DAVENPORT [10]

* Sania Mirza v FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE [14] (go Sania!)
* Martina Müller v SHAHAR PEER [21] (kadima Shahar!)
* SUGIYAMA,AI [28] v Tathiana Garbin
* Vania King v JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE [2]


Hantuchová v Williams
---------------------

Daniela beat Serena Williams 6-1 7-6 in the third round of the
Australian Open - her only win in five matches against Williams. But
Williams looked grossly overweight in January, and in recent photos
she looks much fitter. Williams beat Daniela 1-6 6-3 6-3 at Los
Angeles, and the media are writing about this match as though it
would be an upset for Daniela to win it, even though she's the
seeded player.

Williams was out for six months with a left-kee injury after the
Australian Open, and has since played two tournaments. At Cincinnati
she thrashed Anastasia Myskina 6-2 6-2 in the first round, and went
on to reach the semi-finals where she was beaten 6-2 6-3 by my red-
hot Vera Zvonarëva. :-) And Los Angeles was a similar story, as
Williams began with an ominous 6-2 6-1 drubbing of Maria Kirilenko,
but fell in the semis again, this time to a resurgent Jelena
Jankovic.

So Daniela shouldn't be too terrified of Williams on this kind of
form, but she'll certainly have to buck up her ideas, because she's
put in too many disappointing performances since the Australian Open.

Williams opened her bid for a third US Open title with a 6-1 6-2
drubbing of journeywoman Lourdes Domínguez Lino, but Daniela is in a
different class altogether (as she proved at the French Open).

--------------------------
Order of play for Thursday
--------------------------

Arthur Ashe Court (start 11:00 EDT = 15:00 GMT = 16:00 BST)
1. WS 2r: Jelena Kostanic v LINDSAY DAVENPORT [10]
2. MS 2r: Luis Horna v RAFAEL NADAL [2]
3. WS 2r: DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [17] v Serena Williams [WC]
<snip evening session>

Full order of play:
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/schedule/

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/hantu/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/danielahantuchova/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeldani/