I guess it's the US Open? I watched some of it during the first week but I thoug, heh, let's wait until the round of 16
DJOKOVIC [1] played a very strange opening match where he looked unconcerned and flat. It is known that he is not 100% healthy, but not much transpired about it. Luckily for him he faced a very out of competition Janowicz who faded hard after winning the 2nd set. It's tough to say where is Djokovic at since then as he got a walk-over in the 2nd round and played 6 games against Youzhny in the 3rd before the russian retired...
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EDMUND the youngster from England who may or may not be an albino (probably not though since albino tend to have neurological issues and very bad eyesight) did some (tired) giant slaying as he beat Gasquet [13] in straight sets in the first round and Isner [20] in the third. I have hardly ever seen him play, but he is one of the 8 (?) players 21 and under to be in the Top 100.
TSONGA [9] faced a test against Anderson [23] but past it with flying colors, playing a full match, serving well, returning well, making the right choices, giving very little. A reference match for the frenchman who is among the best players to never have won a Grand Slam title... if Djokovic is not 100%, maybe there is something to be done in this part of the draw for him?
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SOCK [26] reached only the 2nd 4th round of a Slam in his career. This is very hard to explain as he is a guy with big weapons (serve, forehand) who is a pretty decent competitor and, off the top of my head, kept a pretty decent ranking. Maybe the wear and tear of best of 5 matches does not suit him as he plays also a lot of double and some mixed? I don't know. This year though, after a five sets battle against american youngster Fritz he discarded Zverev (Misha the older brother of Alexander) to the loss of only 4 games and then dominated in 3 sets former champion Cilic [7]! The croatian was slighty off color, but Sock played an excellent match, serving well, moving very well to hit a lot of forehands to safe yet aggressive targets. It should be noted that in Rio Sock won a bronze medal in double and a gold medal in mixed double. You know all the good I think of mixed double being an Olympic event, but that nevertheless is a confidence booster and the american might besurfing that wave of confidence right now.
NADAL [4] is not exactly a hot bookmaker favorite these days, but he still has to lose a set after three rounds where he played solid players in Istomin, Seppi and Kuznetzov. The seed he should have faced was Ramos [31] so it would not have been much sterner a test. In the little I have seen I found him pretty sharp. Sharper in fact than in the last few months. It's very surprising when you consider that he got destroyed 1 and 3 by Coric in Cinci!
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POUILLE [24] the young frenchman made good use of his seeding but still played 14 sets in three matches! In the 2nd round he broke the heart of swiss veteran qualifier Chiudinelli who served for the match in the third to no avail, fought back in a breaker he finally lost and then scored just two games in sets four and five, out of gas. In the third round, the frenchman scored a very good win against Bautista [15]. One of Pouille's strength is that he has an aggressive game but stay level headed. Never too down when he misses, does not go crazy when he makes big shots and he keeps his cool even when things don't go his way. A good competitor. The next step I guess is being able to win his first round matches more convincingly to arrive fresh against the likes of Nadal.
MONFILS [10] in 2016 seem to have found a better balance between using his athleticism and using his brain as well as having fun while playing and competing well. End result in this Open: three matches without losing a set. Not bad since he faced in the first round ace machine Muller who is playing well this year too and spaniard and former staple of the Top 20 Almagro who just had a good win over Cuevas [18].
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BAGHDATIS... yep... on paper this should have been Raonic [5] but the canadian youngster faced in the 2nd round an inspired Harrison and, to make matters worse, injured himself a bit. Baghdatis though made the most of it as after upsetting 32nd seed Pair in the 2nd round he beat Harrison in four sets. That will be an interesting test for Monfils as Baghdatis is a talented and no-non sense aggressive baseliner. When he is feeling it, the guy can play at made pace without ever missing, so the opponent better be smart and play a clean match something Monfils has not always done in the past. Strangley, these two guys who both have been on tour for more than a decade only faced each other three times! Once in 2006, once in 2007 and... once a couple weeks agao in Cinci! Monfils won that one 7-5 6-0.
Intriguing top half as we have no idea of the level of Djokovic and the other 7 players have been pretty solid on their way to this stage. Curious to see what a Monfils-Nadal match could turn into... Some answers tomorrow.
THIEM [8] I have not seen play, but after a tough first round against australian Millman he lost just 1 set in his following two matches avoiding the seeded Querrey[29] who fell in the first round to Tipsarevic.
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DEL POTRO is unseeded which is a kind of joke that Johnson [19] and Ferrer [11] certainly did not find funny. The tall argentinian has still to lose a set despite facing two top 20 players...
MARCHENKO I have rarely seen play, but that guy is pretty good. He put up a very good fight against Kygrios [14] until the bonker autralian hurt himself medway through the 2nd set. After that Marchenko continued to play a solid match against the ghost of Kyrgios, winning sets two and three when the australian, dejected, almost in tears, withdrew.
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WAWRINKA [3] has a singularity among the top guys: his top level is extremely high, but his bottom level is dramatically lower than most of his peers at the top of the ranking. After two decent matches, including a straight set victory against currently unseeded Verdasco, he played a craptacular match against Evans. Piles of unforced errors that became even worse as, probably because he was increasingly nervous, his footwork became more and more sluggish. Saving a match point in the fourth set he somehow managed to forced a fifth set, helped a little by an Evans who forgot that consistency, not risk taking, was what brought him close to the finish line. Feeling like he might have missed his chance and with his body in the red, the englishman faded sharply in the fifth. When he was one or maybe two breaks down he turned to his box and said that it was over and that he had no shot at winning this... In front of my TV I was like "Are you serious? Did you somehow forgot the guy on the other side of the net spent his evening missing the court and is not currently playing any better?". "I can't win" being one of the most often self-fullfilling prophecy in sport, Evans did not win, though I am not sure Wawrinka really did!
NISHIKORI [6] is around. Four sets per round. Yep.
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KARLOVIC [21] is having a good year. After winning in five sets against veteran Lu in the first round he beat in straight sets Young and american youngster Donaldson (19 so... 18 years younger than Karlovic!). There are two very good signs for the tall croatian. The first is that more than half the sets he won did not reach a breaker and the second is that he won the huge majority of the breaker he played. You would think that, with a serve like his, Karlovic would always win most breaker, but that is not the case: he is at about 50% in his career.
DIMITROV [22] is still around. These days he loses more than he wins it seems, so seeing post a couple good wins against Chardy and Sousa is encouraging.
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MURRAY [2] played two very solid matches in round one and two, but his third round match that should have been the easy dismissal of unheralded veteran journeyman Lorenzi, a very respectable player but with more heart than weapons, turned out to be a pretty big fight for two sets and a half between the rugged italian and a slightly off color Murray.
The bottom half of the draw is also difficult to predict. Will Del Potro continue to dig through the draw? Will Wawrinka play well or poorly? Can Nishikori play a clean enough match to not give Karlovic opportunities? Can Dimitrov go back to his giant slaying days?