Things We Learned on Day Three of the US Open

Amy

1. Marion Bartoli is fun on Twitter:

@TennisReporters absolutly notttttttttttttttttttttttttt !!!!!! Just a friend!!!! Matt if u see me,an advice : runnnnnnnnn!!! As u fast u can

— MARION BARTOLI (@bartoli_marion) August 28, 2013

2. Tom Perrotta wrote an interesting piece about the USTA Academy for The Wall Street Journal.

“They are almost training these kids like they are running out of time,” said Zaza Corinteli, whose son, Luca, left the program last year. “You have a lemon in front of you, you squeeze all the juices out, then you put it in the garbage can. It just feels like there is very little regard.”

In June 2012, Julia O’Loughlin a former trainee at the academy, filed a lawsuit against the USTA in Palm Beach County, Fla. In a copy of the complaint reviewed by the Journal, O’Loughlin, who was 14 when the alleged problems occurred, alleges that her coaches knew she had a prior eating disorder, but she was put on a restrictive diet anyhow, subjected to daily weigh-ins and told she needed to lose 20 pounds. In November 2011, O’Loughlin alleged in her suit, she was trained “to the point of exhaustion,” running 17 miles in two days in addition to her normal routine before being taken to the emergency room with severe dehydration. She was later admitted to a residential treatment center for bulimia for 30 days.

3. I enjoyed this clip from Fox Sports 1 of Andy Roddick interviewing Roger Federer. It featured some classic Roddick quips.

Federer: “Unfortunately, you can’t have it all …”
Roddick: “You can, you selfish bastard.”

They also talked about the 2009 Wimbledon final, among other things.

Juan José

1. The Fog Machine is broken:

Let's back up – today No. 16 Fognini lost his 1R to a man who between 2004 and 2012 played only 9 Slam main draws, and lost 1R every time

— Jason (@Hurleytennis) August 29, 2013

2. As Zheng Jie played the spoiler role to perfection in her win over Venus Williams today, I realized just how much I missed watching her play well. I had forgotten just how much fun it is to watch her 5’4 ½ frame attack serves, hitting incredible returns extremely early. I missed her violent, compact swings of her racquet.

The World No. 56 (who once got as high as No. 15) has been struggling this year: prior to the US Open she had posted a losing record for the 2013 season (13 wins and 14 losses). In July she turned 30. Here’s hoping she can find that 2nd wind in her career that so many thirty year-olds seem to be finding these days.

3. If you ever wonder how difficult it is for the pros to focus during a match, go play one yourself. You only need to play a set, really. It’s simply amazing the amount of tricks your mind plays on you. As I was up 4-3 in a “quick set” tonight, I found myself having break points to go up 5-3. Getting that break would make it 5 games in a row for me, with a chance to make it six and take the set over someone who is quite obviously better than me. All of this was playing in my head as I was returning serve…and I didn’t break. Soon after, it was me who got broken.

With that being said, one can barely grasp all the things that had to be going through James Blake’s head as he entered a fifth set tiebreaker against Dr. Ivo. That had to be freaking tough.

4. Those of us rooting for a Benoit Paire – Fog Machine third round match need to remember that when Paire and Fogs are involved, you simply can’t get ahead of yourself. In fact, it’s probably best not to expect anything at all.

5. Every time I watch Caroline Garcia play, I remember that Andy Murray famously said that she would be a World No. 1 someday.

Every time I watch Caroline Garcia play I wonder what the heck Andy Murray saw/sees. Because I really don’t see it.

6. This is sad and unfortunate:

Blowout city: In the three women's night matches so far on Ashe, the losers have combined to win just *three* games. #usopen

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) August 29, 2013

Save that money for Ashe Tickets for the second week, everyone.

7. I have no idea what Stella McCartney is doing (then again, this is not new).

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

8. Today, Li Na advanced to the third round of the US Open. Her second round match lasted an hour and 4 minutes. Since she was first up this morning, she had to have walked off the court by 12:30 pm at the very latest.

At 9:55 pm Andy Murray finally got to make his debut at this US Open.

Don’t think about the nationality of the players involved. Actually, forget their names. Just call them Player A and Player B. Then you can see that this sequence of events simply doesn’t make any sense, and fixing it shouldn’t be all that difficult.

Lindsay

1. Gosh, what a heartbreaking way for Blake’s singles career to end. He lost a two sets to love lead. He came back from a break down in the fifth to push it to a tiebreak. And then he lost anyway.

It didn’t seem fitting for such a good guy to go out like that–in front of a sparse late-night crowd on Armstrong, as the sideshow instead of the main event. But people won’t remember that in a few years. Mainly, he’ll be remembered by what a great guy he is.

I’m going to be up all night–literally–working on a piece on him, so I’ll save most of my thoughts for that.

Blake: "It's hitting me that I'll never have this again in my life and I need to appreciate every single one of you for being here."

— Josh Meiseles (@JoshMeiz) August 29, 2013

To James Blake: Thx for the memories, representing our sport in a positive way. Enjoy your time with family but your @usopen isn't over yet!

— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) August 29, 2013

Just want to congratulate James Blake on his amazing career and also for the person he is!!! What a speech after his match #loveujames

— MARION BARTOLI (@bartoli_marion) August 29, 2013

2. That Federer/Roddick interview? Yeah, I wasn’t ready for that, not for them to talk about 2009 Wimbledon. I mean, Roddick’s a great interviewer, and it was fun to see them together I guess, but 2009 Wimbledon is a wound that will never heal. I’m not quite as strong as Roddick is!

3. I thought this Doug Robson piece about the scheduling controversies was really interesting. I hadn’t realized that they had originally planned on having Murray during the day session and Nadal at night, but Nadal had to be pushed until tomorrow because his first-round opponent had played his first-round match over two days.

The schedulers really do have a lot of pieces to move around. Do I think having a three-day first round is great? No, but that’s already being changed in a couple of years. Do I think the U.S. Open organizers make decisions that put financial interests above players? Absolutely.

Did I think Murray being scheduled during the night session today was the end of the world? No. He still has a day off before his next round. He got the prime-time spot in the States, where he’s being pushed as the big star he is. I guess I just didn’t see it as “disrespectful” to Murray like others did.

Anyways, it’s done now.

4. Fabio Fognini has won a lot of matches this year. He has exceeded expectations. And now, it seems, he is done.

5. Lost in the shuffle of the Venus and Blake storylines was the fact that Xavier Malisse played and lost his last U.S. Open match. He’ll be playing through the Australian Open, so I’m not going to get all emotional about goodbyes yet, but a tip-of-the-hat to Malisse, who, as you guys know, I am a huge fan of.

6. Geez, Delpo. That was a lot of unnecessary playing you did today. But man, it was funny to watch. But hey–at least we got this out of it:

7. I’ve already written my thoughts on Venus here.