US Open Day 7: Clijsters Beats Venus, Men's Favorites Sail

After a bloody Saturday, Sunday was without any major upsets to speak of.  Unranked Kim Clijsters did beat #3 Venus Williams, but Clijsters was the favorite, after all.  The men's side was completely devoid of any shocks,

A breakdown of Sunday's twelve singles matches:

Women's Bottom Half Fourth Round:


Kim Clijsters BEL def. Venus Williams USA (3) 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 -- If you have said that after twelve games of the Venus-Clijsters fourth round match the players would be heading into a first set tiebreak, no eyebrows would have been raised.  If you had said that after twelve games the players would be heading into the third set, someone would ask if you were still on your meds.  But that's exactly what happened in the first fifty minutes of this fourth round battle between former US Open champions, with wild momentum swings leading to the first trade of opening set bagels at the US Open since 1975.  Clijsters' best was better than Venus' today, and she was able to produce it more often in the third, her superior footwork allowing her to find the first strike in rallies when it mattered most.  How big a role Venus' knee injury played in this defeat is questionable, but it couldn't have been a major factor since she still went out and played doubles later with Serena, beating the Adidas PR dream team of Wozniacki and Cirstea.

Flavia Pennetta ITA (10) def. Vera Zvonareva RUS (7) 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0 -- While I didn't have especially high expectations for this match, it wound up being one of the most compelling women's matches of the tournament so far, and possibly the best one not featuring Melanie Oudin.  Pennetta dropped the first and was down a break in the second before breaking back and winning a long tiebreak to take the set, saving six match points in the process.  The match points she saved were incredibly impressive, with Pennetta working her way into control of the point five of the six times. After leaving the court in tears between the second and third set, Zvonareva had the kind of meltdown she's known for in the third, throwing tantrums and angrily ripping swatches of her knee taping off in frustration.  I expected Pennetta to win this one a lot more easily than she did, but her fight and determination were more impressive than any straight set win would have been.  She'll need that fight and more if she wants to come close to beating Serena Williams on Tuesday.  Even if she loses to Serena as expected, two consecutive US Open quarterfinals for a player better known for her clay court prowess are quite the accomplishment for Pennetta.

Serena Williams USA (2) def. Daniela Hantuchova SVK (22) 6-2, 6-0 -- Serena Williams continued to be the most dominant player in the women's draw on Sunday by mercilessly demolishing Daniela Hantuchova to make her third straight US Open quarterfinal.  After a 2-2 start, Serena reeled off ten straight games to end the match in a hurry.  Serena has lost only 17 games in eight sets thus far in this tournament, and eight of those were against Martinez Sanchez. It's looking more and more like this title is going to come down to a Clijsters vs. Serena semifinal, and based on their comparative forms today I still give Serena the edge.

Li Na CHN (18) def. Francesca Schiavone ITA (26) 6-2, 6-3 -- A somewhat surprisingly routine victory over Schiavone for the streaky Li, who is clearly on a hot streak at the moment.  It's Li's second career slam quarterfinal, more than three years after the first one at Wimbledon in 2006.  In that match she also faced Kim Clijsters, and was able to give the heavily favored Belgian a pretty good scare. Should be interesting to see how she holds up to the occasion this time around.  With the Beijing Olympics behind her this year, an albatross seems to have been lifted from Li's neck, leaving her more able to focus on the slams like the rest of the tour.  This late rounds appearance for her could be the first of many in the next few years.

Men's Bottom Half Third Round:

Andy Murray GBR (2) def. Taylor Dent USA 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 -- Murray is a nightmare match up for the serve and volleying Dent, with the Scot's early strike returning robbing Dent of time and keeping him at the back of the court where he's nowhere near as dangerous.  It was an impressive wire-to-wire win for Murray after he went on walkabout for a while vs. Paul Capdeville in the second round.  He was the most impressive of the men of the bottom half today by a good distance, sending a message to his competition that he remains the player to beat in this deeper half of the tournament.

Rafael Nadal ESP (3) def. Nicolas Almagro ESP (32) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 -- Struggling with an apparently new abdominal injury that took a good deal of pace off his serve, Rafael Nadal looked as shaky as he has this tournament against countryman Nicolas Almagro in an uncomfortable straight set win.  Nadal refused to discuss the injury in his post-match press conference, but it was clearly bothering him a great deal through the second half of his win.  If it's an abdominal muscle tear like the one that Venus Williams suffered back in 2003 it could be a huge setback for Nadal, who had just started to look like the player he once was in his first two matches.

Juan Martin del Potro ARG (6) def. Daniel Koellerer AUT 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 -- It's a shame more people didn't get to see this match, because it was obscenely entertaining.  Crazy Daniel Koellerer, often seen as the ATP's answer to Patricia Mayr, put on an incredible show of flashy play and harmless antics to keep the crowd on Armstrong invested and entertained throughout what was never that close a contest.  Koellerer threw himself all over the place, including  a diving lob in the fourth set that is sure to be the shot of the tournament (but has sadly yet to make it onto YouTube).  Koellerer only displayed some of the antics that have made him notorious, but they seemed far more comedic than ill-intentioned.  He called the trainer for most every changeover, but it seemed to be more so he would have someone to talk to and joke around with than to cause any delay.  del Potro, for his part, did well to dial out Koellerer's static, and is hitting the ball as well as he ever has.  His endurance hasn't been tested fully yet, but it certainly hasn't looked awful thus far.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (7) def. Julien Benneteau FRA 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-4 -- Tsonga did well to keep this win in straight sets, as Benneteau was playing some extremely solid tennis for most of the match.  The two flashy Frenchmen exchanged some pretty rallies throughout, but in the end it was Tsonga who was able to launch his big weapons more often and more consistently to make the fourth round in New York for the first time.

Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP (24) def. Gilles Simon FRA (9) 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 1-0 ret. -- The only "upset" on the men's side Sunday wasn't much of a surprise at all, given Ferrero's superior play of late.  Simon looked as mentally injured as anything when he retired with a knee injury.  Ferrero has an intriguing match up against del Potro in the next round, a match that will pit experience against youth, speed against power, and three-word names against four-word names.  A battle for the ages, to be sure.

Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) def. Tomas Berdych CZE (17) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 -- A lot of routine holds in this match between powerful middle seeds made for a fairly dull match, as Berdych was unable to break Gonzalez in any of his sixteen serve games.  Gonzalez got one break per set, which was enough to send the lanky Berdych back home to the Czech Republic on a flight that probably won't have enough leg room for him.

Gael Monfils FRA (13) def. Jose Acasuso ARG 6-3, 6-4, 1-0 ret.  -- Like Simon before him, Acasuso too retired at 1-0 due to knee issues.  Monfils, who has made it into the second week of this tournament with uncharacteristic stealth, faces Nadal next in a battle between two of the best defensive players in the game.  The flashiness both generate should make for some pretty spectacular fireworks.

Marin Cilic CRO (16) def. Denis Istomin UZB 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 -- An extremely routine win for Cilic over an easy opponent.  It was a much better effort off the blocks for him than he showed against Jesse Levine in his previous match, when he forced himself to dig out of a two sets-to-none hole.  Cilic has only lost eleven games in his last six sets, which is about as good as you'll ever see by anyone at a slam.