Legg Mason Day 2: Upsets Come Late, Often In Qualifying's Final Round

WASHINGTON--Assorted thoughts from Sunday's six qualifying matches and two first round main draw matches:

• The marquee match of the day, qualifying's top seed Kevin Anderson vs. #12 Kei Nishikori, did not disappoint.  The two were incredibly evenly matched, both benefiting greatly from the quick surface that aids the aggressive styles both have.  Anderson simply made far too many errors off the ground, and even a player as flashy as Nishikori was able to outsteady him.  After in which Nishikori saved several break points in a marathon game at 4-4 in the third, and then was able to seal the 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 win on his third match point with a gorgeous backhand slice down the line that snuck past a reaching Anderson.  (For more on Nishikori, check out the interview he did Saturday with The Daily Forehand).
• #7 Igor Kunitsyn, who made the semifinals of this tournament in 2008 while most top names were busy at the Beijing Olympics, looked very steady in a straight sets (6-3, 6-4) win over crowd favorite, #2 Michael Russell. Kunitsyn played aggressive, angular tennis that was simply more lethal than Russell's neutralizing defense.
• #10 Kevin Kim pulled off perhaps the biggest surprise of the day by beating #3 Somdev Devvarman 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.  Devvarman had great success in his previous two appearances at this tournament, making the quarterfinals in 2008, then qualifying and beating Marin Cilic in 2009.  But 2010 won't see him in the main draw without a wildcard, which likely means the end to what will have been a short stint in the top 100.
• The third upset of the day on the Grandstand (after wins by Kunitsyn and Kim) was #8 Grega Zemlja beating #4 Donald Young 6-2, 6-4 in a match interrupted by an hour of rain.  While the take-away for most would be that this being a disappointing loss for the higher-ranked Young, the fact is that Grega Zemlja played extremely well.  He hits an extremely hard, accurate ball from almost anywhere on the court, and his passing shots gave Young fits when the American ventured to net.  With the potential I saw in Zemlja today, he could soon become the first Slovenian in the top 100.
• After the match, I spoke with Donald's coach/mother, Illona Young, and then Donald.  They had a lot of real interesting stuff to say, and I'll put it all together in a feature piece on him real soon.  His story is an extremely intriguing one that often gets overlooked nowadays with the growing (and deserved) hype surrounding fellow young Americans Sam Querrey and John Isner.
• The only two qualifying matches that weren't upsets were both held on the newly redesigned Court 1.  #6 Ryan Sweeting beat unseeded Greg Jones 6-4, 6-4 in front of a surprisingly big crowd, after #3 Brian Dabul had double-bageled #11 Igor Sijsling (he of the orange shoes).  Sijsling's blowout loss can't make snappily-dressed Aussie John Millman feel too great, since he lost to Sijsling in straight sets the day before.
• Sadly, I did not get to see almost any of the Giraldo-Malisse match, since I was watching (and talking to) Donald Young while it was going on.  Malisse beat Giraldo 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, which is too bad since I'm a huge fan of Giraldo's game, and had been looking forward to watching him.  I first saw Giraldo play in Washington back in 2007 when he was ranked #156 (almost 100 spots below where he is now), and was absolutely blown away by both his forehand and his lack of a serve.



• I did, however get to watch a great deal of the last match of the day, which was Horacio Zeballos beating Michal Przsiezny.  Zeballos (in the AP photo to the right), ranked at #51 now, is easily the most anonymous player in the top sixty.  Even on some of the fastest hard courts in the world, it's clear that Zeballos is a true clay courter, and will likely never change.  He simply doesn't seem to know how to keep rallies short.  He does, however, know how to grind, and his 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 win was a great display of that, and his closing ability.
• Remember how I talked about making the effort one day and learning how to spell Pavlyuchenkova? Today, I did the same with Michal Przysiezny.  Przysiezny, Przysiezny, Przysiezny. That was tough. (Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, incidentally, came back from a set and 4-0 today to beat Elena Vesnina in the Istanbul final.  Sunday was Vesnina's birthday.  Not cool, Nastia) Anyway, Przsiezny played pretty well, and he kept fans on their toes by donning several different shirts as the match wore on.  Przsienzy also sported incredibly awesome hair, which looked sort of like it does in this picture, but slightly less faux-hawkish and more like Alfalfa.  As far as his play, he played like a guy better than his 1-9 record in ATP main draw matches during 2010 would indicate (though his one win was a quality upset of Ivan Ljubicic at Wimbledon).  But he didn't play all that well in the decisive moments of the match, and thus he lost.  Przysiezny currently sits at his all-time high ranking of #87, which is pretty incredible considering that he was playing Futures this time last year, and was ranked #679.  I don't think I've ever seen a rise that huge in my life.
  

That's all for now from Sunday.  Stay tuned for the Donald Young piece though.  He and his mom both have a lot of interesting stuff today.

From now on I'm going to try to do more short things during the day, rather than these long recaps.  Let's hope time permits.