Yesterday marked Day 1 of the US Open and the organizers did a great job. For one, they realized that the biggest and best draw of the Open is a guy with some success there, Roger Federer. In fact, the scalpers were making money on day 1. Hardly a ticket could be had for night session and those that were available were for over face value. In years past, American favorites like James Blake and Andy Roddick have had Ashe on Evening 1, but they do not have the drawing power of Federer. The Open made a great decision to have the best player on the first evening. On to the matches.
Hewitt and Mathieu squared off in what was the most entertaining match of the day. Hewitt was able to come back from 3-1 in the fourth to take the set. It looked like a decisive momentum shift when Hewitt won the fourth set coming from behind. But in the fifth it was Mathieu who came out swinging and won the fifth handily at 6-1. Hewitt was forced off the court by especially strong and consistent backhands by the Frenchman. Additionally, in the fifth set Mathieu began to take advantage of Hewitt's serve. On first serves in the fifth set, Hewitt failed to break 110mph and continued to try and slice outwide despite, Paul Henri receiving the serve in front of the baseline and taking his forehands short. He was consistently putting first serve returns down the line for winners and yet Hewitt kept the same serve. It never went out wide as he had tried, and one would think a world class player like Hewitt would vary up his serve. Hewitt deserves the first round exit for the weak mental game he displayed. Coming off a fourth set come from behind victory you cannot go out and lose the fifth, yet Hewitt did.
The last night of the evening was the favorite from the men's side, Roger Federer. Roger Federer played Dabul (pronounced to rhyme with the Afghani city of Kabul). Roger came out blazing and won the first set 6-1 in under thirty minutes. Dabul changed into a white shirt from red and put up a decent fight in the second set, eventually succumbing to Roger 6-4. At this point, most of Ashe stadium made their way for their exits. The second set included one of the most memorable shots of my lifetime. Roger has been encouraged to end points quicker by his new coach and this requires more aggressive play and more time spent at net. Annacone, Roger's new coach, has told Roger to attack, attack, attack. Fed was serving and volleying and playing a more aggressive game than usual. On Dabul's serve after a couple of ground strokes Roger ended up at net and was lobbed off a short ball he played to Dabul. The ball did not have terrific pace and it seemed likely that Roger would be able to run down the ball. However, how would he return it was the question? Roger hit the behind the legs no look shot, not just in, but for a winner. The video is below. It is an unreal shot with pace and placement. The crowd did all it could at that point, which amounted to nothing short of a standing ovation. Roger is truly loved at Flushing and with shots like that many in the audience felt their Monday evening was entertaining.
The third set was not much more exciting and it seemed that Roger had committed to not having more than 2 ground strokes in a rally. So either he would hit a winner or an unforced error. This may be his new aggressive tennis, but it is not the best fit for him, because he was missing too many easy volleys and ground strokes. Secondly, as disinterested as Federer normally seems on the court with a lesser opponent, he seemed especially non-chalant last night. Almost uninterested in breaking Dabul. Maybe he calculated it was not worth his energy, but he looked anything but impressive on Dabul's serve. Looking forward to an exciting Day 2.
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