Above: Victoria Duval of the USA
Friday August 23, 2013 – A beautiful day at the US Open qualifiers, marred only by an on-court temper tantrum from Canadian Frank Dancevic. The sky grew overcast as the day went on, but no rain fell and there was a nice afternoon breeze…ideal conditions both for playing and watching.
I started off at Court 17 watching – for a change – a women’s match. America’s Victoria Duval (above) gave an impressive display of her talents in a fast-moving match against Croatia’s Tereza Mrdeza. Victoria pretty much dominated throughout; Tereza managed to get her foot in the door, and she pulled off some nice shots; but she just didn’t have the weaponry to respond to Victoria’s steady onslaught. I love Court 17 by the way: the new and oddly cozy stadium-style court.
Above: Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina threw a monkey-wrench into Amir Weintraub’s hopes for a win today; the crowd was very much behind the Israeli but the crafty Argentine seemed to have a sharp overall game plus the passion needed to overcome his taller and – perhaps – more polished opponent.
Above: Somdev Devvarman of India had to overcome a very strong showing by Britain’s James Ward. Ward pulled off some impressive shots; after Somdev won the first set the Englishman took control and evened things up. It looked like it could go either way, but Somdev’s steady style prevailed. I really like watching him play.
Above: Somdev Devvarman
Above: Go Soeda of Japan; Go’s been a favorite player of mine for several seasons now and today I got to watch him having a practice session and then – later – his match against Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic.
I like Hernych, he plays a good game and it didn’t surprise me that he took the first set, following an extended tie-breaker.
Then Go dug in and persevered thru two more hard-fought sets. The crowd was pro-Go all the way and there was an air of celebration when the Japanese secured the win.
Go Soeda after the match
Japan’s Tatsuma Ito (above) took the first set of his match against Frank Dancevic. Ito plays beautfully, strong and steady. Dancevic took the second set. Throughout the first two sets, Dancevic threw minor hissy-fits whenever he felt he’d gotten a bad call. But in the third set he staged a full mad scene, halting play completely while he debated with the chair umpire at length as Ito stood waiting patiently at his end of the court. The crowd finally gave Dancevic a much-deserved round of booing; in my view he should have been fined a point for delaying play.
Dancevic finally resumed playing and eventually he won the match, but his behavior was inexcusable. Everyone gets bad calls…and I hate to tell you this, Frank, but I watched a couple of your shots go long today and they weren’t called out. Poor sportsmanship leaves such a sour taste; I’ll never want to see another Dancevic match. He may have won today, but Ito is the classier player.
Oberon's Glade 