During Rafael Nadal’s Spanish language news conference, the Spainiard called for his trainer and slid out of his chair. It turns out he was getting sever thigh cramps!
It seems like he must not have cooled down properly after his match against David Nalbandian.
Stosur does it again! Samantha Stosur has defeated Maria Kirilenko to make the quarterfinals of the US Open 2011. Stosur won 6-1 6-7 6-3. Oh and did I mention the second set tiebreak was the longest in Grand Slam history, 17-15.
Here’s what Stosur said about the tiebreak:
I lost track of the score, I didn’t know at one point if I should be serving or receiving. With all the challenges it was super-exciting. The crowd was into it. I couldn’t hear myself think.
I now have a feeling that Stosur is going to win the title!
Yep, you read it right. In his fourth round match against Ukranian Alexandr Dolgopolov, world number one Novak Djokovic will be on Louis Armstrong Stadium, the secondary show court to Arthur Ashe. When I first saw this, I had assumed that they had put Djokovic on Arthur Ashe in a prime-time night match. As you now would expect, his name was nowhere to be seen. Scrolling down the page I saw that Djokovic was in fact the second match on Louis Armstrong.
It appears extremely illogical for the US Open organizers to not place Djokovic, who is having arguably the greatest season in tennis history, on the biggest showtime court in the world. Louis Armstrong is undoubtedly a big stage but it seems an injustice to the efforts of the Serb to place him anywhere besides Arthur Ashe.
As of now, two hours after finding this piece of info out, I have not figured out why this seemingly disadvantageous decision was made. Louis Armstrong filled up to capacity today for Del Potro v. Simon and thus will surely reach its limit with the Djoker in performance. This match is scheduled to go on after Juan Carlos Ferrero takes on Janko Tipsarevic and will probably coincide with Serena Williams v. Ana Ivanovic. But what I have left out is that the first match scheduled on Arthur Ashe is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v. Francesca Schiavone. This promises to be an intriguing Round of 16 encounter, but to place this match, or any other match not involving Novak Djokovic above a match with Novak Djokovic in 2011 is very questionable. If I were to decide the schedule, I would simply just switch Novak Djokovic’s match to Arthur Ashe and scoot Schiavone v. Pavlyuchenkova into Armstrong. The other option would be to switch Djokovic into the night match and Federer into the day session on Armstrong ub Djokovic’s slot considering Federer v. Monaco proves to be extremely uninteresting and very one sided.
Fans are purchasing tickets in the hope that they will see the biggest players on the biggest stage in the world and the way this schedule is set up, that obviously is not happening to its fullest extent. If the schedule had been set up in the way I just described, Arthur Ashe would be filled for the entire day session with Djokovic, Serena, and Fish all in action. With the current schedule in place, Arthur Ashe will most likely be more low key than usual in the morning with a surge in the crowd with the commencement of Serena’s match. In addition, fans will surely be flocking to Louis Armstrong to catch Djokovic v. Dolgopolov and alot of these fans will be waiting in a very long line. Thus, look for the outside courts at the National Tennis Center to be what can be paralleled to what one would describe as a “ghost town”.
In the next twelve hours, I am hopeful that the US Open will change this scheduling mishap, do the fans justice, and place Djokovic on Arthur Ashe.
A source has just confirmed to us that Andy Roddick kicked John McEnroe out of the ESPN suite at the US Open.
Roddick ordered John McEnroe to be removed from the ESPN suite before his interview scheduled there with Chris Fowler following his first-round victory Wednesday night.
Roddick was acting out because he wasnt happy with McEnroe’s criticism.
Roddick acting like a bit of a 12 year old because he wasnt happy with what someone said… this doesnt sound out of the ordinary. McEnroe speaks the truth if you like it or not.
Sloane Stephens had an amazing run at the US Open 2011. Sloane made it all the way to the third round before she was defeated today by Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-4. Ivanovic will now take on Serena Williams in the fourth round.
Sloane received a wildcard into the main draw and she really made the most of it. To her credit she played a great match, but really struggled to hold serve against Ivanovic.
Im sure we will be seeing a lot more of Sloane at the US Open.
Sharapova was my tip for the US Open 2011 title, but she has been sent home by Flavia Pennetta 6-3 3-6 6-4.
Sharapova had a nightmare day by her standards, hitting 60 unforced errors in her match! That includes 12 double faults.
Im really surprised by this performance by Maria, but Im sure she will come back fighting at next years Australian Open 2012.
Congrats Flavia!
John McEnroe decides to slum it for the labour day weekend and commentate the US Open 2011 for The Tennis Channel. Thus, today and tomorrow Tennis Channel viewers are lucky enough to get some real opinions from McEnroe.
McEnroe will team up with Ted Robinson. The two have appeared in the network’s booth at the French Open since 2007 and have made numerous Davis Cup appearances on the channel.
Samantha Stosur has won an amazing third round match at the US Open over Nadia Petrova. Stosur won 7-6 6-7 7-5 in a 3 hour and 16 minute marathon.
Here is what Samantha and her coach David Taylor had to say about the match.
Lots of people in Australia were talking about Bernard Tomic and his possible third round match with Roger Federer. However, Bernard has been knocked out of the US Open 2011 in big fashion! Tomic got hammered today by Marin Cilic 6-1 6-0 6-2.
Marin Cilic is a great player with a big serve and forehand. Tomic really struggled with Cilic’s serve and it didnt help that he made 34 unforced errors in the match compared to 16 of his opponent. However, most importantly Bernard only won 22% of his second serve points and thats just terrible.
Better luck next year Bernard!
After Venus announced her diagnosis and that she was leaving the US Open, I’m sure that many folks googled Sjögren’s Syndrome to learn more about what Venus was facing. Here is what I found on the Sjorgren’s Syndrome Foundation site in an article titled About Sjögren’s Syndrome.
Although the hallmark symptoms are dry eyes and dry mouth, Sjögren’s may also cause dysfunction of other organs such as the kidneys, gastrointestinal system, blood vessels, lungs, liver, pancreas, and the central nervous system. Patients may also experience extreme fatigue and joint pain and have a higher risk of developing lymphoma.
Here is what I learned: Sjögren’s is pronounced “SHOW-grins.” There are about 4 million in the USA with this syndrome. It is an autoimmune problem where white corpuscles are attacking healthy parts of the body. There is no treatment nor cure for Sjögren’s Syndrome, but there are treatments for some of the symptoms.
Immune disorders are very common these days. You have been hearing about them for many years. Allergy, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Crohns Disease, Eczema, Graves’ Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and more than 100 more separate diagnoses are listed as “Immune Disorders” when you search Wiki for that term.
What is important for us to understand is that all immune disorders have no cure and there are only treatments for the symptoms. What this means to me is that medical researchers and other professionals are able to document what is happening, but not able to determine why it is happening, nor what to do about it.
I suspect that all these immune disorder diagnoses are simply clusters of documented symptoms. Our modern medical model is based on having clear sets of symptoms for performing diagnosis. If there is a cluster of symptoms the current model permits researchers to agree that this is some syndrome and they can name it after the person who noticed the cluster.
I think this is the key to understanding what we can do about the immune disorder we have. If we understand why our immune system is acting this way, we can take precautions and stop our symptoms.
Our immune system was developed in the world where we were molded and developed. Our bodies were made of the same stuff as everything that was around us. Our immune system’s purpose is to protect us from things it knows are harmful to us or which it thinks might be harmful to us.
But, now our world has changed. Many of the things around us (for instance, modern chemicals) are not part of that mix of things from which we were molded and developed. Our immune systems are not tuned to many of the things we consume, breathe, and touch. So, I think our immune system is reacting to that pervasive cloud of unknown stimuli and doing the only thing it knows how to do. It doesn’t have a simple LCD display it can use to inform us that it is getting confused by all of the foreign stimuli. The display systems it does have at its disposal are mechanisms which give us symptoms. So, I think “immune disorders” are signals that our immune system is under stress and it trying to get our attention.
First I want to explain that I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I react to many things in my environment. My symptoms include a rash on my legs, a non-productive cough, fatigue, and arrhythmia. I am able to control these symptoms by not coming in contact with those things to which my immune system reacts.
But, I also work with children with Developmental Disorders (ADHD, Dyslexia, Failure To Thrive, Auditory Processing Disorder, Autism, etc. . .). Each of these disorders also has no cure, and there are some treatments for some symptoms. What is rarely focused on is that these children all have one significant thing in common: their developmental process has been blocked and their symptoms are signals that this process has stopped. When we determine what each of these children are reacting to in their environment and coach them and their families about how to eliminate contact with those things to which they react, their developmental process re-engages and they get back on track. Their immune system was blocking their developmental process as part of its reaction to various things in their environment.
Let me give you an example. Most of the children with whom we work react to the laundry soap used in their home. This means that the residue from those chemicals are in their clothes and is touching their skin 24/7 (as well as the vapor being breathed in). This means that their immune system never gets a break, and their developmental process never gets to re-engage. We have discovered that running the child’s laundry (clothes, sheets, towels, etc. .) a complete extra cycle without any soap being used will get much more of that residue out of the child’s environment.
So, when I hear that Venus Williams has an immune disorder, I think I understand what she is facing. I also know that many millions of children with developmental disorders are stuck as far as their developmental process goes, and our modern medical approach is to give these child medications to stop the symptoms. BTW: The immune systems of the children we work with tend to react to the medications they are given by the medical profession and this helps them stay with a stuck developmental process.
Certainly, Venus should see her doctors and follow their advice and their treatments. But, she should also find out what she reacts to and then eliminate those things from her environment. This can be done by blood tests or a variety of alternative testing methods (we can chat about these methods in the Comments).
From our experience, when she gets everything she reacts to out of her environment, her symptoms will stop because her immune system will stop reacting.
As I was going through the US Open Men’s Singles draw earlier today, I happened to notice that there were what appeared to be a high amount of in match retirements. What I found was that through the completion of the first round and half of the second round there have been a total of six in match retirements. This equals the highest single year total from at least 2005 and it is only the second round. That means that there have been more in match retirements in the first two rounds of the 2011 US Open than any of the past six tournaments at Flushing Meadows.
Three of these retirements have interestingly come from qualifiers (Niland, Sorensen, Dancevic) including Novak Djokovic’s first round opponent, Connor Niland, who retired after just over 40 minutes due to food poisoning. It is extremely unfortunate to have to grind out three tough qualifying matches on the outside courts the week before the Open and then succumb to injury in the first round of the Main Draw.
I think this high occurrence of retirements is more easily explained by simply citing that a coincidence has occurred as there no evidence that these retirements are somehow connected due to some uncontrollable variable such as heat or humidity.
With over a week left before the final major of the year reaches this conclusion, don’t expect many more r’s in the draw as every match is do or die in the final grand slam of the year.
Jack Sock received a wildcard into the US Open 2011 main draw by winning the 18s USA National Championships. Now, Jack Sock has also won his first round match at the US Open.
Sock defeated Marc Gicquel of France 6-4 6-3 1-6 6-4.
Now Sock will take on Andy Roddick in the second round.
Sock reminds me a lot of an early Roddick (who I played against in juniors). It will be very interesting to see how the match goes and how Sock’s career progresses.
Caroline Wozniacki has made it in to the last 64 of the US Open with a win in her first round. She still doesnt seem to be as confident as she should. Anyways, here is her comments after her first round match and what she needs to do if she plans on competing with Serena Williams and other big hitters.
Simona Halep was very happy after her first round win at the US Open against Li Na. Here is her first round match press conference.
p.s. I miss the good old days
Maria Sharapova walked on court at the US Open last night in a very sexy black outfit. Additionally, she actually played an amazing game of tennis!
Maria pushed aside Anastasiya Yakimova 6-1 6-1 and moved into the third round of the US Open.
Maria also kept her perfect record in US Open night matches. Record is no 14-0.
Irina Falconi has caused one of the big upsets so far of the US Open 2011. Falconi defeated 14th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova 2-6 6-3 7-5.
Dominika Cibulkova is a little sexy pocket rocket, but was unable to pull through in a real tough second round match.
Irina Falconi is now into the third round of the US Open 2011 where she will face Klara Zakopalova for a chance to make the last 16.
Andy Roddick gave a very interesting interview after his first round victory at the US Open. Roddick questioned tennis analysts in general and the interviewer really didnt seem to like it!
RODDICK: “I’m convinced being a tennis analyst is the easiest job in the world. Whatever the person does, if it works you just say ‘that’s what works.’ If it doesn’t work you say ‘he should have done the other thing.’ So you know I’m pretty convinced I could be a tennis analyst when I’m done. . .it just doesn’t take much thought. If I’m grinding and I’m winning you guys are like ‘he’s reinvented himself,’ and if I’m playing like crap and pushing then it’s ‘he’s horrible and needs to hit the ball.’ Everyone’s an expert but I’m better than most have been. . .” Pauses for some Chris Fowler chorteling and then: “Hey you guys can take it too.”
Jarmila Gajdosova sat down to talk about her first round win at the US Open over Iveta Benesova 7-6 7-5.
It seems as though Ana Ivanovic might be back with her ex-boyfriend Adam Scott. The Australian golfer has been spotted in Ana’s players box during her US Open first round match.
When asked if they were back together again, Ivanovic said: “It was really nice to see him there. Now we’re just happy, and that’s all that matters.”
Jelena Dokic was very happy after her first round win over Olga Govortsova 6-3 6-1. Here is what she had to say after her match and how she is hoping to actually have a decent performance at the US Open 2011.
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