Tuesday, August 27, 2013

2013 US OPEN Day 1: Venus Surprises; Nadal,Serena Win; Blake Retires


Venus Williams won her first round match at the US Open today, getting revenge for a loss at the Rogers Cup to 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens from just a few weeks ago. This was something of a happy surprise, but Venus looked better than she has in quite awhile. Her serves were regular in the 110-plus mph range and her movement and groundstrokes looked crisp. Now, the question is can she maintain that for an entire 2 hour match?

A highlight  of the Day 1 results was Venus's sister Serena Williams dismantling Francesca Schiavone 6-0 6-1 in devastating fashion. Rafael Nadal schooled young American Ryan Harrison in straight sets while another young American Sloane Stephens barely escaped the first round with a 3rd set tiebreak win.

The biggest news story of the day was 33-year-old  James Blake announcing at a press conference that this tournament would be his last professional tennis appearance. Blake for years was one of the best-looking male tennis players but although he reached World #4 and 2 quarterfinals at the US Open he had not had any good results recently and his retirement was not as much of a surprise as Marion Bartoli's stunner a few weeks ago.


The rain came down and prevented Roger Federer even beginning his first round match.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting at MadProfessah.com! Your input will (probably) appear on the blog after being reviewed.