Tuesday, August 28th-Main, Day Two
It was a long, sunny day of lots of matches and, after a summer of rain delays, excessive heat and unseasonable cold, I'm taking comfort in the redundancy.
Michael McClune was out on Court 7 this morning, using the wildcard he received as the Boys' 18 Nationals champ to face the 20th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela.Michael, who had recently turned professional, impressed the growing crowd despite having a difficult time staying on the sccoreboard. It wasn't long before he was down 6-2,4-1. He became ill at that point and couldn't get through the set, but after losing that one (6-1) he seemed to calm a bit and showed a bit more of his talent in the third. It almost looked like he would pull it out -- there were five set points for him -- but the seed finally prevailed in a tiebreaker.
I had a little bit of time so I went into Arthur Ashe Stadium to catch some of Lleyton Hewitt vs. Amer Delic. It's hard to believe it's been four years since I watched newly crowned NCAA champion Amer play next door in the Grandstand during his U.S. Open debut. It was a match I will probably never forget (as I'm sure he won't either) when he lost in the fifth on a very questionable match point call. Since that time he has made it up to the top 100 in the world, however, as he admitted in the post-match conference, he still has more to go before he can beat Lleyton Hewitt. It was still fun to watch, though, as I enjoy the tennis they each play.
In her Grandstand professional debut today was 17 year old Ashley Weinhold.Ashley earned her spot after winning the Girls' 18 Nationals. I can't say she played as well today as she did in Berkeley. Twenty-year old Anna Chakvetadze, who was seeded six after having an incredible year, was certainly a formidable opponent even when she was double-faulting and making errors. And Ashley couldn't seem to get past her nerves. It was actually all over in 46 minutes, 6-1,6-1.
It was shades of DejaVu for me as I watched Madison Brengle play Bethanie Mattek. It was actually five years ago that I saw Bethanie as the 17 year old recently-turned-pro receiving a wildcard into the main draw. Since than she has become more famous for her outfits than her tennis (see above), but the talent is still there. It started as a very even match with some long games and good points. They remained on serve all the way through 4-4 and it was that one break which was the only difference between them and Bethanie took the set, 6-4. Madison couldn't seem to get past that loss and Bethanie was playing her best tennis, a combination that gave the 22 year old the 6-1 set and match.
(Cardinal) Hats off to a great effort by Scott Lipsky & David Martin. The Stanford grads are one of the greatest doubles duos out there who have remained together throughout college and the pros. They just ran into a bit more experience Tuesday in the No. 9 seeded team of Lukas Dlouhy & Pavel Vizner and fell in three sets of great doubles.
As fast as I ran, even around the block of gates (what are they thinking?) between Arthur Ashe Stadium and the path to Louis Armstrong, I couldn't get from the Madison Brengle match to Nate Schnugg & Kellen Damico. I heard the teens put on quite an effort before falling to the third-seeded Jonas Bjorkman & Max Mirnyi, 6-4,6-2.
I'm looking forward to a day of mostly doubles Wednesday with the exception of John Isner's second round match with Rik De Voest. There are some great teams to watch -- Donald Young playing with Rajeev Ram; Nationals winners Jamie Hampton & Melanie Oudin -- and with any luck I'll catch them and eight hours of sleep.
At The Open
In her Grandstand professional debut today was 17 year old Ashley Weinhold. Ashley earned her spot after winning the 