U.S. Open Capsules: Williams, Querrey play the U.S. Open numbers game
NEW YORK (AP) — Venus Williams says 30 is the new 20. Sam Querrey likes to think 20 could be No. 1.
Thirty-year-old Williams is talking about age, and No. 20 Querrey is talking about seeding, but both are talking about the same thing when it comes to the U.S. Open.
They'd like to be the ones to put America back on top at its own national championship.
"The average sports fan basically watches the Grand Slams," Querrey said after his third-round win over No. 14 Nicolas Almagro on Sunday. "If you don't have a guy in the finals or winning one of those, in tennis, you really don't get a lot of recognition."
Querrey and 19th-seeded Mardy Fish, who plays No. 3 Novak Djokovic on Monday, are still long shots — but the only two remaining hopes for the United States to break a seven-year drought without a men's champion.
Another candidate, No. 18 John Isner, lost 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5), 6-4 Sunday night despite hitting 33 aces against No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.
"I'm really sorry, but you still have a lot of USA players," Youzhny told the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was squarely in Isner's corner.
Williams, meanwhile, is a two-time U.S. Open champion and the only American left in the women's draw. She defeated No. 16 Shahar Peer 7-6 (3), 6-3. With a quarterfinal matchup looming against another 30-year-old player, Francesca Schiavone, Venus found herself fielding questions about how "old" is too old in women's tennis.
"Seems like everybody is hitting their stride at 30. It's the new 20," Williams joked. "But I'm hoping that my experience will help me, just like it did today."
Practically everything about Williams' win over Peer spoke of a player with years of experience in pulling things together when she's not at her best.
On a windy, tougher-than-expected day against an opponent she's now played six times without dropping a set, Williams got only 48 percent of her first serves in. She faced six break points and lost three. She squandered five chances to wrap up the first set in a 22-point 12th game.
She looked to still be rounding into form after missing most of August with an injury to her left kneecap.
"It's always good to have a tough match, I think, or a tougher match," Williams said. "The kind of a match where you have to challenge yourself against your opponent and the conditions and everything and just continue to stay tough and to stay positive."
Querrey's next match will come against No. 25 Stanislas Wawrinka, who pulled off a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 upset against No. 4 Andy Murray of Britain. Murray knows all about what it's like to play for a country that desperately wants a winner. No British man has won a Grand Slam tournament since 1936. This was Murray's second straight early exit from the U.S. Open, and his latest loss will surely get picked apart back home.
"I have no idea of whether I'll win a Grand Slam or not," Murray said. "I want to. But if I never win one, then what? If I give 100 percent, try my best, physically work as hard as I can, practice as much as I can, then that's all I can do."
Same goes for Querrey.
With Isner gone (He played 22 fewer games in the entire tournament than he did in his historic 70-68 fifth set at Wimbledon) and No. 9 Andy Roddick eliminated earlier in the week, Querrey and Fish will help shape opinion on whether the arrow is pointing up or down at the highest reaches of American tennis.
They still have time to be remembered as role models for a new generation of American stars. Or they could continue a trend that began this summer when Roddick briefly dropped to No. 11 and, for the first time since the rankings began in 1973, there wasn't a single American in the top 10.
"I mean, you always hear that," Querrey said. "It's kind of like any sport. You've got waves where you'll have a group of Americans in the top 10; you might have a couple years where we don't. It's like with the Lakers: They'll win some championships, and (then) they won't make the playoffs. It's just like that."
These are not the kind of issues they worry about in Spain these days.
Sparked by No. 1 Rafael Nadal's surge to the top, Spain is turning into a tennis factory of sorts. Nadal, who cruised to a straight-set victory over Gilles Simon, was one of five Spaniards to win third-round matches Sunday. Add No. 21 Albert Montanes, who won Saturday, and the country has six members in the round of 16 — tying the record for any country other than the United States at the U.S. Open.
"It's always nice to see all the Spanish winning and being in the last rounds, no?" said No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, who eliminated 2002 Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In one of Sunday's early matches, No. 2 Kim Clijsters rolled former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal meeting against No. 5 Sam Stosur. Stosur beat No. 12 Elena Dementieva 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (2) in a match that ended at 1:35 a.m. Monday, the latest-finishing women's match in U.S. Open history, and one that could give Clijsters an advantage when they play.
"She's got a 14-hour head start on me," Stosur said. "She played first and I played last, so there's not much bigger difference than that."
V.Williams, Peer cross paths again; American wins
NEW YORK (AP) — When Israel's Shahar Peer was denied a visa to play in the United Arab Emirates last year, Venus Williams spoke out on her behalf — because she felt it was the right thing to do under those circumstances.
When Peer and Williams meet on a tennis court, as they've done rather frequently lately, the American shows not a trace of empathy — because that is the right thing to do under those circumstances.
The No. 3-seeded Williams got through a tougher-than-expected test and beat the 16th-seeded Peer 7-6 (3), 6-3 Sunday to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the 10th time. It was their sixth head-to-match, fourth this year alone, and Williams has won every time in straight sets.
"Every time I played Venus, I had (a) tough time, and she was always kind of killing me," Peer said with a smile. "So today was much closer."
Afterward, both women discussed what happened at the Dubai Tennis Championship in February 2009.
Peer was blocked from entering the country because of what the government said were security concerns. Williams was critical of the decision, first in a news conference, then — far more publicly — during the trophy ceremony after she won the title there.
"She was really supportive for me," Peer said Sunday. "She stood up in that final and spoke for me. ... She understands what I feel."
Williams was honored by the Anti-Defamation League last year for her stance in Dubai, but Sunday said that "in a way, I don't think it's something too huge."
No, instead, it seemed like the obvious thing to do.
"Well, I think just because of my history, too, as African-American — my parents both came from the South in the '40s and '50s, and just, it was an outrage, really. Just like, 'Are you serious? Can you really exclude someone?'" Williams said. "This is professional tennis in 2010. We're all athletes here. We're not politicians or anything like that."
"So really," she continued, "the feeling inside of me was just one of almost rage and discontent. Like, 'Is this for real?'"
Williams made it clear she would defend her Dubai title this year only if Peer were allowed to play, and the WTA fined tournament organizers a record $300,000 and told them they needed to make sure Israeli players would be able to compete.
As it happened, Peer did play at Dubai in 2010 — and met Williams in the 2010 semifinals there. They also faced each other at Rome and Madrid this season.
In none of their encounters before Sunday did Peer ever manage to win more than four games in any set, but she made things more interesting at Flushing Meadows. Peer probably must have thought she deserved to take the opening set Sunday, because she broke Williams' big serve twice and played solidly, making only 13 unforced errors, three fewer than the American.
Serving while down 6-5, Peer fell behind love-40, but saved those three set points. Peer would go on to save two more set points in that game, a 22-point marathon that featured eight deuces and lasted more than 10 minutes.
But two-time U.S. Open champion Williams finally found her form in the tiebreaker, taking four consecutive points — including a service winner and ace — to lead 5-1. There was one more blip for Williams, a double-fault at 6-2, her sixth set point, but she closed it with a big cross-court forehand that forced an error by Peer.
"Winning the first set always feels good," said Williams, whose younger sister Serena watched from the stands, "instead of having to regroup and figuring out how you're going to win the match."
That, of course, is where Peer was left, much as she always is when standing across the net against Williams.
The owner of seven Grand Slam singles titles is playing in her first tournament in more than two months, having missed time with a left kneecap injury that forced her to skip a pair of hard-court tuneup events. Before coming to New York, Williams hadn't competed anywhere since June 29, when she was upset in the Wimbledon quarterfinals by a woman ranked 82nd.
To get to her first major semifinal since Wimbledon in 2009, Williams will have to beat French Open champion Francesca Schiavone next. The sixth-seeded Italian defeated 20th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-0 Sunday to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time since 2003.
"When the tournament started, it was a little uncertain on ... how I would hit the ball in a match," said the 30-year-old Williams, who is 7-0 against Schiavone. "It's just very exciting to obviously be here and hitting well and getting the games on my side, so that's what I want to continue. I haven't played as much as the other players, but still I'm getting the win, so that's what's important."
-- Howard Fendrich
Stosur wins latest-ending U.S. Open women's match
NEW YORK (AP) — Elena Dementieva offered a rather reasonable rationale for why she wasted four match points and faded down the stretch of her fourth-round loss to Sam Stosur at the U.S. Open.
"I was feeling," Dementieva explained, "like, a little bit sleepy."
Who could blame her? It wasn't until 1:35 a.m. Monday that Stosur came back to win the latest-finishing women's match in tournament history, wrapping up her 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (2) victory over 2004 runner-up Dementieva after 2 hours, 38 minutes.
The fifth-seeded Stosur is the first Australian woman to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals since Wendy Turnbull lost in that round in 1986. Stosur next faces defending champion Kim Clijsters, whose fourth-round victory ended more than 13½ hours earlier — at 12:02 p.m. Sunday.
"She played first; I played last," Stosur said. "There's not much bigger difference."
The previous record for a U.S. Open women's match came in 1987, when Gabriela Sabatini and Beverly Bowes finished at 1:30 a.m. The latest finish at the tournament is 2:26 a.m., for a match between Mats Wilander and Mikael Pernfors in 1993.
"That's definitely one of the most exciting matches I've ever played. The atmosphere out there was awesome," 2010 French Open runner-up Stosur said. "I dug deep and never gave up and made her work for it."
Stosur and Dementieva, a two-time major finalist, started shortly before 11 p.m. because they followed the four-set men's match between John Isner and Mikhail Youzhny that opened the Sunday night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium and went 3 hours, 18 minutes.
Women used to begin night sessions in Ashe until last year, when the U.S. Tennis Association began occasionally flipping the order.
"Well, it was difficult to play. We were waiting for a long time before we went on the court," Dementieva said. "It's never easy to play that late. So we don't get used to it."
Stosur never before had been past the second round at Flushing Meadows.
"It's a nice change," she said.
Playing high-risk, high-reward tennis against the 12th-seeded Dementieva, Stosur produced far more winners, 35-19, but also more unforced errors, 58-38.
"I think we both played a great match. Went for it and gave it our best," Stosur said. "To have a match like that here is just fantastic."
Dementieva reached the 2004 final at Flushing Meadows and the French Open. This U.S. Open represented her return to Grand Slam tennis after missing Wimbledon because of left calf injury; before that, she played in 46 consecutive major tournaments.
Dementieva held her first match point at 1:03 a.m., serving at 5-3, 40-30. But the Russian ended a nine-stroke exchange by pushing a forehand wide. Stosur then earned two break points and converted the second when Dementieva missed another forehand.
That got Stosur to 5-4, but she double-faulted at 30-all to set up a second match point, which Dementieva wasted by sailing a backhand long. Two more match points came in that game, and Stosur saved both, managing to hold serve for 5-all.
"I was trying to fight till the end," Dementieva said. "Just feel disappointed the way I was playing the match points. I was not aggressive enough."
Stosur broke for the seventh time to go ahead 6-5 when Dementieva missed a forehand wide. Given a chance to serve out the victory, Stosur didn't make things easy on herself, putting a backhand into the net to give Dementieva a break point.
When an 18-stroke exchange closed with Dementieva netting a backhand, they were at deuce. Stosur hit a service winner at 111 mph to earn her first match point, then let that opportunity escape with a backhand of her own into the net.
Stosur controlled the deciding tiebreaker, though, taking the first three points and last three.
And her plans for Monday?
"I have no idea," Stosur said. "I don't even know if I'll practice."
-- Howard Fendrich
Isner's 33 aces aren't enough in loss to Youzhny
NEW YORK (AP) — John Isner's stay at the U.S. Open lasted three rounds — and still encompassed far fewer games and hours than his historic first-round match at Wimbledon.
The 18th-seeded American lost to No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5), 6-4 Sunday night, then said he didn't think he paid any price physically at Flushing Meadows for all the wear-and-tear his body took at the All England Club during the longest match in tennis history.
"I don't think tonight had anything to do with that match, I would say," Isner said.
At Wimbledon in June, he won a 70-68 fifth set over Nicolas Mahut in a match that went a total of 183 games and 11 hours, 5 minutes spread over three days. In three full matches in New York — two victories and a loss — Isner played a total of 116 games, and a combined 8 hours, 12 minutes.
What Isner did concede might have hampered him was injuring his right ankle last month during a hard-court tournament in Cincinnati.
"I'm not the fastest guy out there, but I didn't feel as explosive. My legs I think just didn't have the bend that I needed to on my serve, on my groundstrokes," he said. "I mean, I wasn't dealt the greatest hand coming into this tournament with really no preparation. So that maybe had something to do with it."
The 6-foot-9 Isner lost Sunday despite pounding 33 aces at up to 144 mph.
"Of course, you understand (there) will be aces," Youzhny said of facing Isner. "But (here's the) main point: If you have some chances, try to take these chance, because (there) will not be too many chances."
Truly, Isner's biggest problem was this: 61 unforced errors, 25 more than Youzhny, who reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since he was a semifinalist in 2006.
Isner, never past the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament, got broken four times — in the opening game of the match, twice in the second set, and once in the fourth.
"I was playing from behind pretty much a lot of that match," he said.
After trailing 5-1 in the second set, he made things interesting by breaking Youzhny for the only two times in the match to force a tiebreaker. Motioning between points to the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd to make more noise, Isner steadily picked up support — and his level of play — and evened the match at a set apiece by converting his fifth set point on a service winner.
"You would think from there I would have all the momentum," Isner said. "He just keeps with it. That's a big credit to him. I mean, I definitely did have the momentum, but he just stayed steady and, you know, just outplayed me a little bit."
The third set also went to a tiebreaker, and Isner went ahead 4-3 with his 23rd ace, at 122 mph. But Youzhny collected four of the next five points, ending the set with the fourth of his five aces.
Youzhny will play 41st-ranked Tommy Robredo of Spain in the fourth round. Robredo's last two opponents retired during the matches, including Michael Llodra on Sunday.
-- Howard Fendrich
Great Scot? Murray goes down at U.S. Open
NEW YORK (AP) — Any time now, Andy Murray will break through and become Britain's next Grand Slam champion.
Or so the theory goes.
The fourth-seeded Murray, expected by many to make a deep run at this year's U.S. Open, instead made his second straight earlier-than-expected exit from Flushing Meadows — losing to No. 25 Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday in the third round.
Wawrinka rallied from a break down late in the second set for a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 upset — a loss certain to be picked apart by the tennis-loving fans back home.
"I have no idea of whether I'll win a Grand Slam or not," Murray said. "I want to. But if I never win one, then what? If I give 100 percent, try my best, physically work as hard as I can, practice as much as I can, then that's all I can do."
Murray is trying to become the first British man to win a Grand Slam tournament since 1936. He was a popular pick this year, based on trips to the finals at Flushing Meadows two years ago and this year's Australian Open, along with a championship in Montreal last month in which he beat both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Instead, the loss to Wawrinka goes with a fourth-round exit last year when, as the No. 2 seed, he was upset by Marin Cilic.
The promise of a deep run this year for Murray slipped away quickly after the second set. The 23-year-old Scot needed the trainer twice after that — once for tightness in his quad, another when he felt tingling in his right elbow.
But he didn't blame the injuries.
"He played better than me," Murray said. "There's not a whole lot more to it."
It will, however, be sliced and diced back home, where his every success and failure is recorded in exacting detail.
In addition to asking about his injury (not an issue, he said), his physical condition (in as good of shape as ever, he said) and his mindset as the match started slipping away (Yeah, you get frustrated in situations like those, but who wouldn't?), Murray was asked about his unsettled coaching situation.
"I want to improve and get better," Murray said. "I'm obviously going to look for a coach and people that are going to help me to do that. But, I'm happy with the guys that I work with just now. They're all very, very good at what they do. So I'm not gonna start changing everything.
"I'm still looking for a coach. That's it."
Still looking for his first major title, as well — a gap in the resume that leaves an entire country wondering why.
"I think you need to play your best tennis during the tournament, and that's it," Murray said. "That's the only way to win one. There's a lot of tough players out there just now. If you don't play well enough, you're not going to win."
-- Eddie Pells
Notebook: New father Simon heads home to meet new son
NEW YORK (AP) — Gilles Simon was playing the world's top-ranked player in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and his mind was thousands of miles away.
"The third set, I have to say that I was already in the plane," Simon said after losing to Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
He had his new son to meet.
The Frenchman arrived at the U.S. Open thinking all he had to worry about was winning matches. His first child wasn't due for four weeks back home, so the one-time top-10 player could focus on trying to improve his ranking as he comes back from a knee injury.
That all changed Friday.
"The night it was OK. When I woke up in the morning, she told me, 'Baby is coming,'" Simon said. "So it was strange feeling. I mean, I was alone in my room. I definitely didn't want to be there, but I couldn't do anything."
The 42nd-ranked Simon was relieved that his third-round match against Nadal was scheduled for the afternoon, which meant he could catch a flight home Sunday if he lost. His coach was making the travel arrangements while Simon tried to get through his post-match news conference as quickly as possible.
Nadal won 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, then congratulated Simon on becoming a father.
"He knows that I'm not really sad today, even if I lost," Simon said.
SPAIN'S REIGN: The Spanish men have been so dominant at the U.S. Open that they've already guaranteed one of them will reach the semifinals.
Six of the 16 men in the fourth round are from Spain. Four make up one corner of the draw, ensuring there will be an all-Spanish quarterfinal.
The six Spanish men in the tournament's fourth round tie the most for a foreign country since the Open era began in 1968. Australia also had six way back in 1969. It's the most for any country since the United States had eight in 1995.
"Especially is very positive because I think, for the ball and for the court, is probably the most difficult tournament for us, no?" top-ranked Rafael Nadal said. "So that is very important news for the Spanish tennis."
Nadal, eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 David Ferrer, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez and unseeded Tommy Robredo won Sunday to join No. 21 Albert Montanes in the fourth round. Ferrer beat countryman Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Only Nicolas Almagro lost Sunday. The 14th-seeded Almagro fell to 20th-seeded American Sam Querrey.
Nadal will face Lopez and Ferrer takes on Verdasco in the Spanish Invitational portion of the bracket.
"If you need to lose, it's better to lose against a Spanish player, then at least one guy is going to be there one round more, no?" Verdasco said.
Spain had never advanced more than four men to the U.S. Open fourth round.
"Before we were the best on clay," Lopez said. "Now we win on grass, on everywhere, no?"
COURT KISS: Francesca Schiavone provided one of tennis' most memorable images of the year when she kissed the clay in winning her first Grand slam title at the French Open. So what might she do at the hard-court U.S. Open?
"I didn't test with my lips, but I think I will do something," the sixth-seeded Italian said Sunday after advancing to the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
A championship is still a long way away, she cautioned.
"So it will be a secret," Schiavone said.
Her time in New York has included a trip to a restaurant in Little Italy. She used a food analogy to explain how her ability to mix up shots allows her to be successful on the hard courts even though she grew up playing on clay.
"It's like capricciosa pizza," Schiavone said of the dish loaded with mushrooms, artichokes, ham and olives.
"I don't give you margherita, I give you capricciosa — different kind of ingredient."
Schiavone's game certainly wasn't plain margherita-style Sunday as she beat 20th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-0. She was sneaking peaks at a TV on the wall during her news conference afterward to see who her next opponent would be. Third-seeded Venus Williams went on to win that match to set up a meeting with Schiavone, against whom the American is 7-0.
Williams and Schiavone, both 30, are the two oldest women left in the draw.
"Obviously her game is better than ever now," said Williams, who is six days older. "Seems like everybody is hitting their stride at 30. It's the new 20."
-- Rachel Cohen
U.S Open Glance
NEW YORK (AP) — A look at Sunday's play at the $22.7 million U.S. Open tennis championships:
WEATHER: Sunny and beautiful. High of 76.
ATTENDANCE: Day: 37,388. Night: 23,771. Total: 61,159.
MEN'S SEEDED WINNERS: Third Round: No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 David Ferrer, No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny, No. 20 Sam Querrey, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez and No. 25 Stanislas Wawrinka.
MEN'S SEEDED LOSERS: No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 14 Nicolas Almagro, No. 18 John Isner and No. 31 David Nalbandian.
WOMEN'S SEEDED WINNERS: Fourth Round: No. 2 Kim Clijsters, No. 3 Venus WilliamsNo. 5 Sam Stosur and No. 6 Francesca Schiavone.
WOMEN'S SEEDED LOSERS: No. 12 Elena Dementieva, No. 16 Shahar Peer and No. 20 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
ON COURT MONDAY: Men, Fourth Round: No. 2 Roger Federer vs. No. 13 Jurgen Melzer, No. 3 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 19 Mardy Fish, No. 5 Robin Soderling vs. No. 21 Albert Montanes, No. 17 Gael Monfils vs. Richard Gasquet. Women, Fourth Round: No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki vs. No. 14 Maria Sharapova, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva vs. Andrea Petkovic, No. 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Dominika Cibulkova, No. 15 Yanina Wickmayer vs. No. 31 Kaia Kanepi.
STAT OF THE DAY: Rafael Nadal has won all 46 of his service games.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The two first sets were nice. I had some problem with my return today. I missed a lot of return. And then the third set. I have to say I was already on the plane." — Gilles Simon, after losing to Rafael Nadal. Simon's wife gave birth to their first child on Thursday.
MONDAY ON TV (All Times EDT): CBS, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (live); ESPN2, 7-11 p.m. (live); Tennis Channel, 11-Mid (highlights).
ON THIS DATE: Sept. 6, 1941: Bobby Riggs wins his second U.S. title, defeating Frank Kovacs in four sets.
