Serena Williams rolls on in U.S. Open
Taylor Dent lost the first eight points against second-seeded Andy Murray on Sunday night in his third-round U.S. Open match. Then the 28-year-old Newport Beach resident collected himself and won two straight games.
Dent, who missed most of the last two seasons while having three back surgeries, couldn’t give the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd the upset it wanted. Murray won the match, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, but Dent got his moment on the big stage.
So did seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva, and she made herself laugh, cry, curse and ask for scissors. She also squandered six match points and lost to 10th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0.
Zvonareva tried to rip the tape that enveloped both knees, and with strips dangling she demanded scissors from the umpire. No scissors for Zvonareva, who cried at least twice during the match. And maybe just as well. Pennetta will face defending champion Serena Williams next.
Williams moved to the quarterfinals with a dominating 6-2, 6-0 win over 22nd-seeded Daniela Hantuchova. Williams won the final 10 games of the match. Her sister, Venus, was upset by unseeded wild card Kim Clijsters, who won, 6-0, 0-6, 6-4.
Third-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the fourth round with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 win over 32nd-seeded Nicolas Almagro, but Nadal needed the help of a trainer in the final set to tend to his sore abdominal muscle.
Where was Roddick on Saturday night?
CBS left the five-set John Isner upset of Andy Roddick on Saturday when Isner was up, 4-3, in the first set. CBS was scheduled to go off the air at 6 p.m. EDT and Tennis Channel had contractual rights to all Open tennis beginning at 7 p.m. Problem was, not everybody gets Tennis Channel.
Stat of the day
On Sept. 6, 1920, Bill Tilden won the first of his six straight U.S. men’s singles titles. Roger Federer has won five straight Opens and is trying to become the first man since Tilden to win six.
Upset of the day
Unseeded wild card Clijsters took out third-seeded Venus Williams. Now the first, third, fourth and fifth-seeded women are gone.
Quote of the day
Sixth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, when asked whether he wished he was playing in another time without Federer, Murray and Nadal: “Roger, Rafa, Murray, they are two or three steps more than me. But if I play for many years in this level, then they are going to retire and I’m going to be much better.”
Today’s featured matches
In Arthur Ashe Stadium, beginning at 8 a.m. PDT, Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine against Gisela Dulko of Argentina in a fourth-round match of unseeded players; 13th-seeded Nadia Petrova against rising U.S. star Melanie Oudin, who has already upset the fourth- and 29th-seeded players; and top-seeded Federer against 14th-seeded Tommy Robredo.
The night session, beginning at 4 p.m. PDT, will have sixth-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova against ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia against 15th-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
Out and about and around the grounds: At Louis Armstrong Stadium, beginning at 8 a.m. PDT, eighth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia plays 12th-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden; Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic will take on Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium; then 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain faces Isner, conqueror of the fifth-seeded Roddick.
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