mtenis.com.pl

By Nick McCarvel


If Wednesday was the day that was filled to the brim with incredible tennis in Cincinnati, Thursday is when things spill over. In a good way.

Here, we present five must-see matches (with more to come) as the Western & Southern Open heads towards the weekend and the business end of the tournament.


Juan Martin del Potro vs. Grigor Dimitrov
First match, Center Court
Believe it or not it’s a 5-0 head-to-head lead for the big man del Potro against Dimitrov, the two having met three times in the last 15 months and del Potro dropping just one set in those encounters. But this is perhaps the most intriguing round of 16 match-up on the men’s side, and - as Dimitrov has shown us this year - the Bulgarian can play top-level tennis. If del Potro’s thunderous forehand is on, however, watch out.

Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Madison Keys
Second match, Center Court
This is another surprisingly lopsided match-up, Keys with a 3-0 lead on the Wimbledon champion Muguruza, including a straight-set victory just a couple of weeks ago in Stanford. Both of these women have looked in red-hot form so far this week, Muguruza dropping just two games in her opener while Keys lost only three herself in her second round encounter. Can Muguruza flip her fortunes against the American star?

Caroline Wozniacki vs. Ashleigh Barty
Second match, Stadium 3
It’s the first meeting between these two, but Barty is carrying the momentum of having beaten Venus Williams (a career-best win) on Wednesday and now gets the shot at another Top 10 star in Wozniacki. The Dane is having a season to remember, and is one of the four players left in the WTA draw that has a shot at returning to world No. 1 with a title win this week. She hasn't held that spot since 2012.

John Isner vs. Frances Tiafoe
Third match, Center Court
Tiafoe is the 19-year-old American who is coming off of his own major upset, beating the “it” player of the moment Alexander Zverev on Wednesday, who had arrived in Cincy with a 10-match win streak over the last two weeks. He has Isner for the second time in his career, the two having met at the US Open in the first round last year. It was in that match that Tiafoe held a two-sets-to-love lead before Isner rallied to win in five. Asked about what he learned from that match, Tiafoe quipped: “Well, if it was a best-of-three I would have won.”

Nick Kyrgios vs. Ivo Karlovic
Fourth match, Grandstand
Kyrgios is the one with the lead in this series, 3-0 in fact, including a tight-as-can-be battle in Miami earlier this year, the Australian winning in a third-set tiebreak. Karlovic was lights-out in an upset win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last round, though Kyrgios hasn’t batted an eye in decisive victories over David Goffin and Alexandr Dolgopolov to start his Cincy campaign. Expect this one to be electric.

Rafael Nadal vs. Albert Ramos Vinolas
First match - evening session, Center Court
These two Spaniards last faced off in the Masters 1000 final in Monte Carlo earlier this season, Nadal skipping through in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. Nadal has less than 24 hours to recover after a late-night finish against Richard Gasquet on Wednesday, but the 2013 champion will be an overwhelming favorite against a guy who hasn’t been able to win a set against him in three matches played.

On this day 11 years ago, 19-year-old Andy Murray stunned the world number Roger Federer in the second round of Cincinnati by 7-5 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes, for his first win against Roger in their second meeting.

It was a very strange match, with 21 break points and 12 breaks, and it was Andy who kept himself more composed in the closing stages of both sets to score straight sets win. Despite Murray's ranking of 21, this came as a big surprise, with Roger already winning 7 titles that season and losing just 4 matches, all against Rafael Nadal (3 on clay).

In addition, Roger has won the past 55 matches played on the North American hard courts, starting from the US Open 2004, and this was his first straight sets loss since Roland Garros 2004, playing 194 matches since then (28 months)! Roger came close to another record, reaching 17 ATP finals in a row beginning from Halle 2005, just 1 short of Ivan Lendl who played in 18 between Madrid 1981 and Forest Hills 1982.

In the end, Roger suffered 7 breaks on the hard court only for the second time in his career, after Nabaldian broke him 8 times at 2003 Australian Open, but in the match that lasted for 5 sets. As we already said, it was a rather strange match with so many break points on one of the fastest hard courts you could find.

Roger served at 55% and he struggled on his second serve big time, losing 51% of the points on his serve and getting broken 7 times from 14 opportunities that Andy created. On the other hand, Briton landed only 41% of the first serve in but he was more solid than Federer on his second serve (which is always important in his matches), losing serve 5 times from 7 chances he gave to Roger.

Swiss had a slim lead in the shortest points and Andy annulled that in the mid-range shots, while they were even in the longest exchanges. Andy finished the match with 27 winners and 27 unforced errors, which was better than Roger's 25-35 ratio, and that was also one of the key elements, as it wasn't expected that Murray would outplay Roger in the number of winners.

Murray missed a break point in the first game but he converted one in the 3rd game when Roger sent the backhand wide. Andy was the better player in this opening games, making only a few errors and dictating the pace with his groundstrokes.

Nonetheless, he played a loose service game to get Roger back on the scoreboard, hitting a double fault in game 6 to make the result even at 3-3. That didn't affect the youngster too much, as he moved in front again in game 7, breaking Federer with 2 backhand winners.

Roger had the answer ready and he broke back in game 8, closing the game with a nice backhand down the line winner that kept him in contention for the opening set. Against all odds, Federer dropped serve again in game 9, for the third time since the start of the match, following a costly double fault, and Andy was now serving for the set.

That wasn't the end of the drama, with 2 break points for Federer and the incredible 5th straight break of serve. Murray sent the forehand long and the result was again locked at 5-5, in what has been a very bizarre set of tennis.

Roger wasted 3 game points for a 6-5 lead and he lost his serve after another double fault, for a break number 4, a very rare scene in his matches, especially in those good old days. After so many problems in service games for both players, Andy delivered the set by 7-5, sealing the deal with an ace, mighty releaved he got it in the bag as he served at only 34%! Things went from bad to worse for Roger, as he dropped his serve for the 4th straight time at the start of the second set, unable to find the right rhythm or to penetrate Murray from the baseline.

Feast of breaks continued and Andy was also broken in the second game, and the match was developing into a stranger and stranger affair. In game 3 Federer finally found the way to hold at 15, which was very important for him to regain some confidence, and they both served well in the following games.

It all changed in game 7 when Murray broke, thanks to yet another unforced error from Roger, and teenager was now in the driving seat to bring the match home.