Tennis Week 2014, Part Two

My mom flew home on Thursday morning, so I had two days to myself at the US Open qualifying tournament.  When I got there Thursday, I went straight to Court 11.  There were several matches that looked interesting to me there, plus there's a wall that you can lean back on.  So up up up I walked to the top and parked myself for three matches (well, with a break in-between).  I also broke with tradition and got my iced tea BEFORE the tennis started.  It was almost a two-iced-tea-day, but I controlled myself... :)

First up was American teen Tornado Alicia Black.  I've been reading about her for a bit and was anxious to see her in person.  Her opponent was Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, who I know I've seen before in the main draw.  I don't know if she's been out with injuries, but I was surprised to see her in qualies.  You could tell during the match that Kudryavtseva has more experience, because she was hitting with more purpose.  Tornado Black, though smooth and strong on the court, was just too erratic.  She had her serve broken quite a few times - though she also broke her opponent's serve, she just couldn't maintain any rhythm or momentum.  I think that will come with more experience, since she's still a teenager.  She lost in straight sets.  She's playing in the junior tournament, so I'll keep my eyes out for her.

After that match, I stayed at Court 11 to watch the second match of American teenager Ernesto Escobedo (Mom and I watched his first round match on Tuesday) vs Aussie James Duckworth.  This was a very competitive match, though it seemed as if Duckworth had an injury of some sort.  He was struggling in the first set, though he did come back in the second set to force a tiebreak.  Luckily, Escobedo came through in straight sets.  I was again impressed with his calm on court and his focus.  He didn't throw in a lot of unforced errors or try to hit the cover off the ball, he just seemed to have a gameplan and stuck to it.  Good on him.

I was ready for a snack and some shade, so I decided to go get some food and watch some practicing in the Grandstand.  I was very glad I arrived when I did, since Grigor Dimitrov was beginning his practice session with another young Aussie, Nick Kyrgios.  Krygios has had a bangup start to his year, with winning a couple of matches at the Aussie Open and then he took out Nadal at Wimbledon.  And he's still only 19.  Dimitrov has been touted for years - some people even called him Baby Fed, since he seems to have every shot in the book, just like Roger.  He's been doing more and more winning this year, so nicknames have fallen by the wayside, which I'm sure relieves him.

It was a good practice, very vigorous.  They kept trying to outdo each other with great shotmaking, which was exciting to see from so close.  That Dimitrov one-handed backhand is spectacular.  But I admit to being a little turned off by Kyrgios' swagger.  I enjoy confidence in a young player, but cockiness is unappealing to me.  He just seemed a little too impressed with himself for my liking.  Maybe he'll grow out of it.  Or maybe not.  I actually got another look at him in the main draw, more on that in another post.

When Dimitrov and Kyrgios were finished, Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Roberto Bautista Agut came out.  I was looking to get back to Court 11 for another qualies match, so I left their practice.  Had I know Bautista Agut would be playing against my Roger later in the tournament, I might have done a little scouting.  Oh well.

Back at Court 11:  I wanted to get another look at 16-year-old Stefan Kozlov, who my mother and I had enjoyed on Tuesday.  He was playing another youngster, Borna Coric from Croatia.  Kozlov came out on fire again, hitting crisp forehands and terrific passing shots.  I think his game really has a lot of upside.  Unfortunately, he expended maybe too much energy pumping himself up in the first set and he fizzled out in sets two and three.  He ended up losing to Coric, but I was happy to see that there was no racket-throwing or cursing tantrums from Kozlov.  He was visibly frustrated, but handled himself well.  I was happy to see that.  He's also going to be playing in the junior tournament, so I hope he has success there.

I thought about going to another match on Court 17, but saw that it wouldn't start for awhile, so I decided to head home.  It had been a full day.  While I was on the 7 train going home, I was checking Twitter.  I noticed some chatter about one of the players my mom and I had watched Tuesday, Thanasi Kokkinakis from Australia.  You may recall that my mom and I were turned off by his overall crankypantsitude and foul language.  According to Twitter, that attitude continued on Thursday and he lost his match, not without some controversy.  We'll probably never get to the bottom of the rumors of the ethnic slurs he allegedly uttered, but at least my mom's and my distate seemed more justified.  As I was reading another online account, I saw his behavior compared to the good behavior of another tennis player still in the qualies, James McGee of Ireland.  I resolved to check out his match on Friday, if at all possible.

Friday, the clouds were a little dark, and I hoped we could get a full day of tennis in.  When I got to the tennis center, I went right to Court 17 to see Ernesto Escobedo's third round match.  I figured I had seen the other two, so I didn't want to jinx him by missing the third.  Unfortunately, he ran into a more explosive player in Facundo Bagnis from Argentina.  He is clearly more developed in his tennis playing and had a lot more firepower.  Escobedo started off with an early break, but couldn't hold on to the lead.  After he lost the first set tiebreak, the second set went rather quickly.  I think he may have hurt his shoulder and he just couldn't get anything going on his serve and forehand.  It was too bad he couldn't get himself into the main draw, but he acquitted himself well.  I see good things for him in the future.

I decided to stay at Court 17 for the next match, Steve Darcis from Belgium against Emilio Gomez from Ecuador.  I've seen Darcis play before - he's been ranked in the top 100 and has been in the main draw of events quite a few times.  He even stunned Nadal at Wimbledon in 2013, but after that, he had shoulder problems and is trying to come back from that injury.  He was the decidedly more experienced player and made all the right decisions in the first set.  He didn't have much trouble with the fiery Gomez, who had a lot of game, but just not enough patience to keep the ball in the court.  Even though a lot of the games were long and went to deuce, Darcis won the first set 6-1.  He was up another break in the second set when he hit a drop shot.  Gomez sprinted up to the ball and clearly hurt his foot in the process.  The trainer came out to wrap his foot, but he couldn't play and had to retire.  A sad ending.  And not the first time I would see the trainer on site...

I took a quick iced tea break and then I saw I had time to get to the match I heard about on Twitter: James McGee from Ireland against Zhang Ze from China.  The stands were packed for this match - the Chinese always come out in big crowds to watch the qualifying tournament and they especially flock to matches featuring Chinese players.  So there were a lot of Zhang supporters, but there were also a lot of people rooting for James McGee, who had an article written about him earlier this year in the NY Times.  Check it out.

Unfortunately, McGee quickly lost the first set 6-0 and was very annoyed with himself.  He left the court for a bathroom break and came back more composure and resolve.  He immediately broke Zhang's serve and held onto that break lead throughout the second set.  In the third set, it was a very tight affair.  Both men were playing all out, but also playing a little tight.  You could really see how much getting into the main draw means to these players.  The crowd was boisterous, in a good way, and the match was very exciting.  McGee was up two breaks and was serving for the match when he started to cramp up.  Watching a player get leg cramps is really scary - their body starts jerking and spasming and there's nothing, really, they can do about it.  So McGee was broken the first time he served for the match.  Zhang held his serve and called for the trainer to get his shoulder worked on.  McGee wanted to use the trainer, too, for his cramps, but could only get a minute or so, so as not to delay the match.  Then McGee got to serve for it again.  It was really touch and go, and I'm not sure how he did it, but, even though he was seriously cramping and could barely walk, he served himself into the main draw.  It was thrilling!  So many ups and downs and so much emotion!  McGee fell to the ground and stayed there for a moment (this photo is from Twitter, I didn't get a good one), then got up and hobbled to shake the hand of his opponent.  Then McGee sat down and cried.  You could see how much it meant to him, this moment.  It was his first time ever qualifying for the main draw of a Grand Slam.  Very emotional stuff.  He has a terrific blog, you should check it out.

I decided that nothing could top that experience, so I decided to head home.  Good thing, because when I got off the subway at my stop, it was pouring the rain.  So I got out just in time.  But it was another terrific week of qualies and I'm already excited to go back next year.

Enjoy the photos - there'll be one more post about tennis and then, hopefully, back to some theater.  I have a couple of tickets for this month.  Let's see if I can get back in the groove, people.