U.S. Open Day One

Ah, the first day of the U.S. Open proper. It was a fun one - not a ton of upsets or fascinating matches, but there was plenty to keep me occupied. Here's a rundown of some of the highlights that I didn't get to see first-hand:

Kim Clijsters just destroyed Kutuzova, 1 and 1, announcing herself as a real contender and a danger. Watch out Marion Bartoli, who she has already beaten this summer and who she faces in the next round, after the Frenchwoman trounced Rossana de los Rios (I watched a bit of that match, but at 1 and 0, it wasn't too exciting). That one's a pick-em, but I'm leaning toward the former champion.

Tommy Haas had a struggle but ended up beating Alejandro Falla. I wanted to watch that, but for some reason, whenever Haas plays on the outside courts, it's standing room only. People were literally climbing in trees to get a look at that match.

For reasons that are not quite clear to me, it was almost the same situation on the court where Donald Young was playing Tommy Robredo. I wanted to watch it, but I couldn't get a seat! The Donald won a set, but he ended up losing, predictably. I hope he can pull his game together, because he is incredibly talented, but this isn't the year for it.

I wasn't on the court for it, but I watched the end of the 16-14 tiebreak in the second set between John Isner and Victor Hanescu. The Romanian blew - I think - ten set points in that tiebreak. Several on his own serve. That's just brutal. Good for John, though. He's really playing strong.

Amelia Mauresmo and James Blake, both trying to get their mojo back, had good wins. I actually watched a bit of Blake's match from a distance (Armstrong is a big stadium) and even from there, that guy hits his forehand ridiculously hard.

I also watched part of Lleyton Hewitt destroy Thiago Alves. They weren't even in the same league, which was a shame. Surprisingly, Olivier (the older and smaller Rochus brother) was similarly dominant against Igor Kunitsyn. He was fun to watch, though. His brother Christophe lost a break lead in the fifth set to go down 7-5 to Marsel Ilhan, which was a shame.

Davydenko was not quite as strong against Dieter Kindlmann, but the German (lots of Germans in the draw this year) was never really in the match. It was my first time watching Kolya in person, and he was fun to see.

Speaking of fun to see, I saw Nadal playing a few practice games against a player I wasn't sure if I recognized - it could have been Michael Berrer, another German - but it was insane to be about ten feet from the Australian Open champion. And let me tell you, I could see the spin he put on his forehand, and it was awe-inspiring.

I also watched Potito Starace lose two close tiebreak sets and then completely go away in the third against Marco Chiudinelli, who is the fourth ranked Swiss player at 161 in the world, after Federer (1), Wawrinka (20), and Stephane Bohli (144). Interestingly enough, I think that the umpire for the Starace-Chiudinelli match was Mariana Alves. Anyone remember her? I'm not a hundred percent sure, though. I did see a couple umps that I recognized; namely Norm Chryst and Carlos Bernardes. What were they doing away from the show courts?

Another interesting match I saw was Robin Soderling versus Albert Montanes, which was odd because it was between what I suspect may be the highest and lowest ball-tossers on tour. Montanes just basically places the ball in the air, drops his left hand and hits it with his racket. Soderling, on the other hand, tosses his ball between eight and twelve feet in the air before hitting it.

I also watched the fifth set tiebreak between Simon Gruel and the younger Lapentti (Giovanni), which was as tight as a drum. It was out on court 16, and Lapentti seemed (to me) to be calling his own lines, or at least trying to influence the judges on a close call. I don't know exactly how that worked, but there were a handful of balls that were very close to the lines on the tiebreaks, and Lapentti called them out before the line judges did. Unfortunately, it did not avail him on the last point of the match, when Greul hit an ace past him that was right under the ump's nose.

I was sad to see Dokic go down, as well as Rainer Schuettler and Dmitry Tursunov. They're not quite upsets, but they are players who I thought could go farther. But so far, the biggest upset of the first day was Mikhail Youzhny over Paul-Henri Mathieu. He did his salute to the four corners of the court after winning, which I always love to see.

More fun to look forward to tomorrow. I've got to rest up so I can be back in Queens in time to get a good seat! I don't know whether I'm going to start with Nieminen-Fognini, Witten-Andreev, or Tsonga-Buchanan. It's great having to deal with this problem!