US Open Day 10

There isn't too much to say about today's tennis. All four quarterfinal matches were straight set victories for the favorites. There were moments of tension and some intermittently excellent tennis being played, but the only real story of the day was the wind. There were many commentators in the booth or on-court today who have been regularly attending the U.S. Open for ten, twenty, maybe even thirty years, and the consensus seemed to be that this was the windiest open in memory.

It was bizarrely blustery - I'm amazed that Soderling was able to control his toss as well as he was (and even that wasn't especially well) because Cibulkova and Monfils were absolutely baffled by the shifting, swirling winds. Cibulkova did all right once the point was started, but the Frenchman didn't even know how to hit the ball anymore, it seemed. It's a shame that the conditions are so rough, because it really makes for odd tennis. Not necessarily bad tennis, but strange tennis.

I'm really hoping that tomorrow, we'll have some better weather, because there are a pair of potentially excellent matches. Mikhail Youzhny takes on Stan Wawrinka - it's a match between two comparably talented, fairly accomplished players, even though they've both been top twenty stalwarts with only brief visits to the rarefied air of the top ten. This is a big chance for both guys to a grand slam semifinal - I have to think that Wawrinka is going to be more tired at this point, and his injury may be nagging him. But he's also played better up to this point, so who knows? They both have great one-handed backhands - a fairly rare occurrence to see a pair of one-handers facing off this late in a tourney. This one is a tough one to call.

As much as I'd like to say that both matches are close ones, I'm afraid that the second men's quarter is potentially a bit more one-sided. Despite the fact that Nadal and Verdasco played one of the greatest hard-court matches ever at the Australian Open semifinals in 2009, it's hard for me to believe that Verdasco can equal the effort he put forth that day. He has to be drained after his match with Ferrer, and Nadal has just been playing brutal tennis so far this tournament. Not only has he not dropped a set (neither has Federer) but he hasn't even dropped serve. It would take a monumental effort from Verdasco - I'm not saying he isn't capable of it, but it's just not especially likely at this point.

What is likely, honestly, is a Federer-Nadal final. And really, that's not such a bad thing.