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Daily Dispatch: US Open Draw is Out

24 August, 2012

Caroline Wozniacki battled through a right knee injury to beat Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-1, in New Haven, advancing to the semifinals where she’ll meet seventh-seeded Maria Kirilenko. In doing so, she preserved her perfect 19-0 career record at that tournament.

The former World No. 1 Wozniacki called for the trainer, and added more and more bandages to the knee during the match, but Cibulkova’s erratic play left her unable to take advantage of Wozniacki’s impaired court movement. Wozniacki said after the match that she called the trainer after feeling a sharp pain in her knee.

Funny stuff:

But Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the day (You might recall that Tsonga pulled out of Cincinnati this year after injuring his knee by running into a fire hydrant in Toronto):

Petra Kvitova clinched the US Open Series with a 6-3 6-3 win over Lucie Safarova in New Haven. It’s been a great hard court season for Kvitova. In the past, she had struggled with health issues in the North American heat, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping her this year.

The US Open draws are out. Roger Federer and Andy Murray share a half, while Novak Djokovic landed the half with David Ferrer as the next highest seed. Juan Martin del Potro is in the same quarter as Djokovic.

On the women’s side, Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Kim Clijsters, and Samantha Stosur, Maria Sharapova, and Petra Kvitova all share a half. Caroline Wozniacki, Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber, Venus Williams, and Agnieszka Radwanska are in the other half.

More detailed draw analysis to come tomorrow.

A wild (and completely ridiculous) story was posted at UBITennis, claiming that Federer is spearheading an effort to boycott the 2013 Australian Open if the ATP players don’t receive more prize money. It officially displaces Novak Djokovic’s destroying his racquets with a hacksaw as the most ludicrous tennis story of the week.

Speaking of which, Serbian Olympic Committee President Vlade Divac backtracked today on his comments about Djokovic sawing his racquets after failing to medal at the Games. Divac said he was only trying to demonstrate how much Djokovic cared about winning.

Sure, it’s possible Divac exaggerated or spun that tale about Djokovic, but it’s also possible Divac decided to retract the story after it created a small PR nightmare for the World No. 2 yesterday.

Of course, I choose to believe the original story because it’s incredibly entertaining, but it’ll be interesting to hear from Djokovic himself at his next press conference. (Hopefully someone will ask him about it.)

The ATP website has a nice profile of John Isner. Worth a read.

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