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Daily Dispatch: Berdych Upsets Federer

6 September, 2012

In another eventful day at the US Open, Tomas Berdych scored the shocking upset over World No. 1 Roger Federer in their quarterfinals match. Federer had never lost a night match at the US Open (23-0) in his entire career, and it was the first time Berdych played a night match on Arthur Ashe.

Demonstrating this era’s remarkable consistency, this year marks the first time in 33 consecutive Majors that a semifinal lineup has included neither Rafael Nadal nor Roger Federer.

Tonight’s results guaranteed that three-quarters of the men’s semifinalists will be Slam-less. Berdych and Andy Murray are already through to the semis, and Janko Tipsarevic and David Ferrer will square off for the third slot. Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro, both Slam-winners, will battle for the fourth spot.. If there’s ever been an opportunity for players like Murray, Berdych, or Ferrer to get that breakthrough, it’s now.

As for speculation about the Berdych vs. Murray match-up, I give the slight edge to the Czech.

Berdych holds a 4-2 head-to-head advantage against Murray. Berdych’s record is 2-1 against Murray on hard courts, and he won their only best-of-five match in straights at Roland Garros in 2010.

As for Federer, the World No. 1 was reflective in his post-match interview.

“I’m disappointed. I really expected myself to play better tonight, especially at night. I’ve had such a great record,” Federer said. “It was such an amazing summer I had, I thought I was going to come out and do that tonight. Such a letdown.”

Juan Martin del Potro (or “Jaun Martin del Potro,” as the US Open website prefers to call him), well-known career assassin, beat Andy Roddick in four sets, ending his tennis career.

Since so much has already been said about Roddick’s tennis legacy, I’ll keep it simple and just express my gratitude to him for bringing us so many years of great tennis. Also, ESPN needs to hire him to commentate matches immediately.

Massive headline fail of the day from ESPN’s website: “2012 U.S. Open –Juan Martin del Potro sends Roger Federer into retirement.”

Andy Murray became the fourth man to qualify for the 2012 ATP World Tour Finals by beating Marin Cilic today. He joins Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal, who qualified several weeks ago.

Kamakshi Tandon wrote a great piece for ESPN about Serena Williams’ recent decisions to make changes to her approach of the game. Among other things, Williams switched from using natural gut to using a hybrid of gut and polyester, worked with a coach, and intensified her training schedule.

Hilarious Andy Murray quote from Steve Tignor’s piece on Tennis.com: “I had a massage in the hotel spa from a big lady with large hands.”

A new, brilliant parody Twitter account popped up to poke fun at John McEnroe’s often ridiculous ESPN commentary. It is so spot-on, you can hear Johnny Mac’s voice as you read the tweets.

The account also pokes fun at McEnroe’s documented lack of knowledge about social media and Twitter:

 

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