US Open Day Two Review: Mattek livens up the viewing

US Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 27 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

A first gear Thomas Berdych scuppers Sean Calvert's punting and Ana Ivanovic's thumb nearly adds to his misery. But Gasquet backhand and Bethanie Mattek's racy fuscia arrive to raise the spirits.

I began yesterday's entry by proclaiming that this was my absolute favourite time of the year. That was until a certain Mr Tomas Berdych entered my field of vision on Day 2 of the US Open.

Why my angst? Well, first up on Grandstand was said Czech number 22 seed plying his trade against Sam Querrey and having despatched the big American 6-1, 6-2 in Miami earlier this year, I could be forgiven for thinking that Berdych might at least be in with a shot.

Sadly I was wrong, as Berdych barely got out of first gear in as insipid a display as you're ever likely to see.

We've seen this all before from the Czech of course, so I blame myself for sneaking him into an unwise accumulator and my gambling fun for the day was pretty much over early doors as Querrey strolled to a 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 victory - a good hiding by anybody's standards.

While all this was happening there was almost more bad news over on Ashe as my outright selection for the ladies singles, Ana Ivanovic, had managed to throw away a set and a break lead over Vera Dushevina, who had forced a decider.

After failing on her first match point on her opponent's serve, things were looking good when Ivanovic worked herself the simplest of openings at 5-4 and 15-15, but inexplicably she missed an open court with Dushevina completely out of the picture and the Serbian found herself two break points down.

The number one seed clawed it back though to earn a second match point, but a double fault ended her hopes this time.

A rather lame backhand from Dushevina eventually handed Ivanovic the win, but it was all very hard work that lasted just over two hours and concerns over her thumb injury remain.

In an all-action opening to Day Two, the pick of the men's first round encounters began on Armstrong, as Tommy Haas and Richard Gasquet went head-to-head.

Two players who are clearly too old to be wearing backwards facing baseball caps (although Gasquet still looks about 17) and with extremely questionable temperaments were on display and this was not a match I would like to stake much on, but it more than lived up to expectations by going to a fifth.

Two of the best backhands in the game went toe to toe and some of the early winners coming from Gasquet's racquet from that wing were unreal.

The Frenchman won the first on a breaker before Haas levelled, but then double faulted to give Gasquet the third and at that point he looked out of it.

He stormed back to take the fourth though and it was the German who was trading at around [1.6] to take the decider. Indeed it was he who broke Gasquet's serve early in the fifth after a couple of wild errors from the number 12 seed.

While all this was going on, there was another battle royal taking place on Ashe, where Marat Safin and Vinny Spadea shared a fifth set roller coaster.

Sadly, the US commentary team were in action on this one, so I had to limit myself to watching the final game, which Safin took with an expansive forehand. Even my opt-out clause of Eurosport was covering Haas v Gasquet.

Back on Armstrong, Gasquet's resistance - such as it was - crumbled and another error handed Haas the double break. Despite blasting 70 winners, the Frenchman had hit an incredible 62 unforced errors by this point, the equivalent of two and a half free sets!

Gasquet is wonderful to watch of course, but there's surely no way he's ever going to win a slam with the lackadaisical mentality he has.

This one ended just as Bethanie Mattek was due to take to the Grandstand court and it's always worth a look to see what sort of outfit she's sporting.

This time she opted for a typically racy fuscia and black number, which was only a touch more reserved than last year's leopard skin concoction. It didn't help her cause much early on though as she went a set down after leading 5-1 in the breaker.

Serena Williams of course fancies herself as a bit of a clothes designer and she was on Ashe at the same time sporting an all red dress with matching headband in her straightforward victory over Kateryna Bondarenko.

Serena was rarely tested in a straight sets win and it's fair to say she made it look a lot easier than Ana Ivanovic had earlier in the day.

Over on Court 11, Fernando Gonzalez wasn't having a great deal of fun against Ivan Navarro, but as usual with the Chilean it was noisy and controversial.

After going two sets to love up, Gonzalez lost the next and the fourth almost went the same way after an altercation with the umpire, which followed a dodgy line call on the hawk-eye free court.

It went to a breaker in the end before the number 11 seed took it, much to the consternation of Navarro who launched his spare ball out of the arena in frustration at the end, much to the delight of the vociferous Chilean fans.

Not much to report regarding the night matches. There were straightforward wins for Federer and Venus on a day where most of the best action occurred early on.