US Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 28 August 2008 /

Sean Calvert takes you through the third day's action at Flushing Meadows.

Those hoping for a review of Anne Keothavong's stunning win over number 25 seed Francesca Schiavone will be sorely disappointed, as due to a combination of an accommodation problem and Eurosport, I was left high and dry.

For reasons only known to the production department at the channel, they chose to screen Patty Schnyder v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova instead of the battling Brit and as I was preparing to fly out to New York, I was at the mercy of the programmers for the day.

Schnyder managed a straight sets success and fortunately for all concerned, she broke her opponent for the win and didn't put us through the agony of watching her try and serve it out. I'm sure she'll save that pain for the later rounds.

I hoped that they might at least switch courts upon completion of the match, but alas that wasn't the case. However in a 'glass half full' kind of way it did give me the chance to have a look at Jo Wilfried Tsonga for the first time since May.

The Australian Open finalist has been out with a knee injury and he was up against distinctly average Spanish clay courter Santiago Ventura, who mainly plies his trade on the challenger circuit these days.

Tsonga started out looking very stiff and as if his limbs were unlikely to last the course and Ventura took full advantage by racing into a 4-1 lead, but gradually the Frenchman began to play a bit and took the first set to a breaker.

The Spaniard took it in bizarre fashion, as he played a Mansour Bahrami-style showboat shot that surprised Tsonga. Ventura turned his back on a good length shot from Tsonga with the Frenchman at net, but then in an instant turned back round and slapped it straight at Tsonga, who thought his opponent had given up the point.

Tsonga couldn't control the volley and the set was Ventura's the very next point. Very odd, but it worked for Ventura, however the market wasn't impressed and still had the Frenchman as [1.67] favourite for the match.

Ventura continued to mix up the play in a style not dissimilar to Fabrice Santoro, with odd little sliced drop shots and dinks, which made for great viewing, but it wasn't enough to prevent Tsonga taking the next two sets.

The Spaniard, who resembles an odd fusion of Vinny Spadea, Potito Starace and Fagin from Oliver Twist (the Ron Moody version), continued to plough on despite Frew McMillan in the commentary box having a prolonged pop at his questionable forehand.

Entertainment alone was never going to be enough though and Tsonga came through in four when another bludgeoning forehand finished off Ventura and, after an understandably shaky start, we did see the best of Tsonga. Lets hope he stays fit, because he's great to watch in full flow.

The penny had, by that stage, dropped as far as Eurosport's coverage was concerned - basically they just show each match on Grandstand, so what delights awaited me next I mused? A bit of Novak Djokovic perhaps?

No such luck. It was Robert Kendrick v Nicolas Mahut. I would need to have a financial interest on this one if I was to suffer it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so instead I looked up some facts about the players.

Turns out Kendrick is from Fresno in California, which is probably only of interest to me as I was once pulled for jaywalking there when exiting a concert by ageing rockers The Who.

There I was wandering aimlessly over the road in the direction of Whataburger - one of the US's finest fast food chains - when I was arbitrarily (in my view) stopped and lectured by California's boys in blue. Disgruntled and slightly deaf after a couple of loud hours in the company of Pete Townsend and co I was eventually let off with a warning, but Fresno is not a place I'll be revisiting any time soon.

Anyway, my travel problems aside, this was a rare clash between two serve and volleyers and predictably enough that being the case, the first set went to a breaker which Kendrick took.

At this point, Liverpool's attempts to qualify for the Champions League became more of a tempting proposition and as such I was forced into a defection to football for a while. Having witnessed Dirk Kuyt save the Scousers' blushes and bank balance it was back to Grandstand, where even Jo Durie was sounding rather bored with proceedings and Kendrick was two sets up.

On Ashe, Djokovic was making light work of Arnaud Clement and on Court 4, Marin Cilic was in a real scrap with Julien Benneteau, which went the distance, although I couldn't see either of the matches. Never mind, I'll have no excuse in a couple of day's time.

The Kendrick v Mahut clash did get better as it went on and Jo and Chris Bradnam were getting rather excited about the prospect of the Fresno lad scoring his first ever win in the main draw of the US Open.

He served it out with three aces to earn a four set victory and he really enjoyed that one, although he will play Djokovic next so his run should come to an end one would assume.

I would have loved to have watched Andy Roddick v Fabrice Santoro, but as that clearly wasn't possible I had to call it a night. As it turned out I would have been very disappointed with the result - a bloodless Roddick straight sets win. Lets hope that's not the last we see of 'The Magician' on tour.

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