US Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 03 September 2008 /

Sean Calvert is treated to rare sights and excellent tennis on his last day at the US Open.

Day nine of the 2008 US Open was my last chance this year to catch the action at first hand and I could not have wished for a better final day's play.

It had it all; two five set marathons and the rare sight of Federer almost losing the plot.

It was another scorcher in New York on Tuesday, but with some top quality matches to be played there was no hiding place for me and Ashe was my first port of call for Novak Djokovic v Tommy Robredo.

Another early start purely to witness Elena Dementieva and Patty Schnyder - surely two of the game's flakiest individuals - swap breaks of serve held little appeal in the lunchtime sun, so Djokovic v Robredo it was.

I thought that Nole might struggle in the heat and he certainly looked off colour in the first set, which Robredo deservedly took.

The sight of Djokovic calling for the trainer means very little, as the Serbian has more mid-match health complaints than Dot Cotton and today was no exception.

This time it appeared to be some sort of illness, but without wishing to sound cynical, it didn't seem to affect him too much in sets two and three, which he took and when he went a break up in the fourth it looked like game over for Robredo.

The Spaniard had other ideas though and played some superb tennis to force a decider.

I must confess that I watched at least two sets of this encounter on the big screen from underneath a shade providing tree due to the heat and at one point I nipped over to Court Four to catch a rare live glimpse of some legends of the game.

It's a source of some concern to me that I'm clearly getting old, as it only seems like five minutes ago that I was watching one of the four on the tv in the women's singles.

Hana Mandlikova was partnering Ilie Nastase against Stan and Anne Smith, which was definitely worth perusing for a few minutes, although I did manage to get involved in an altercation with the steward on the way in for my trouble.

The match - such as it was, the players were barely moving - was over quickly so I returned to my tree in time to watch Djokovic defy his ailments to prevail in the deciding set.

It took almost four hours though and appeared to take a lot out of the number three seed in addition to playing havoc with the schedule.

Federer was due on next and unless he breezed past Igor Andreev, Day Nine was going to be long - very long.

The Swiss lost the opener on a tie-break after Andreev failed to serve it out at 5-4 and at that point I had a look over the top rail of Ashe in the direction of Armstrong to see what the situation was with Nikolay Davydenko v Gilles Muller.

I'm not sure what's got into the giant from Luxembourg this tournament, but he is serving huge and this time it was the Russian who was in trouble at two sets to one down.

As I had tipped the number five seed to go well at a big price before the event, I felt some level of duty was required regarding his progress, so I hot-footed it to Armstrong where there were pretty much courtside seats available. He's never been that popular has Davydenko.

He did have three set points at 5-4 in the fourth though and yet another five setter beckoned for Muller, but that serve got him through and Davydenko was getting riled.

It went to a breaker, which produced some thrilling tennis and Davy's temper became even more frayed when Muller hit him in the back of the head with a ball after missing a shot.

Realising he was giving away about a foot in height and around three stone, Davydenko declined to get involved further, but it never looked like he was going to prevail and so it proved with the racquet taking the brunt of the Russian's disappointment at the end.

Back on Ashe and Federer had taken the second set on another breaker despite Andreev posting some great stats. He couldn't take advantage of any of seven break point chances though, which cost him in the end.

The number 23 wasn't done despite also losing the third set as he stormed back to take the fourth to the despair of Federer, who displayed more emotion in that one set and early in the decider than I have seen from him in his entire career.

Smashing the ball into the net, screaming in both frustration and delight and moaning to the umpire about flash photography were all signs of how much this event means to him and his relief was palpable when he eventually won it 6-3 to go through to face Muller.

The game went so long that Jankovic v Bammer had to be switched to Armstrong, which in turn meant that Jamie Murray was shunted out to Court 7, but the Scot did at least make it through to the mixed doubles final with partner Liezel Huber.

With an early flight to catch on Wednesday, I declined to hang around for Andy Roddick v Fernando Gonzalez and I would have been disappointed anyway as the American cruised through in three to face Djokovic in what could be a classic.

So, that's it for me for this year and it's back to Eurosport's coverage as of tomorrow. How depressing, but it's been a great week here in New York and my highs and lows of Flushing Meadows will follow tomorrow.

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