serena williams is a man. listen to her grunt when she hits the ball.

man i hope everyone is watching nadal vs. monfils. This is some really entertaining tennis!

Excellent match!!

Nadal outlasts Monfils in 4 sets, Monfils just ran out of gas...

It's really good to see Nadal back, tennis definitely missed him this summer.

I'm looking forward to a del Potro/Nadal semifinal, and the winner of that probably playing Federer.

That first set of Nadal/Monfils last night was 5 star tennis. Regardless of how the 1st set ended, I knew that Monfils was expending all his adrenaline and emotion RIGHT THEN to try and take the 1st set, but would have nothing left for later. It worked, but I went to bed knowing Nadal was mentally tougher and would probably have little trouble rounding out a nice 4 set victory.

All matches looking solid now with only top players remaining.

Fed/Djoko & Nadal/DelPo Semis

Fed/Nadal Finals

Nadal really showed last night the edge mental toughness brings to the table. He was not the best athlete out there last night, he was not the hardest hitter, etc. But his mental toughness gave him the edge.

As far as my Murray comment...he is not aggressive enough. He may have all the tools in the world suited for the hard court game but sometimes you have to hit winners instead of waiting for your opponent to hit an unforced error.

Monfils is still soft. All that bravado was a bluff, and Nadal called him on it. If his ab holds up, we could be looking at an epic Fed/Rafa final.

Personally, I was very pleased to see Murray and Tsonga go down as well. Hate their attitudes.

ce....how was nadal not the better athlete out there? He had better footwork and endurance than monfils, even after the long break

Monfils was faster and stronger. Yes, he did not have the endurance but I am strictly talking about speed and power. Nothing against Nadal because he is a supreme athlete. It is just from what I saw last night that Monfils was faster and stronger. Endurance not so much.

yeah, just like how Nadal said after the match that he would hit shots that were usually winners, but the balls just kept coming back. Monfils is definitely one of the quickest players on the tour, he just needs to work on endurance and possibly another strategy other than hitting through his opponents.

Oudin just got torn up by Wozniacki, 6-2 6-2. She basically just hit cheese the entire time and waited for Oudin to make an error, good strategy.

Cilic should pull off the upset of Del Potro today, and I am hoping for a good match between him and Rafa on Saturday. Fed may get a run for his money if he makes the final, but if he plays like he did last night, its his.

As for the women....PLEASE GOD let Kim beat Serena. Please.

Oudin:
please step to the side, your 15 minutes is up.

BELIEVE!

Let's go Kim!!

Oudin will be back, dont you worry. She may be the future of American tennis. I hope she lives up to it

She may be the future of American tennis
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then we are in a sheatload of trouble.

What do you think about the status of American junior and pro tennis on the women's side piag? Who should we be hanging our hopes on? Where is the next wave of women coming from that we will have to compete with?

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then we are in a sheatload of trouble.

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Oudian has plenty of ability and plenty of tools to become an excellent player. Does she have work to do? Plenty of it. But, the potential is there.

so how much will the suspension of play screw over nadal or gonzalez?

I think it depends...

Nadal has a chance to take complete control and try to get off the court quick...or he'll find himself locked into a long battle.

If he gets off quick, it won't be a big deal, imo.


For Gonzalez, there's no good way about it. He's got to go long or he is going home.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 9/11/2009 12:13a).]

Crap. this rain delay may force the Mrs. to delay CFB tomorrow. Clear it up storm Gods!

Did anyone just see how the Serena/Clijsters match just finished?!

Clijsters up a set at 5-6 in the second, 15-30 on serena's serve (so 2 points away from the match)... The line judge calls a foot fault on Serena's second serve, so this gives Clijsters two match points. Serena goes over to the line judge and apparently says something like "I'll shove my racket down your throat." Chair umpire steps in, calls the match right there. Crazy.

I never really liked her in the first place, but the way Serena handled that really disappoints me. Absolutely ridiculous. True, the foot fault should have never been called, but the way Serena reacted is not the way a champion should act.

Winning titles doesn't give you character. Serena has always been an ill-tempered brat who is all smiles and baby voice when things are going her way and when they're not...you get this. Anyone would have been mad in the same situation, but Serena really showed her true character tonight.

[This message has been edited by Harry Dunne (edited 9/12/2009 10:54p).]

A foot fault is a foot fault, plain and simple. That line judge has a job to do, and she did it. If she foot faulted, it has to be called, thats the rules of the game. You cant say it was over-officiating or it wasnt the right time to call it. So when its the last point and a ball is close but out, should the line judge not step in and call it out? No.

For the record, the match did not end on a default because she yelled at the line judge, it was because she got a point penalty for yelling at her, and it happened to be on match point.

Serena showed her true character tonight, and thats what she gets. Sucks for Kim, she didnt get to enjoy the win like she should have.

Very true. And I've felt she and her sister both have always been sore losers and ungracious winners. You would think being a professional for a while now that she would have matured and handled this better. Even in her press conference right after the match, she was being a complete brat. Disappointed.

she said she didn't remember what she said...whatever, I don't believe that for a second. At least you could clearly hear it on the replay!

it's just so stupid to do that on match point...but whatever, i think clijsters would have won it anyway

She said "I will come over there and shove this f***ing ball down your f***ing throat." The line judge was a small asian girl and she felt threatened, which is understandable. She went to the officials. I have a feeling that the USTA will get involved and we could see some serious punishment for her. It was uncalled for and very unprofessional.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/tennis/09/13/us.open.serea.clijsters/index.html?cnn=yes

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"If I could, I would take this ... ball and shove it down your ... throat and kill you"

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Threatening officials with death is generally considered unsportsmanlike conduct.

what was she thinking? cameras, microphones, fans, officials, etc. all there to witness this. is she really going to try to play dumb and say it didn't happen?

i always like venus better anyway.

i will say this.... i have watched a large portion of the Open, not every match, but more than most... and I only saw the Williams sisters penalized for foot faults.

Doesn't mean others weren't, I just didn't see a single one outside of Venus and Serena. She lost her cool and there's no excuse for what she did right there, but it was a pretty BS call.

that was about the same lines of calling a walk in game 7 of the NBA finals. It just isn't done and to decide to do it right at that moment when it's been going on the entire series is just stupid. I'd have felt the same way if it had happened to Clijsters.

I feel bad for Clijsters. At least Williams went over and handled that part of the defeat graciously.


[This message has been edited by c-jags (edited 9/13/2009 8:08a).]

The only bad thing was that it detracted from Kim's win. She'd won the first set and was going to win the second regardless. I absoultely can not stand either Venus and Serena and it was so nice to see the diva put in her place. And if you watch the replay it was unquestionably a foot fault. to Serena's credit she was uncharacteristicly gracious in defeat.