Bringing on the Heat

As I type this, Andy Roddick is facing Gilles Muller, the tough lefty from Luxembourg. In the highlight match of the night session, Muller forced a tiebreak and won it after being down 2-5 at one point in the first set.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is the second day of the US Open, and much has already happened. For one thing, New York's heat is taking its toll on the players, but some of them feel it more than others. Maria Sharapova was sweating buckets in yesterday's match against Eleni Daniilidou, but won convincingly in straight sets. Akiko Morigami, however, lost versus Nicole Pratt and had to be carted away in a wheelchair due to extreme cramping caused by the heat. Michael Llodra topped Morigami by fainting on his way to the locker room after retiring against Carlos Moya.

Svetlana Kuznetsova made history yesterday by being the second defending women's champion from Russia to lose in the first round this year, falling to countrywoman Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3,6-2. Kuznetsova said afterwards, "What do I do? Kill myself? I'll just take the positive things out of this and maybe I'll try to learn." It is, however, definitely a disappointing follow-up for her after coming from out of nowhere last year to win the Open.

Sania Mirza is another woman who has been making history all year. She made a triumphant run up to the third round at the Australian Open, got to the second round at Wimbledon, and now she's become the first Indian woman to win a match at the US Open. If Star Sports had gotten the rights to cover the US Open and Vijay Amritraj were commentating, he'd be crowing about it even during the other women's matches.

Routine wins for Roger Federer (def. Ivo Minar 6-1,6-1,6-1) and Justine Henin-Hardenne (def. Zuzana Ondraskova 6-3,6-0). The really newsworthy match has been the upset engineered by James Blake over Greg Rusedski 7-5,7-6(3),6-3. After a year of tragedy (freak neck injury and a death in the family), Blake is back. The last time I saw him play at the Open, he had dreadlocks and lost in a pretty close match against Lleyton Hewitt in 2002. He's worked himself back into fighting form over the sumer hardcourt season, winning the title in New Haven last week and making the final at Washington.

Now we're up to speed, and the Roddick-Muller match is now into its third set. Muller has brought the heat in his serves and groundstrokes, and it was all Roddick could do to keep from getting broken in the second set. Current score is Muller 7-6,7-6, and the tension radiating from my TV screen is palpable.

UPDATE: Muller's heat is too much for The Rocket Man to handle. Muller defeats Roddick in a resounding 7-6,7-6,7-6 victory.

This match reminded me very much of Roddick's loss to Paul-Henri Mathieu at Montreal earlier this August. Except, of course, that Muller is a lefty.

Roddick could have scored a huge psychological victory against Muller in the first set had he been able to serve it out (he was up 5-3). Getting the break back probably gave Muller the confidence boost he needed. Knowing that the Roddick serve could be broken, Muller then began playing out of his mind. A well-deserved victory for young Gilles, but a puzzling loss for Andy.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 9:24 AM