US Open - finals

I know it's already Thursday but before today I wasn't in the mood for writing a new post on the blog following this 2012 US Open. University stuff is taking me a lot of time, among other things, so it's today at 1:22 pm that I'm writing my review about the last US Open. Yeah in English this time, because I found interesting my most read posts are in English and refer to last year's tournament in New York.

So, let's start for women's final. With no surprise it was a match between the top-ranked Victoria Azarenka and the one that's probably the female player in a better shape lately - the home-idol Serena Williams.

Honestly, at first sight I thought Serena would win in two sets. Her game is just too good for almost every player in the circuit (and when I say almost, I mean +95%) and Vika wasn't playing that good in Flushing Meadows.
However, it surprised me to see how Azarenka won the second set and almost served it out in the third one! She had her chances there - and deserved it - but you just can't waste a service game that gives you the title when you have an highly motivated Serena Williams on the other side of the net.

And that's it, Serena Williams won her fourteenth Major (third in New York), her second Slam in 2012 - becoming the first player since 2010 until nowadays to win two Majors. She also won the Gold Medal in the middle of her "trip" from London to New York, which gives her the status of GOAT in the actual circuit. She's already 30 years old, 31 soon actually, but if she keeps her shape she will win much more Majors in the following years.
About Azarenka, she confirmed her status of top-ranked. With an Australian Open title and an US Open final so far, among many other titles including a winning streak of 26 by the start of the season, she's definitely  a true world number 1. Finally!

Now, I'll leave here my reflection on men's final. What could have been a boring-as-hell final turned up to be a very interesting match in what concerns about the final winner (the tennis level wasn't always at the top of what it had been last year, for example).

Since the beginning I've always said that I was rooting for Nole (as I always do) but if Murray wins I'd be happy as well. He already deserved so much a Grand Slam title, and after his loss in Wimbledon and his Gold medal this really had to be his time. And it was.
Murray started to winning the first two sets. Nole could perfectly have won the first set in a 20 point tie-break, and in the second he came back from 2-5 down and equalized at 5 all just to lose the next two games afterwards; however, it was really Andy Murray who was one set away of this first Major.
On the next two sets, Nole elevated his level (and the wind decreased its) and everyone remembered last year's semi-final when he turned up a 0-2 sets lead by Roger Federer to go through the final and winning it.

As I was saying, Djokovic won those two sets and equalized at 2 all. At that point I thought "well if Andy loses now, it will be a huge deception for him. He does deserves this title, come on!". Well actually I thought about going bed because the following day I had to be awake at 8 to go to the uni, but I ended up knowing the final score before falling asleep.
So, Andy Murray won his first Major in Flushing Meadows and he really deserved. It's amazing what Ivan Lendl has done! Obviously I'm sad for Nole but he's doing a good year as well and he already won there so...

This is the first year since 2003 that each Major is won by a different player - the first season since Nadal-Federer's dominance, then. And I also found another stat: this season, each Slam was won by the player ranked in its calendar order. Don't you understand? Take a look:

1st Major: Australian Open. Winner: Novak Djokovic (ranked #1 at the time);
2nd Major: Roland Garros. Winner: Rafael Nadal (ranked #2 at the time);
3rd Major: Wimbledon. Winner: Roger Federer (ranked #3 at the time);
4th Major: US Open. Winner: Andy Murray (ranked #4 at the time).

It's also true that today none of them keeps their ranking, but it's a strange curiosity.

That's it. Cheers,
Pedro Mendes

US Open - previsão das semi-finais

Já estamos muito perto do final da edição de 2012 do Open dos Estados Unidos. Começam hoje a serem disputadas as semi-finais - primeiro as femininas, e amanhã as masculinas.

No quadro feminino, a única surpresa nas meias-finais é a presença de Sara Errani. Não é propriamente uma surpresa, visto a pequena italiana já ter alcançado uma final de um Major este ano, mas considerando  a secção do quadro onde estava apontaria muito mais para a presença da nº6 Angelique Kerber nesta fase, por exemplo.

Porém, é mesmo a pequena italiana uma das quatro tenistas que lutará por um lugar na final; temo é que não terá muitas hipóteses desta vez, visto a sua adversária ser nada mais nada menos que Serena Williams, finalista no ano passado e protagonista de uma época em relva perfeita - e uma preparação para o US Open também perto desse nível. Desta vez não me parece que a Errani ganhe sequer um set, mas tudo pode acontecer...

Já a outra meia-final é um sempre interessante duelo entre Victoria Azarenka e Maria Sharapova, vencedoras dos dois primeiros Slams da temporada e ambas líderes do ranking em pelo menos uma altura da temporada - Vika esteve desde o Open da Austrália até ao Open de França e voltou ao topo no final de Wimbledon, enquando Masha assegurou o seu regresso à liderança após vencer Roland Garros. Será um duelo renhidíssimo mas se tivesse de apostar, iria para uma vitória de Sharapova devido à sua experiência e forma recente - apesar de as condições de jogo não prejudicarem, de todo, a bielorrussa.

Já no quadro feminino, são umas meias-finais relativamente surpreendentes as que estão agendadas para amanhã. Andy Murray e Novak Djokovic confirmaram os seus estatutos de pré-designados e de favoritos à vitória final e estão a um encontro da final, mas os seus adversários não são propriamente os esperados.

Murray, campeão olímpico em título e finalista na última edição de Wimbledon (além de já ter chegado à final em Flushing Meadows em 2008 quando perdeu para Roger Federer), terá como adversário não o campeoníssimo suiço que derrotou nos Olímpicos e pelo qual foi derrotado no All England Club (pronto, os JO também se realizaram no terreno do 3º Major do ano mas vocês perceberam) mas sim Tomàs Berdych, que surpreendentemente derrotou o antigo penta-campeão em Flushing Meadows em quatro sets e à noite! Será certamente um grande encontro, e imprevisível.

O outro encontro é entre Novak Djokovic e David Ferrer. Não é propriamente surpreendente Ferrer chegar às meias-finais visto já o ter feito em 2007 (e ser o 4º cabeça-de-série), mas considerando que o piso é hardcourt e o valenciano não é conhecido por ser bom em piso rápido apostaria mais rapidamente no Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ou até mesmo no Janko Tipsarevic ou John Isner para lutar com o Nole pelo lugar na final. Ferrer resistiu, e lá estará ele amanhã a defrontar o campeão em título.

É tudo. Cumprimentos,

Pedro Mendes