Flushing Meadows: At last, Tennis IS Served...

I'm just about to leave the Zvonareva Penetta match at one set all.

They're doing this weird thing where they actually play tennis.

With what's gone on in the womens draw, I didn't think I'd see any of that this week.

But seriously now.

Every point is being played at a relentless pace with little or no UFEs. Double faults are not in season.

Just long, scrumptious rallies where every other shot hits the line.

Would you think I was getting carried away if I said that whoever wins here is a contender for the title?

Flavia's getting what's probably the world's most deserved back massage; the sight of which for once doesn't repel me.

Flushing Meadows: On Depth and Despair...

"It's tough. I don't know if I've come to a tournament, a Slam, with as much confidence as I did with this tournament and leaving earlier than I want to.

"The fact that I was able to make the quarter-finals last year and I was playing just terrible, and didn't make it past the third round this year, that's just the way it is sometimes.

"That's the thing with sports - there's not always a good reason for it."

Andy Roddick's summation of a day in which he was eventually downed in a 5th set breaker after coming back from two sets down against John Isner.

The funny thing was it seemed a strangely appropriate result in a day that saw both Federer and Djokovic drop sets en route to unconvincing wins, and a day of utter carnage over on the women's side.

But it's also ironic, is it not, that Roddick ended up a casualty having been one of the only seeds managing to play to form.

I've never been hugely thrilled with the tennis the Isners and Ivos bring to bear, having previously termed them the 'wandering monsters' of tennis; but I think that John, on this occasion, deserves his dues.

(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Visibly fatigued in set four, he could quite reasonably have thrown in the towel, and that's what I thought I was seeing as he squandered point after point off of what should have been meat and veg forehands.

But he quickly composed himself and stuck in there with his uncomplicated blend of big serving and aggressive net play, and in the end was fully deserving of his win. He even whipped off his cap at the end to reveal the look of that likeable lad you went to school with, that your mum insisted you spend more time with, after spending over four hours wandering around looking like an uninvested, and uninvestable cyborg.

"Looking at that match, I don't know who was number four in the world," said Djokovic said. "It was a tough win. For either one it would have been well deserved."

A month or so ago I dismissed the assertion made by a commentator that Djoko was adopting the look and feel of a 'grinder' in this second phase of his career. Now I'm not so sure.

As great a game as Witten played (and yes this is more evidence of the depth in men's tennis), Djoko no longer plays with the same care-free, free-swinging attitude, at the peak of which he was able to hit the lines without so much as an afterthought. It's all a little too measured, which is goes against the grain of his natural flair.

When he does manage to hit a winner these days, it's played with such a large margin for error, that you needn't be a top ten or even a top one hundred player in order to bring about turmoil.

Shame, really. With his supposedly more aggressive style of play, I still find myself preferring to watch him over Murray or even Nadal when he's in his element. But he's not going to win a Masters event, let alone a Slam, playing like this.

And so we come to Safina.

After the totalling of top seeds we've witnessed over the past few days, there were those that thought this might be the event that finally saw Safina buck the trend.

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

It seems cheap and kind of desperate to say I told you so. But I did tellyaso.

That she perhaps had the easiest section of the draw somehow appropriately adds to the tragedy of it all.

Whatever gameplan Zeljko and Safina have forged is in urgent need of reexamination. It may have been, and probably was completely appropriate for her route to world #1. But as we are all now painfully aware, staying there is another proposition altogther. And on the evidence of the last few weeks things have all but run their course.

That said, Safina's still a very talented player fully capable of flourishing in a pestelential field of ne'er-do-wells.

Yeah I said it.

She's also an extremely hard worker, and it would be unfair to suggest that she can't work her way out of this. If this week has taught us anything, it's that Williamses aside, there's not a whole lot of depth to contend with, over which it won't take much for her to resurface.

Though I'll make no attempts to conceal that after spending the best part of this year trying to prop up the remaining dregs of talent in the womens game, a small part of me now wants to return to the B & B of derision and hostility.

I may as well also say that I was almost wishing for a non-Williams victory at this last remaining Slam of the year. Such a result would demonstrate that there's some life, however microbial, beyond the Williamses and bring about a curbing, if not an end, to certain rankings-related discussions and all derivations thereof.

There seemed to be a certain something in the air with the KimPova comeback, and the electricity of some of Elena and Vika's performances this year, that convinced me I wasn't being unrealistic.

Now I'm thinking that that 'something in the air' is a stench emerging from that cesspit of despair they used to call womens tennis. The depth of which some folk strangely continue to believe is what lies behind all the carnage.

Flushing Meadows: Melanie Oudin - Bane of Russian Tennis

(Photo: AP)

I like pint-sized players that punch beyond their weight class. So I've no qualms about offering my props to Oudin, but this one was painful to watch.

I'd barely gotten over the angst of losing Azarenka - a blow only softened by the fact that she couldn't have gone out to a nicer player.

But watching Shaza flounder her way through to 21 double faults and around 60 UFEs was a different order of angst altogether.

I don't begrudge Melanie or the American crowd their moment in the sun, but did anyone else find the cheering of every one of those double faults and UFEs in the closing stages of the match a little much? Especially considering the way Shaza was struggling with her arm.

That said, Melanie is exactly the kind of player the tour needs - she's versatile, moves well, and on the evidence of this week is not afraid to step it up - a craft she seems to be honing at the expense of Russian tennis. Beware Nadia.

On the evidence of this match though, we'd be right to consider the question of whether Shaza's shoulder's likely to be a recurring problem. She's not the first and won't be the last player to have their career affected by a shoulder injury. Let's hope it doesn't wreck it.

Flushing Meadows: "Deserving" Causes?

Shvedova d. Jankovic 6-3, 6-7, 7-6

I hadn't closely observed much of JJ in her opening match, so I didn't quite know what to expect when she stepped out yesterday opposite Yeroslava Shvedova.

What I didn't realise is just how hopeless JJ would play for the first half of the match.

The commentators were left speechless at how sluggish and disinterested she looked out there, eventually terming her performance 'a disgrace'.

Quite unlike that of Safina who, her recent wobbles not withstanding, at least looked willing to fight her way out of trouble, coming back from another one of those poor opening sets - one which ended with another unfortunate double fault I've now learnt to treat in the way I sometimes tolerate klunky Hollywood dialogue, or Tom Cruise delivering it..

I heard later that JJ's grandmother had just passed away; with that knowledge, the way she attempted to turn things around really deserves recognition.

By the last set her trademark defence, mysteriously absent for a set and a half, was back, perhaps recalled from from a state of stupour by the demands of the woman on the other side of the net.

It really did require what some are terming a career performance from Shvedova to break JJ down. But break her she did.

It perhaps wouldn't have been a thrilling experience watching JJ stumble her way through unconvincingly, had fate not intervened. As it stands I can only offer up condolences and hope for her speedy return. She seemed all set to go after Cincy.

Safina d. Barrois 6-7, 6-2, 6-3

If you can bring yourself to ignore the '15' doubles -- something now almost deserving of jacket status -- you should perhaps admire the gutsiness of her performance, in the way many commentators were almost falling over each other to yesterday.

I'm still finding it rather tough to swallow. The problem with staging turnarounds, the like of which she did with such staggering success against bigger and better opponents last year, is that her game is not on the same upward spiral. You just get the feeling that one of these testy three set encounters might prove a match too far.

Djokovic d. Ball 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

"It's only a game mate"

Great performance, but perhaps a little too much enthusiasm shown by Djoko in victory?

(Photo:AP)

He's been a regular feature of the second week in Slams over the last few years, seemingly having little trouble getting there. Just why he found such highly charged bouts of self berating necessary (not to mention the animalistic chest pumping), after going two sets up against an opponent ranked 151 places beneath him, I'm not sure I quite understand.

Ball looked like someone who'd come out for a pleasant Sunday afternoon hit, and ended up getting his hair scorched by straying too close to the dragon's den.

Has someone on his team called for a return of all of what we found so indefensible? He's not been the player he was ever since he toned things down - but I'm not sure I care too much for the shadow that's left behind.

Oudin d. Dementieva 5-7, 6-4, 6-3

Not quite ready to deal with this. The biggest, baddest upset of the tournament by far. And the greatest disappointment.

Oudin is a superb player as evidenced by her upset of Jankovic at Wimby this year.

Difference is that Jankovic hasn't been in the same place Dementieva has for much of this year.
And ever since Wimbledon, Elena seemed ripe for Slam success.

Now I'm inclined to think of her as over-ripened, and destined for precisely nothing.

That may be over stating it a little.

But Dementieva really should have gotten through this if we are to take the "best tennis of her career" that seriously.

There was a sizeable window of opportunity available after Henin's departure last year, but with Kimmie and Shaza back, and a brute of a brigade of younger players making their way up the rankings, it's quite possible Elena, Jelena and Dinara have missed their best chance.

Flushing Meadows: 'Greul Rules' and 'Kimmie Flujstered'

Federer d. Greul 6-4, 7-5, 7-5

"It's better to burn out than to fade away"

There's nothing I like more than seeing a journeyman rise to the occasion.

'Unintimidated' doesn't quite capture the way in which Simon Greul stepped out on Arthur Ashe yesterday without apparently having read the script.



After having lost the first two sets you might have expected him to fade away.

Instead he kept up the free swinging, easy-reeling attitude of the first two sets racing quickly to a 3-0 lead.

Just look at the aggressive way in which Greul steps in to receive serve in the above clip. That's not an aberration. He did it throughout the match making over half of his returns from inside the baseline.

Fed closed it out in three, superbly I thought, given the competition. Don't see anyone beating him in this form.

Clijsters d. Bartoli 5-7, 6-1, 6-2

Clijsters looked flujstered.

I don't know whether it was Bartoli's notorious double-handed flatballing that broke up Kimmie's usually secure, free-flowing rhythm, but for a set and a half she really did look like she'd been out of action for two years. The amount of errors she leaked from that forehand was not at all like the player we've seen over the last month or so.

Lucky for her, Marion suffered a leg injury that seemed to be responsible for the drop in level over the next two sets.

Whatever else you might say about Bartoli, she's not one for 'bum' massages (every pun intended), and it might all have been so very different had that leg held up.

Lucky escape for Kimmie from a match-up I don't believe suits her very well; here's hoping she's expunged all her worst UFEs in this match.

Flushing Meadows: Swings, Roundabouts and See-Saws too

Safina d. Rogowska 6-7, 6-2, 6-4

I'd like to say that Safina's dismal first round showing is the early round wobble the top seeds sometimes suffer as they try and acclimatise to Slam conditions.

Unfortunately that's not what I think we are seeing. She's been in turmoil ever since she lost that final in Cincy to Jankovic two weeks back.

To be fair to her, her young Aussie opponent really did play out of her skin, but her game is now bordering crisis mode, and though I sometimes like to see her grit her way through, I could do without the see saw encounters I expect in the next few rounds.

A see-saw I wouldn't be that surprised to see her fall off before week two.

Yes, as early as that.

Sharapova d. Pironkova 6-3, 6-0

Shaza's one way smackdown of Pironkova yesterday was as much about the great disparity in the standards of their serves as it was down to any difference in class.

Andy Murray could do far worse than watch replays of that second set as a source of motivation to improve his Pironkova-like second serve. Shaza dealt with it like I sometimes deal with stray spiders on my ceiling.

(EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

The good news is that Shaza's serve is beginning to look more dangerous and leaking less double faults. It's still not, and may never be the wonder of the world it was three years back.

But a side profile in a slow-mo replay yesterday showed that it's a robust, sound and repeatable action - not the atrocity some would have you believe. If there's any remaining rust, it's solely down to match practice, not to any fundamental mechanical flaw you might ascribe to -- oh I dunno -- Dinara Safina?

Djokovic d. Ljubicic 6-3, 6-1, 6-3

So much is always made of the coach they used to share three or so years back. And how that shared relationship might play mental gymnastics with both their thought processes during the match.

It didn't yesterday, and I daresay never has, especially considering Djoko's ascent more or less followed (by nearly a year) Ivan's decline.

Murray d. Gulbis 7-5, 6-3, 7-5

After a very promising first set in which Gulbis showed us once again why he's so many people's pick for the top ten, this match descended into an exhibition of Murray more or less watching and waiting for Gulbis to leak errors which he did. Which he tends to do an awful lot of.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Murray was as passive as ever, especially during set two, but I don't honestly believe he'd be better served by playing Gulbis in any other way - not unless Ernie plays an absolute corker from beginning to end, which I only ever saw him do once in RG.

It's the reason I think Ernie has only ever managed to take a single set off of Andy in three meetings.

Jankovic d. Vinci 6-2, 6-3

I didn't see much of this but JJ looked to be in control, just the way the scoreline suggests. Though it must have helped that Vinci didn't seem to display the Rogowska-like resistance Safina had to contend with.

K. Bondarenko d. Ivanovic 2-6, 6-3, 7-6

I only caught the last few moments of this and Ana's forehand looked horrible.

That probably serves as a good indication of the way this match went, and of where her tennis is right now, for her forehand once used to be my favourite in the womens game.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Going down in the first round of a Slam also marks her official installation into the tier-two of womens tennis. I can't find anything more hopeful or understanding to say right now so I won't.

Flushing Meadows: I'm not Yoking...

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Williams d. Dushevina 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3

I didn't see it at first, but Vera Dushevina is a female Soderling of sorts.

Stiff movement.

Big first serve.

Straight-arm, deep sledgehammer groundies she uses to take it to, and sometimes to out hit, the big babes.

Inconsistent, but she really ought to improve upon that #47 ranking.

Venus, or rather Richard, reveals her bad knee has been plaguing her for about "five or six weeks".

I can't say she was my pick this time round anyway, and this certainly accounts for a lot of those errors; but equally, I do think Vera has an underrated ability to stay in rallies with some heavy counterpunching of her own - rallies Venus is normally expected to win in about three shots.