One week into the US Open and already we've seen a number of big names lose to lesser known players, quite shocking actually but let me review the week.
The 4th Round in the women's draw is filled but some major names are missing from the top half. Dinara Safina was shockingly beaten by Petra Kvitova, something that I never thought would happen seeing Safina's run at Grand Slams. However Safina was really pushing it as in the first two rounds she had two three setters against lowly ranked players.
This now means the section of Safina/Jankovic is now missing a seed, players being; Kvitova, Wickmayer, K.Bondarenko and Dulko. Of course that brings me to Ivanovic's loss to Kateryna Bondarenko and Jankovic's loss to Yaroslava Shvedova - both quite shocking. In fact by Round 3 most of the seeds in that section had been beaten (besides Safina who was then defeated in Round 4).
The second quarter also lost some big names. Melanie Oudin now fills the spot of what would have been Elena Dementieva's or Maria Sharapova's. Melanie beat both big Russian names and will now play Nadia Petrova, if she manages to beat Petrova she may play another Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova. Personally I thought Dementieva would have made the semis but I thought Safina would make the final, oh well. However Caroline Wozniacki and Svetlana Kuznetsova have saved the seeds grace by beating their opponents in straight sets and meeting in the 4th Round. It'll be quite interesting to see who will make the finals out of these 8 especially who'll make the semis out of Kvitova/Wickmayer/Bondarenko/Dulko.
The bottom half has also lost some big names. Victoria Azarenka lost out in the 3rd Round to Francesca Schiavone - so annoyed I took her out of my fantasy tennis team! lol. Na Li! Yeah she's made the 4th Round also. Of course Agnieszka Radwanska would have been in the Na Li spot if she had won her matches; another shocking (but less shocking) loss. Kim Clijsters is fighting strong but she'll have to face Venus Williams in the 4th Round to book her place in the QF's. If she does make it past she could reach the semis.
The last quartet hasn't been plagued by that many shocks, the biggest shocks were probably Amelie Mauresmo's loss to Aleksandra Wozniak and Samantha Stosur losing to Vania King - considering Stosur has been playing perfectly recently. Of course that now means Flavia Pennetta is in the 4th Round - YEAH YEAH YEAH! Hopefully she can progress even further. Hope this is the last of the shocks as if more shocks occur we may for the first time have no Top 10 players in the semis!
The men's haven't suffered as much but there has been a few shocks. The first quartet has gone to the plan of the top seeds with all 4 making the 4th Round. That was nearly emulated by the second quartet if not for the loss of Andy Roddick to fellow American John Isner - I knew Isner would do something big soon; so annoying that I can't chose him on my fantasy tennis team. I was slightly shocked when Mikhail Youzhny lost to Marco Chiudinelli, as I'm a fan of Youzhny.
The bottom half haven't completed their third round matches but most of the big names are still their. Murray/Nadal/Del Potro/Tsonga/Simon are still in contention. Of course there have been some losses e.g. David Ferrer, Stanislas Wawrinka and Ivo Karlovic. Of course Marat Safin lost in the 1st Round to Jurgen Melzer and completes his career sadly without a blast, a great player that should be honoured for his achievements (though he definitely had potential to be even greater).
All in all the men's draw hasn't suffered as much from shocks so hopefully this will be the last of them. But for once the seeds seem to be showing their weight in the mixed doubles.
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