US Open Journal

Day1

A.J. Chabria

It felt like our captain planned it for tennis fans flying into the City this morning. Approaching LaGuardia we were treated to clear, unobstructed views of the ever soulful Manhattan skyline, Belmont Park, and the New York Times' printing facility. I was lucky enough to have spied the old site of this tournament, the West Side Tennis Club with it's storied stadium. Instead of section numbah this or gate numbah that, they were known as
portals there. How genteel.

James Blake cramped up against Brian Vahaly but still managed to pull out a tough 4 setter.

Well, the first day went by without a lot of upsets. My Henin vs. Bielik matchup is on track. Both of them won in straight sets. Bielik did her home crowd proud with a decent Bill Tilden impression. She punctuated her 6-4, 6-4 win over Renata Voracova with 4 consecutive aces. If only she's held a fifth ball to toss into the crowd.

The men's draw saw its share of trouble with the warm, humid conditions. Richard Krajicek and Mario Ancic (Baby Goran) were the most notable to retire. Krajicek was up against the Czech veteran Jiri Novak. Ancic was impressive in fits and starts, but Dominik Hrbaty of the Slovak Republic proved too steady.

James Blake had a cramp or two, apparently from one particular stretching shot against Brian Vahaly, whom he'd lost to during their days at Harvard and Virginia, respectively. Blake pulled out a tough 4 setter for his first-ever W against the wild card from Atlanta.

Speaking of young Americans, Alex Bogomolov played an exhausting 5 setter against Ramon Delgado this afternoon. Alex looks and plays like a slightly shorter Jim Courier, especially now that he's grown his hair out. Having taken out Haas earlier this summer in LA, Bogie (as he's known in the States) seemed confident, especially as he led 4-2 in the fourth. Just two games from the match, he found his opponent's resolve too strong. By the fifth set, Delgado was the one jogging to changeovers, playing closer to the baseline, flattening out his groundies and hitting aces on big points. 'Sasha' Bogomolov looked like he'd forgotten all his formative years in the heat of Mexico and Miami, just trying to hang in that last set.

From a couple of player interviews, including Andy Roddick's after Arthur Ashe Kid's Day, it seems the court surface is more textured than normal this year. A grainier court will play slower and respond better to spins. This could bode well for the Europeans and South Americans...and it's not a welcome thought to guys like Blake and Sampras.


The tabloid dream match up of Alexandra Stevenson and Anna Kournikova was derailed when both lost first round matches.

Alexandra Stevenson and Anna K. both lost this afternoon, derailing our little tabloid dream match up. Anna's serve was up to its old tricks again. Her first serve found the box an impressive 82% of the time, but she was able to win less than half of those points. Worse yet, she was 0 for 9 on second serve attempts (making Widjaja look like Agassi at times) and double faulted 4 times. One second serve didn't quite make it to the net.

As she was quick to point out in the press conference, Anna constructed lots of fine points, but finished them with errors. 40 of them. Her opponent, Indonesia's Angelique Widjaja (a Wimbledon Junior champion) was as steady as she needed to be, managing just one winner (an overhead smash).

Stevenson, seeded 31 here, played a much more competitive match. Her opponent was a spunky, bespectacled Frenchwoman named Stephanie Foretz, who actually slightly resembled Alex herself. Foretz looked more at home at the net and played the cleaner match. Foretz took it 6-3 in the third.

Back to the men for a moment. Last week, Guga Kuerten and Marat Safin played a benefit exhibition on a temporary court in Grand Central Station. If Safin can get past Kiefer and Guga can avenge 2 straight losses to Julien Boutter, they'll re-match for real in round 2. Naturally, Safin and Guga practiced at the same time this afternoon, on adjacent courts. Guga played lots of midcourt balls with Larri Passos, while Safin cranked from the baseline with former tour star, Aleksandr Volkov. By the way, this was DURING Marat's sister's straight set win over Italian veteran Rita Grande.

If Guga gets by Julien Boutter, he could meet Marat Safin in the second round.

I sought out a really fun interview today. A sweet kid with a neat story, Aniko Kapros of Hungary sits atop the Lucky Loser list. She's the highest ranked player who lost in the last round of qualifiers (she dropped a 6-1 third set to Mirjana Lucic -- remember her?).

So, if a player pulls out of the main draw, Aniko's in. She and her coach practiced hard today, hopeful, but not counting on playing tomorrow. This 18 year old from Budapest is the one who upset Justine Henin at Roland Garros this year. A year ago, she was one of the top juniors in the world. Most of her game is solid, with flat, ridiculously deep groundies, but she's been roundly criticized for lacking a pro-level serve. She actually uses a bit of a forehand grip on serves and forehand volleys. Her coach believes in her technique, and pointed out that she's improved it significantly this summer, "Ees confeedanse, much bett-ter in the headt." Aniko turns nineteen this November, and is eager to play 2 upcoming ITF Futures in Bordeaux and Liepzig.

"Hopefully I can get through qualies of a few WTA tournaments after those...then it's back to Budapest...I have still a little bit of school I have to finish", she giggled.

She smiles and sounds like a young Monica Seles. She's a good, grounded kid and no doubt, the local Hungarian family housing her will miss her when she leaves. I'm certainly rooting for her, even though after seeing her at Roland Garros, I was a skeptic.

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