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Studs and Duds: Reviewing Round 3 in the US Open Men's Draw

Sep 1st 2013

Tennis View online columnist Yeshayahu Ginsburg rewinds the highlights and lowlights of the third round in men's play at the US Open.  

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal continue to march towards their seemingly inevitable quarterfinal meeting. Both look in outstanding form. Federer has yet to face someone who can really challenge him, but he has left no doubt as to why he is one of the greatest players ever with how he has blown away the competition. Rafa continues his run of amazing form and defeated a tough opponent in Ivan Dodig quickly. Rafa was not at the absolute best that he has been this summer, but he still played at an outstanding level.

Andy Murray took a little time to fully find his rhythm against Florian Mayer, but once he did he cruised through. Murray seems to be handling the pressure of being the defending champion very well. Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, decided to show why he is still the world No. 1, laying a beatdown on Joao Sousa.

Tomas Berdych

Who Looked Good:

Tomas Berdych:  Berdych looks calm and confident on court, hitting massive flat groundstrokes and beating his opponents down. In the third round, he showed the form that took him to the semifinals here last year and enabled him to defeat Federer at two different majors. If Berdych can continue his surge, he can challenge any of the top players. First he must get through Stanislas Wawrinka, though, who is rediscovering the form that he seemed to have lost for a good chunk of this year.

Janko Tipsarevic:  There was nothing overly impressive in Tipsarevic’s four-set win over Jack Sock. There was certainly nothing that should not be expected from a recent top-10 player. Tipsarevic, though,  has been struggling mightily in recent months and had not won more than two matches at the same tournament since the Australian Open. He is still not playing nearly as well as he did last year, but at least this result is a step in the right direction for him.

Tim Smyczek:  Smyczek might already be 25, but we watched him grow up before our eyes on Grandstand Court Sunday evening. Left as the last American man in the draw, Smyczek squared off against a talented veteran in Marcel Granollers. Smyczek’s small form belies his power, and he was blasting sparkling groundstrokes for outright winners from all over the court. They were as beautiful as they were surprising. And, while Smyczek could not quite get through the match, he impressed in a way that he has not done before. Hopefully this is a good portent for the future for him.

Lleyton Hewitt:  “Rusty” showed us that there still is some gas left in his tank. While his five-set win over Del Potro was amazing in its own right, this match showed something just as encouraging. Not only can Hewitt still play at a very high level, but he can do so even after playing a long match. The fact that he can play solid tennis less than 48 hours after gritting out a five-setter says something very good about his run here, not to mention his potential for however long he chooses to play.

Who Looked Bad:

John Isner:  What a difference a round makes. Isner went from moving freely and hitting good groundstrokes to, well, what he almost always does. Isner was not moving around the court as well and returned to his old, poor groundstrokes. He could not seem to relax and get into the match mentally. Even his usually reliable serve struggled at times. All in all, it was clear that Isner let some pressure get to him. Maybe he can learn and grow from this experience, but this was a very disappointing result.

Tommy Haas

Tommy Haas:  It was just a bad day at the office for Haas. There really is not that much more that you can say about it. He held a break lead early in the first set but seemed to lose his rhythm after being broken back. No matter what he tried, including handing his racket away to a fan, Haas could not find a way to get his form back. While he finally played well for a bit in the third set, it was already too late for him to get himself back in the match.

American men: It seems that American men’s tennis is always setting new record lows. This is not an indictment of all American men. Smyczek, Sock and Kudla, for example, were quite impressive this tournament. But the state of men’s tennis in America, as a whole, has been getting worse for a while now. And, by all indications, it is still headed farther in the wrong direction.

Match of the Round:

The best match this round, without a doubt, has to be the aforementioned Smyczek/Granollers match. Even though Smyczek was the last American standing, the crowd was sparse at the start. Smyczek played well from the beginning, going up a break early. He had a small lull of poor play, and in that span he lost the first set and went down a break early in the second.

The match turned, though, when Smyczek raised his level and got the crowd into it too. He broke back as raucous chants of U-S-A from the crowd arose. He then broke Granollers again, to even louder chants. The crowd really got into the match and would chant at every changeover while Smyczek was leading. Smyczek took the second set and then proceeded to serve up a bagel in the third.

Granollers managed to pick things back up and Smyczek dropped from his very high level for just a short time, allowing the Spaniard to take the fourth set. Granollers’ movement had been terrible in the third set, but he found his footing for the remainder of the match. Smyczek took an early break in the fifth, but the two competitors were very evenly matched throughout the entirety of that set. Granollers was not to be outdone, breaking back in the eighth game. The Spaniard then broke in a long game to take a 6-5 lead and served out the match with one of the set’s easiest service games.