US.7- GAME. Set. Match.

How nice were Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams today, huh? I mean, they really cut down on the amount of time we had to sit and watch their 4th Round match.

Of course, this wasn't because of some brilliant WTA marketing decision or a series of quick, classic games on a sunny Sunday afternoon. No, it was because the two traded off playing like crap so that the first two sets went by in a flash. Clijsters won the 1st at 6-0, then Venus took the 2nd by the same 6-0 score. The less said about those two sets the better. What was noteworthy was that, in just under an hour of court time, things had already advanced to the 3rd set.

There, Venus threw in a double-fault to help break herself, with Clijsters going up 2-1. While the two squared off in the six games that immediately followed, nothing really changed. Both were finally playing the same sport at the same time, but Venus couldn't make up the difference on the scoreboard and Clijsters never let down enough to give up her early advantage.

Finally, serving for the match and the QF at 5-4, the entire match came down to one game for Clijsters. With the pressure on, could she come through? Which Clijsters would finish the match, the one who was on a ten-match U.S. Open winning streak dating back four years, or the one who'd previously crumbled in the clutch so many times at slams that could have rightfully been her's? For the first few points, it was the latter. A pair of unforced errors gave Williams a 30/love lead. A forehand barely caught the baseline to keep the Belgian from falling off a proverbial cliff, but a backhand error soon game Venus a break point. That's when the championship-minded "Killer Kim" from '05 emerged.

She got the game to deuce with aggressive play, as she forced a Williams error with a penetrating shot that pinned Venus deep in the court. Another backhand error by Williams gave Clijsters a match point, which she quickly put away with a service winner. Clijsters won 6-0/0-6/6-4, and will now face Li Na for a chance to reach the U.S. Open semifinals.

Melanie Oudin has ecliped Clijsters as the "story of the tournament," but that doesn't mean the Belgian still doesn't have a shot to "defend" (sort of, via a four year time warp) her Open championship.

Of course, if she's going to do that, she'll probably have to win some matches whose results rest on more than one game. Maybe not, but I'm just guessin'.



=DAY 7 NOTES=
...meanwhile, before Venus and Kim played hide-and-seek for a hour or so, Serena had already come and gone, conquering Daniela Hantuchova with nary a hint of the rollercoastering games shown by her sister and Clijsters. So far, she hasn't lost a set and is looking more dominant as each match goes by at this Open. That's not to say she's going to walk to yet another slam title (and stay #2), but a certain familiar scenario surely seems to be coming into focus, doesn't it?

...the Girls draw is out and play has begun. Right off the bat, following the pattern of the main draw over the past few days, a high seed was dumped out of the tournament when #1-seed Kristina Mladenovic lost to American Asia Muhammad. By the way, #10-seed Richel Hogenkamp, who's been doing very well in junior and ITF events over the past few months while not yet making a mark in a junior slam draw, is in the Mladenovic section. Sloane Stephens, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and Laura Robson were amongst the winners today, and Russian Valeria Solovieva's win over Kristie Haerim Ahn (USA) was of some note in a match between unseeded teens.

...#2-seeded doubles team Medina-Garrigues/Ruano-Pascual was taken out by #13-seeded Kleybanova/Makarova.

Meanwhile, in a 4th Round match tonight, Flavia Pennetta saved four match points against Vera Zvonareva to force a 2nd set tie-break, where she saved a fifth and sixth match point. On the Italian's first set point, Zvonareva netted a backhand to send the match to a 3rd set. What is it about Russians under the lights at this Open? I guess they'll finally finish up this match sometime around 10pm, which means the Murray/Dent match could be a true late night affair.

...ITF CIRCUIT & JUNIORS: many people are in Flushing Meadows, but there were tournaments being played elsewhere over the past week, as well. This week's "ITF Player of the Week" goes to Romania's Simona Halep, who won the $25K Maribos challenger in Slovenia, defeating Katalin Marosi 6-4/6-2 in the final. Meanwhile, Japan's Miyabi Inoue gets "Junior Star" after claiming the Canadian Open Junior Championship in Repentigny, defeating American Nicole Gibbs 7-6/6-2 in the final.

...the Caroline Wozniacki/Svetlana Kuznetsova Round of 16 match is scheduled for the night session on Labor Day evening (Oudin/Petrova is the second match up during the day on Ashe). What with Oudin's rise, Safina's fall, Sharapova's serve and Kuznetsova's role as the only proven slam contender remaining in the top half of the draw, Wozniacki has been severely overlooked. Having come to NYC after winning in New Haven, she's actually sporting the tour's current long winning streak and has yet to drop a set at this Open. I know I'd have a hard time picking a preferred winner in a potential C-Woz/Oudin (or even C-Woz/Petrova) QF match, but I'd certainly love to be faced with such a dilemma.

...and, finally, Maria and me. Not that it's really in any way comparable, but I sort of experienced this morning what Sharapova has been feeling this summer. After playing through various shoulder/arm/wrist injuries the last few months, I've had to alter my own serve multiple times or risk seriously injuring myself (or foregoing my weekly Sunday morning tennis outings, which I've been loathe to do). Anyway, after a few weeks of using an abbreviated serve and no longer feeling any pain, I slowly returned to my normal service motion today... and, man, was it difficult. My rhythm was spotty at best, and my timing was all over the place. Just like the position and height of my serve toss. Every swing was awkward, with some working perfectly, some hitting the bottom of the net, and some sailing two feet long. So frustrating. Again, it's nothing like what Sharapova's had to deal with... but the next time I see "that look" on her face after a particularly off-kilter service game I'll quietly mutter, "I know how you feel."



*WOMEN'S ROUND OF 16*
Petra Kvitova/CZE vs. Yanina Wickmayer/BEL
Kateryna Bondarenko/UKR vs. Gisela Dulko/ARG
Melanie Oudin/USA vs. #13 Nadia Petrova/RUS
#9 Caroline Wozniacki vs. #6 Svetlana Kuznetsova/RUS
#18 Li Na/CHN def. #26 Francesca Schiavone/ITA
(WC) Kim Clijsters/BEL def. #3 Venus Williams/USA
#7 Vera Zvonareva/RUS vs. #10 Flavia Pennetta/ITA
#2 Serena Williams/USA def. #22 Daniela Hantuchova/SVK

*MEN'S ROUND OF 16*
#1 Roger Federer/SUI vs. #14 Tommy Robredo/ESP
#12 Robin Soderling/SWE vs. #8 Nikolay Davydenko/RUS
#4 Novak Djokovic/SRB vs. #15 Radek Stepanek/CZE
#10 Fernando Verdasco/ESP vs. John Isner/USA
#7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga/FRA vs. #11 Fernando Gonzalez/CHI
#13 Gael Monfils/FRA vs. #3 Rafael Nadal/ESP
#6 Juan Martin Del Potro/ARG vs. #24 Juan Carlos Ferrero/ESP
TBD vs. TBD

*WOMEN'S DOUBLES QF*
#1 Black/Huber (ZIM/USA) vs. TBD
#3 Stosur/Stubbs (AUS/AUS) vs. #8 Mattek-Sands/Petrova (USA/RUS)
TBD vs. #4 Williams/Williams (USA/USA)
#10 Kirilenko/Vesnina (RUS/RUS) vs. #13 Kleybanova/Makarova (RUS/RUS)

*MEN'S DOUBLES QF*
#1 Bryan/Bryan (USA/USA) vs. TBD
TBD vs. #7 Moodie/Norman (RSA/BEL)
Ljubicic/Llodra (CRO/FRA) vs. TBD
#5 Mirnyi/A.Ram (BLR/ISR) vs. TBD

*MIXED DOUBLES QF*
#1 Huber/M.Bryan (USA/USA) vs. #8 Mattek-Sands/Zimonjic (USA/SRB)
#3 Raymond/Matkowski (USA/POL) vs. Gullickson/Parrott (USA/USA)
#5 Hsieh/Ullyett (TPE/ZIM) vs. Yan/Fyrstenberg (CHN/POL)
#7 Stubbs/Lindstedt (AUS/SWE) vs. #2 Black/Paes (ZIM/IND)




*"COMEBACK" WINNERS*
[US Open]
2007 Vera Zvonareva, RUS
2008 Anna-Lena Groenefeld, GER
2009 Kim Clijsters, BEL
[2009]
AO: Jelena Dokic, AUS
RG: Maria Sharapova, RUS
WI: Ana Ivanovic, SRB
US: Kim Clijsters, BEL

*GIRLS TOP 10 SEEDS*
1. Kristina Mladenovic, FRA (lost 1st Rd.)
2. Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, THA
3. Timea Babos, HUN
4. Sloane Stephens, USA
5. Ajla Tomljanovic, CRO
6. Silvia Njiric, CRO
7. Lauren Embree, USA
8. Christina McHale, USA
9. Daria Gavrilova, RUS
10. Richel Hogenkamp, NED
*BOYS TOP 10 SEEDS*
1. Yuki Bhambri, IND
2. Daniel Berta, SWE (lost 1st Rd.)
3. Bernard Tomic, AUS
4. Huang Liang-Chi, TPE
5. Agustin Velotti, ARG
6. Lim Yong-Kyu, KOR
7. Andrea Collarini, ARG
8. Gianna Mini, FRA
9. Shuichi Sekiguchi, JPN
10. Facundo Arguello, ARG




TOP QUALIFIER: Eva Hrdinova/CZE
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): Serena Williams/USA
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): xxx
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): xxx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q3: Eva Hrdinova/CZE def. Laura Robson/GBR 7-6/4-6/7-6
TOP EARLY RD. MATCH (1r-2r): 2nd Rd.- Melanie Oudin/USA d. #4 Elena Dementieva/RUS 5-7/6-4/6-3
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): xxx
TOP LATE RD. MATCH (SF-F): xxx
=============================
FIRST SEED OUT: #25 Kaia Kanepi/EST (1st Rd.-Chang/TPE)
FIRST WIN: (WC) Vania King/USA (def. Anastasiya Yakimova/BLR)
UPSET QUEENS: The Americans
REVELATION LADIES: The Belgians
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Anastasia Rodionova/AUS (3rd Rd.)
IT GIRL: Melanie Oudin/USA
MS. OPPORTUNITY: xxx
COMEBACK PLAYER: xxx
CRASH & BURN: #4 Elena Dementieva/RUS (2nd Rd.-Oudin/USA
ZOMBIE QUEEN: [Temporary: Venus Williams/USA down 7-6/3-1 vs. Vera Dushevina/RUS in 1st Rd., and is still alive in 4th Rd.]
LAST AMERICAN STANDING: xxx
LAST non-WILLIAMS AMERICAN STANDING: Melanie Oudin/USA (to 4th Rd.)
DOUBLES STAR xxx
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: xxx



All for Day 7. More tomorrow.