By Chris Oddo | Sunday September 4, 2016
Here’s what we have been reading in week one of the U.S. Open:
McEnroe brothers team up on Nick Kyrgios
During Nick Kyrgios’ match with Ilya Marchenko on Saturday night, an ornery John McEnroe criticized Kyrgios basically from start to finish. It had social media buzzing quite a bit (many were critical of McEnroe for urging Kyrgios to continue playing when he was clearly injured, and also for unecessarily bashing the Aussie when he was clearly injured), and today we found several writeups of the broadcast.
There's a lot of articles on this:
1. This
2. This
3. And this
"Nick Kyrgios, you don't want to be a professional tennis player, do something else," McEnroe said. "He's hurt because he's not training enough."
Shot clocks in tennis? They’re here
At this year’s U.S. Open the junior tournaments are experimenting with a shot clock. USA Today’s Nick McCarvel wrote this story up a few days ago.
“While this is unexpected, we see it as a positive development for the sport,” said Chris Widmaier, the USTA’s managing director of communications. “The USTA is always looking for ways to promote the sport. This is a great test for us to analyze data moving forward.”
Sevastova’s Star Rises at U.S. Open
WTA insider David Kane gives readers a look into the world of Anastasija Sevastova. Who? That’s right. The Latvian, who took time away from tennis and is 18-months into her comeback, stunned Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round. She’s up a set on Johanna Konta in the round of 16 as we write this.
Everything you want to know about tennis balls and more
A nice little writeup on the history and current status of the tennis ball, by Stuart Miller of the New York Times.
Rafael Nadal made some comments on tennis balls after his third-round match. It’s a topic he has discussed often.
“We cannot play in Olympic Games with one ball and the next day in Cincinnati with another ball. I understand the people outside cannot understand the difference, but the difference is huge. You know, when we compete, we compete at our limits, and small differences makes a big impact in our body, no? These kind of changes for our elbow, for the wrist, for the shoulder, is very bad. Is the same like changing surfaces very drastic is something that is bad. (Snapping fingers.) That's why we have a schedule that we have different seasons. When we play on clay, we keep playing on clay. When we play on hard, we keep playing on hard. It's important to adapt your body to the next surfaces and to the changes, no? The ball is a fight we the players have since a long time. We try to improve, but is always difficult.”
CiCi Bellis must forfeit U.S. Open prize money:
A trip to the third round nets a players 140K, but in the case of 17-year-old CiCi Bellis, she gets none of it. Bellis has committed to play college tennis at Stanford, and to keep her amateur status she must turn down prize money. But, she is allowed to expense her tennis-related trips, and after qualifying for the U.S. Open this year Bellis told reporters she was delighted to upgrade her hotel accommodations to a large suite.
Q. The NCAA keeps changing the rules on amateurism. It's changed last year again where you could keep money for expenses or...
CATHERINE BELLIS: Yeah. You get to keep $10,000 a year, plus like at every tournament that you go to, whatever you can make you can expense that money if it adds up to however much you expense.
Q. Are you going to seek out some pretty nice expenses if you keep on going here?
CATHERINE BELLIS: Yeah. I have already upgraded to a suite in my hotel. I had my dad do that for me. (Laughter.) I was excited about that.
Q. After your match today or after qualifying?
CATHERINE BELLIS: Qualifying. Yeah, couple days ago.
The U.S. Open roof is NOISY!
Hey, keep your voices down tennis fans, we are trying to hear ourselves think! Zach Schonbrun of the New York Times writes about the defeaning roar that was heard inside Arthur Ashe Stadium as Andy Murray played under the roof while it rained outside.
“You can’t hear anything, really,” Murray said.
Dominic Thiem, prodigy who loves to play
Nice take on the rising, well-liked Austrian Dominic Thiem by Tennis.com’s Steve Tignor.
It had been a while since I had seen Thiem play, and I was surprised by how far back in the court he still stands, even on the semi-slick DecoTurf at Flushing Meadows. Much like Nadal, Thiem’s instinct is to move backward on big points. But while that won’t be ideal in the long run, Thiem’s style helped make his match with Carreño Busta fun to watch on Saturday. The Austrian and the Spaniard, who are both wiry and quick, essentially played hard-nosed dirtball on hard courts for nearly three hours. There was a lot of athleticism on display, and very little separated the world No. 10 from the world No. 39.