Semi final shocks!

Maria Bueno’s thoughts on the final line-ups in the men’s and women’s singles at the US Open after some semi final shocks.

“Who would have thought that we would get a men’s final without [Novak] Djokovic, Roger [Federer] or Rafa [Nadal],” comments Maria.

“But that’s what we’ve got! A final between a Japanese and a Croatian!

“It’s the first Grand Slam final without any of the big four since 2005, I think…

“I thought Kei Nishikori played an amazing match against Djokovic on Saturday.

“Considering he had played very late into the night to win in five against [Milos] Roanic and almost didn’t play at all because of an injured toe, he has done extremely well.

“It is the first time a Japanese has reached a major final and he deserves to be there.

“He seemed to have an answer for Djokovic’s game and, surprisingly, he appeared to be the fitter in the brutal conditions.

“It has been unbelievably hot and humid here so it has been a case of survival of the fittest!
“That turned out to be the case for Andy Murray, who had Dojokic on the ropes before he ran our of steam.

“I don’t think Djokovic has been at his very best but that’s tennis, you have to find a way to win however you are feeling and he couldn’t do it on Saturday against a player who was on top of his game.”

The match finished just minutes ahead of a sharp thunderstorm that delayed play for about an hour and improved the playing conditions, dropping the temperature by about 10 degrees before Federer and Marin cilic took to Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“Cilic was a man on a mission,” continued Maria. “He was full of purpose, served extremely well and never really let Roger into the match.

“He silenced the crowd by dominating play and Roger struggled to find his rhythm or to make any impact on Cilic’s serve.

“It was a remarkable performance and although, of course, I am sorry Roger isn’t able to win his 18th Grand Slam title here, I think it is good for the game that we have two fresh faces in the final.

“It’s going to be an interesting match, I think.”

As for the women’s event, Maria thinks Serena is assured of her 18th major title on Sunday afternoon.

“It is really hard to vote against Serena. She seems to be getting stronger as she gets older!

“The semi-finals were unusual, again it was terribly hot and very windy and that had a huge effect on the matches and the crowd.

“The first match between Caroline Wozniacki and Peng Shuai was very close and both fought hard for the first set all the way to the tiebreak, which Wozniacki, rather surprisingly, won pretty easily.

“She was down in the second but managed to break back and was up when Peng collapsed.

“We didn’t really know what was happening but there was a long break and she looked like she was cramping, although we knew she had had some sort of hear condition as a child so it was pretty worrying.

“They took her off, leaving Wozniacki on the court for a good ten minutes and then, suddenly Peng was back, hitting into the corners!

“I thought at the time that it can’t have been cramp because, I know, it is impossible to recover that quickly when you get them but, later, it was clear she was getting them all over her body, which is agony.

“It is never easy to play an opponent who is injured or ill, but Wozniacki didn’t have to wait too long before the Chinese collapsed again and had to be helped off the court in a wheel chair.

“That all had a huge effect on the crowd. It put a real damper on them so it was very flat when Serena came on to play Ekaterina Makarova, the tall left-hander, who had a tremendous run to get to the semis.

“Serena must have felt a little bit threatened by her because she came out firing and never really let into the match, winning very easily.

“We will see how well Wozniacki can do against her later today [Sunday] but I suspect she doesn’t have the fire power to overcome Serena in such an important match.

“They are good friends and know each other’s game well so it should prove an interesting match, plus the conditions are so much better after yesterday’s storm!”