Major Upsets at a Major

There were two major upsets at the US Open in the quarterfinals (men) and semis (women)

In the men’s quarters, Kei Nishikori came from behind to beat Andy Murray, whose play over the previous several weeks had been nothing less than awesome.  This was the best match in the tournament on the men’s side thus far.  In the first set it appeared that Murray would continue his amazing dominance, as Murray won that set 6-1.  But then, much to his credit, Nishikori changed his approach.

Kei realized that he couldn’t play his usual great game and beat Murray, so he made several changes.  First, he red-lined his game by hitting out on his forehand, with blistering shots at sharp angles.  Those low percentage shots went in for winners quite often.  He also started getting his first serve in play far more often.  The reality is that a 95 mph serve is harder to return when it is a first serve than when it is the second serve, because the first serve is not as predictable with regard to spin, velocity, placement etc.  This strategy gave Nishikori more tactical advantages in the baseline exchanges.  In addition to these changes, Nishikori became far less predictable off the ground: he started coming into the net more often and hitting more drop shots. 

Taken together, these changes threw Murray off and brought his game down to a manageable level.  Andy began making more unforced errors, and was caught leaning the wrong way more often in rallies.  In the end Nishikori prevailed in 5 sets for a remarkable win.  Nishikori now must beat Stan Wawrinka and probably Djokovic to win the title.  That should be easy, haha!

In the women’s semis Karolina Pliskova stunned Serena Williams in straight sets, forestalling Williams’ chances of winning her 23d major and knocking her out of the number one ranking.  I thought this was a good matchup for Serena, who hits as hard as Pliskova but who moves much better.  However, Pliskova maintained her composure and threw Serena off by mixing in some looping topspin and slice forehands along with her usual flat rifle-shot strokes.  Pliskova also covered the court a bit better than I expected and returned serve very well.   She also lived with quite a few double faults that resulted from her understanding that weak second serves would not pass muster against Serena.  

On July 8, 2016, I posted I list of “tennis no-nos", and one of them was:  “don’t double fault in tiebreakers.”  Serena made this mistake on match point and was thus defeated, 6-2, 7-6.  Kerber will become number one in the world on Monday in contradiction to Serena’s waving of her index finger as she left the court. 

Serena’s coach explained the defeat as due to a leg injury.  The shoulder injury that made the news prior to the tournament, but that never manifested itself, was forgotten.  The coach didn’t mention Serena’s acute cholecystitis, osteogenesis imperfecta or crohn’s disease (right!).  In contradiction to the coach's claim that Serena was clearly hampered in her warmup, commentators who watched the warmup saw no problems with Williams' fitness.  Serena didn’t make any excuses herself for this loss, but are we to believe that she didn’t know about and approve the excuses her coach made? 

Karolina Pliskova should not take these excuses to heart.  She has played a great tournament, with victories over both Williams sisters in consecutive matches on one of the biggest stages in tennis, and with everyone in the stands supporting her opponents.  Pliskova should respond to these “qualifiers” from the Williams camp by invoking the title of one of George Gershwin’s greatest hits:  “no, no, You Can’t Take That Away From Me”!