Rafael Nadal is back in action at the U.S. Open on Saturday as he faces Ivan Dodig. A place in the fourth round and a possible showdown with John Isner is at stake.
Rafael Nadal and Ivan Dodig will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers when they clash in round three of the U.S. Open on Saturday afternoon. Dodig is one of the few players on tour without a losing record against Nadal. He toppled the Spaniard 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in their most recent meeting at the 2011 Toronto Masters. They had previously squared off a few months earlier on the clay courts of Barcelona, where Nadal rolled 6-3, 6-2.
Another Dodig upset would, of course, be even more shocking right now. After all, Nadal is the undisputed best player in the world at the moment and the run-away 2013 race leader. The 12-time Grand Slam champion dominated the clay-court swing and he is even undefeated on the hard stuff with titles in Indian Wells, Montreal, and Cincinnati. So far in New York, Nadal has made mincemeat out of Ryan Harrison and Rogerio Dutra Silva.
Dodig may be more consistent in doubles than he is on the singles circuit, but he has posted some decent results of late. In fact, the veteran Croat registers just six spots off his career-high ranking at No. 38 in the world thanks in part to a semifinal showing in Eastbourne and a fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon. Dodig, clearly a dangerous player on fast surfaces, booked his spot in the last 32 with defeats of Fernando Verdasco (in five sets) and Nikolay Davydenko (in straights).
This could be competitive for a while with Dodig in relatively confident form and armed with belief from his past performance against Nadal. However, the underdog had not been stellar on American hard courts prior to this fortnight and there is no reason to think he will serve well enough from start to finish in order to seriously scare Nadal–and serving unbelievably well is Dodig’s only hope of truly making this interesting.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 8-10 games
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My internet connection was so slow yesterday I couldn’t join in the cheering during the match. Rafa is playing well, his level did drop after the first set but not enough for Dodig to do any damage.
It was very quiet here during Rafa’s match against D-Silva so I’m surprised to see so many of you turn up for this one. I guess it’s a lot to do with time zones.
My prayers were answered – Isner is OUT. Thank you, Philipp!
Rafa’s interview to SkySports (a lot of fun):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N00rZ9TrkQc
Commentator: We were wondering, who’d you rather play [Kohlschreiber or Isner]. We expeceted you were possible cheering on the German.
Rafa: I will not say. [Laughing].
Commentator: Come on! You know you don’t want to play the Empire State Building. [Rafa laughed]
No preview and picks for today’s matches 🙁
Guess Berdych is on his way to the QFs. He’s picked up his game a lot since Kudla gave him a fright on Friday.
Murray has the match under control BUT he has reverted to the old ‘I’ve been dragged out of bed to play tennis’ mode. You would never guess he was the defending champion 🙁
‘I’ve been dragged out of bed to play tennis’ mode hahahaha…that was funny ed..this is indeed the case with andy ! He just cant be fully focused against easier opponents…He will be fully ready for berdych/wawa and esp djokovic though ! Come on andy! My dream final here would be andy vs rafa !