Nadal’s road to the final

Djokovic’s road to the final

Who will win the 2010 US Open?

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- Nadal cruises to final with a straight sets win over Mikhail Youzhny.

World number one Rafael Nadal was just too good for Youzhny. After two defeats in semifinals the past two years (he lost to Andy Murray in 2008 and to Juan Martin Del Potro in 2009), the 24 year old Spaniard advanced to his first US Open final. With a win tonight, Nadal would become the seventh man in tennis history to complete a career Grand Slam.

- Djokovic stuns Federer in a five set thriller

Novak Djokovic saved 2 match points a 4-5 in the fifth, and after a grueling 3h 44 min match, he defeated Roger Federer to prevent the Nadal-Federer final everyone was hoping for.

To be honest, I was just closing my eyes and hitting forehands as fast as I can on match point. If it goes in, it goes in. If it goes out, just another loss to Federer in the U.S. Open. I managed to come back. I was very lucky.

- Kim Clijsters’ love story with New York continues

Kim Clijsters dismantled Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-1 to win her third US Open trophy. She became the first woman to retain her title since Venus Williams in 2001.

Clijsters won her 21st consecutive match here and her third title in her past three tries. Zvonareva, as predicted, lost her nerve.
Kim:

A little bit of experience definitely helps. I told her it’s tough. It took me six or seven finals before I finally got one. ‘Vera, keep it going. It will happen.

- Top seeds Rafael Nadal and Caroline Wozniacki win in straight sets and advance to the second round where they’ll meet (respectively) Denis Istomin and Kai-Chen Chang.
Things were much more complicated for Djokovic and Verdasco who endured 5 sets against Troicki and Fognini.
Number 4 seed Jelena Jankovic survive scare to beat number 96-ranked Romanian Simon Halep 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. Like Jankovic, 2006 champion Maria Sharapova needed 3 sets to defeat Australian Jarmila Groth.

- Upset of the day: Arnaud Clément defeats Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 2- 6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5
Baghadtis, who beat Nadal in Cincinnati was stunned by french veteran Clément in 5 sets. Both players are former Australian Open runner-ups.

- Seeds upsets: Na Li (8), Petrova (16), Safarova (26), Baghdatis (16), Gulbis (24), Monaco (30)

- US player of the day: James Blake
Blake, quarterfinalist at Flushing Meadows in 2005 and 2006, is now ranked 108 and received a wild card to enter the tournament. He showed some of his past brilliance to secure a much needed victory against Kristof Vliegen.

- Stat of the day: 25.2 – Number in millions of dollars of the potential 2010 US Open payout, including Olympus US Open Series bonuses.

- Player of the day: Rafael Nadal
He faced (and saved) only one break point in his first round match against Gabashvili. Nadal extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 15 matches, after his titles at the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July.

French DJ Martin Solveig took part in the traditional charity event Children’s Day at Roland Garros a month ago, as he filmed the video for his single Smah (see some photos here).

Solveig’s video is now online. Let me know your thoughts…

Their rivalry was listed as the third best rivalry of the past decade by the ATP, behind Federer-Nadal (of course) and Sampras-Agassi (kinda weird because they only met 6 times in the 00′s ).

In just over 4 years, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic already met 27 times (Federer and Nadal “only” met 25 times). And they provided some intense matches: 2009 Madrid SF, 2008 Olympic Games SF…

Quick facts:

- Nadal won five of six of their Grand Slam matches.
- Nadal dominates on clay and grass, whereas Djokovic rules on hard courts.
- Djokovic won their last 5 matches this year at Indian Wells and Miami on hard courts, Madrid and Rome on clay, Wimbledon on grass

In pink the Grand Slam matches, in gold the Olympic Games. You can click on the column to sort.

This match is without a doubt the best ATP match played in 2009.

Nadal had a tremenduous start of the year with wins at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Rome. He seemed unbeatable on clay and was the clear favorite to win a record fifth consecutive Roland Garros title. But things didn’t really turned out that well for him.

With a win in Madrid, the Mallorcan would have been the first player in history to win the 3 Masters tournaments played on clay the same year.

Nadal and Djokovic met for the fourth time of the season in Madrid semi finals, Nadal having won their 3 previous meetings (Davis Cup and finals of Monte Carlo and Rome).

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