Ricky Dimon

• The greatest road trip in sports: D.C. Day 5

  2008-08-22 08:26:28
  

  TennisTalk’s Ricky Dimon is on stop two of three of his trip through the U.S. Open Series, billed as “The Greatest Road Trip in Sports.” This week he is blogging live from the Legg Mason Classic in Washington D.C.
  
  Day 5: Friday
  
  The Thursday magic ran out on Friday, but it was still a fun last day of tennis in Washington, D.C. After all, there is no bad day to watch live professional tennis, especially when you have a press pass, a parking pass, and don't have to buy tickets or food.
  
  As usual I perused the practice courts to begin with, before John Isner and Juan Martin Del Potro were set to play the first of the day's four quarterfinal matches at 2:00. Marcel Granollers was warming up for his doubles match on the last court of the main stretch of practice courts Somdev was playing mini-soccer on the very last practice court that stands by itself in the corner of the tennis center, and Tommy Haas was hitting on Court 1 with some guy decked out in UVA gear (perhaps one of Somdev's friends on the Virginia tennis team). I asked Somdev if he had stayed for the end of the Kunitsyn-Fognini match last night after he beat Kendrick, but he said he left because it got too late (that’s for sure; Kunitsyn ended it in a third-set tiebreaker at 1:27 in the morning).
  
  At first I was in disbelief that tournament organizers put Isner and Del Potro on court first at 2:00. Only later did I realize that ESPN2 surely made them, because the worldwide leader in sports had Legg Mason coverage on at 2:00 and obviously that's the match it wanted. Unfortunately it turned out to be a pretty big dud for both ESPN and the fans, especially since most fans there were staunchly for Isner. I guess it wasn't too big of a surprise, though, considering Del Potro had won three straight tournaments and 16 straight matches coming into this one. Isner stayed on serve easily until 4-4 in the first, but a break at that point was more than enough for Del Potro to take the set. After a 30-minute rain delay at 2-2 in the second, Isner came out to hold serve for 3-2 but it went downhill for the 6'9'' American after that. He got broken at 3-3 and never came close to breaking back. It ended 6-4, 6-4 and left me surer than ever that Del Potro would win his fourth consecutive event.
  
  Haas and Alejandro Falla took the court next and for a while this one proved to be both more surprising and more exciting that the day's highly-anticipated first match. Falla came out absolutely on fire--like I have never seen him before--and jumped out to a two-break lead at 4-1. That's when it all turned around. Haas won the 11 of the last 13 games of the match to blow past the Columbian 7-5, 6-1. While Falla's game really fell apart (how could it not?), Haas went from looking helpless to putting on a remarkable display of tennis just like that.
  
  After a break in the action in between the day session and night session, Andy Roddick and Viktor Troicki started shortly after 7:00. For the first time all week the ushers were actually checking tickets; not only in the boxes but even the upper section. I guess that’s what happens on a Friday night, and Roddick in action could not have helped matters in terms of getting down low. So I headed up to the press box to watch from there, and the good news is there wasn't much to see.
  
  The first set of Roddick-Troicki was so lopsided and uninteresting that I spent most of the time in the press box watching Somdev practice on Court 1. The funny thing about Somdev is he spends more time practicing soccer than he does practicing tennis. All three times I saw him practice this week, he started his routine by playing two-on-two mini-soccer. It's hard to explain but it looked like it used the same general rules as mini-tennis except that you could keep it on your side of the net for as long as you wanted as long as you were successfully dribbling it. Somdev and his UVA crowd wouldn't just play it at the start; they would play that for the MAJORITY of his practice time. Only at the end would he resort to picking up a tennis racket to hit a few groundstrokes and some serves.
  
  After Roddick won the first set against Troicki 6-0 in a mere 21 minutes, I went down to Court 1 to watch Somdev's practice exclusively. I mean there was no point in watching a 6-0, 6-0 blowout from the stratosphere.
  
  After about 15 minutes I went back over towards the Stadium to find out if Roddick had put a merciful end to Troicki yet. Much to my surprise I saw on the outside scoreboard that Troicki was up a break in the second. Needless to say the upper-deck ushers were no longer around after that first-set abomination, so I went up to a decent seat behind the baseline not quite as high up as the press box.
  
  A second rain delay of the day took place late in the second set and this one lasted for a bit longer that the one during Isner-Del Potro. I wasn't as mad as I usually am at rain delays because this meant the Roddick-Troicki match would end later and hopefully convince fans to leave after it was over rather than stick around for Somdev vs. Igor Kunitsyn. So front row for the last match of the day became a distinct possibility.
  
  It would go even longer when Troicki held on easily to win the second set. He came out of the delay on fire and won the second 6-2. More outstanding play from the Serb continued, but Roddick stayed right with him until 4-4. At that point a weak serving day from Roddick caught up with him one final time. Troicki broke serve and then closed out the match with a service game that made it look like he was used to playing in ATP quarterfinals. To say this was a shocking comeback--after the 6-0 bagel in the first set--would be an understatement.
  
  I went to Roddick's press conference after the loss to see what kind of mood he was in. Obviously he was none too pleased, but somewhat surprisingly he took no shots at his opponent or the media. He called his own serving "unacceptable," but he also gave credit to Troicki. "He played really well," Roddick said. "He played really, really well."
  
  As hoped, a decent exodus from the Stadium took place and I was able to get into the front row for Somdev vs. Kunitsyn. Both players had a terrible time holding serve in the first set and Somdev used three breaks to go up 4-3. That's when Kunitsyn buckled down and ran away with the match. The problem for Somdev was that Kunitsyn could do everything he could do--except not quite as fast--and do it better. The Russian played like a ball machine, just as Somdev had throughout qualifying and his first two matches. A tired Somdev uncharacteristically made too many errors as well. He made only five in three sets against Robert Kendrick, but on this night he made five in a span of less than two games on a number of occasions. But all credit to Kunitsyn; he played great and won 6-4, 6-1.
  
  It was a disappointing end to a quarterfinal day that failed to live up to expectations by producing any epics, but I guess I would be too greedy to expect anything more after Thursday.
  
  That's all from Washington, D.C. It was a great week and has me--and hopefully all other tennis fans--fired up for my next stop on The Greatest Road Trip in sports: the U.S. Open!

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