Tennis

[Draftnik]

Djokovic is punished for being the #1 seed. Playing Federer in the semis is no way to reward the #1 player. Nadal is getting a free pass to the finals.

Plus if this goes to 5 sets Federer (or Djokovic if he comes back) is going to be more tired for the finals. I know a lot of tournaments have the 1 & 3 seeds on the same side of the draw but in an era like this where 3 players are significantly better than the others the seeding issue should be adjusted to not punish the #1 seed.

[penny lane]

Seeding is almost like college polls. Did they set up the seeding to ensure the 4 best players remain in the tournament for the ticket draw?

Watching this match; Roger has to end points sooner. Little nervous!

I swear I just saw Ron Burkle sitting with the Djokovic group!!

[Rylan]

What is Federer doing?!?

[Draftnik]

The top 4 seeds are put in separate quadrants to guarantee they can't meet until the semis, but for some reason 1 plays 3 and 2 plays 4 in the semis. It doesn't make sense IMO.

[penny lane]

WoW

[obhave]

This crowd is amazing. So is this set. Since they are both my favourite players I can't pick one over the other. Just enjoying the awesomeness of these two

[Draftnik]

Its great tennis to be sure but I can't help thinking how draining this will be on the winner while Nadal essentially gets a walkover (from a matchup perspective) in the semis. I suppose Murray is capable of giving the performance of his life or Nadal is capable of not playing well but it is beyond unfair that Djokovic has to beat the 2 of the greatest players in the history of tennis to win the US Open when he is the #1 seed and Nadal is gifted (on paper) a free pass to the finals.

[penny lane]

There is just something I don't like about Djokovic. It is hell getting old. Roger has to figure out something here. His reactions are exactly what I don't like about him.

Top this nadal and murray!

[gregory]

Seeding is almost like college polls. Did they set up the seeding to ensure the 4 best players remain in the tournament for the ticket draw?

Watching this match; Roger has to end points sooner. Little nervous!

I swear I just saw Ron Burkle sitting with the Djokovic group!!

Yeah, that was Burkle and Diddy--or whatever his alter ego is these days.

[Draftnik]

That was a gutty win by Djokovic. I thought he was losing his focus when he started to fight the crowd for favoring Federer. I'm in the ABN camp (anybody but Nadal), so I like the outcome because Djokovic has won his last 5 matches vs Nadal.

My favorite player is Monfils but I will soon favor the young American Sock as soon as he losses his spare tire and matures into the great player his talent says he can be.

[obhave]

That was a gutty win by Djokovic. I thought he was losing his focus when he started to fight the crowd for favoring Federer. I'm in the ABN camp (anybody but Nadal), so I like the outcome because Djokovic has won his last 5 matches vs Nadal.

My favorite player is Monfils but I will soon favor the young American Sock as soon as he losses his spare tire and matures into the great player his talent says he can be.

ABN? I'm gald I'm not the only one like that. I hate nadal. Great win for Djokovic, in past years he would have gotten frustrated, and let that frustration cause problems with his play after being two sets down.

[penny lane]

Maybe Burkle can get something going for a tennis tournament at the Consol. Or Sean P Diddy Combs singing the Anthem at penguin games.

[Tomas]

The top 4 seeds are put in separate quadrants to guarantee they can't meet until the semis, but for some reason 1 plays 3 and 2 plays 4 in the semis. It doesn't make sense IMO.

#3 and #4 are drawn *randomly* in the opposite halves of the draws, so that they can't meet #1 or #2 until the samis.. The fact that #1 played #3 a few recent times are just by luck. Same with seeds 5-8: randomly drawn, but not to play No 1-4 until the Quartefinals, etc.

The following link leads to ATP rulebook in PDF format:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Corporate/Rulebook.aspx

The seeding is explained on p. 92. (Long story short: #1 seed goes on line 1 of the chart. #2 seed goes on line 128 of the chart.

For seeds3 & 4, the first drawn goes on line 33, the second drawn goes on line 96

For seeds 5-8:
First drawn: line 32
Second drawn: line 64
Third drawn: line 65
Fourth drawn: line 97

This way, the first 8 seeds always make the QFs (if they keep winning), and the first 4 seeds will make the semifinals. However, the FQ and SF pairs are still random.

Also, seeds 1-4 are randomly drawn against seeds 13-16 for the fourth round possible matchup (i.e. seeds 5-8 will be randomly matched against 9-12). For the 3rd round, seeds 1-8 will be randomly matched against seeds 25-32, (i.e seeds 9-16 will get randomly matched 17-24)

[pens2005]

There is just something I don't like about Djokovic. It is hell getting old. Roger has to figure out something here. His reactions are exactly what I don't like about him.

Top this nadal and murray!

Who's reactions? Federer's? I love Federer's lack of fist pumping, grunting, and childish whining and moaning. It's a breath of fresh air to me. He does his job and does it fantastically. In today's sporting world it is very rare to see a superstar athlete act the way Federer does.

Unless of course you were referring to Djokovich which negates my reply, then.

[Draftnik]

The top 4 seeds are put in separate quadrants to guarantee they can't meet until the semis, but for some reason 1 plays 3 and 2 plays 4 in the semis. It doesn't make sense IMO.

#3 and #4 are drawn *randomly* in the opposite halves of the draws, so that they can't meet #1 or #2 until the samis.. The fact that #1 played #3 a few recent times are just by luck. Same with seeds 5-8: randomly drawn, but not to play No 1-4 until the Quartefinals, etc.

The following link leads to ATP rulebook in PDF format:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Corporate/Rulebook.aspx

The seeding is explained on p. 92. (Long story short: #1 seed goes on line 1 of the chart. #2 seed goes on line 128 of the chart.

For seeds3 & 4, the first drawn goes on line 33, the second drawn goes on line 96

For seeds 5-8:
First drawn: line 32
Second drawn: line 64
Third drawn: line 65
Fourth drawn: line 97

This way, the first 8 seeds always make the QFs (if they keep winning), and the first 4 seeds will make the semifinals. However, the FQ and SF pairs are still random.

Also, seeds 1-4 are randomly drawn against seeds 13-16 for the fourth round possible matchup (i.e. seeds 5-8 will be randomly matched against 9-12). For the 3rd round, seeds 1-8 will be randomly matched against seeds 25-32, (i.e seeds 9-16 will get randomly matched 17-24)

Thanks for posting. I think the ATP seeding methodology is flawed. The entire premise of seeding is to reward the higher seeds with easier matchups and/or to prevent the top seeds from meeting until the latest possible round.

With the top 3 players being so much better than the others its more disadvantageous to Djokovic's title chances meeting Federer in the SF round than it would be meeting the #4 seed Andy Murray in the 1st round IMO (assuming that he wouldn't meet Nadal/Federer until finals.)

[pens2005]

The top 4 seeds are put in separate quadrants to guarantee they can't meet until the semis, but for some reason 1 plays 3 and 2 plays 4 in the semis. It doesn't make sense IMO.

#3 and #4 are drawn *randomly* in the opposite halves of the draws, so that they can't meet #1 or #2 until the samis.. The fact that #1 played #3 a few recent times are just by luck. Same with seeds 5-8: randomly drawn, but not to play No 1-4 until the Quartefinals, etc.

The following link leads to ATP rulebook in PDF format:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Corporate/Rulebook.aspx

The seeding is explained on p. 92. (Long story short: #1 seed goes on line 1 of the chart. #2 seed goes on line 128 of the chart.

For seeds3 & 4, the first drawn goes on line 33, the second drawn goes on line 96

For seeds 5-8:
First drawn: line 32
Second drawn: line 64
Third drawn: line 65
Fourth drawn: line 97

This way, the first 8 seeds always make the QFs (if they keep winning), and the first 4 seeds will make the semifinals. However, the FQ and SF pairs are still random.

Also, seeds 1-4 are randomly drawn against seeds 13-16 for the fourth round possible matchup (i.e. seeds 5-8 will be randomly matched against 9-12). For the 3rd round, seeds 1-8 will be randomly matched against seeds 25-32, (i.e seeds 9-16 will get randomly matched 17-24)

Thanks for posting. I think the ATP seeding methodology is flawed. The entire premise of seeding is to reward the higher seeds with easier matchups and/or to prevent the top seeds from meeting until the latest possible round.

With the top 3 players being so much better than the others its more disadvantageous to Djokovic's title chances meeting Federer in the SF round than it would be meeting the #4 seed Andy Murray in the 1st round IMO (assuming that he wouldn't meet Nadal/Federer until finals.)

Agreed. Couldn't have said it better myself.

[cma3585]

There is just something I don't like about Djokovic. It is hell getting old. Roger has to figure out something here. His reactions are exactly what I don't like about him.

Top this nadal and murray!

Who's reactions? Federer's? I love Federer's lack of fist pumping, grunting, and childish whining and moaning. It's a breath of fresh air to me. He does his job and does it fantastically. In today's sporting world it is very rare to see a superstar athlete act the way Federer does.

Unless of course you were referring to Djokovich which negates my reply, then.

http://twitter.com/GMillerTSN - It pains me to say this as a Roger Federer fan, but I didn't like his comments at the news conference after his SF loss to Novak Djokovic.

http://twitter.com/GMillerTSN - Calling his clutch cross court shot facing match point "lucky" and saying "I wasn't brought up to play that way" is unbecoming of a champion

[shafnutz05]

I hate Djikovic, Nadal is a typical Spanish drama queen, don't like Murray either. Disappointed in Federer yesterday. I really like Isner for whatever reason

[Idoit40fans]

I don't care for Djokovic or Murray, so my hopes lie with Nadal. I would have preferred Federer, but he couldn't close it out when it was right there for him.

[jmh470]

One of the few positives to a Nadal-Djokovic final is that because both of them take so damn long to serve you can hit 30 second skip between points and not miss anything.

Fed isn't a good loser, but I don't think many great athletes are; it's part of what makes them great IMO.

[Pavel Bure]

Damn, my boy let me down. Still some damn good tennis to finish this thing.

[penny lane]

There is just something I don't like about
http://twitter.com/GMillerTSN - It pains me to say this as a Roger Federer fan, but I didn't like his comments at the news conference after his SF loss to Novak Djokovic.

http://twitter.com/GMillerTSN - Calling his clutch cross court shot facing match point "lucky" and saying "I wasn't brought up to play that way" is unbecoming of a champion

Some competitors are not at their best when they lose. Federer; seems only with Nadal, can he be gracious.
No excuse for him.

Tomorrow ? I want to see more sean combs & ron burkle watching from Djokovic's box!

*last 2 matches to hear Dick Enberg ! Serena v Sam Stosur.

[penny lane]

Serena Williams in trouble against Sam Stosur, about to lose the 1st set.
I missed the end of the match last night; Serena may have reinjured her toe/foot that had surgery.

[Fast B]

Serena looks terrible. After her dismantling of Wozniacki I thought she'd be better than this.

[Draftnik]

Williams hasn't played a lot this season. She isn't the fittest player to begin with and playing on back to back days might take its toll on her.