US Open 2013: Day 3 wrap - No fairytale ending for James Blake and Venus Williams

Venus Williams

For a while on Wednesday, it seemed like that the tennis gods were writing out a fairytale script on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.

33-years-olds Venus Williams and James Blake – veterans and fans’ favourites; one close to the end of her career and the other playing the last tournament of his – found themselves in the final set tie-breakers.

But this was reality and not some movie script. There was to be no happy ending for either Williams or Blake on a day when rain interrupted the matches several times and played havoc with the tournament schedule.

Williams, a former world no. 1 and two-time champion here, started slow against China’s Jie Zheng on Wednesday, losing the first set 3-6. The American soon found her range and came back to win the second set 6-2. But Zheng, a two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, kept going ahead in the final set, leading 4-1 at one time and then 5-3.

Each time, Williams fought back to take the set into a tie-breaker. There, she once again found herself down 1-4, but stayed with Zheng from the baseline to get back to 5-5, just as the match time touched three hours. It was then that Williams faltered, missing an easy volley and then a backhand return to hand the match to Zheng.

Since the past two years, Venus has been battling the effects of Sjorgen’s Syndrome, and it’s a testament to her spirit and her love for the game that she is still out there, knowing very well that each early loss takes a little bit away from her legacy.

But for Venus, her career win-loss ratio is not what matters. She wants to fight her disease and play to the best of her ability with the cards she has been dealt and make that a part of her legacy.

In her press conference, Williams was emphatic, stating, “If I didn’t think I had anything in the tank, I wouldn’t be here. So I feel like I do, and that’s why I’m here.”

Williams also laid out her plans for the rest of the year, saying she will travel to Asia to play some tournaments in the fall, a time where she has usually taken time off in previous years. “I think I’ll go to Asia. I haven’t been there in quite a few years because of injury and illness. I’m looking forward to that. I’d love to defend in Luxembourg. [I] Ended last year on an injured note but a good note. I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to pull everything together and get healthy as possible and continue to play.”

Former world no. 4 Blake, who announced on Monday that he would retire after this tournament, followed Venus on to the Armstrong Stadium and after one hour, it seemed like he was on his way to a second round showdown the ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka after going up two-sets-to-love.

But his opponent, the 6ft 10 inches Ivo Karlovic has a cannonball of a serve (he had 38 aces in all) which can get him out of any situation. On Wednesday too, Karlovic used his serve to level the match at two sets all and went up a break to lead 4-2 in the decider.

James Blake

But Blake was not done yet. He broke the Croat’s serve for 4-4 and then took the match to a tiebreaker. Once there, Blake’s inconsistency returned as he made several unforced errors and Karlovic went on to win the tiebreaker 7-2 after nearly 3 hours and 25minutes.

At 34, Karlovic is a few months older than Blake and has also had his share of health issues. He was in the hospital earlier this year due to viral meningitis but has come back strong in recent weeks. This was only Blake’s second first round loss at Flushing Meadows, the first coming on his debut here in 1999, and he will also play in the doubles draw tomorrow.

One sentimental favourite did win on Wednesday though. The 32-year-old former world no. 1 Lleyton Hewitt was too consistent for American Brian Baker, winning in four sets and setting up a showdown with sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who needed more than four hours to beat Spaniard Guillermo Garcia Lopez. Hewitt and del Potro are both former champions here – the Australian won here in 2001 while del Potro won in 2009.

Defending men’s champion Andy Murray played his first round match on Wednesday. The Scot was not happy to get his title defence to such a late start but managed to beat the quirky French veteran Michael Llodra in straight sets in a fun match that saw Llodra hit a between-the-legs volley a well as an underarm serve.

On the women’s side, several second round matches, including that of top seed Serena Williams, were cancelled due to rain, but third seed Agnieszka Radwanska, fifth seed Li Na and 16th seeded Sloane Stephens all managed to win in straight sets. Lower down the ranks, three men’s seeds crashed out. No. 16 Fabio Fognini and no. 29 Jurgen Melzer were beaten in straight sets while 24th seed Benoit Paire lost in a fifth set tie-breaker.

And for Indian fans, there was good news as well as Somdev Devvarman beat 84th ranked Lukas Lacko 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in 3 hours and 11 minutes to set up a meeting with 20th seeded Andreas Seppi in the second round. The win assures Devvarman of 70 ranking points which will see him return to the top 100 in the world next week.

Quote of the Day - Tim Smyczek, on being asked his reaction to his transport car running out of gas on his way to the tournament site, said, “My coach and I just started laughing. I felt bad for the lady because she knew she s*****d up. But there was nothing you could do but laugh. Thankfully I gave myself enough time this morning that I wasn’t too worried about, you know, missing my match or anything, so… saw a good photo op and we took it.”

Matches to look forward on Day 4 –

(8) Angelique Kerber vs. Eugenie Bouchard; (9) Jelena Jankovic vs. Alisa Kleybanova (13) John Isner vs. Gael Monfils