Top seeds in dominant form as tournament heads into the second week.
It’s been a mixed week for the major seeds at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. While nine of the top ten ranked men have made it safely into the second week of the US Open, over half of the world’s top ten women have already fallen.
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have been in excellent form in opposing sides of the draw while there are also some intriguing matches to look forward to featuring Andy Murray, Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka. Meanwhile, in the women’s draw it looks like Serena Williams’ title to lose after she comfortably powered into round four.
Keep reading for our preview of the second week at the 2014 US Open.
Majority of top seeds safely into week two
It’s been a solid few days for the top men’s seeds in New York with all bar fourth seed David Ferrer reaching the second week. The Spaniard fell to the talented Gilles Simon on Sunday and is the only major casualty of the first week at Flushing Meadows.
Top seed Novak Djokovic has easily glided into round four. The Serb has dropped just 18 games in his three matches so far and looks to be in good form after a shaky couple of weeks in the run up to the tournament.
Djokovic does face a tough match in the quarter finals, however. Assuming the 27 year old beats Phillip Kohlschreiber he will face either the in-form Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or the former US Open champion Andy Murray.
Murray has reached the fourth round with relatively little concern despite never playing his very best tennis. The Scot hasn’t really been tested, however, and faces a really tough challenge from the man who beat him at the recent Rodgers Cup.
Tsonga beat Murray, Federer, Djokovic and Dimitrov on his way to the Toronto title and looks to be relaxed and playing some terrific tennis. It’s worth remembering that Murray hasn’t beaten a world top ten player since Wimbledon in 2013 and he could well face an early exit here.
Whoever wins the match will give Djokovic a real game and the quarter final victor will think they have a real chance of the title.
In the same half of the draw are Stan Wawrinka who had the benefit of a walkover in his third round match and the talented pair of Kei Nishikori and Milos Raonic who face each other in the fourth round.
Fed looks as composed as we’ve seen him in a couple of seasons
In the bottom half of the draw our pre-tournament tip Roger Federer has advanced serenely to the second week. And, with Ferrer’s early loss the draw has really opened up for the 33 year old.
On paper, only Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych look like they can stand in the way of the five time champion and we’d fancy Federer to overcome either of those players on current form.
Seeds tumble in open women’s draw
While the men’s tournament may have broadly panned out as expected, it’s been far from simple for the top women’s seeds. By the end of the first week six of the world’s top ten had been eliminated with some qualifiers causing major upsets along the way.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and second seed Simona Halep were both beaten by qualifiers while Angelique Kerber and Agnieska Radwanska fell to unseeded players.
The main beneficiary has been number one seed Serena Williams who has powered her way into round four for the loss of just eleven games. Williams has reached the last three US Open finals and with her hardest opponent between now and Sunday’s final likely to be seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard it looks very much like a fourth consecutive final for the top seed.
The question will be ‘who will face Williams in this year’s final?’ The bottom of the draw is wide open and we are going to stick with one of our pre-tournament tips and suggest Caroline Wozniacki. Just as her ex-partner Rory McIlroy’s form has improved markedly since their very public split, the Dane is also back to playing some of her best tennis.
Wozniacki won in Istanbul recently and has pushed Serena Williams close in two recent events. The tenth seed impressively beat Maria Sharapova 6-4 2-6 6-2 in round four and could well reach her first US Open final since 2009.
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