U.S.Open Final 2016

The US Open final of 2016 was eagerly anticipated as it was a rematch of the 2015 French Open Final where World No.1 Novak Djokovic had seen his bid for a career slam set back by a year. It was supposed to be Djokovic’s moment of revenge, and he was set take it. He was the player who had spent least amount of time on court, due to 2 retirements and one walkover.

Djokovic vs Wawrinka! A clash of the titans! Djokovic was going for his 13th Slam(and 3rd U.S.Open) in his 21st final(second only to Roger Federer in number of finals played)and Wawrinka was going for his 3rd Slam(and 1st U.S.Open) in his 3rd final. The two of them had played 3 five setters in Australia and a 5 setter in the U.S.Open 3 years ago. Wawrinka was someone who had the game and mental strength to overcome Djokovic as his wins against enroute his first 2 titles saw him comeback from a set down to beat the world.no.1.

The first set saw Wawrinka looking tired and giving his shots a lot of air and was even broken early. Wawrinka was down 2-5 in the opener and Djokovic seemed set to just breeze through and claim his 3^rd U.S.Open title. Wawrinka awoke and raised his game. He broke back, took the set to a tie breaker which he lost.

Viewers would think that it’s all over now but Wawrinka has come back from 1 set down against Djokovic before. Losing the first set against Djokovic was like routine to Wawrinka. He had done it before and he had won the match. The second set saw Wawrinka play at a level unseen in the initial part of the 1^st set. Almost as if they were two different players who had gone out in Wawrinka’s  pink court attire. Djokovic wasn’t able to make a comeback and the tie was levelled. Possibly the memories of the French Open were playing in his mind.

Wawrinka raced ahead to a 3-0 in the third, only to lose the next 3 games. In the next game Djokovic had 3 break points but Wawrinka reeled of the next 5 in a row to win the game and the crowd was on his side. The crowd cheering for the opposition flusters Djokovic and he was broken in the 12^th game to lose the 3^rd set 5-7.

The second and third set saw Wawrinka serving well and his backhand which is considered to be the most lethal single handed backhand in the game today was on song. Djokovic was squandering break points and Wawrinka was capitalising on his break point opportunities. It was similar to the previous years final where Federer was blowing up break points and getting broken easily by Djokovic.

The fourth set started in a manner similar to the third with Wawrinka racing ahead to a 3-0 lead and having break point to go 4-0 up. A light lob by Djokovic which made Wawrinka believe the ball was out led to an even weaker return which Djokovic finished off in style and held serve.

Two medical timeouts were called for by Djokovic who could be seen limping. It was suspected to be blisters on his toes. However he gamely carried on but couldn’t pull off yet another of his superhuman comebacks. Wawrinka served for the match and on his second Championship point he won the match 6-7 4-6 5-7 3-6 and claimed the U.S.Open which was his 3^rd Grand Slam overall after his triumphs in Australia in 2014 and France in 2015. The match was error strewn but Wawrinka managed to capitalise and make the most of Djokovic’s errors

The loss meant that Djokovic had lost the summit clash in New York for the 5th time(vs Federer 2007; Nadal 2010 and 2013; Murray 2012;Wawrinka 2016) and it ended a 51 game unbeaten streak that Djokovic had at the U.S.Open after winning the 1st set. It also moved Wawrinka up to 3^rd in the ATP rankings and he improved to a 3-0 record in Grand slam finals and a 3-19 losses against world no. 1s (the 3 wins have come in grand slam finals. Big match player! Unfazed by the big stage) After the semi final Djokovic had called him a big match player and we can see why. He won all the big moments in the match and one the big prize. Questions to be raised here are that should the big 4 now be made the big 5 as Murray and Wawrinka have the same number of Slams.

Next year we can look forward to a race between Murray and Wawrinka as to who can get the career slam first. Murray needs wins in Australia and France. Wawrinka needs to win Wimbledon. Djokovic will be hungry for more and the next Grand Slam sees the return of Roger Federer to competitive Tennis.

However until now and Melbourne 2017 there is a lot of Tennis action as the ATP Tour continues with events in Tokyo, Shanghai, Basel, Paris, etc before culminating with the ATP World Tour Finals.

Manchester United: Derby Report

The Manchester derby on 10^th September was a highly anticipated game. Why wouldn’t it be? What was once upon a time a clash between Mighty Manchester United and their neighbours who lived in their shadow, was now a clash between equals. The managers who had previously clashed in the El Classico had now shifted their rivalry to Manchester. The two teams had spent the most amount of money in the summer transfer window. They had between them 7 out of the last 10 EPL trophies.

Both the teams had secured 9 points from 3 games. Also they sent out a combined 22 players which were the most expensively assembled starting line ups ever seen in a club football game.

United started the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation. They had the taller players on the pitch and commentators prior to the game were saying that they could pose a problems to City on set pieces. Another aspect of United’s game was to play on the counter and with speed, which was evident in their benching of Juan Mata in favour of Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

City were without their main striker, Sergio Aguero due to a suspension. The signs all seemed to favour United.

City started the game with a 4-3-3 formation with 19 year old Kelechi Iheanacho leading the line, with Raheem Sterling and Nolito.

From the moment the game started United looked clueless. Their two holding midfielders seemed to be lost and Kevin De Bruyne was drifting past them at will. Mkhitaryan who had suffered a minor injury on International duty seemed to be off the pace throughout (he had put in a better shift against Dortmund on the pre-season). The first goal was partly his error as he did not press and allowed City an easy clearance. What followed was a passing masterclass, lack of communication between United’s centre backs and KDB just vroomed past and smashed the ball into the net. Daley Blind was just standing like a statue, he didn’t make any attempt to win the ball should Eric Bailly lose it, as he did.

Then what followed was just City passing the ball at will (like how Barcelona used to do in their prime) United looked like an amateur team who were giving City a practice match. The second goal was again the entire team, particularly Blind’s fault, as he played Iheanacho onside and could pounce on the shot from KDB which had rebounded off the post.

At 0-2 United were losing yet another derby at Old Trafford and even Jose Mourinho looked clueless at the touchline at that moment.

They did manage to mount some sort of a comeback and the height advantage caused problems for the City defence with Bravo (who was playing his first game for the club) leaping up to catch a ball, fumbling it and presenting it to Zlatan Ibrahimovic who smashed it in.

Score 1-2 42 minutes.

In the 46^th minute Zlatan was presented the ball on a plate and could have just walked into the goal as the goalkeeper who had gone out to stop Jesse Lingard failed to do so and was on the floor, but he took his shot too hastily and the ball was cleared by the defenders on the line.

The second half saw the withdrawal of Lingard and Mkhitarayn. Completely validated in my opinion as the duo had looked completely clueless. The formation shifted to a 4-1-4-1 with Fellaini moving forward from central defence to play along with Rooney. Rashford took Mkhitaryan’s spot on the right wing and Herrera replaced Lingard on the left.

Rashford looked the most threatening player on the pitch and one wonders why he didn’t start the game after his debut hat-trick on debut for the England U-21s. H even scored a goal but as it nicked Zlatan on the way it was ruled offside. Zlatan seemed to be non-existent throughout the game and kept getting in the way of his own players.

City shored up in defence and just protected their lead. United threw on Anthony Martial for Luke Shaw and shifted to a back 3. It didn’t work, time just ticked away.

United lost the game and also their 100% record in the League. Their noisy neighbours had gotten one over them yet again.

Looking back though, this was a performance that was much better than what we saw under Louis Van Gaal last season. His sideways passing game would have been dismantled by Guardiola’s pass masters.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s face shown on the TV in the 90^th minute summed up how every Manchester United fan was feeling at that moment. It was a devastating loss and something Sir Alex wasn’t accustomed to during his 26 year reign as manager.

What went wrong?

The Central defensive pairing of Bailly and Blind. Originally it was thought that Blind was going to be sold of be a 3^rd choice, but his form combined with Smalling’s pre-season injury and suspension led to him being promoted to 1^st choice along with Bailly. They did manage to hold out against Bournemouth, Hull and Southampton, but not against top quality opposition and to win the league you need to beat the top teams. Solution draft in Smalling with Bailly or even with Blind as last season the combination of Smalling and Blind were a feature of the meanest defence in the Premier League.

Lack of rotation of the CDM’s. Pogba and Fellaini have started every game. Why not rotate and give Schniderlin and Herrera a chance to play?

Reluctance to play Rashford from the start. Does Mourinho not trust young players?

Rooney. The biggest problem in the team who for the past 3 seasons just seems to be in the team because he is the captain. He has completely lost his place and is the 3^rd or 4^th best no.10 in the team. It is due to him that Mata, Herrera and Mkhitaryan were forced to play out wide.

Will Jose Mourinho address these concerns? It seems as if he may as he isn’t stubborn like Van Gaal which can be seem as he changed his tactics halfway and even was shouting out instructions at his team during the game. Let's hope that this result was just a minor blip.

Next game is in the Europa League against Feyenoord.