Key events
Davidovich Fokina is playing nicely here, but when Berrettini reads an overhead putaway – it goes to the backhand corner, which makes sense – Davidovich Fokina strays wide so has to go through deuce for his consolidation. And he does, very quickly, so now leads 3-0!
As for Berrettini, Calv notes that “He is so odd. Has balls of steel but chokes terribly.” And as I type that, with Davidovich Fokina 1-0 up, Berrettini hammers a forehand long and will now face three break points. Berrettini saved them all, though – he’s in the game now – but a terrific point from the Spaniard, who moves beautifully into a step-in forehand earns him another go. And this time, a decent backhand slice incites Berretini to net, and Davidovich Fokina leads 2-0!
Away we go, Davidovich Fokina to serve!
“Relatively uninteresting, just a solid player,” says Calvin Betton, our resident coach, on Davidovich Fokina. “Other than, randomly, this: he doesn’t have a particularly big serve at all. But he does have (dubiously) the fourth fastest serve ever recorded. And one of only two in the top 10 from the last 10 years. It’s a weird anomaly and I’m sure it was recorded wrong, but it’s there.”
On Eurosport, Martina says Davidovich Fokina has got his head right – and she knows as well as anyone the difference that can make. Tim Henman, meanwhile, says he looks at this match and thinks “opportunity” – for both players.
Berrettini [13] and Davidovich Fokina take to the court.
Preamble
Greetings all, and welcome to another majestic day of US Open tennis. The highlight, of course, comes in the evening sesh – how about a bit of Daniil Medevev v Nick Kyrgios to allay the Sunday night blues – but there’s plenty to keep us buzzing before that.
On Armstrong, we get under way with the latest installment of Matteo Berrettini’s latest attempt to win a major without a major winner’s drive backhand – he meets the improving Alejandro Davidovich Fokina – and an hours later comes Corentin Moutet v Casper Ruud, world number five but still to show himself as a serious threat on any surface bar clay.
Then, after that, we’ve the surging Shuai Zhang playing the surging Coco Gauff and the surging Caroline Garica against Alison Riske-Amritraj; a potential belter featuring pablo Carreño Busta v Karen Khachanov; and the GOAT slayer, Ajla Tomljanovic, taking on Liudmila Samsonova. And it’s live!
Play: 11am local, 4pm BST
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