Andy Murray fooled around a bit too much but managed to beat Rafael Nadal in four sets to reach his first slam final.

The US Open semifinal match between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal was interrupted by tropical storm Hannah on Saturday afternoon and resumed on Sunday afternoon after the early US football games ended. Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic will play their final Sunday evening and the men will play their final on Monday.

This has me so screwed up that I missed my fantasy picks. I didn’t realize there was a tournament next week in Bucharest until I got a very angry email. Whoops. Well, let’s see if I can at least do this right.

Rafael Nadal lives off consistency and conditioning and we were wondering when he’d lose one of those after a French Open/Wimbledon double and an Olympic gold medal on the other side of the world. He limped into this tournament last year with blisters and it was only a matter of time before someone beat him.

There were no blisters this year and Nadal lost only two sets coming into his semifinal but he looked tired. He was hitting balls short and giving up the court to Murray. For all of Murray’s new found conditioning, he also got tired at the beginning of the third set on Saturday after winning the first two sets in pretty strong fashion and, remember, he lost in the first round in Beijing so he had plenty of time to prepare.

Nadal was up a break at 3-2 in the third set when the rains came on Saturday and he managed to close out the third set on Sunday but he didn’t look strong enough to win three straight sets and he wasn’t. He fought off seven break points in his first service game in the third set with an assortment of aces and clutch winners. It lifted his game but it took something out of him too.

Murray was so disappointed at not getting the break that he coughed up his serve at love in the next game and then he started playing cute tennis as if to say, like some cartoon character, “Now I got you where I want you.” I squirmed in my seat waiting for those hard flat shots but they weren’t coming. You could tell Nadal wasn’t feeling great because Murray didn’t have to pay for it.

Murray broke back to get to 3-3 and in the next game, he hit another one of those dumb drop shots and this one was really dumb, it popped up into the air with a sign on it saying “hit me, hit me.” Nadal sprinted in and hit the ball hard down the line but Murray stuck out a one-handed backhand and bunted it back into the open court to stay on serve.

If he plays like that against Federer he’ll be sorry but there’s a fine line between playing cute and playing smart tactical tennis and Murray finally figured it out. He wasn’t quite as sharp with his flat winners as he had been the day before so he hit inside out slices that bounced away from Nadal’s backhand to open up Nadal’s forehand side and give himself a bit more room to play to play with. And with Nadal serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Murray played a masterful point.

Murray looped shots back and forth with Nadal until he got him out of position then hit six straight shots to opposite corners of the court and progressively wore Rafa down before hitting one last sweet volley to the open court. Murray now had match point and Rafa was leaning over sucking air. It had been a long hot summer and Rafa had finally given out. He was just too exhausted to go. Instead of getting run ragged in another long rally, Rafa hit a drop shot early in the next point and watched as Murray hit it past him.

Murray won’t be lucky enough to get a night’s sleep between the third and fourth set in the final and he’ll face another master strategist in Roger Federer who looks plenty rested. If Murray can pressure Federer and serve well, he has a good shot at winning his first slam. If he fools around too much, the match will go on too long and Federer will get his fifth straight US Open title.

Roger Federer dusted off Novak Djokovic before I was barely conscious and Andy Murray blasted to a two set lead over Rafael Nadal before tropical storm Hannah interrupted.

I drove an hour and a half for a dinner date last night and got home late, and by the time I rolled out of bed this morning, the first semifinal at the US Open was already in the fourth set. Not only that but, curiously, the second semifinal was already a set old. Wha’ happened?

Tropical storm Hannah was on her way and the storm switched everything up. And now I’m in trouble on two accounts because of her. Our writer Lexa Lee made it back to her New Orleans home but the cable is out again today and I missed the Roger Federer – Novak Djokovic match which I was supposed to record. I’m in deep do do over that I can tell you.

The semifinal between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal was also messed up. The organizers switched the match from the main Arthur Ashe Stadium to the secondary Louis Armstrong Stadium and it seemed to bother Rafa the most. Maybe it was the incessant drone of airplanes Hannah rerouted or the early start time, but Rafa was out of sorts. Things were already strange because Federer actually beat Djokovic in four sets and no doubt that unsettled Rafa as much as it surprised everyone else.

Everything wasn’t messed up. The top four players were in the semifinals. Murray wasn’t a top four seed but he’s now the fourth ranked player on tour due to his semifinal run and he was playing like it. He hit aces and controlled the match from behind the baseline while Rafa was misfiring.

Murray was taking advantage of the situation with his full complement of court smarts. Rafa was down a break at 2-4 in the first set and Murray was playing peek-a-boo. He rolled a shot deep then unloaded a flat downhill backhand winner to the same side of the court where Rafa was standing. Don’t underestimate the advantage of height for a shot like that. How often do you see Rafa hit anything downhill? Murray then rolled a soft return deep and Rafa set up on the deuce side of the court to run around his backhand if the opportunity arose. But it didn’t. Murray immediately hit a flat winner down the line and he had break point.

When you hit a wide serve, most people return it cross court to give themselves time to get back into the point. Murray didn’t do that. On the break point, he returned a wide serve by curling it into the sideline corner of the service box on his side of the court, a very tough shot. Rafa volleyed it crosscourt but that left Murray with an open court if he got to the ball and he did. He now had his second break in the set to go up 5-2 and served it out to go up a set.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate Murray. I’ve read Brad Gilbert’s books about working with Andre Agassi and listened to Agassi talk about his opponents and he missed nothing. But his game was simple. He did his best to get his opponent moving while he set up in the middle of the court and directed traffic. Murray doesn’t have Agassi’s power and isn’t quite as good a returner – who is? – but he’s got much more game. He can dictate with his serve, come to the net, out-defend most opponents, and play deep or short.

Murray also has more hitting options. He can loop the ball or flatten it out. He reminds me of the baseball pitcher Greg Maddux, a sure Hall of Famer who’s known for his combination of hard, soft, and in between pitch speeds combined with intimate knowledge of his opponents hitting tendencies.

We’ve seen Rafa start off slowly before then progressively tighten his grip. If he wins the second set and gets a break in the third, we’re off to get a snack or return an important phone call because the match is over. And he did wake up in the beginning of the second set, but Murray looped another ball to Rafa’s backhand and followed it up with another flat winner down the line for two break points in the third game of the set.

Rafa held on but Murray got two more break point on Nadal’s next service game. You knew Murray was thinking out there because he wasn’t hitting those dumb drop shots and when he did hit one on the second break point, he paid for it. Rafa held again but Murray was dictating and that defense! Rafa served wide at 4-4 then hit to the opposite corner and came in behind it. Murray not only got to the ball but he whipped a passing shot crosscourt and just beyond Rafa’s reach.

By the time they arrived at the second set tiebreaker, Rafa had fought off a few more break points and Murray was hitting more errors. Rafa was up 5-4 in the tiebreaker and it looked like he was about to turn the tide. But he returned a Murray serve and the ball ticked the top of the net and fell back on his side of the court. There were two interesting things about this. We already saw that Murray was playing deep behind the baseline and now he had tried to outkick Rafa. That serve Rafa muffed kicked so high that Rafa couldn’t get it back over the net. Many times players are egotistical enough to try and beat an opponent at their own game and they fail miserably. Pete Sampras – the ultimate serve and vollyer – tried it at the French Open. He tried to beat clay court players from the baseline. How’s that for making life unnecessarily difficult? But Murray was succeeding. As for the second interesting thing, it’s usually Rafa who wins that kind of critical point then goes on to run out the match for a victory, Murray has been known to be suspect in such situations.

Murray won the last two points of the tiebreaker and now he was up two sets to none and I wasn’t sure what to think. Did I want a Federer-Murray final or a five set barnburner? Whichever it was I wanted it to be a high level of play but Murray fell apart in the first game of the third set and Rafa broke him. Murray pulled himself together to win the next two service games but some of the airplane sounds weren’t airplanes, they were gathering thunderstorms. Hannah finally hit land and tennis was finished for the day.

Who benefits most from the break? Could go either way. Murray looked like he was getting tired – he was starting to rush his shots – so he could probably use a rest. But he was also cracking serves and ground strokes and who knows if he’ll have those when they resume. And now Nadal’s team knows Murray’s strategy. Nadal gets another day of rest and gets to start over but his momentum was just picking up and now it’s been interrupted.

I’m guessing Rafa can’t take three straight sets from Murray and we won’t have the Grapple in the Apple, we’ll have the Donnybrook in the Borough. What do you think?

Don’t be like me, check your local listing from here on. The men’s semifinal will continue on Sunday afternoon, the women’s final is on Sunday night, and the men’s final gets pushed to Monday.

By the way, while you’re twiddling your thumbs as we wait for tennis to resume, take a shot at this from tennis Addictionary.

Serena and Venus Williams met up with each other at yet another slam but this time it wasn’t a US Open final on Saturday night prime time TV, it was a quarterfinal match on a cable channel.

(By the way, hang in there with us. Our write Lexa Lee is holed up in her partially damaged house without power in New Orleans so we’re trying to cover and bring you as much tennis as we can.)

As soon as Serena Williams had beaten her sister Venus to move into the semifinals at the US Open on Wednesday evening, the questions started:

…do you think the two best players on the women’s side were identified in this match tonight?
After working that hard did you feel like your work here at the Open should be done?
Is it a little disappointing to have a match of this caliber not yield a trophy?

Those questions were asked at the post-match media session and no doubt Serena wouldn’t have heard them if this hadn’t been her home court slam, but the inquisitors had short memories. Neither Serena nor Venus has reached a final here since they met each other in the 2002 final which Serena won. And Venus is the seventh seed here while Serena is the fourth seed.

The USA Network broadcast yielded a similar thought:

To the public, this is the championship match.

It depends on which public you mean. If someone in, say, Russia or Serbia watched the match, I seriously doubt they’d agree with that statement. Elena Dementieva beat Serena in Beijing at the Olympics, Dinara Safina beat Serena in Berlin this year, and Jelena Jankovic beat Serena at the Australian open in January. And those three players are still around. We also wouldn’t have heard these comments if Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova were here, I’m just saying that it’s disrespectful to international competitors who are having excellent seasons and a very good tournament.

Having said that, we saw a fantastic match. Serena called it the sisters’ second best match after the 2003 Australian Open final which Serena also won.

Venus broke Serena early in the first set then tried to serve out at 5-4 and that’s when the fun began. Serena knew Venus would be nervous so she got her butt to the net on the very first point and put the ball away. Sometimes it helps to play your sister. You know her game, yes, but you definitely read her emotions much better than any other player on tour.

And Serena’s intensity was just that much greater. She was doing that thing she does: she gets to the ball with plenty of time then completely unloads on it. Serena creeped in and creamed a second serve on break point and now she was even with Venus at 5-5. She just took it to Venus in that game.

In the tiebreaker, Serena put two balls into the net and Venus hit a good running passing shot to go up 5-3. I’m tellin’ ya, Venus was outplaying Serena. Serena faced two set points at 6-4 and this is where she summoned up her bad loser and this is the difference between the sisters. Venus has the better game and if they both played their best level, Venus wins. She has a bigger serve and better footwork. But Serena is meaner. She talked about it after the match:

Venus is a great sport. I think the best sport in all of tennis. I’m probably one of the worst sports, so she always has a great attitude. …like I’m not a good loser. I mean, I like to win and not just in tennis, just in life.

When faced with set points, as Serena said, “at that point you have to focus or you have to go home, so…” So, you find a way to win.

Venus slipped on the first set point – for some reason, if she slipped, I can picture Serena taking a whack at the ball and putting it away even if she had to stand on her head to do it – and Serena hit an ace on the second. One more good point by Serena and an error by Venus at the first set was over.

Venus broke Serena again in the second set and tried to serve it out at 5-3. She was up 40-0 with three set points when the comparison kicked in again. Venus coughed up one of the set points with an error but Serena saved the other two by forcing Venus into errors. Venus added two more errors and she’d given away her set.

Venus got another set point with Serena serving at 5-6 and I cringed at the thought of what could possibly happen this time and there it was again, another Venus error and you could see Serena pumping herself up. I don’t think Serena minds beating her sister anywhere near as much as Venus does and you could see it in her play. A few points later Venus smacked a ball to the corner then followed it to the net and smacked it to the other corner. Serena hit the second ball at Venus’ belly button and into the net the ball went.

After five deuces, Serena finally sent the match into a second set tiebreaker but it wasn’t over yet. They were both just hammering the ball and, again, Venus was doing most of the hammering. Serena was down 2-4 in tiebreaker when Venus ran her wide and got to the net. It took Venus an overhead and three volleys – all to opposite corners – to put Serena away and it deservedly ended with a standing ovation from the adoring crowd and by now, that included me.

One point later, Venus had three more set points. She hit two backhands late – and I couldn’t believe it –she missed an overhead. By this time we were all feeling for Venus. She got her eighth break point on a challenge then Serena made like John McEnroe with a volley and now I had to agree with everyone – this was the match of the tournament for the women’s side.

One more Venus error and Serena had match point and I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to waste it and she didn’t. Venus hit the ball long and the two sisters met at the net. With a match that was this hard, there was no hug at the net, just a lot of heartbreak on one side of the net and exhausted relief mixed in with some sympathy on the other.

Even though I’m part of the adoring crowd, I’ve watched many a magnificent quarterfinal match and never once thought it should have been the final. I just appreciate the match. And that includes this one.

Matches at the US Open were so uninspiring today that discussion turned elsewhere, specifically, to court surface speed.

Commentators for the US Open spent the day trying to convince everyone that the US Open surface is now faster than Wimbledon. I think they were just bored and trying to think of something to talk about because the tennis on court wasn’t exactly gripping.

Serena Williams dispatched wild card Severine Bremond, 6-2, 6-2, in exactly 60 minutes. Flavia Pennetta broke Amelie Mauresmo seven times and won the match with an even more lopsided score: 6-3, 6-0. Stanislas Wawrinka got so frustrated against Andy Murray that he tried to drill him in the last game of the match and couldn’t even do that right. He not only missed Murray – his good friend – but he sent the ball long. Murray won easily, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.

By the way, Murray said a few times this week that the US Open is his favorite tournament. Not only that but his favorite television show is Entourage. Not Monty Python, not Blackadder, not Absolutely Fabulous or even New Tricks, but Entourage. What do you say Jenny? Are the British newspapers all over this cultural slight or what? Before you know it, Murray will be moving to Tampa, Florida, and buying a second home in Beverly Hills with a tennis court and a racket-shaped swimming pool.

This is the part of the tournament where we should start to see some barnburners so what’s the problem?

We already know the problem on the women’s side. The volcanic shift that Justine Henin’s retirement set off still hasn’t settled and it won’t until Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova are healthy. Oh, and remember when I said that neither of the Williams sisters was likely to see the number one ranking again in their career? Serena Williams could get out of this tournament as the number one.

Okay, but what is the excuse on the men’s side because tomorrow doesn’t look all that exciting either. Qualifier Gilles Muller will play his eight match of the tournament against Nikolay Davydenko tomorrow and Muller’s last two matches were five setters. I wouldn’t think Igor Andreev has much chance against Roger Federer and I’d put $10,000 down on Novak Djokovic over Tommy Robredo if I wasn’t afraid the ATP would find out I bet on tennis and refuse to give me press credentials the next time I apply for them.

Part of the problem is the Olympics. I looked back at the quarterfinals in 2004 after the summer Olympics in Athens and only two of the top eight seeds reached the quarterfinals. Two of the top eight seeds are already in the quarterfinals this year and four more could get there tomorrow, but this is still a mish mosh of a tournament. Gael Monfils, Muller, and Kei Nishikori all got to the fourth round. Flavio Cipolla – who had two hard court victories in his career before this week, Viktor Troicki, and Jurgen Melzer got to the third round.

I’m assuming order will restore itself pretty soon so now let me get back to the original question: Is the US Open faster than Wimbledon? Pretty much and no are the two answers to this question.

Tennisinsight.com creates a quantitative measure of surface speed by looking at the number of points, games, and tiebreakers played because you expect fewer points, more games, and more tiebreakers on a faster court. It’s easier to hold serve on a faster court and that means more games and more tiebreakers. If you look at Tennisinsight’s results for this US Open so far (ignore the map which puts the US Open in Jacksonville) and their results for Wimbledon this year, you see that the US Open is playing almost exactly as fast as Wimbledon when the men play. It’s not playing faster but it ain’t playing any slower either. Wimbledon has slowed down enough that it is now the same speed as the US Open.

If you look at the US Open for the women so far and Wimbledon this year, you see that the US Open is playing significantly slower than Wimbledon when the women play.

I don’t know why that is. Anyone got any theories? The women play slower in all tournaments because the serve isn’t as dominant in their game, but that doesn’t explain why the US Open is playing so much faster for the men relative to Wimbledon than it would for the women. Meanwhile, it’s my bedtime so I’ll see if I can work it out in my dreamtime and wake up with the answer.

See ya tomorrow.

Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey are looking good, Andy Murray looks transformed – for better or worse, and I don’t know what’s up with David Nalbandian.,

The planned shutdown of MVN.com has been delayed due to software problems. I’ll keep you up to date, meanwhile keep tuning in because the US Open is smokin’.

I had Andy Roddick on the downside for the US Open because he’s had all kinds of injury problems this summer. He only got to the second round in Toronto and failed to win either of the small hard court events he entered but, he’s looked strong so far. He took out the talented young Latvian Ernests Gulbis to reach the third round and there’s no sign of injury anywhere on him so. Of course, I also ignored Sam Querrey and wrote off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but they’re still around too.

When I first saw Querrey play in Los Angeles two years ago, I figured we had another Roddick on our hands but with slightly worse movement and that’s not good. He might not be a smooth mover but I did see him lunge for a sweet half-volley crosscourt winner in his third round victory over Ivo Karlovic. After Querrey hit the shot, his legs were churning and his body lurched out over those long legs, but he made the shot and he also came through on the big points.

Querrey hit a fantastic flick lob over his 6’10”(208cm) counterpart in the first set tiebreaker. And Karlovic gave Querrey a set point in the second set tiebreaker with a double fault while Querrey closed the set out with an ace. Querrey won the match in straight sets and is now into the fourth round at a slam for the first time.

Tsonga is the stuff of dreams. He’s everything many players are not: lithe, smooth, aggressive, strong, charismatic – in short, one of those artist types we’ve been arguing about with regard to the Roger Federer – Rafael Nadal divide. Leaving charisma out of it for the moment, Federer is the artist and Nadal is the grinder. Some people view this as a slap at Nadal and an unwarranted appreciation of Mr. Federer but I can’t help it, I’m an unabashed artistry lover and it pained me to see Roger unable to pull the trigger on a simple forehand passing shot against Thiago Alves in the third round because there isn’t a lot of artistry to take his place. A magician is not the same thing. I cringe when I watch Fabrice Santoro hit slice two-handers off both sides. I get mad when he beats more stylish players. I’m superficial, what can I say.

But it’s not quite that simple. I love stylish players but only when they come with transcendent power. Federer’s looseness allows him to unload that fearsome forehand and Tsonga just slams the ball. That could be part of Tsonga’s problem. As stylish as he is, if you watch his forehand you can see a possible cause of the disc problem he suffered and, by extension, his recent knee injury. Tsonga’s arm looks like it’s stuck to his body when he hits his forehand.

Think of it like this: some players hit with too much arm and not enough trunk rotation (Filippo Volandri is the best example of that, he’s all arm), and others twist their trunk but fail to let the racket fly freely on the follow-through. If you’re arm doesn’t fly freely at the end of the shot, your spine will over-rotate and you’ll get disc problems. Further down the kinetic chain, the extra trunk rotation will put pressure on your knees. Tsonga’s got style and artistry, especially around the net, but that style might be causing his recurring injury problems.

I haven’t made the mistake of discounting Andy Murray but I’m also expecting him to take a bit longer to develop. His conditioning has improved but he’s still behind other players. He didn’t pop out of the womb running as I’m sure Rafael Nadal did. Murray was probably a couch potato baby and even now he’s a video game addict – Brad Gilbert recently claimed that Murray plays video games seven hours a day but maybe he was exaggerating. Anyway, Murray’s conditioning almost cost him his place in the fourth round.

Jurgen Melzer was up two sets to none and leading in the third set tiebreaker, 5-4, and Murray looked tired. Murray managed to win the next two points – the second with a 138mph(222kph) ace, wow, where’d that come from? – then played the following magnificent point to close out the set.

Melzer hit a sharp crosscourt shot to run Murray wide to one direction then hit another to the opposite corner. Melzer followed the second shot to the net and hit a sweet drop shot. And this is what makes the slouchy Murray so interesting: most players would have been spinning their wheels like mad to get to that shot, but Murray’s length and anticipation got him there in time to decelerate and hit a pretty easy winner down the line. Melzer took the fourth set off and finally ran out of gas at the end of the fifth, and in that sense Murray was lucky. But even if Murray does well here – and he could end next week at number four in the world – his conditioning still has to improve.

On another note, while I’m happy to see fewer self-lacerating outbursts from Murray, I’m not so sure about the alternative that has emerged in its place. Melzer stayed even with Murray in the fifth set until Murray broke him to go up 4-3. In the next game, Murray made a great lunge save of a hard Melzer backhand down the line then followed it up with a passing shot to win the point. Murray immediately put his hands on his hips, turned to his box, and mouthed what I think were the following words to his box: “It’s too strong! You’re too strong!” No doubt he was referring to himself.

I loved Murray’s crowd stirring antics at Wimbledon against Gasquet as he came back from two sets down to win the match because that was designed to pump up the crowd. But here, Murray was belittling Melzer’s game and I don’t like that. A few points later, Murray hit a fantastic return winner off a wide serve and he posed again, this time throwing up his hands as if he could barely stand his own greatness

I exaggerate slightly but Melzer deserved better because he played great tennis to get up two sets in the match. It looks like Murray is overcompensating for his inner hater. Instead of trashing himself verbally he’s now clowning his opponents. I hope Murray keeps developing until he can find a balance between those two parts of himself. I’m assuming it’ll come with the years.

One quick comment about David Nalbandian. I was surprised to see that he’s still ranked number seven given his mediocre results this year and he looked awful against Gael Monfils. He lost his second match in a row to Monfils on Saturday and he looked like he didn’t want to be out there. He was down 4-1 in the third set when he sauntered casually to the net and let a soft passing shot float over him and land at least a foot inside the baseline. Nalbandian looked all the worse given the number of times Monfils slipped and dove and tumbled to get to wide and short balls.

The journalists at the US Open are holding up release of player interviews for 24 hours to keep us bloggers from advertising the sport too heavily, but soon as it comes out, I’d be very interested to know what Nalbandian has to say for himself. Stay tuned, lots more to come.