It was a day full of departures and upsets as American favorites like Andy Roddick and Melanie Oudin left the U.S. Open, and Ryan Harrison joined the ranks of players to watch. In between it all, two Illini moved on and one of them did it in dramatic fashion.
It shouldn’t be too surprising since both Rajeev Ram (2003, with Brian Wilson) and Kevin Anderson (2006, with Ryan Rowe) are NCAA doubles champions. For Rajeev Ram, it was a fairly quick and easy win in Mixed Doubles with partner Aravane Rezai of France, 6-2,6-4 over Zi Yan & Roban Bopanna. The victory keeps him alive in two events, as he and Bobby Reynolds are still in the men’s doubles draw.
It was a whole different story for Kevin Anderson. Anderson teamed with Victor Hanescu of Romania for a crowd pleasing doubles match against Wimbledon champions Jurgen Melzer & Philipp Petzchner. After dropping the first set, the duo came back and took the second. Though the score was 6-3, it was full of exciting points and games. The third set got even more thrilling as it went all the way to a tiebreaker. The seventh-seeds seemed a bit shell-shocked by the volleys coming at them and dropped the breaker and the match at 7/1.
The only Big Ten play on Thursday will also be from Anderson, who is set to face Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in the second round of main draw singles. Bellucci is the No. 26 seed and the match is scheduled for the afternoon. Rajeev Ram & Bobby Reynolds are not scheduled for Thursday, but areexpected to play on Friday.
It shouldn’t be too surprising since both Rajeev Ram (2003, with Brian Wilson) and Kevin Anderson (2006, with Ryan Rowe) are NCAA doubles champions. For Rajeev Ram, it was a fairly quick and easy win in Mixed Doubles with partner Aravane Rezai of France, 6-2,6-4 over Zi Yan & Roban Bopanna. The victory keeps him alive in two events, as he and Bobby Reynolds are still in the men’s doubles draw.
It was a whole different story for Kevin Anderson. Anderson teamed with Victor Hanescu of Romania for a crowd pleasing doubles match against Wimbledon champions Jurgen Melzer & Philipp Petzchner. After dropping the first set, the duo came back and took the second. Though the score was 6-3, it was full of exciting points and games. The third set got even more thrilling as it went all the way to a tiebreaker. The seventh-seeds seemed a bit shell-shocked by the volleys coming at them and dropped the breaker and the match at 7/1.
The only Big Ten play on Thursday will also be from Anderson, who is set to face Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in the second round of main draw singles. Bellucci is the No. 26 seed and the match is scheduled for the afternoon. Rajeev Ram & Bobby Reynolds are not scheduled for Thursday, but areexpected to play on Friday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment