US Open Report: Days 4 and 5

Just a quick update on Days 5 and 6 of the US Open before the beginning of the great Labor Day weekend stretch of tennis.

The big upset of the past two days was the ouster of 3rd seed and former champion Maria Sharapova to Flavia Pennetta. Her great results at the French, Wimbledon, and over the summer hardcourts made her one of the favorites, but instead her side of the draw is very up for grabs as not one single Slam champion is there. Other upsets include 7th seed Gael Monfils who was taken out by a resurgent Juan Carlos Ferrero, 13th seed seed Richard Gasquet going down to Ivo Karlovic, and 14th seed Stan Wawrinka losing in the fifth set to American Donald Young incidentally the youngest player left in the draw.

Young is just one of the few Americans who has made a dent at this year's US Open. Vania King and Sloane Stephens both beat seeded players to reach the third round while Christina McHale and Jack Sock were given opportunities to play in Arthur Ashe after their great showing. Unfortunately they both lost pretty easily to Maria Kirilenko and Andy Roddick. John Isner and Mardy Fish won their matches, but not Robby Ginepri and James Blake.

Like the first three days, retirements and withdrawals abound. 23rd seed Radek Stepanek and Wimbledon fan favorite Nicholas Mahut retired from their matches, the latter while playing Rafael Nadal. Ana Ivanovic didn't even need to hit one ball as her opponent withdrew with injury before their match.

Probably related to all the injuries, there seems to be a lot of breadsticks (6-1) and bagels (6-0) sets this year. Francesca Schiavone, Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Tomas Berdych, Novak Djokovic, Sabine Lisicki, Marin Cilic, and a few others baked these sets for their poor opponents. Former US Open champions Roger Federer, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Juan Martin Del Potro also moved on easily to the next round. Meanwhile, Andy Murray had more difficulty going up against Robin Haase who was up two sets before injuring himself letting Murray run away with the next two sets. The fifth set was a bit nuts as Murray went up 4-0, only for Haase to even it up at 4-4. Murray managed to win the next two games to reach the next round.

Finally, let's hear it for the old fogies! Along with Juan Carlos Ferrero and Andy Roddick who beat their much younger opponents, let's give it up to Tommy Haas (who plays Juan Monaco next), Nikolay Davydeko, and David Nalbandian for reaching the round of 32. For their rankings and more importantly for their recent histories, it's already been a successful US Open for them all.