U.S. Open Stacked draw

[Tennis Guy]

Originally Posted by Nadal2

I think it's in the states best interest to put on a tournament that is as fair as possible to all players. Meaning they have no intent to make the draw any easier for any of the players. I don't believe that they stack draws in any ATP-sponsored events,s o you don't need to worry. Again, if you had actually read the post, you would have seen that Barry was saying the draw is stacked in Roddick's favor, which seems much more likely than in Federer's favor. Last year Roddick's ride was a little easier than it is this year, so what? The draw is not stacked. In Federer's draw, there are as many titles as there are in the rest of Roddick's draw, besides Roddick and Federer. I don't think that if the draw was stacked, they would put Agassi and Federer in the same quarter.
I do believe that the USTA does unfairly make the schedule, such as last year, and I wish they didn't, but I don't think that it has drastic effects on who the possible title contenders are as it did last year.

He was being sarcastic... I hope.

[Chadwixx]

Originally Posted by PJVA

Chadwixx, you make a good point here. It is about match ups and how many tough match ups each player has in his path. Roddick fans here may say that just becuase Roddick will likely play Hewitt in the semis that means he will have a tough draw. But Federer will likely face more than just one tough opponent to get to the final.

Just examine who is in each quarter. All of the other top players in Roddick's quarter have been falling in the rankings and have been struggling.....Ferrero, Schuetler, and Safin.

roddick has an easy path to the semi's. in a grand slam u would expect the winner to play more than 2 big matches.

costa is a very good player, no body wants to play him cause he is such a competitor. he has won as many grand slams as roddick (and probably at least 20 more tourneys) yet he gets very little respect.

all these ppl who are saying safin and juan carlos are continders arent keeping up with whats going on oncourt. hewitt nalbandian are clearly the top two, but with both their grueling baseline styles i would think the winner would be pretty spent.

the main reason federer has beat roddick everytime (except when fed double faulted 12 times in the third and still lost in a tb) is because he has a fast style. a bad draw for a baseliner is much harder, but fed can finish fast.

[PJVA]

roddick has an easy path to the semi's. in a grand slam u would expect the winner to play more than 2 big matches.

costa is a very good player, no body wants to play him cause he is such a competitor. he has won as many grand slams as roddick (and probably at least 20 more tourneys) yet he gets very little respect.

all these ppl who are saying safin and juan carlos are continders arent keeping up with whats going on oncourt. hewitt nalbandian are clearly the top two, but with both their grueling baseline styles i would think the winner would be pretty spent.

the main reason federer has beat roddick everytime (except when fed double faulted 12 times in the third and still lost in a tb) is because he has a fast style. a bad draw for a baseliner is much harder, but fed can finish fast.[/quote]

Right to say that Safin and Ferrero are tough contenders is not keeping up with the times. Ferrero folds easily and has been loosing early since his illness. Ferrero is just not a fighter. Safin has been out of sorts since he lost the AO final. Schuetler has also been dropping in the rankings.

I don't say that the organizers fix the draw but Roddick seems to have great luck in getting the best draws all the time. Watch even in the Master's Cup Roddick will get a bunch of clay courters and Federer will have Agassi, Hewitt and Heman.

[The Franchise]

Yes, I was being sarcastic. I was being stupid, just because the whining about who has an easier draw and such is just plain dumb. Stop whining and just watch the f*ckin' game people. May the best person win.

[PJVA]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

Yes, I was being sarcastic. I was being stupid, just because the whining about who has an easier draw and such is just plain dumb. Stop whining and just watch the f*ckin' game people. May the best person win.

I think we can whine and watch at the same time

I'd just like to see Roddick have to play a tough quarter final for once. Has he ever had a tough QF in a major?

The hilarious conspiracy theories from the paranoids never end.

[Chanchai]

PJVA wrote:
I think we can whine and watch at the same time

I'd just like to see Roddick have to play a tough quarter final for once. Has he ever had a tough QF in a major?

While El Aynaoui isn't top 10... I thought he provided a tough Quarterfinal for Roddick at the Australian Open in 2003. If the draw held, Roddick would have faced Hewitt instead of El Aynaoui at that tournament. And then there was Hewitt at the US Open in 2001. And Sampras in the US Open in 2002. Oh yeah... there was Marat Safin at the Australian Open this year also...

Guess you missed those tough QF matches for Roddick at the slams. So aside from the examples in the above and facing Schaulken at last year's US Open and this year's Wimbledon, I don't think Roddick made the quarters (don't think he made the QFs for Roland Garros and 2003 was the first time he stepped up at Wimbledon I think).

I'll try to confirm these on the ATP site sooner or later, but at the moment, the ATP site is fine but player profiles are giving me problems at the moment.

Were you being sarcastic?

As for getting Schaulken in the QFs of a major at last year's US Open and this year's Wimbledon... I don't know much about Sjeng except that it seems like he makes his living qualifying for grand slams and going into week 2--I generally never hear about the guy outside of the slams. It's not like he's seeded to definitely face Roddick in the Quarters, just works out that way.

-Chanchai

[Chanchai]

The profiles on ATPtennis.com are working again for me, so I checked. They need to put in the summer season entries for this year...

I missed Roddick's match against Bjorkman in the QF of Wimbledon 2003. Though Roddick rolled through him, I wouldn't say that the guy is weak on grass. He seems like a grass-only version of Schaulken though... But also a doubles player.

-Chanchai

Roddick has had some tough QF's in his career.

2001 US Open QF- lost to Hewitt in 5
2002 US Open- lost to Samras in 3
2004 Aus Open- lost to Safin in 5

These are just a few examples.

[Chadwixx]

Originally Posted by tennisboy87

Roddick has had some tough QF's in his career.

2001 US Open QF- lost to Hewitt in 5
2002 US Open- lost to Samras in 3
2004 Aus Open- lost to Safin in 5

These are just a few examples.

has he won one?

[gully]

Originally Posted by Chadwixx

has he won one?

My guess'd be yeah, seeing as how he's made the semis of slams four times and won one slam. The math ain't too tough on that one.

[AndyC]

I don't think there's any stacking of the draw.. however ther scheduling can sometimes favor American players.. moreso than in any other GS event and this is exacerbated by the (IMO) crazy so-called super saturday scheduling.

[Chanchai]

Well, they do a random drawing process first, so non-seeds should be determined randomly. However, there is an alotted amount of draw manipulation allowed for tournament organizers. I don't know how much this is used on the men's draw because I hardly hear about it.

However, though I have nothing against Serena, I do think that making her the #3 seed is a mistake. I'm not saying they shouldn't up her seeding (though I'm sure MANY people here would believe that), but #3 is the wrong seeding for her--clearly wrong imo.

Back to the men's draw, does anyone know what manipulations have occurred? If they really wanted to manipulate the draw with extra favor to American players, I would imagine they would get Agassi the heck out of Federer's quarter.

Roddick is generally very lucky with his draws lately... but the top seeds generally should have nicer draws. However, Roddick has also benefitted from upsets that occur in his quarter (technically, every player does, but it happens a lot on the Roddick quarter). But Federer did get a very tough draw at this US Open so there goes idealism out of the window.

But... Agassi has had some SWEET draws in the past.

-Chanchai

[mlee2]

Originally Posted by Chanchai

However, though I have nothing against Serena, I do think that making her the #3 seed is a mistake. I'm not saying they shouldn't up her seeding (though I'm sure MANY people here would believe that), but #3 is the wrong seeding for her--clearly wrong imo.
-Chanchai

I think you DO have a bias against Serena, although it is sutble. Why aren't you calling out the fact that Henin hasn't been playing many matches this year either...YET she's the No. 1 seed. At least Serena has shown up to one more grandslam than her and making it to the finals at Wimbledon.

It's called protected rankings. If Henin gets the benefits, there shouldn't be any reason to deny Serena.

[Chanchai]

Well... honestly, I would have seeded her 5th. I think she's entitled to some ranking protection. She's been back on tour for almost 6 months now. And I thought it was fine she got her ranking protected as far as Roland Garros and Wimbledon were concerned.

I haven't done my homework on this, but as far as I understand it, she's still covered in the ranking protection because her schedule has been cut down a lot. Maybe I misunderstood somewhere, but I think if she had played all of the tournaments she intended to, she would no longer be covered by the protected ranking.

But just like Serena was entitled to top seed in her first slam back, I understand Henin-Hardenne getting that same treatment as well.

My bias is that I don't think Serena is the 3rd seed right now. I'd argue she's 5th or 6th. Maybe even 4th. Ultimately, my bias is that Davenport was pushed back as a result. But I guess in the end, at least it didn't ruin many peoples' chances. All that aside, I hope Serena makes a good showing at the open. Could help pump up 2005 for the WTA Tour.

-Chanchai

[Chadwixx]

Originally Posted by gully

My guess'd be yeah, seeing as how he's made the semis of slams four times and won one slam. The math ain't too tough on that one.

we were talking about tough quarterfinal matches

[Chadwixx]

Originally Posted by Chanchai

Back to the men's draw, does anyone know what manipulations have occurred? If they really wanted to manipulate the draw with extra favor to American players, I would imagine they would get Agassi the heck out of Federer's quarter.

they will promote the hell out of agassi in the 2nd week. his and federer's match will bring in high ratings, then they hope roddicks popularity with the school girls will bring them high ratings on sat, sun. its not that complex, they just market diffrerent players at different times in the tourney. the bottom line is ratings, if u think the usta cares about anything other than money, ur crazy.

[gully]

Originally Posted by Chadwixx

we were talking about tough quarterfinal matches

Yes, and it would require having won exactly one QF for each SF appearance, a point too subtle, apparently, for board discussion.

But the historic El Anouyi-Roddick Australian QF would qualify -- and be hard to overlook -- I'd think.

The other QF victories -- Schalken, Bjorkman, Ancic -- were easy ones for him, and his two US Open QF losses were the rout by Sampras and the Hewitt nailbiter (7-5 in the fifth).

The Safin match at Melbourne this year was the only other close quaterfinal Roddick lost. Does it matter? No -- but you asked.

[PJVA]

Originally Posted by gully

My guess'd be yeah, seeing as how he's made the semis of slams four times and won one slam. The math ain't too tough on that one.

As for any tough QF that Roddick had I don't think going back as far as 2001 and 2002 matters because back then the promoters were still more interested in Sampras or Agassi.

That 2004 AO loss to Safin was a semi final wasn't it? My impression is that Roddick always gets an easy ride to the semis and sometimes all the way to the final.

This time Roddick quarter is very lucky for him because the higher seeds (JCF, Safin, and Schuetler) have not been playing well. Safin and Schuetler lost first round which proves my point. JCF almost lost in the first round.

Even the commentators were saying that in Roddick's quarter the only guy who can possibly give him trouble is Nadal in the 2nd round, but Nadal is coming back from injury.

[PJVA]

Originally Posted by Chanchai

Back to the men's draw, does anyone know what manipulations have occurred? If they really wanted to manipulate the draw with extra favor to American players, I would imagine they would get Agassi the heck out of Federer's quarter.

-Chanchai

Here's what I think about Agassi......promoters favor Roddick and don't want Agassi getting in the way of Roddick making it to the final. Remember Agassi just beat Roddick in Cincy? Promoters probably think that Agassi has a chance to beat Federer and in that case they'd get their dream match of Agassi v. Roddick in the final. If Agassi can't beat Federer then they'd still at least get Roddick in the final.

I don't know what kind of manipulations are possible. I am just glad that Hewitt is not in Federer's half. I was fully expecting Federer to draw Agassi and Hewitt like he so often does.