US Open day 4 Men’s Review

Day 4 brought fans another couple of upsets.

Draper beat Hurkacz (17) in straights. Impressive stuff from the young big-serving, attacking Brit who barely seems able to finish tournaments without retiring. There is a lot of buzz about this young man, even more so as he’s from Britain. Hurkacz is a decent scalp, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist and Miami champ. It’ll be interesting to see if Draper’s body can hold up and he can make a deep run here.

Wawrinka upset 31st seed Etcheverry. This was a solid win for the 2016 champ, and an impressive performance. Assured and risk taking, this was a flashback to Stan the Man of old.

The seeds bucked the trend of one upset after another. Of the 12 seeds in action, 10 made it through.

A few noteable results:

1. Isner was sent into retirement by Mmoh, letting a 2-0 lead and match points slip on his way out. On winning, Mmoh gestured the applause Isner’s way. An emotional Isner said a few words before leaving the court and a long and distinguished career. The super tiebreak set in slams should be renamed the Isner-Mahut set.
2. Poor Berrettini had to retire from his match versus Rinderknech with an injury. The Italian seems ridden with bad luck.
3. Arthur Fils lost in five sets to 22 year old Arnaldi. Like Draper, Fils benefits, publicity wise, from being from a slam hosting country, in his case France. But both men do have big potential and 19 year old Fils is one to watch. As for Arnaldi, he’s another member of Italy’s emerging new generation and is probably a name to note down, too.
4. And how could I forget – Dimitrov cleaned Murray’s clock 3, 4 and 1. It did take nearly 3 hours, mind. Still, few expected Murray to go down quite as tamely. The Scot had plenty to say about it, of course, hurling insults to his box the entire match and dropping one F bomb after another. That itself was more entertaining that the otherwise lackluster match, though Dimitrov’s shotmaking made the time spent gawping worthwhile.