US Open day three preview – Clijsters and Murray in action
Defending US Open champion Kim Clijsters returns to Arthur Ashe Stadium for the second time in 2010 tonight, while 2008 runner-up Andy Murray plays his first match of the tournament during the day session. Here, we preview their matches.
Kim Clijsters vs Sally Peers
Clijsters looked to be cruising in her first-round match against Greta Arn before the Hungarian fought back to take a 4-0 lead in the second set and leave the second seed with a fight on her hands. It was a challenge Clijsters met, as she took the 6-0, 7-5 win, her 15th successive victory in Flushing Meadows.
Attempting to break that winning streak tonight will be qualifier Sally Peers, who disposed of Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak 6-0, 6-1 in just 48 minutes out on court 12 on Monday.
An impressive start from the teenager, but her reward is a match against the world No. 3 and dual US Open champion – and it seems childhood idol, with Peers apparently the owner of an autographed photo of Clijsters, obtained when the Australian was just ten.
This is a match where perhaps Peer’s only advantage is that she’s a relatively unknown quantity to the Belgian, who after her first round win responded to a reporter asking: “Your next opponent is a 19-year-old Australian. What do you know of Sally Peers?” by joking, “That she's a 19-year-old Australian”.
Clijsters then elaborated: “There's a few names out there that I've paid a little bit of attention to. I think she's one of them. I think she's a girl who - you know, she's [a] stronger girl...likes to hit the ball... when you play one of the youngers, they're always - they're eager, they're ready to go, and they have nothing to lose.”
Not that an entirely convinced Clijsters had, at least two days ago, carried out any detailed reconnaissance on her second-round opponent, though you can be sure she’s done her homework on the world No. 201 since.
Clijsters may have struggled for consistency in the year since she was crowned US Open champion, but against a player making her Grand Slam centre court singles debut, and playing in just her second singles match in the main draw of a major, Clijsters should have all the answers.
Andy Murray vs Lukas Lacko
Murray may know his US Open first round opponent from his junior days, but the pair are yet to face off on the ATP Tour, where the Scot has etched his name among the upper echelons and Lacko is yet to crack the top-50.
That doesn’t mean fourth seeded Murray can afford to take his opponent lightly though, with Lacko including among his scalps in 2010 Marcos Baghdatis (Wimbledon first round) and Lleyton Hewitt (second round in Atlanta).
And with top-seed Rafael Nadal, third seed Novak Djokovic and fifth seed Robin Soderling all stretched in their opening matches by opponents who on paper should not have caused them any huge headaches, Murray should be on his guard here.
That said, the world No. 4 should step on court quietly confident that he’s got this one in the bag. After all, he’s at home on the hard courts in Flushing Meadows, which is the site of his maiden Grand Slam final, and just two tournaments ago in Toronto, Murray completed that rare double of defeating both Nadal and Roger Federer in a tournament as he claimed his first title of 2010.
Don’t expect Lacko to roll over in his debut in the US Open main draw, but don’t expect him to win either.
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