This week on The First Serve, host Brett Phillips was joined by hosts of The First Serve's Crunching the Numbers podcast Marc Sophoulis from The Tennis Menu and Shane Liyanage from Data Driven Sports Analytics to analyse the US Open.
Host Brett Phillips believes the US Open was majorly competitive and the champions don't deserve to have an asterisk next to their title.
"Many saying this years US Open with big names missing - Federer, Nadal, Wawrinka, Monfils on the mens side and six of the top ten women would have an asterisk next to the champions. Well not for me, it's a grand slam. You still have to win seven matches in two weeks. There was plenty of great competition on both sides, despite some notable players missing. There was the intensity of a grand slam at court level, playing for high stakes despite not having the electric pulsating New York crowds," Phillips said.
Marc Sophoulis weighed in on the mens final using his strategic coaching insights.
"It was interesting, before the match started I really felt Dominic Thiem was the player that was going to be the hardest to beat on the day. I didn't feel Zverev had played his best tennis throughout the whole tournament. That was the feel I had walking in. To see what Zverev did in that first two sets, where he played up the court, he played aggressive, he took time away from Dominic Thiem. His net approaches, I think it was 66 in the end for the match. Zverev would not have been to the net 66 times in his career let alone in one match and that's what I've been finding is he's just pulled that out and thought you know what, to beat Dominic Thiem, I've got to take his time away and I've got to take his space away. He did that for two sets and the biggest thing for Zverev has always been his mindset, and that's probably what lost it in the end for him, he just couldn't continue to stay aggressive and stay up the court," Sophoulis said.
Shane Liyanage had his say on the final, providing an analytical data insight.
"I think firstly, I felt Dominic had been playing the better tennis and was definitely the favourite going in. But I do recall a number of times Zverev in a number of finals, he's looked shaky early and he's just managed to get it together for one or two matches right at the end, so I always felt there'd be a challenge from Alexander and certainly the first two sets you saw that. From a data perspective, I actually thought there was three matches really. From set one to maybe that midway point in the second set, or towards the end of it. Then from that point to the end of set four there was another match. Then the fifth set was just something incredible. So in terms of some of the numbers, the first set Zverev was serving 5km faster on average than he did in that semifinal at the Australian Open and I think that helped him get up the court and get to the net," Liyanage said.
Listen in to the full edition of the show for all the insights into the coaching side, from Marc Sophoulis and the numbers side from Shane Liyanage, as they wrap up the men's and women's US Open tournament.
Subscribe to The First Serve on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms to listen in to this episode, as well as previous editions of The First Serve.