I suppose I should start a new thread, rather than continue to talk about Nadal v. Youzhny on the 4th round thread. :D

Nadal saved a couple break points to stay on serve at 3-3. Now he has a break chance on Youzhny's serve, but again a save.

Another interesting tidbit in the early going is that Nadal, through his first three service games, has a higher winning percentage on his second serve than his first (70% vs. 56%).

Nadal serving again at 3-4, 15-30

Youzhny breaks to lead 5-3

Both players currently have won a higher percentage of points on their second serve to first!

And Nadal has only hit 3 winners and 10 UE compared to Youzhny's 12/8

Are you watching the match, hello? Seems from the stats that Nadal is off to another slow start.

And that's is tor the first set. 6-3 to Youzhny.

Nope, im not Nick. Just following the scoreboard and checking the stats. Youzhny really has played well in his last matches beating many experienced players! I think he could actually beat Nadal today after winning the first set 6-3. Nobody at the Start of the tournament would give him any chance to beat Nadal or get this far.

True. No one on the BBC tipped him as an outsider. I must say I overlooked him totally. He's having an excellent tournie.

0-40 down on his serve now, though. Looks like a good chance for Nadal to turn things around early in the second set.

Nadal breaks to go 2-0 in the second.

This time, Youzhny holds to love to get on the scoreboard in the second set. It's 6-3, 1-3 now.

Nadal consolidates his break. His groundstrokes seem to be finding more depth now.

Nadal has some mishits and allows Youzhny to go 0-30 up on his serve. Youzhny hits a forehand long on the next one. Nadal scratches his bum and double faults to give Youzhny two chances to break back.

Youzhny has broken back now, though. And after a combined 1 for 10 on break chances in the first set, they've converted on 2 of 3 chances so far in the second.

Nadal mishits a backhand down the line, and we're back on serve in the second. Things aren't really going his way today; he's not finding the lines with his usual consistency.

:lol: Obviously, the bum scratching didn't help much.

Even luck seems to be against Nadal today, as the ball rolls along the net just to drop back on his side.

roflmao Maybe he gets more spin if he scratches?

Very good ANALysis We'll make a commentator of you yet Nick. B)

Still on serve, 4-3 Nadal. The excitement has quieted down a bit, as both players hold.

Perhaps those women shouting "Marry me, Nadal" (shouldn't it at least be 'Marry me, Rafa'? :doh: ) are putting him off.

The Bjorkman/Mirnyi doubles set looks like going to a second tie-breaker on the scores (they took the first set).

I'm torn between sticking with the Nadal match or changing to Martina Navratilova's doubles match when the other one finishes. Well, let's see how the second set goes here. If Nadal takes this one, I reckon he'll win the match in four.

My fiancee suggested he might be wearing a thong, which he needs to pull out occasionally. Then she decided it wasn't an image she particularly wanted to imagine ... roflmao

Youzhny serving at 4-5 to stay in the set. He gets down 0-30 and gives Nadal an opening. Now 30-all

Nadal goes up 0-30 on Youzhny's serve, and is two points away from the set.Youzhy shortens to 15-30, and then displays some excellent volleying (with some great retrieving from Nadal) to level it.

Then my live feed stops right in the middle of the action. :badpc:

A hold to level at 5-5.

Video is back on, just in time to see Youzhny hold. 5-5.

I didn't realize that Youzhny was ranked as high as 15 back in 2005. He's certainly playing some good tennis this USO!

The bum-picking Spaniard makes Youzhny run all over the court and holds to 30 when Youzhny can't return his serve.

If the Russian wants this set, he'll have to take it to a tie-break.

No.. best not to go there.!

The beeb had a thread titled 'Rafa: Scratching of Bum watch' (except I don't think it was as polite as that!)

A bit like Bill Oddie's Naturewatch I guess..? :lol:

Youzhny gives Nadal a break point, and then nets a backhand to give Nadal the set. Surely the young Spaniard is now on track for a win?

And Blake is up a set and a break against Berdych... 6-4, .4-2 :ok:

I'm afraid I started that one ... think it might have been "The great Nadal bum-watch". ;)

Obviously a bit obsessed with it myself ... but it's just soooo bizarre! Doesn't anyone tell him? Is he somehow superstitious about it?

I thought he had cut down on it, but definitely not in this match. Whatever helps him win, I suppose?

I would have liked to see Berdych go through against Blake - he probably would have made Roger up his game more, since he once beat him. Blake has lost to Federer so often it's not funny - not sure he believes himself that he could do it.

But he's faced at least two break points in every service game of the 2nd set, so far. :hide:

Now, can someone help me out here? I just saw that the Bjorkman/Mirnyi match went to a third set. Now I thought that they're doing that whole "champions' tiebreak" nonsense at the USO; they definitely do for the women's and mixed doubles.

What is the rationale behind this? Is it just that they shortened the men's games from five sets to three, and the other ones to that new system? Seems a bit weird to me, but whatever ...

[It shows how much I've been following the men's doubles this year that I only notice this in the middle of the second week ...]

Both players hold at the beginning of the third. Youzhny has to fight a bit, though.

MJT, the final set is a first to 10 point super tie-break..

I can't stand them, and have already vented my spleen on another thread....!! :angry: :angry:

Apparently it's meant to enable more matches to be fitted into the day.. :(

Frankly, it's demeaning to doubles, and I protest!!!.. :(

Well, but that's just the thing - it seems that that's NOT the case in the men's doubles, according to the scores.

I can't stand those things either - at least in the slams I would've thought they'd refrain from using them. They didn't have them at Wimbledon though.

I find it particularly sad that Martina has to play her last slam in that format - though I think so far she's made good use of it, I think she's won several matches in that last tie-break set. Anyway, whatever the format, let's hope she goes far in this tournament!

:D Youzhny almost did a split there, trying to get to a ball from Nadal :D

Then he improves on that to hol, and level the set at three games all. Nadal's not looking that sharp at the moment, but also not so troubled. If he's biding his time, it's a dangerous strategy though - don't think he'll want to go two sets to one down.