With Day Four now in the books at the 2014 US Open, one cannot help but wonder when that major or semi-major upset will hit the men’s side of the draw. While the women have seen No. 8 seed Ana Ivanovic knocked out of the tournament via a second round upset at the hands of Karolina Pliskova and No. 12 seed Dominika Cibulkova fall to fifteen year old American CiCi Bellis in what has unquestionably been the shocker of week one, it has been fairly straightforward for Novak Djokovic and company.
Outside of No. 21 seed Mikhail Youzhny losing to Australian youngster Nick Kygrios, whom most experts actually considered to be the favorite heading into their first round match-up, and No. 24 seed Julien Benneteau falling to fellow Frenchman Benoit Paire, the rest of the twenty-five top seeds are all still alive with second round action set to wrap-up during Friday’s afternoon and evening sessions.
Djokovic lost all of four games in mowing down Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 to cruise into the third round during yesterday’s action in Flushing Meadows. Same goes for Canada’s Milos Raonic who had to work in order to get past Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk in four sets, 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(3), but remains on course for a Round of Sixteen date with No. 10 seed Kei Nishikori and a potential quarterfinal showdown with Australian Open champ Stan Wawrinka.
Day Five will see Roger Federer look to book his ticket into the third round with another evening date at Arthur Ashe Stadium against hard serving Aussie Sam Groth, while the trio of David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, and Grigor Dimitrov seem poised to do the same thing during their second round matches. It appears as though it could be another run-of-the-mill sort of day for the men in New York but do not be surprised to see a couple of upsets to start creeping into the equation further down the draw, be it today or during round number three.