There is no doubt whatsoever that the semi final run by Pablo Carreno Busta at this year's US Open was a once in ten years event as every now and then someone sneaks through the main draw to the pointy end of proceedings.
The reality was this.
The top half of the Mens Singles Draw in New York in 2017 was a tournament within itself, it was good enough to almost be a year end Masters draw, it was simply a case of who ever could win that half was going to walk away with the trophy.
Nadal, Berdych, Monfils, Dimitrov, Del Potro, Federer, Thiem, to name a few. How did that many elite players end up in that half ? Luck of the draw ?
Well as I have already documented, Andy Murray had a big say in it with his rather precious injury that had him waiting until the death knock of the commencement of the final Slam of the year to decide whether or not he would play.
Surely he knew the consequences of his actions or didn't he really care ? Tennis after all is a selfish sport is it not ?
So let's look at Kevin Anderson's draw, the man who was always going to be cannon fodder for the winner of the top half, a player who I would refer to as a ' one break player', ( gain a break, set over ).
Kevin Anderson does not possess the arsenal required on the return of serve to bother the big boys, that's a fact.
First Round- Anderson defeats Aragone, a qualifier ranked 429 in straight.
Round 2 - defeats Gulbis , ranked 52 in straight.
Round 3 - defeats Coric , ranked 56 in straight.
Round of 16 - defeats Lorenzi, ranked 38 in four.
Quarter Finals - defeats Querrey, ranked 17 in four.
Semi Finals - defeats Carreno Busta in four.
Now consider this, apart from Querrey who seems to go deep at Wimbledon with the aid of a massive serve, just as Anderson owns, who of the other players bothers the scoreboard on a regular basis ? I could bore you to tears with some more stats on the guys who Anderson defeated in his run to the semis in New York this year but I won't, it's easy to see that Kevin, along with Pablo received a dream run, but not a reality run.
Federer should have been elevated to the number 2 seeding and it should have been a Federer/ Nadal Mens Singles Final but the inconsiderate selfish Pom Andy Murray put paid to that idea. A shame, it would have been a ripper final and not a foregone conclusion before it even started.
For the record Roger has beaten Kevin Anderson four times from four meetings and has not even been taken to a tie breaker.
For the record Roger has beaten Pablo Carreno Busta once , they have only played once, at the 2013 French Open. The score was 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. Isn't clay Pablo's favourite surface ? Hate to think what Roger would do to him on a hard court.
There's the statistics. You make up your own mind. Anderson was lucky to get to the final, he should send Andy Murray a case of beer for Xmas this year. Carreno Busta was even luckier to make it to the semis as the best of the rest of the dirt ballers who were relying on some luck from the Gods as far as the draw was concerned. He received just that.
Some will say it was great to see a change in the finalists. I disagree.
Masters vs the Apprentices, top half vs the top half. Bottom half was always going to finish second. It's a Slam that got away from the history books, a Slam that could have been a classic.
A Slam that will go down in history as a World Tennis Farce due to someone who had his head so firmly planted up his own bum that he could not see the carnage that he caused through sheer selfishness and self importance.
But isn't that tennis in a nutshell folks ?
You do the sums.........
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