Strike Factory

US Open mens final preview for general public

 

So there will be a new Grand Slam winner after tonight (unless it rains all day in New York), between two guys that tennis fans will know but the less hardcore more general sports fan will not know so well and not easy with no Nole, Fed Express, Murray Mints or Rafa, so here is some information about the two finalists, and little bit on their coaches who are both one time Grand Slam winners and former World No.2 players!

 

Kei Nishikori (Japan)

Age: 24

Current World Ranking: 10

Highest World Ranking 9 5/2014

Plays: Right Handed

Coach: Former French Open Champion and World No.2 Michael Chang!

Career titles: 5

Career highlight: Win or lose tonight he has made history becoming the first Japanese man to reach a Grand Slam singles final (Zenzo Shimizu reached the Wimbledon All Comers Final in 1920 but was really more a semi final as the winner would play the defending champion in the Challenger Round which was the final.)

Career lowlight: Suffering a shock first round loss at the US Open last year to British qualifier ranked 179 in the world Dan Evans in straight sets.

 

Marin Cilic (Croatia)

Age: 25

Current World Ranking: 12

Highest World Ranking: 9 2/2010

Plays: Right handed

Coach: Fellow Croat Goran Ivanisevic who broke British Hearts back in 2001 stunning Tim Henman in Wimbledon semi finals and going on to be surprise Wimbledon Champion (also once got defaulted during a match in Brighton for destroying all 3 racquets he brought to play and had nothing else to use so got disqualified).

Career titles: 11

Career highlights: Apart from this years final, has been a semi finalist at the Australian Open!

Career lowlight: Receiving a 9 months drugs ban from ATP Tour this time last year after he tested positive for a banned substance, however the sentance was later reduced to 4 months, though he returned to ATP Tour tennis action at Brisabne this year!

 

Past encounters/ Head to head: Nishikori 5-2 Cilic Special K has generally had the upper hand in 7 career meetings so far. The first meeting was at Indian Wells in 2008 which Cilic won. They have met at the US Open twice before with Nishikori winning the first meeting in 2010 and Cilic getting his 2nd and last career win against the Japanese man in 2012. They have met twice this year with Special K winning both! 

So the stats and history seem to place Kei 'Special K' Nishikori as the hot fave to win tonight, though with the numerous surprises that have gone around Flushing Meadows this year don't be surprised if Marin Cilic pulls a surprise from the bag, sadly looks like there is a big chance that the Arthur Ashe Stadium will not be a full house tonight due to the lack of 'big names' for more casual fans to enjoy but I am looking forward to this clash after the England football! 

 

 

 

Happy Bank Holiday Monday people, well things have been looking up in the last week or so for me, I got a surprise interview a week and a half ago for an apprenticeship administrator job, my first job interview for 2 years. With such short notice only had about 2 days to prepare not easy if you have aspergers like me. But did managed to attend the interview at Central Sussex College in Crawley, and felt it went well. I am not sure if I will get the job and still waiting to find out news as I write still waiting for news, but the postives are at least got some idea what to improve on for future job interviews with this experience if I don't get the apprenticeship administrator role! 

I also managed to pass my ECDL Level 3 Word Processing computer course on Wednesday and pretty over the moon and deciding for the time being to try my luck at seeing if I can find a suitable office administration type of role though will be open to returning to doing more courses at Rewards Training in Crawley under the guidance of Kate Lawrence and her team if job searching remains quiet, they also have a job club I might attend in future!

Well there has been the football season starting and the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament starts today, so looking forward to that along with the return of my usual visits to the Amex and the pubs of Brighton after the football and really wanting to return to the clubs with people that love a rave and decent dance music, hoping to attend a Freemasons & Carl Cox gig at the Concoorde 2 club in early October if anyone is interested in coming along get in touch as don't want to attend alone! 

Finally with the weather outside nasty looks like instead it will be an afternoon playing old skool Sega games at home like Sonic, and hoping there will be a Robin Williams tribute marathon afternoon in tribute to one of my fave actors who sadly passed away recently. So hope people enjoy what remains of August and fingers crossed it brightens up! :) 

Well retaking my ECDL Level 3 Word Processing test has been delayed to next week, due to feeling unwell at the end of the week, frustratingly! I have also been applying for a few Business Admin Level 2 apprenticeships waiting to see if something comes up thinking teaching and learning experience will be a great combination It was great to see Team England end the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow top of the medal table for the first time since 1986 (year I was born), and end the Aussies dominance over the last 6 Games! 

I went up to Manchester on Tuesday for the Coronation Street tour with ITV moving all production to the Media City in nearby Salford it means the old Granada Studios is redundant and just for this year ITV have opened the old Coronation Street set for the public until the end of the year when it will be knocked down and I saw it as a last chance to fulfill a childhood dream to visit Coronation Street set as missed out on the Granada Studio tours in the 1990s. It was my first ever visit to the city in the north of England that hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and has been home to the Madchester music scene and 2 massive football clubs in Manchester United and City! I spent the afternoon around the city centre having lunch, and visiting one or two museums like the Art Gallery that had a fine collection of Impressionist Art that brought back memorys of art lessons at Abbotsford School with the likes of legendary art teachers Mr Bowden, Ms Linda Foulke (or Ms White as she is now known!), and Mr Chris James! :) Regrettably I missed out on the Football Museum, but will try and visit next time. 

Towards the end of the afternoon I made my way to the site of the old Granada Studios once for many years one of England and the UKs main media TV studios, I got the wrong entrance at first ending up at the derelict former Granada Studios Tour theme park entrance, but then made my way to the right entrance (which also happened to be used as Peter and Carla Barlows entrance to their flat), with plaques mentioning the Queen opening this set in 1982 and visiting in 2000. First we were taken to the Green Room (the restroom and board room for cast members and production crew) by the Man United supporting tour guide who reminded a few of the Scousers in our tour group their defeat to his team the previous night. Where I sat was a random single sofa but then got told by the tour guide it was Michelle Keegan's seat aka Tina McIntyre, and the guide joked that she has changed a bit refering to yours truly in the chair haha! We got taken around the interior studio area, where we were not allowed to take photos, getting shown the interiors of the Platt/ Tilsey house with the staircase that ends right at the top and cast members have to stay there and do a balancing act hence at the top of the stairs you can see a set of feet at the top if Nick, David, Kylie or Gail go up the stairs! We got shown the clothes and makeup area used by various cast members over the last 30 years of the show, a few coffins and wedding outfits, and we also taken inside the interior of the Rovers Return, where you could have a picture of yourself taken in the bar but for about £7.  After 30 minutes we were allowed outside on to the main Coronation Street set being allowed to take as many photos and lurk around the set until it closed, seeing the shops, the houses and could sneak into the odd back garden like the ones behind Platt's/ Windass house. The fellow visitors were friendly and got no bother from the locals who were friendly and seemed a bit starstruck that I was in their fine city, after signs of Wandering Accent Syndrome (as Dave Gorman calls it!) were starting to hit me with a bit of Manchester starting to creep into my accent, as I chatted to friendly locals, I decided it was time to go home. On the way to Deansgate Station stopped off at the site of the legendary Hacidenda nightclub one of the best UK nightclubs for house music, britpop and rave in the 80s and 90s but now a block of flats that don the Hacienda logo, I decided it was a good photo oppertunity, before making the 3 hour journey back to Sussex! All in all a great afternoon.

So going to focus next week on the test finding out how my apprenticeship applications have got on and preparting to retake my computer test, and Brighton and Hove Albion pick up following opening defeat! Take care people! :)