Sports

An inside look at Day 3 of the Open

DUVAL SCORES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The social media seeds are in and U.S. Open sensation Victoria Duval has soared to No. 2 in the women’s draw behind Serena Williams through yesterday afternoon. Rafael Nadal is

No. 1 for the men though Roger Federer has closed the gap since the Open began.

Synthesio is compiling the social rankings by listening software monitoring mentions of a player’s name through the English language social media outlets. The current rankings are based on mentions 30 days leading into the tournament and through the first three days.

Duval moved up the charts out of nowhere after her stunning upset of former Open champion Samantha Stosur Tuesday night and her wild story from the Haitian earthquake was retold. Synthesio hadn’t even been tracking Duval’s name before Tuesday. Williams leads with 11,212 to Duval’s 6,111. Unseeded Venus Williams is third at 4,842.

The software updates every 15 minutes and counts the player’s name combined with several U.S. Open keywords. Synthesio is typically hired by big marketing companies for popularity testing by monitoring Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums.

“We are curious how enthusiastic the public is about the players and to see if their popularity on the court determines their popularity online,” said Loic Moisand, founder and CEO of Synthesio. “Our initial data finds this to be true, and we are excited to see how it plays out throughout the tournament, especially if there is an upset like with Duval.’’

THE NAKED TRUTH

No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska beat Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, 6-0, 7-5 to advance to the third round. Radwanska has never advanced past the fourth round at the U.S. Open, and recently dyed her hair blonde and posed nude for ESPN’s “The Body Issue”. The 24-year-old was dropped from one of her partnerships with a Catholic youth group in Poland.

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY

For the second time in three days, rain again played havoc in Flushing. There were two rain delays totaling almost four hours combined, causing the cancelation of 28-of-65 matches during the afternoon sessions. All women’s singles matches, as well as women’s, men’s and mixed doubles matches that had not started, were postponed until today.

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

Arthur Ashe Stadium, day session

Flavia Pennetta vs. Sara Errani (4)

Serena Williams (1) vs. Galina Voskoboeva

Roger Federer (7) vs. Carlos Berlocq

Louis Armstrong Stadium

Silvia Soler-Espinosa/Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Serena Williams /Venus Williams

John Isner (13) vs. Gael Monfils

Arthur Ashe Stadium, 7 p.m.

Caroline Wozniacki (6) vs. Chanelle Scheepers

Rogerio Dutra Silva vs. Rafael Nadal (2)

TODAY’S TV SCHEDULE

Tennis Channel,

11 a.m.-7 p.m.

ESPN2, 1-11 p.m.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘I don’t know if I can afford that.’ — Coco Vandeweghe when asked about possibly hiring Jimmy Connors as her coach. The 191st-ranked Vandeweghe, who lost 6-3, 6-4 yesterday to Carla Suárez Navarro, recently fired her coach.