Tennis Chatter

Right after finishing with one of the most exciting tournaments in a recent memory (Montreal), it seems like, apart from Federer, almost everyone is too worn out to have a good showing in Cincinnati. Questions about Roddick’s form have reappeared after his failing to make quarterfinals and losing to Ferrer 7-6, 6-4. Roddick had three set points in the first set, and failed to capitalize on any of them. Apparently Jimmy Connors (his coach) was not happy. Roddick said:

“I talked to him; Jimmy’s not happy,”

“He goes, ‘I don’t care it you lose 0 (and) 0, but do it with what we’ve been working on and do it the right way.’ I couldn’t agree with him more. He’s right. I didn’t work on anything out there. I didn’t get any better in a loss, and that’s probably the most annoying part.”

Djokovic also fell out of the tournament early after his fantastic performance beating Roddick, Nadal, and Federer at Montreal. Djokovic lost his first round to Carlos Moya, 6-4, 6-1. Djokovic credited his loss to exhaustion, stating:

“I felt a bit tired and didn’t have enough time to prepare for this tournament,â€?

A lot of questions have been raised about having two Masters Events played back to back. It was the same story with Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year. It seems to be having an effect on the players’ preparation and stamina, as Gasquet retired to Hewitt and Nadal (one of the fittest players on the tour) retired to J. Monaco.

With Berdych’s loss to Davydenko and Baghdatis’ loss to Federer this looks to be a tournament of veterans. Former slam champions and world numbers ones Moya and Hewitt met in quarters, with Hewitt emerging victorious 6-2, 6-4. He will probably (apart from an upset) meet Federer in semifinals.

On the other side of the bracket, there is an interesting quarterfinal match-up between two Americans, Sam Querrey and James Blake. James Blake has played well so far this tournament, beating former French Open champion Ferrero. Blake thought he served well against Ferrero saying:

“I think that’s two matches in a row (for me) without getting broken,”

“For me that’s a great thing since I don’t normally have an overpowering serve or a serve that gets me a ton of free points.”

He’s going to need his serve to beat 19 year old Querrey. The last time they played was at Indianapolis a few weeks ago, when Querrey upset Blake, hitting ten aces. Althoughth Querrey hasn’t establish himself as a legit contender like Nadal and Djokovic, Blake believes Querrey has a bright future ahead of him.

“I think he’s got tons still to improve, which is probably scary to a lot of the guys that are in the middle of their career and are planning on seeing him for a long time,” Blake said. “He’s a good kid and I think he’s got a lot of improving to do, even though he’s already top 60 in the world.

“I think it’s just going to keep rising. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him because that’s unnecessary. But in my opinion he’s got a great future.”

Querrey:

To see complete Cincinnati results click here.

Here are the current ATP US Open Series standings:

1. Andy Roddick (USA) 112
2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 100
3. (T) Roger Federer (SUI) 95*
Radek Stepanek (CZE) 95
5. James Blake (USA) 72*
6. Frank Dancevic (CAN) 60
7. (T) Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 50*
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) 50*
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 50
10. Sam Querrey (USA) 47*

If Federer wins his quarterfinals match he will take the lead, with 20 additional points award for a semifinal appearance.

Finally, there is an interesting article here about Federer giving Nadal a ride in his private jet to Cincinnati. How nice.

Andy Roddick took a good step in regaining his confidence last Sunday when he defeated fellow American John Isner 6-4, 7-6 in the final of the Legg Mason Tournament. The match showcased great serving as Roddick hit 14 aces and Isner hit 12. Isner (ranked 416 in the world at the beginning of the tournament) had a great run at the tournament, defeating Becker, Haas, and Monfils on his way to finals. Isner is an American version of Ivo Karlovic, being 6′ 9″ tall and hitting 144 aces over the course of the tournament. However Roddick served great in finals, and won the points that mattered the most (namely in the first set tie break and managing to break Isner in the second set). This is Roddick’s third Legg Mason Classic title, and couldn’t have come at a better time. Hopefully he’ll be able to take some momentum from this win into the Rogers Cup Masters this week.

Here are the current US Opens Series standings:

1. Andy Roddick (USA) 72
2. (T) Radek Stepanek (CZE) 50
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 50
4. James Blake (USA) 47
5. Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) 46
6. (T) Frank Dancevic (CAN) 35
John Isner (USA) 35
8. Marat Safin (RUS) 24
9. (T) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 22
Nicolas Kiefer (GER) 22
Gael Monfils (FRA) 22
Sam Querrey 22

And here is the WTA US Open Series standings:

1. Maria Sharapova (RUS) 100
2. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) 95
3. Patty Schnyder (SUI) 82
4. Sania Mirza (IND) 60
5. Elena Dementieva (RUS) 45
6. Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 37
7. Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 27
8. (T) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 25
Nadia Petrova (RUS) 25
Venus Williams (USA) 25

Finally, if you have some free time you should check out this gallery. It’s a gallery of various ATP players on the catwalk at a fashion show hosted by the Rogers Cup. Some of the players pictured are Blake and Djokovic.

The United States Open is the last grand slam tournament of the year. It is held on hard court, along with all the tournaments prior to it during the US Open series. Switching from grass to hard court is not as big of a transition as switching from clay to grass, but their are still some differences. “Traditionally” grass is considered a faster and more unpredictable surface that the hard courts at the US Open. However, some believe that Wimbledon has slowed down its courts recently. This may be true, but I still believe that it is faster surface than players will experience in Flushing Meadows, NY. Hard court provides a more predictable bounce, taking away some of the advantages of slicing on grass, but doesn’t allow the shoulder high top spin shots that clay does. It is kind of in between the two surfaces, allowing top spin or flat hitters to find success. Hard courts are often favorites of players with a lot of power and solid baseline games (Blake, Safin, Gonzalez etc). A players movement is usually different on hard courts, also. The final thing to note, is that the US Open is the second grand slam held on hard court (the Australian Open is the first). However, the US Open is considered a faster surface, than the Australian.

Contenders

Roger Federer

A favorite to win pretty much every tournament he enters, Federer looks set to win his fourth US Open. He has won the this tournament consecutively the last three years, and rarely been challenged. In addition he has eight masters titles on hard court. He can out play anyone from the baseline with his enormous forehand and very good backhand. His biggest threat is Nadal, however Nadal has never made it past the quarterfinal of the US Open.

Rafael Nadal

Right out of a Wimbledon final appearance, Nadal is looking to make a run at the US Open. Nadal has had his worst results at the US Open of the all grand slams so far during his career. He doesn’t move quite as well on hard courts as he does on natural courts, and his top spin forehand doesn’t bounce as high. As a result he can be overpowered by the many players who excel on hard courts.

Novak Ä?oković

Djokovic is a great pick to have success at the US Open. He had semifinal appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon, along with a quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open. In addition he won his first masters event this year on hard court (Miami). He has an extremely solid ground game, with good power. He is adept all around the court, and I would probably pick him over Nadal if they were to meet.

Nikolay Davydenko

Davydenko has a semifinal appearance at the US Open (last year) and not much else. He is solid baseline player, who can take the ball on the rise. However, he is strongest on clay and slow hard courts and can be overpowered by bigger players. He could be a good pick for quarterfinals depending on his draw.

Andy Roddick

I don’t know what to expect from Roddick this year. He excels on hard courts, with four masters events and three quarterfinal appearance, a final appearance, and a championship at the US Open. However, he has been in a bit of a lull lately. He hasn’t been very mentally tough, was upset last week in Indianapolis. If he is on, he could beat any of the players I’ve mentioned so far, but Federer. If not, he could exit the tournament early.

Fernando González-Gonzalez has a great forehand and good power, however he hasn’t had very good results this year since his finals appearance at the Australian.

Richard Gasquet-As Roddick well knows, Gasquet is always a threat. He has a aggressive game, great backhand, and good court intelligence that can succeed on any surface. He threatened Federer at Toronto last year, however he has inconsistent results.

Tomáš Berdych-Berdych is very strong off the baseline and loves hard courts.

James Blake-Blake has appeared in the quarterfinals of the US Open the last two years. He moves well on hard courts and is very powerful. However, he hasn’t had great success lately.

Other players to watch out for:

Andy Murrary-semifinal appearances at Indian Wells and Miami
Marat Safin-won the US Open in 2000
Tommy Haas
Mikhail Youzhny
Marcos Baghdatis
Lleyton Hewitt

F. Dancevic (Canada) defeated A. Roddick today, 6-4, 7-6, in the semifinals of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships. Roddick only served 47% first serves and looked somewhat flat during his match. Afterwards he said:

“I didn’t have much to give out there,”

“I wish I had a reason for you. I don’t know why. I wasn’t feeling that well.”

This loss poses the question if Roddick has lost it. He hasn’t had great results so far this year, getting destroyed this year by Federer at the Australian Open, losing in the first round of the French Open, and losing to Gasquet in quarterfinals of Wimbledon after getting up 2 sets to none. Sure, he had a tight win over N. Mahut at Queens and made it to semifinals of the Australian, but he is far from winning the second grand slam he covets. And he isn’t getting any younger either. Roddick will be 25 this August and soon will have to start competing more with up and coming stars like Murray, Gasquet, Djokovic, Baghdatis, and (of course) Nadal. In addition Federer will always be around. I see this US Open Series as a crucial time for Roddick. Currently I think he has what it takes to best everyone but Federer on hard courts (when he’s not having terrible losses to unseeded Canadian players), but not for much longer. However, the question is: Is he mentally in it? This article suggests that Roddick is still brewing over his Wimbledon loss. What do you think? Do you think Roddick has what it takes to post good results at the US Open? I understand that he has little chance of beating Federer, but right now it looks like it’d be a practical walkover for Federer.

The United States Open series (at least the men’s side) kicked off last week with the Countrywide Classic tournament held in LA. The series is a six week long “hardcourt” season of tennis held prior to the US Open grand slam tournament. It was first organized in 2004 to promote tennis in the United States. This week features the Indianapolis Tennis Championships (men) and Bank of the West Classic (women). The full schedule can be found here. The series also features two ATP Masters Events (commonly known as Cincinnati Masters and Canada Masters) and two WTA Tier I Events (Acura Classic and Canada Masters). The US Open series is significant, because it is the warm-up season for the US Open and the winner of the series gets their prize money at the US Open doubled. In 2004, Lindsay Davenport became the first (and only) player to get her $1.1 million for winning the US Open doubled. The $2.2 million she received was the highest pay-out ever in women’s sports. Last year Andy Roddick won the series for the men, and Ana Ivanovic for the women.

The US Open Series gets more coverage than any other tennis season in America. According to its website, the series will get:

More than 100 hours of live, national TV coverage on ESPN2, NBC and CBS (see schedule, page 17), including back-to-back live tournament finals on Sunday. In addition, there will be more than 100 hours of additional US Open Series coverage on The Tennis Channel.

To read the entire US Open preview from its website, click here.

To see the television schedule, click here.

The current men’s standings are as follows: (no standings for the women yet)

1. Radek Stepanek (CZE) 50
2. James Blake (USA) 35
3. Nicolas Kiefer (GER) 22
Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) 22
5. Michael Berrer (GER) 12
Zack Fleishman (USA) 12
Marat Safin (RUS) 12
Vincent Spadea (USA) 12

In the next few days expect more coverage of the US Open series, and some previews for both the ATP and WTA hard court season.