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,�?

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.