Anyway, some links:

Against Canas, third time is a charm for Federer.

Federer will have to win three of four Grand Slams for the third year in a row to break the all time mark held by Sampras.  Even he is admitting that will be tough.

Gimelstob discuss the bright, although USA-less, future of the WTA.

Mario Ancic has traveled a long way down the road of recovery, some of the distance at the expense of James Blake.

Safin quits 2007, again.

Kid is five years old.

Rulers of Tennis will work together to regulate match fixing.

Peter Bodo’s thoughts on a unified tour.

ESPN story on Ivo Karlovic, who recently became the 4th player with 1,000 aces in a season.

Anyone have any interest on what Michael Chang has been up to?

Updated Shanghai race information.

A link to a bunch of different links concerning match fixing.

The USTA announced a new Executive Director earlier this week.

Apparently tennis players and acting do not get along well.

Sox over Indians in 6, Rockies over DBacks in 6.  Joe Torre leaving is obviously a huge story, but could people over at places like ESPN discuss what the Indians accomplished in the ALDS in beating the Yankees for maybe three minutes during SportsCenter.  Please?

The first Davis Cup Final to be held on U.S. soil in fifteen years (the US defeated Switzerland 3-1 in Texas) will pit the USA against Russia. The two teams have met three times since the USSR disbanded, with the US holding a 2-1 edge. The most recent meeting occurred last year in the World Group Semis, which saw the US defeated 3-2. The tie was highlighted by Tursonov’s clinching victory over Andy Roddick, 17-15 in the fifth set. The teams this year could very well contain the same players as when they met last year, with one exception. The Russian team was comprised of Davydenko, Youhzny, Tursonov and Safin; the US had their typical Blake, Roddick, and the Bryan brothers. Igor Andreev was a star for Russia against Germany last weekend, and will probably be on the team instead of Safin, who is hiking in the Himalayas, or something. However, he is more of a clay courter, and something tells me Captain McEnroe will be staying away from the dirt.
More than likely, he will pick a fast hardcourt, clearly the favorite surface of both Blake and Roddick, the singles stars. I know what most people are thinking regarding Blake, because I heard many American fans muttering about him last weekend in Gothenburg. After a dissappointing loss to Thomas Johansson, there were more than a few people who think Blake should be replaced by someone like Mardy Fish or even John Isner for the final. That should not, and will not happen. People seem to have a short term memory when it comes to Blake, as it was his upset in the first rubber against Tommy Robredo (in straight sets no less) that set the tone for the US victory over Spain last spring. Without that first win in hand, the outcome could have been a different one.

No matter what the teams end up being, there is no doubt that the USA has an incredible chance to gain some revenge for last year’s defeat and capture their first Davis Cup title since 1995. And if they should lose, next February’s tie against Austria in the 2008 World Group isn’t far away! (Disclaimer: if indeed the Red Sox do choke away the AL East title, and make me ‘wait til next year,’ cherish this blog because it will be my last).

Some Links:

Bangkok takes another hit.

10 Questions from Tennis.com, many Davis Cup related.

Is Barry Bonds Hall Worthy? Probably the most discussed sports issue, coming a close second is this.

ESPN.com doesn’t seem to be working too well right now, but when it is go and read some of Bonnie Ford’s stuff on there. She was in Gothenburg so I’m sure she has some good stuff to sift through. EDIT – Here is a link

The fast surface did seem to take a toll on Blake, who was upset by Thomas Johansson in four sets, to even the tie at 1-1. Many people though the carpet would help Blake, as his huge forehands would be even tough to track down. That was the case, but only when Blake found his rhythym, which unfortunately was only during a fraction of the match. During the rest, Johansson kept Blake off his balance with big serves (unexpected) and even bigger returns. So, even though Blake was clearly not playing his best, kudos to Thomas for stepping it up at a time when Sweden really needed him to.

In a few hours the Bryan brothers will take on Jonas Bjorkman and Simon Aspelin. Although the two don’t really compete together, this should prove to be a tough matchup for the Americans. Bjorkman has been one of the games best doubles players over the last decade, and Aspelin just took home the US Open Doubles title with Julian Knowle. The Bryans still have to be considered favorites, but with the hometown crowd behind them, I for one will not be completely surprised if I am writing tomorrow morning with the American’s down 2-1.

Lastly, the Germans and Russians are tied at one apiece going into the doubles as well. Haas was destroyed by Andreev, but then Philip Kohlschreiber picked up the slack with a 4:23 minute win over Davydenko, 7-5 in the fifth.

Until tomorrow, Howard out!

Friday
Joachim Johansson (SWE) v Andy Roddick (USA)
Thomas Johansson (SWE) v James Blake (USA)
Saturday
Simon Aspelin/Jonas Bjorkman (SWE) v Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan (USA)
Sunday
Thomas Johansson (SWE) v Andy Roddick (USA)
Joachim Johansson (SWE) v James Blake (USA)

This is a dream scenario for the US team. Roddick playing first is important because I think he has a bit more confidence than Blake, especially in Davis Cup play. On top of that, he is playing Joachim Johansson, who has been more or less non existent on the ATP because of injuries for the last couple of years. So if Roddick can pull out a win in the first match, it will ease the pressure on James for the second singles match. Blake is clearly the favorite against Thomas Johansson, but expect it to be a very close match. Given that Sweden will probably be down 1-0, and with his hometown crowd behind him, Johansson will give everything he’s got.  In the end, all he’s got probably will not be enough, and I think the US will head into Saturday’s doubles match with a 2-0 lead.

I’ll be back Saturday morning with a review of Friday’s matches and my prediction for thde doubles match.  Oh yeah, as for the other semi, I expect a split in the singles matches, with Haas defeating Andreev, and Davydenko taking down Kohlschreiber.

Here are some links in the meantime:

Bonnie Ford’s take on the upcoming weekend.

Davenport continues to win.

Henman ready for a bittersweet weekend.

- Did you watch the Women’s Semifinals?  I did.  And it was pretty awful.  The Williams-Henin match was bad tennis in terms of technique and the amount of unforced errors, but at least it had some drama.  The Kuznetsova-Chakvatadze match may have been the worst semifinal match I’ve ever witnessed.  They combined for 31 winners and 81 unforced errors, which is staggering.  Here’s the difference between the Men and the Women, after Federer beat Davydenko in their Semi, the early report was that it was an ugly match, and neither played well.  I tend to agree, both players were definitely not 100% there, but they combined for 74 winners and 63 unforced errors, far better quality than the Women.

- Before you jump on me for being a sexist, the most exciting match that I saw live during the tournament was Jankovic vs. Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.  It was the same night as the Roddick-Federer match, so the night crowd was in full anticipation for that match, and it spilled over into the earlier match.  The crowd was fully in support of Williams, but Jankovic definitely won some fans as well (it helped that she took her loss just a bit more graciously than Serena did, and by ‘a bit’ I mean ‘a lot).  The match went to a third set tiebreak, and was filled with so much drama the first 25 minutes or so of Federer-Roddick seemed like a letdown.  I promise, I’m not lying, ask anyone else who was there.

- What loss was harder for Roddick – the one in Australia where he barely showed up, and got demolished in three sets, or the one last week where he played well enough to beat anyone else in the world, and still lost in straight sets?  Only he can answer that question, but remember this current loss when you complain that American’s are failing.  I’ll repeat it, Roddick would have beat any other player in the world, most likely in straight sets. 

- Kudos to American men, while no one made a semifinal for yet another Grand Slam, we had plenty of guys who made it through a couple of rounds.  I watched John Isner on TV, and I think he proved winning a couple rounds and taking a set off Federer that he will be around for awhile.  I also watched both of Donald Young’s matches live, and he definitely has the tools to be a top tier player.  Mentally, he is not quite there yet.  In the third set breaker against Lopez (who in his next match gave Federer a tough challenge), tied at one set a piece, Young was up 2-0 and had a somewhat easy overhead to go up 3-0, he shanked it, and fell apart for the most part from that point onward.  For someone with huge expectations, who had only won his first ATP level match a couple weeks before, making the 3rd round at the US Open had to be a huge confidence booster for him.

- Roger Federer is really good at tennis.

Here is a link to Men’s & Women’s Singles Draws.

As I write this, I’m doing laundry and packing for two weeks in New York, so I’ll keep this somewhat brief, but the following or some comments and predictions on what will happen in Flushing Meadows.

First off, Roger Federer does not have a difficult draw, as some have said.  He plays a qualifier in the first round, the winner of two qualifiers in the second round, and the first seed who he should come across is Jarkko Nieminen.  Jarkko is a solid player, but does not have the ability to raise his game to a level that would challenge Federer.  I realize he might have to play Roddick in the quarters, certainly earlier than he might have wanted to, but he is 13-1 against Roddick lifetime, so I think its worse news for Andy than it is for Roger.

Blake, who is in the semis of the Pilot Pen later today, received a terrific draw.  Even though I feel like I’ve said the exact same thing for the last few Grand Slams, I really feel as though this is Blake’s chance to break through the Semi’s of a Grand Slam (where he would face Roger and most likely lose).  His round of 16 matchup will probably be Haas or Baghdatis, which will obviously be a challenge, but in front of his hometown crowd I would definitely give Blake the upper hand.  Then in the quarters, where he has lost the last two years, he would probably face Davydenko, the 4th seed who Blake has never lost to in six matches.

On the bottom half, I would be pretty shocked if Nadal and Djokavic don’t end up facing each other in the Semi’s.  There are some intriguing names in their respective quarters, like Safin in Nadal, who is always a threat- but let’s be honest, do you really think Safin can keep his head together to win four matches to even get to Nadal?  Djokavic has a tougher road, possibly facing two players who were ranked in the top 10 last year in the first two rounds, in Mario Ancic and Radek Stepanek.  Hewitt is another guy in his quarter that could give the young Serb some trouble, but I think at the end of the day it will be Nadal vs. Djokavic that come through in the bottom half of the draw. 

In the end, I think Federer will take out Nadal in the final.  The only reason I’m picking Nadal to beat Djokavic in the semis is he should be a bit fresher as he seems to have a far easier road to that point than Djokavic. 

Over on the Women’s side, it’s a bit more complicated.  Before seeing the draw, if I were forced to pick my favorites for winning the open they would have looked like this – Henin, Serena, Sharapova, Venus, Jankovic, with Ivanovic just missing out on the last spot.  Well, congrats to Henin, who along with the number 1 seed, also has the pleasure of dealing with one of the more lopsided draws I’ve ever seen.  Both Williams sisters, Jankovic and Ivanovic are in her half, so if Henin manages to get through to the final it will certainly silence any remaining critics she has (truthfully, I don’t think she has any, it just sounded like the thing to write).

On Sharapova’s half, she certainly has some challenges to deal with, such as fellow Russians Petrova, Chakvatadze and Kuznetsova.  By the way, it’s almost as if the USTA wanted to guarantee Russian presence in the Women’s Finals, as the top four seeds on the bottom half are all from Ivan Drago’s homeland.  At the end of the day, I think we will see a Sharapova (I just can’t see her not making it out of the bottom half) vs. Serena Williams final, with Serena taking home her second slam of the year.  I’m picking Serena because getting through the dogfight that is the top half will be a matter of surviving and willing yourself to the next round, and Serena is better at that than anyone.

That wasn’t quite as brief as I had planned, I’ll be back as often as I can throughout the course of the tournament.  I’ll leave you with a link to an ESPN article by Greg Garber about Michael Russell.  One of the best pieces I’ve read about tennis in a long time, makes it hard to ever root against Russell (unless he is playing James Blake in the first round at the Open).

Five Russian Gals are in the Quarters in San Diego.

Interesting info from Bodo on San Diego

Nice piece on 6′10 John Isner, NCAA champion making waves in Washington, DC.

Let’s add in an interview with Isner as well.

Finally, this has nothing to do with tennis, but is far and away my favorite link of the week.

Also, notice my new blogroll on the right hand side of the page.  If you know of any other blogs that I should add, let me know!

I’d love to write my thoughts on the epic Men’s Wimbledon Final, but that is such old news already.  I will say this however, Nadal and Federer are on such a different level than everyone else right now, that it is starting to bore me watching other matches, because it’s as if I know that they are meaningless because Federer will play Nadal in the finals anyway.  The next six weeks leading up to the US Open are going to be crucial for many players to make statements.  Guys like Djokavic, Roddick, Gonzalez and others in the top 15 are going to need some solid results during the US Open Series to give them the confidence they will need to knock off Nadal or Federer.  There seems to be lots of talk about Nadal and his disappointing second half last year and how he will do this year.  Last year he took off the entire month of July, and while I’m sure he needed the rest it definitely threw off his rhythm.  He is taking a different approach this year, and is currently dominating Juan Monaco in the quarterfinals of Stuttgart.  I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the tennis world who things Nadal will have another poor second half in 2007.

James Blake, whose autobiography “Breaking Back” debuted at No. 22 on the NY Times Bestseller Non Fiction list, is probably the one player in the top 10 who needs a terrific summer more than anyone.  After having a career year last year and finishing 2006 as the top American, he has had a somewhat underwhelming 2007.  He is a mere 5-3 in the Grand Slams thus far, not making it past the 4th round, and has one only 1 title thus far back in January, after winning five titles in 2006.  However, it’s no secret that  Blake’s best tennis comes on outdoor hardcourts, so look for him to have some good results as we near the US Open.  He struggled a bit in LA needing to save a matchpoint against Paul Goldstein, but with each win will come added confidence that he will need if he wants to equal or better his last two US Open appearances, where he fell in the quarters.

That’s all for now, posts will become more and more frequent as we lead up to the US Open, where I will be blogging daily.  For now, here are some links:

Momma Davenport is making a comeback.

Joel Drucker’s US Open Series preview.

Tennis Channel will be covering Wimbledon next summer.

Cheap way for me to broadcast our commercial for those who didn’t see it during the Fed Cup coverage.

The US team has been announced for the Fed Cup in Stowe.

Federer won his 50th straight match on grass today.

Meilin Tu wishes she were coming to Stowe.

Take part in ESPN’s live chat with Greg Garber, Bonnie DeSimone & Todd Martin every day at 1 and 4pm.

Nice interview with Serena Williams.

Wimbledon makes list of ESPN Page 2’s top 101 things a sports fan must experience- keep your eye out for a couple of other tennis related items.

FYI, looks like I was off about Davydenko, who beat Korolev and just staged an epic comeback against Guccione.  The 6th seed was down two sets to love, and at 4-4 in the 3rd set tie breaker before storming back to win in five.  Ok, as I said earlier, hopefully I’ll be on with a full Wimbledon report tomorrow.