- 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.

- I applaud Thomas Berdych for making the round of 16, but retiring midway through a match on Arthur Ashe did nothing to alleviate his status as a young gun who can’t step up when it matters.  I realize he had breathing problems, but so did Venus Williams in her semifinal against Henin, and while she still lost, she fought all the way.

- Speaking of the Williams, I didn’t mind what Serena said following her loss to Henin as much as most people.  Telling the media that the only reason she attended the press conference was because she didn’t want to get fined is really not that big a deal.  In my mind, but saying that, she enlightened everyone on just how much the loss got to her.  The problem I did have was when she said something along the lines of, “She hit some lucky shots and I didn’t play well.”  Clearly this is just built up frustration at losing to Henin at the last three Grand Slams, but giving Henin no credit at all is classless.  Hitting almost twice as many winners as Williams, Henin as not so much ‘lucky’ as better.

- Djokovic is tremendous for our sport.  He’s funny (youtube his impressions if you haven’t seen any), intense, not to mention incredibly talented.  Those three thing add up to someone who will be a fan favorite for years to come.

- While it would have been fun watching a Nadal/ Djokovic semifinal, David Ferrer played perhaps the best match of the tournament in his night match when he defeated Nadal.  Not only was he able to run everything down, but he groundstrokes seemed to get harder and deeper the further into the point he got.  He really reminded me of Hewitt in his prime, circa 2001.

- I root for James Blake every time he plays, no matter who he plays.  And I was rooting for him when he played Fabrice Santoro, but Santoro made it extremely hard to root against him.  He plays with an incredible amount of “flavor,” and should really be guaranteed an evening match every year he continues to compete.  By the way, Santoro has now competed something like 61 Grand Slams, tying Agassi’s record.

- I wish Blake had come up with a few big points in the 5th set tiebreaker to beat Haas, but I was happy for Haas, who has had to overcome a slew of injuries.  Although after reading “Breaking Back,” by James Blake, it’s hard to imagine anyone who has gone through more.  Most people know what he went through in 2004- a broken neck, the death of his father, and then a rare disease called Zoster, but until you read about it in detail you really have no idea.  By the time I got through the chapter about dealing with his father’s death I thought to myself, “Thank God, now he will get to play again,” completely forgetting he then developed Zoster, and couldn’t play for another couple months.  It’s not going to win a literary prize anytime soon, but it’s a tremendous story, and very well written.

- I’ll be back with some more thoughts tomorrow, until then here are some links:

Great piece by James Martin at espn.com regarding our “inferior” sport.

Some amazing stats regarding the Greatest Player of All Time.

A statistical analysis on who really is the Greatest Player of All Time.  This is a long piece, but worth the time if it interests you at all.

A Scotsman’s take on what Djokovic brings to the sport, with a youtube clip of his impressions to boot.

I bet most of you have never heard of Dr. Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson, but here is your chance to learn something about him.

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).

Over on the Women’s side, 5th seeded Patty Shynder was upset in the first round by Schiavone.  The Women’s draw is lacking big names like the Williams’ sisters and Sharapova et al, but the eight seeded players are all ranked in the top 25 in the world.  The Men’s side is pretty similar, lacking the Federer’s and Roddick’s, but the hometown crowd certainly comes out in droves for James Blake.  Top eight seeded men are all ranked in the top 30.

Speaking of Blake, I did not see his finals match against Federer this past weekend, but from all accounts it seems as though he was simply happy to be there.  I can’t imagine that is true, given Blake’s overall disappointing year thus far.  I think it’s more likely that Blake got extremely hyped for the match and thought he had a better chance than ever to defeat Federer, given Fed’s slight vulnerability this year, and when Blake came out not exactly firing on all cylinders, it was deflating.  I completely understand this, as I went through the same thing this weekend at the Jeff Stone Memorial Tennis Tournament in Burlington, Vermont, only I didn’t stage a valiant effort in the second set (as Blake did, losing 1 and 4), instead I let myself get bageled.  The guy I lost 6-1, 6-0 to was the eventual finalist (Rennick Martin), so I can’t be too upset, especially since I successfully defended my doubles title with South African Errol Nattrass. 

* Note: If you think my explanation of Blake’s match against Federer was merely a way for me to compare it to my singles match, and thus mention my doubles victory, you are right.  However, I truly believe that IS what happened to Blake.

Some other random news and links:

Peter Bodo is chatting at 1pm at ESPN.com.  Here is his latest blog on Federer’s victory in Cincinnati.

Here are the US Open seeds.  They pretty much follow the current rankings.  Notice Hewitt seeded 16th, after jumping four spots with his solid results in Cincinnati.  The difference between the 16th and 20th seed is immense, as Hewitt is now guaranteed of avoiding a fellow top 16 player until the fourth round.

Sponsored by Lever 2000, I present the US Open Series standings.  They may change somewhat after this week, but Federer and Sharapova have clinched the titles, meaning they could be in line for a decent amount of cash if they successfully defend their 2006 US Open titles.

Tim Henman will discuss his possible retirement later in the week.

Justin Gimelstob shares his thoughts on the trio of US prospects.

I’ll be back Friday with a US Open preview, and I’m headed down to NYC for the duration of the event, where I’ll be posting frequent blogs with some live updates.

***UPDATE – Singles draws for US Open are up here.  Will have my comments on it tomorrow or Friday.

Nadal losing was terrific news for two Americans – James Blake and Sam Querrey.  Querrey, who upset 13th seeded Youhzny now gets to face Juan Monaco instead of Nadal; and Blake will get the winner of that match in the quarters if he can pull out a win tonight against Juan Carlos Ferrero, no easy task.  The news is not as good for Andy Roddick, who has three other seeds (Ferrer, Berdych & Davydeno) in his quarter of the draw.  The happiest of all could be Roger Federer, who could get challenged by Baghdatis, but assuming he moves through his quarter will have either Moya, Meltzer or Hewitt in the semis, instead of Djokovic.

***Edit: Looks like I was right about the lack of good news for Andy Roddick, because 30 minutes after originally posting this, he fell to Ferrer 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic fell to Yan Zi in the second round in Toronto.  Ivanovic was probably as tired as Djokovic, after winning Los Angeles last week.  However, after winning this tournament in Montreal last year, her ranking could suffer some.

The following received Wild Cards to the US Open – John Isner, Donald Young, Alex Kuznetzov, Jesse Levine, Ryan Sweeting, Wayne Odesnik, Michael McClune & Australian Alun Jones.

Apparently Martina Hingis has risen from her year or so long daze, and she has parted ways with Radek Stepanek.  In related news, I am single.

Some links for your perusal (because these people probably write better than I do):

Tignor’s observations on Isner & Querrey.

Some information regarding the USTA’s Tribute to Althea Gibson.

Mauresmo explains why she pulled out of the US Open.

Time Magazine had 10 Questions for Rafael Nadal.

If you are going to the US Open, don’t forget your American Express Card.

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.