The Man in Black

It's tempting to say that the top half of the Men's draw isn't as top heavy as the corresponding half of the Women's draw, but then Roger Federer comes out on Night 3 and shows why his presence in the top half is worth more than that of all those women -- Justine, Serena, Venus, Jelena and Ana -- combined.



The Man in Black put on quite a show in his straight sets win against Paul Capdeville on Ashe Stadium, but what happened earlier in the day was potentially the biggest news so far for the Men's draw, as Novak Djokovic could likely have been caught smiling privately to himself today after Rafael Nadal struggled past wild card Alun Jones in a 1st Round match.

With both knees taped, and wincing in pain throughout, Rafa's physical brand of tennis once again makes one wonder if he and the US Open just aren't a match made in tennis heaven. At the end of a long summer, especially after some odd scheduling that possibly didn't allow him to properly heal the knee injury he suffered in the Wimbledon final, it's difficult seeing Nadal finding a way to make it to the end of this event for an eleventh career meeting in a final against Federer. And with him not playing his 1st Round match until Wednesday, Nadal's now faced with an even more time-crunching bind than usual in order to get through the six matches he'd need to win to play on the final Sunday of the tournament.

So, even though he may have been the slight favorite to outlast Nadal and reach the final when play began on Monday anyway, Djokovic will now have all eyes on him and expectations sky-high when he plays his 2nd Round match against Radek Stepanek, and beyond. The bottom half of the men's draw -- as with the women's and Maria Sharapova -- looks to be his to lose.

Not that Djokovic is ever lacking in confidence, but now he has a little bit more evidence beyond just his Roddick-Nadal-Federer sweep in Montreal that says he might be less than two weeks away from getting his shot at the first grand slam title that most everyone now seems to believe is his destiny (if not here, then somewhere... and soon).

Problem is, the Man in Black will likely have something to say about it. And he has a long memory, too. As much as Djokovic remembers what happened in Canada, Federer has tucked it away in a secure corner of his mind. When the time comes, he'll set the memory free and, well, Novak might not want to be in the general vicinity when it happens.

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2007 US Open Picks

Ho-hum... another Roger-Rafa final is surely in the cards in New York, so why don't we just skip to-

Hey! Wait! Not so fast!

I mean, surely Novak Djokovic's remarkable sweep of the world's top three ranked players in Montreal -- first Roddick, then Nadal and, gulp, Federer -- has changed everything. Right?

Well...



**ROUND OF 16**
#1 Federer def. #13 Gasquet
#5 Roddick def. #9 Berdych
#4 Davydenko def. Hrbaty (bet on it!)
#18 Baghdatis def. #6 Blake
#11 Youzhny def. Fish
#3 Djokovic def. #16 Hewitt
(Q) Dancevic def. #12 Ljubicic (why not?)
#2 Nadal def. #15 Ferrer (very shaky, this one)

**QUARTERFINALS**
#1 Federer def. #5 Roddick
#18 Baghdatis def. #4 Davydenko (he's no Andre)
#3 Djokovic def. #11 Youzhny
#2 Nadal def. (Q) Dancevic

**SEMIFINALS**
#1 Federer d. #18 Baghdatis
#3 Djokovic def. #2 Nadal

...hmmm. Here we go.

**FINAL**
#1 Federer d. #3 Djokovic

...all right. SOME things can change, but not ALL of them.


All for now.

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July '07 Awards

There's no doubt about it. July is one of "those" months.

Wimbledon ends in the first week of July, but it's more of a June event. Clay court events two months before the U.S. Open seem out of place (even if Rafa wins them). And how important are the hard court events if Roger Federer doesn't show up, but still manages to win another slam at the end the summer anyway?

But someone has to be the non-SW19 July Player of the Month, so...

**PLAYERS OF THE MONTH**
1. Rafael Nadal
...he's 93-1 in his last 94 matches on clay.
=============================
2. Juan Monaco
...the most anonymous three-time 2007 champion on the board.
=============================
3. Dmitry Tursunov
...slowly but surely he's recovering from that sluggish start to the season.
=============================
4. Radek Stepanek
...could he have managed to outrun the Martina Curse?
=============================
5. Frantisek Cermak
... you know it's July when a relatively unknown doubles player's two titles is enough to qualify him for a Player of the Month nomination.
=============================

**RISERS**
1. Juan Monaco
2. Dmitry Tursunov
3. Radek Stepanek
4. Paul-Henri Mathieu
5. David Ferrer
HM- Potito Starace

**FRESH FACES**
1. Sam Querrey
2. Stanislas Wawrinka
3. Viktor Troicki
4. Robin Haase
5. Donald Young
HM- Kei Nishikori

**SURPRISES**
1. Hyung-Taik Lee
2. Steve Darcis
3. Frank Dancevic
4. Zach Fleishman
5. Werner Eschauer
HM- Andreas Seppi

**VETERANS**
1. Carlos Moya
2. Andrei Pavel
3. Guillermo Canas
4. Juan Ignacio Chela
5. Werner Eschauer
HM- Luis Horna

**DOWN**
1. Nikolay Davydenko
2. James Blake & Andy Roddick
3. Fernando Gonzalez

**COMEBACK**
1. Nicolas Kiefer
2. Mark Philippoussis (on reality TV)

TOP PERFORMANCE: Rafael Nadal wins Stuttgart, getting another clay court winning streak started.

BLAME CANADA... or McDonald's: Canada's Frank Dancevic had the breakout performance of the month, upsetting Andy Roddick in the Indianapolis SF to reach his first tour final. Of course, then Roddick hinted that his post-match fast food run from the night before, which caused all his match-day bathroom runs, might have had something to do with what happened.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR! But...: James Blake's well-received book was released... but it didn't prevent him from suffering upset losses to Radek Stepanek (L.A. final) and Sam Querrey (Indy QF) in July.


All for now.

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