Here is the draw.

Andy Roddick is the top seed. I wouldn't be playing this tournment if I was also doing the Olympics...

The Draw

Andy is skipping the Olympics this time around. Surprised you didn't know this, since there was quite a lot of fuss about it a month or two ago. It was a bit of a controversial decision since not only is there widespread skepticism that this will help him make a dent at the USO any, but it's not as though the US has a dozen top players it could call on to represent them in Beijing.

I would be pretty annoyed if he ended up with a Top 3 USO Series spot because he swooped down on two Little League events with depleted fields and snatched up the titles. Heh. Of course he did win Washington last year so it's his prerogative to defend his title. And LA could prove troublesome since he is slated to face Haas (who is also skipping the Olympics, presumably because he has already won Germany a silver medal before - same story with Fish, another silver medallist) in the quarters; Haas has not only defeated Andy three times in a row (including earlier this year at IW) but gave Nadal a lot of trouble at Cincy so is in pretty good form.

Haas owns Roddick, 7-3. Roddick beat Tommy in 2004 and 2005, and that's it. Every time they played before then, and after then, Haas had won. And the way Tommy's playing this year, and, ugh, the way Roddick's playing this year, it doesn't look like the trend is about to change anytime soon.

Haas owns Roddick on clay, but they're 3-3 on hard courts. Haas is obviously playing better Roddick right now, though. I'm surprised how many players are playing this tournament and skipping the olympics.

Yes, but like I said, those 3 wins Andy had were back closer to his glory year of '03 (he won those three I'm talking about in '04, '05) and before he's fallen apart for the ump-teenth time. The last two times they played on hard court ('07, '08), Haas won both of them, and quite easily in straight sets, at that.

I love Roddick more than most people posting here, but I've all but given up on him.

I can't follow all the posts all the time.

I am a die hard Olympics fan, and athlete, but I can understand skipping going to China, especially when breathing is an issue!

Well Haas won't get the chance to "own" anyone in this tournament being as though Donald Young routined him 6-2, 6-4 tonight. I thought I was hallucinating when I saw the scoreline. Donald Young played like absolute shit against an injured Gael Monfils last week, then turns around and beats Tommy Haas? Has to be the best win of his career. Good one for young Donald.

I guess any win is a good win for Donald "Can't Lose 'Em All" Young. Now his YTD record is all the way up to a scalding 6-14, with a rockin' lifetime of 8-27. I'm happy for the kid, it's certainly better than losing, and Haas is a big name to take down, but I'll wait for a lot more later round accomplishments (as in, at least the 2nd or 3rd) before getting too excited. Andy must sure be happy, though.

Roddick lost his serve 3 times in a set? Wow. I can't imagine that. del Potro must really be coming on....

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Del Potro Beats Roddick for L.A. Title
LOS ANGELES (AP)—Lanky teenager Juan Martin del Potro rolled to a 6-1, 7-6(2) victory over Andy Roddick in the Countrywide Classic on Sunday to win his third championship in less than a month.

Running his match victory string to 14 in a row, the 19-year-old Argentine broke Roddick’s serve three times in the first set and did not allow a break in the match.

Roddick, who had not lost his serve in 24 games heading into the final, recovered to hold serve in the second set, but del Potro won the final five points of the tiebreaker.

After Roddick’s final shot of the match sailed out, del Potro grinned, raised his arms then flopped on his back onto the court. A group of young fans in the stands waved an Argentine flag and cheered.

The 6-foot-6 del Potro controlled the match with powerful, pinpoint ground strokes, consistently hitting hard forehands just inside the lines.

The title was his first in a hardcourt tournament. He had captured his first career ATP title by upsetting Richard Gasquet in Munich on July 13, then beat Jurgen Melzer to win the following week in Kitzbuehel, Austria. Both those tournaments were on clay.

The victory over the 25-year-old Roddick, the former No. 1 who is ranked ninth, was the biggest so far for the del Potro, who has moved up to No. 24 and will vault into the top 20. He came into the final at UCLA with a 1-13 record against top 10 opponents, with the lone win coming against No. 9 Tommy Robredo last October.

Del Potro became the first teenager to win the Los Angeles tournament since Pete Sampras did it as a 19-year-old in 1991.

Ok sooooo....the rest of the ATP's best is playing in Beijing and Andy can't get through some rinky dink tournament in LA?

That was what I thought. But then I saw del Portro play, and sometimes a guy plays out of his mind. This was one of those times.

LOL True- Andy lost some patriotism points with me for dropping out of the Olympics. The only reason I can see him having done this were some nice checks from the organizers in LA and Washington. Otherwise, he is just being selfish.

At least Andy lost to someone respectable-ranked in the 20s, having just recently won two decent tournaments and in good form.

But he still should have won this tournament and he should have played in Beijing.

This is looking like Del Potro's breakout year. He's won fourteen matches in a row now and is up to #19--granted mostly against weak opposition, but most young players (still only 19) have trouble stringing wins together, so I'd consider this a very good sign. He's been slowed a bit by injuries over the past year, but I think he's got a big enough game to muscle his way into the top 10 very soon.

I completely agree JC -- del Potro is for real. He simply beat Roddick yesterday. He was the much better player.

Gotta say I'm surprised by how thoroughly del Potro has improved in a short time. When he first entered the ATP tour, I didn't get the hype. (Someone who ran Nadal's unofficial site kinda jumped ship to del Potro once Nadal got an official site, for instance. )

Sure del Potro had raw physical ability, but otherwise? He hit flat on both sides, which meant that he made tons of errors and had no variety or ideas about how to construct a point. Moreover, for such a tall guy, he had no serve -- it was a detriment instead of a weapon. Plus he quickly developed a rep for retiring during matches.

The del Potro I saw during bits of the Saturday match and most of the Sunday match has gotten a whole lot better than the one I saw last year or even early in 2008.

He's added spin to the forehand and the backhand and his form and footwork is so much better -- very clean and less prone to breakdown than a peer like Gulbis, at least right now. He hasn't sacrificed any power while adding spin -- he was seriously walloping the ball and keeping it deep. It isn't rocket science to out-think Roddick on the baseline, but del Potro played some great down-the-line winners when Roddick wasn't expecting them. I also liked his eagerness to move into the net. Another sign that he's wanting to improve. His current coach is obviously one of the best ones on the tour.

Obviously del Potro is hitting his first real peak, and there probably will be some valleys again -- sooner than later, if the young hopes of the last 5 years of the ATP are anything to go by.

But del Potro's going to have more peaks for certain, and he is definitely top 10 material. I never thought of him as a clay court force, but he's going to be tough on hard courts and clay courts. Grass will be tougher because of his height, but the serve is an asset.

I'm most impressed by del Potro's relative maturity at the moment for being 19. In the post-match interview he was frank about having trouble with pressure as Argentina's "next hope," which might explain his past rash of retirements. We'll see. But he's become a lot more thoughtful and methodical on court. Back when he was weak, I liked his goofy sense of humor. He mugged for the camera -- and he has the face for it -- after a match or during changeovers/delays at a Masters tourney.