Draw

Novak and Fed are in the same half of the draw AGAIN?? Seriously? Seriously??

I'm glad to see that David Ferrer is playing. A hairline fracture in the hand is one of those injuries that can take forever to heal. Soderling, as expected, is still out. Andy Roddick is in, but he's becoming less and less of a factor in the draw. Ryan Harrison got a wild card into the main draw. I realize it's a bit of an oxymoron, but if it's possible for a player to "earn" a wild card, then Harrison, ranked a career-high #76, is definitely deserving. Also deserving of a wild card is #86 James Blake, who I'm very happy to see is making is way back from the tennis wilderness. Robby Ginepri also got a WC, even though he's pretty much still lost in the wilderness. But Robby looks awfully good with his shirt off, so I'm not squawking about it. Donald Young continued to get wild cards into Masters 1000 tournaments loooooooooong after his play no longer merited them, which I think ended up actually hurting him far more than it helped, but it's good to see that he got a WC into the qualifying. The final wild card went to Grigor "Anger Management" Dimitrov, who also looks pretty damn good without a shirt

The marquee early matchup is already assured. When Seppi retired today, it put Del Potro into the 2nd Round to face Federer in his first match. Murray could get Nalbandian in his first match. You'd like to think Donut Dave still has some life left in that Backhand of his; if he does that one could get interesting.

The rest of the draw is pointless to discuss. It's Novak Djokovic's Tennis World and the rest of these guys are just living in it.

Another day, another Roddick tirade of umpire abuse. Serving at love-1, 30-all, Andy made an unforced error and in disgust smacked a ball into the stands. The UE made the score 30-40, and the umpire gave Andy a code violation (point penalty), which gave Kohlschrieber the break. From that point on Andy pretty much tanked, giving little effort on court but expending volumes of energy arguing nonstop with the umpire. From his press conferences and his genuine commitment to charity work, I really like Andy. And when he's practicing with his shirt off, I downright love the guy. But tonight's hissy fit was a disgusting display of immaturity. OK, maybe a point penalty was too severe. But once the umpire issues it, he's not going to take it back. 1) I don't know if the rules allow him to even if he wanted to; 2) the umpire would look like a spineless weakling who has lost all control over the match. But you're only down a break, love-2, in the 3rd set, plenty of time to get back in it and win the match. Instead, Andy tanked. Wertheim points out that Andy's lost 8 out of the last 9 sets to Lopez, Ferrer, and Kohlschrieber. I guess it's a lot easier to blame the umpire for a loss than to take a good hard look at yourself.

As voicemale pointed out, the big match tomorrow is Fed vs. DelPo. DelPo hasn't played well lately, but perhaps seeing Roger on the other side of the net will pump him up. DelPo's problem is that Roger has a little extra motivation to at least make the semis since he failed to live up to his seeding in Montreal. The other 2nd Rounder I'm looking forward to is Ryan Harrison vs. Mr. 54-1. Harrison probably has a snowball's chance in H-E-double hockey sticks, but it's terrific that he has the opportunity to play Novak. By the way, 3 of the 4 wild cards won their 1R match: James Blake, Grigor Dimitrov, and Ryan Harrison (only Robby Ginepri lost). Too often national federations give away wild cards to players who don't really belong there, and it's like that coveted spot in the main draw of a big tournament is wasted. It's nice to see these three prove that they belong.

Fed beat DelPo rather routinely. It looks like DelPo still has a way to go before getting back to his Slam-winning form. Novak beat Ryan Harrison pretty easily. Novak was a picture of calm whereas Harrison was on an emotional roller-coaster. If Harrison ever gets his hothead temper under control, he has the physical/technical skills to be a good player. Rafa handled Benneteau, and Andy M dispatched Donut Dave with ease. I'm really glad to see David Ferrer win his first match back from injury. An interesting result in Kohlschrieber's win over FLopez (6-1 6-4); I'd expect more from FLopez on a medium-fast hardcourt. The one really baffling result is Bogomolov's win over Tsonga. If Tsonga's bicep was torn/pulled/strained just last weekend, why was he even playing Cincinnati?? This upset sets up a rematch between Bogomolov and Murray. Bogomolov's win over Murray in the spring seemed to spark Bogomolov's career, and he's posted good results since with a corresponding rise in the rankings (currently a career-high #50). In light of Murray's truly lousy play in that loss to Anderson last week, it's not outside the realm of possibility that Bogo pulls off another upset.

Agree on Del Potro. My stepfather teaches tennis to little kids and has for the last 40 years. When Del Potro went on the shelf, he'd said to me that things like shoulders, knees, even ankles are manageable when something goes wrong with those. But a wrist injury....well, that's a different issue, and said it wouldn't be a surprise if Del Potro wasn't the same. So it's been thus far. His serve doesn't have anywhere near the white-hot heat it used to have; ditto his groundstrokes. His normal 128-plus MPH serves that were routine are now rarer. The First Serve told the tale of their match: Federer was able to get 75% of his Firsts in play, with Del Potro managing only 57% of Firsts in play. Federer still had more than a few shanks in the match, especially off the Forehand. That said, Del Potro always looked up against it.

Disagree on Djokovic. The two games Harrison got in the first set were Breaks of the Djokovic Serve. Can you imagine? Harrison breaks the World #1 twice in a set and then can't hold his own serve to lose the set 6-2. No wonder Harrison was throwing fits to the point of a warning from the Chair. It's also a reflection of Djokovic and the incredible year he's having. At some point you have to figure the excellence will start to dull, and maybe the Harrison match was the first chink in his armor. Djokovic looked vulnerable for the first time since Murray almost took him out in Rome. Maybe the pressure of his year is starting to wear on him.

Is it me or is ESPN's coverage a bit blurry. I've noticed this the past couple of weeks when they've been broadcasting tournaments. It doesn't seem to happen on The Tennis Channel.

BTW - I can't stand Chris Fowler!

I thought it was my TV, but none of the other channels were that way.

Fish beat Nadal in straights! Awesome. Can't wait to watch on delayed TV later.

And Berdych took out Federer in straights too.

It's definately their coverage. I should email or give them a call!

The writing was on the wall on that one. Nadal was too spent from the day before. And I actually thought Roger may be vulnerable against Tomas. I took nothing from his whipping of James Blake last night because Blake has always been Roger's bitch. Blake's game matches up so good for Roger and it probably gave people some false sense that he was on the path to the title. Not so. I totally am not surprised by either of these losses.

The bigger news of the day though may be Kim Clijsters having to withdraw from the US Open. I mean are we simply going to give the title to Serena or is there someone else there who can make some noise?

I'm loving seeing Fish finally getting some consistent, high level success. I hope he beats Murray, although, I'm doubting it will happen.
Djokovic...so full of confidence. I wish he'd get beaten too. Makes it more interesting. There is so much high quality tennis at the top of the men's game. Pitiful situation for the women. Especially with Serena being the only top player....

Just called them about the coverage and they're like - we'll look into it but we constantly monitor our video and audio and they haven't had any complaints!

DOHHHH. Bad luck for Quitovic. If he had just waited a couple more minutes, the match would have been called or delayed for rain. As it is, he maintains his nickname.
I liked the comment Jim Courier made: "I played with a dead arm for years."

OR....... maybe he is taking his Sharapova imitation to the next level.

I know some of you might not share this but I love the Carillo/Courier commentating duo. Intelligent and insightful. I don't suppose any of you heard Jim say, "Djokovic has that extra ingredient--the secret sauce of confidence." Hmmm.

If Djokovic's health is doubtful, the U.S. Open suddenly looks a whole lot more open. Neither Federer nor Nadal appear to be playing very well, so if Djokovic isn't 100%, it might be a good opportunity for Murray or someone like Tsonga to bag a major.

Knowing a little bit about Ryan's dad and the coaching he got. I'm not surprised about his court demeanor. He will get very hard on himself when he knows he should have mad plays. Not to mention he grew up with a few tennis players his age who are not friendliest in the world