Draw

Awfully top-heavy draw with practically all the people playing well (Tsonga, Fish, Berdych, Gasquet in the top half with Roger & Novak. It probably doesn't matter for the Djoker, but Fed's going to hve a rough time getting past a QF date with Tsonga or Fish.

Murray has another benign draw unless JMDP comes to life. I didn't think Rafa would make the semis this year, but having seen his draw I have to change my mind. Granted, there are lots of players in his sections who could play well, but nobody I really believe in. I can't see him beating Murray this time around, though.

Monfils gave Novak fits when they played recently, yet I fully expect Novak to make his semifinal berth. I just don't see how someone as mentally up & down as Monfils takes 3 of 5 sets from Novak. In R3 Novak might face Dodig, the only player to take a set off him in Melbourne, although I suspect Dodig will be little more than a speed bump for Novak. I have to wonder about Mardy's chances of getting to his slated QF with Roger. Mardy's played an awful lot of tennis this summer. Granted, he's in the best shape of his career, but at 29 years old, the cumulative wear & tear takes its toll. Before he even gets to a R16 match against Tsonga, Mardy might be derailed by Verdasco or Anderson. I'm rooting for JW (sacre bleu!) against Mardy just because I want to see a Fed-Tsonga rematch. I wonder what language Fed cussed in when he saw Tsonga in his quarter.

To start discussion about the bottom half of the draw, who in the Sam Hill is Steve Johnson? and who did he sleep with to get a spot in the main draw?? With a ranking of #525, Johnson has absolutely no business getting a coveted spot in the main draw of the US Open. Sure, the USTA is supposed to be developing US talent and giving American players opportunity, but FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE?!? Back on topic, hopefully Alex Bogomolov continues his good run by beating Johnson to get a crack at Robin Soderling, who is back after a looooooong injury layoff. Baghdatis must be ruing his drop in rankings because being unseeded means you get the sh*t luck of facing someone like Isner in the 1st Round. I wouldn't be too shocked if either Isner or Simon ends up getting through in this section. I'd love for DelPo to make it through, but that forehand just ain't what it used to be. They're all playing for a QF spot against most likely Murray, who shouldn't be threatened by anyone in his section.

In the last section, James Blake is seriously hoping to get past whatever qualifier in the 1st Round because his 2nd Round would likely be against a very rusty David Ferrer. Ferrer's return, retrieving, and consistency would normally be way too much for James, but coming back from a hairline fracture in his hand, David might not be his usual self. Andy Roddick is also in this section, although his presence in a draw is becoming less and less significant. The highest seeded player after Ferrer in this section is Almagro, so not the toughest competition in this quarter. James couldn't have asked for a kinder draw. Last year's semifinalist Youzhny could experience a plummet in the rankings so severe he might get the bends should he lose his 1st Round to Gulbis. Gulbis might be the only player in this section capable of preventing Rafa from reaching his appointed semi.

Sure, I'd love to see Tsonga "upset" Fed yet again. But I'd also love to see Novak really earn his first US Open by beating the Roger and Rafa for the title. That assumes Rafa gets past Murray, which is hardly a given. But yeah, my dream scenario is that a fully healthy (?) Novak beats Roger in the semi and Rafa in the final for his first US Open championship. Third time lucky??

Djokovic-Federer as a SF looks the most likely match to happen. At some point the Djokovic year will get to him physically and mentally, so he won't be able to afford any lapses if this match comes off. Federer I think will be remembering the two Match Points he had in the SF last year. I'm thinking Federer will avenge his loss a year ago and take Djokovic out in a brutal match.

The other SF?? Nadal had bad warmups in Canada & Cincinati, but the draw was kind to him here. And he's reached 8 Finals in 2011 on all surfaces. Murray has been opportunistic, lasting rather than bulldozing in Cincinnati. But his Junk Ball game this year has shown it's almost out of ideas. Suspect Nadal reaches the SF fairly unscathed. If he meets Murray, Nadal can break down the Murray Forehand over 5 sets. If he meets Del Potro or Soderling - well, those matches might be easier for Nadal over 5 sets because neither of those guys moves as well as Murray does. At the end, Nadal makes Final #9 this year. If he meets Djokovic, he loses - the mental block Djokovic put into Nadal will still be too strong to overcome. Nadal's got a better chance against Federer mostly because they'll have to play the Final the next day, and Federer recovering overnight at 30 will be tougher than Nadal having to at 25. But it would still be a Pick "Em. I'm getting that Fedal feeling again. If they met in the Final here it would be their 10th Major Final, and they would have met for the title in all four Major Championships.

I don't see how the US Open can go forward on its planned schedule. Already one of the best parts of the event have been canceled. I love Arthur Ashe kids' day. I hope they can maybe have it in the middle or the end. But that doesn't carry the same excitement.
Since travel to NYC is at a standstill for now, I don't see how the players can even get in. I guess we will see.
Strange that no one is mentioning it. I guess there are more important things.

Well Lisciki (sp?) who is playing in a tournament in Texas said flights weren't getting out so it will be a real miracle if they start on time.

Lisicki. Transportation is pretty much at a standstill. I have a friend in NYC who said that the subways have never been shut down. They are now. Usually players come into town a few days early to settle in. Not now. Maybe they are talking about it on the Tennis Channel or ESPN, but I don't see anything on the mainstream channels. I know there are more important things, but this is a big deal for the US, NY, and tennis.
The official website has nothing....except that Arthur Ashe Day is canceled.
It does list the qualifying matches as having been completed. But nothing about a Plan B. I guess that's because, at this point, no one really knows where the bad weather will go or how bad it will be.

Finally a post on the website:

(As of Saturday, August 27 at 1:00 p.m. ET)

2011 US Open Weather Update

We continue to monitor Hurricane Irene, and all reports indicate the brunt of the storm to impact the New York area during the overnight of Saturday, August 27, and into Sunday, August 28. The tournament remains scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET Monday, August 29, with gates opening to the public at 10 a.m. We do not anticipate a further update regarding Monday’s schedule until the early evening of Sunday, August 28.


Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day Canceled

In light of the current forecast regarding Hurricane Irene and in order to avoid any possible safety issues for our fans and patrons, many of whom would have been arriving on-site with young children, the USTA is canceling Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day. This decision also follows discussions held between the USTA and New York City officials. The event was scheduled to take place tomorrow, Saturday, August 27, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This cancellation covers both the free grounds activities scheduled for the morning and the ticketed Stadium show that was scheduled for 1-3 p.m. The USTA’s inclement weather policy for Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day will be in effect and can be viewed at www.arthurashekidsday.com.

CBS plans to air a highlights show featuring the best of previous Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day performances along with select pre-taped elements from 2011. The program is scheduled to air Sunday, August 28, from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. ET.

From the website:

(As of Saturday, August 27 at 1:00 p.m. ET)


2011 US Open Weather Update

We continue to monitor Hurricane Irene, and all reports indicate the brunt of the storm to impact the New York area during the overnight of Saturday, August 27, and into Sunday, August 28. The tournament remains scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET Monday, August 29, with gates opening to the public at 10 a.m. We do not anticipate a further update regarding Monday’s schedule until the early evening of Sunday, August 28.


Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day Canceled

In light of the current forecast regarding Hurricane Irene and in order to avoid any possible safety issues for our fans and patrons, many of whom would have been arriving on-site with young children, the USTA is canceling Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day. This decision also follows discussions held between the USTA and New York City officials. The event was scheduled to take place tomorrow, Saturday, August 27, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This cancellation covers both the free grounds activities scheduled for the morning and the ticketed Stadium show that was scheduled for 1-3 p.m. The USTA’s inclement weather policy for Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day will be in effect and can be viewed at www.arthurashekidsday.com.

CBS plans to air a highlights show featuring the best of previous Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day performances along with select pre-taped elements from 2011. The program is scheduled to air Sunday, August 28, from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. ET.

Just for fun, I've been maintaining a sort of "floating point" rating system for the last couple of years where each player has a rating that goes up when they win and down when they lose by an amount that varies depending on how good their opponent is. It's designed to be volatile, to give an indication of who's playing well at a particular time. Here it is for the men going into the U.S. open:

1. Novak Djokovic 31.74
2. Andy Murray 29.66
3. Mardy Fish 26.71
4. Rafael Nadal 26.54
5. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 25.34
6. Robin Soderling 25.15
7. Roger Federer 25.05
8. Gael Monfils 24.80
9. Tomas Berdych 24.42
10. John Isner 23.86
11. Richard Gasquet 23.74
12. Radek Stepanek 23.31
13. Gilles Simon 23.14
14. Nicolas Almagro 22.54
15. Marin Cilic 21.99
16. David Ferrer 21.82
17. Juan Martin Del Potro 21.56
18. Robin Haase 21.47
19. Fernando Verdasco 21.33
20. Janko Tipsarevic 20.95
21. Feliciano Lopez 20.90
22. Andy Roddick 20.71
23. Philippe Kohlschreiber 20.49
24. Julien Benneteau 20.47
25. Ivan Ljubicic 20.40

And here we were all led to believe that The Djokovic Surge of 2011 was the result of going "gluten free". Apparently it's a bit more complex than curbing gluten loaded carbs from his diet, as The Wall Street Journal enlightens us...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...ttoWhatsNewsTop

OK, so we didn't get to listen to current awful music, and see current stars being silly. But it was great seeing Andre Agassi play during the Open where he was to call it a career. Ellen was cool. But how about the chat between Connors and Krickstein. Hadn't seen Aaron since that match. What an interesting looking (knockout handsome) guy. I am noticing the Open heads are sort of apologizing for canceling since the weather turned out to be not so bad. But that was luck. I think they made the right decision.

How old are you because that sounds like an old person's statement regarding the "current awful music". Its Arthur Ashe KIDS DAY!!

Anywho....umm...Golubev or whatever the hell your name is...WTF dude? Had a break in the first, which I can excuse for losing and then losing the set. But up 5-3, 40-love to win the second set, and then up 5-2 serving up two breaks in the third set? You should slit your wrists after that. He just couldn't string together those blistering shots at the tough moments. Too bad because I was not at all impressed with Nadal tonight. Of course he did start shaky at last year's tournament and won it so one match does not a tournament make but he's much more vulnerable this year with the losses to Djokovic so much in finals.

Gulubev won Hamburg tournament last year and was runner up in Kuala Lumpur.

However, he had a terrible 2011: 9 wins (1 for withdrawal and 3 in a challenger in Kazakhstan), 29 defeats.

So I am not surprised he struggled in important moments. He's probably not overconfident with this lack of victories.

Roddick is up 2 sets to 1 over Russell but his mojo was pretty shaky in the 3rd set which he lost.
On a more shallow note: Russell is pretty sexy and has great guns.

I wouldn't be surprised if Roddick is out 3rd or 4th round. I mean he just can't get away with that pushing shit against better opponents. I was hoping Russell would've pushed that 5.

I didn't see Andy's match against Russell, but anyone who's watched Andy's matches recently can see just how soft his groundstrokes have gotten. The forehand has been reduced to a pusher shot. Even when Andy gets the ideal forehand, a shortish sitter in the middle of the court, he doesn't seize control of the point like the top players can (and do). Forget comparisons to Novak, Rafa, and Roger -- those three will win the point 99.9% of the time when given a ball like that. Andy can't even dictate with his forehand like David Ferrer or Gilles Simon can. The backhand did look like a much better shot in the brief time that Andy was working with Jimmy Conners. Andy said it was a different shot after Jimmy reworked it, and indeed it was. But it's like he's reverted back to the original backhand because there's absolutely no pop on his backhand now. Andy's serve looks like it has as much pop as ever, but once his opponent gets a half-decent return into play, winning the point becomes very much an uphill battle with groundstrokes like his. If even the casual tennis fan can see how soft Andy's groundies have gotten, imagine what the guys in the locker room are saying.

I can see Andy getting past Jack Sock (who got WC'd in as the USTA Boys 18 champ, and is the youngest player in the draw) and the winner of Istomin/Benneteau. But David Ferrer looms in the 4th Round, and unless David has problems with his hand, he'll crush Andy. If so, I think a coaching change is almost inevitable. I don't know how much any coach can rework Andy's game at this stage of his career, but whatever Larry Stefanki has Andy doing (aside from the weight loss), it ain't workin'.

I'm 95, remember.
Age has nothing to do with opinion. The music sucks. It's awful. Yep, it's for the kids. My kids liked good music--born in the 90s, they liked the good stuff from the 70s. I don't know why they have to feed this generation such crap.

So we're now up to 9 Retirements on the Men's side: Niland, Nishikori, Dancevic, Sorenson, Beck, Matosevic, Stepanek, Mahut, and now Berdych today. I wonder what the record number of retriements is for any given Major??

EDITED TO ADD: Make it 10. Granollers just retired to Ferrero

Even in his salad days, I thought Andy's forehand was overrated, but he really doesn't put much on it at all now. His strategy seems to be to serve bombs and hope that his opponent will give him a service break with some unforced errors...which still works against most guys. But it doesn't cut it against guys with really good service games who can push him into tiebreaks or guys who return well enough to break his serve and aren't aren't generous. in rallies..so I think Ferrer will take him out handily.

Unbelievable.

Remember how I had been whining for YEARS about how cablevision didn't carry the Tennis Channel until a couple years ago? And how happy I was when they finally got it?!?

Well, today there's a nice little message on that channel saying Cablevision no longer carries TTC due to the fact that TTC raised its fees. During the USO, no less. Great timing.

Nice. It was a great couple of years while it lasted.

That's why I got DirectTV.

Damn, DelPo looked like a tree that was about to fall over the entire 4th set against Simon. Even if he had eeked out that 4th set, there's no way DelPo could have won a 5th.

Simon is like the Radwanska of the ATP. Not a lot of blatant and overpowering weapons, but just so damn steady and tricksy. He looked the fitter of the two by far, but I think his UEs were the only reason that match went as long as it did.

Nalbandian looked well on his way to winning that first set against Rafa with that break taking him to 4-2. This is what Rafa needed. He needed some scary moments from a very good player to knock the fight back into him and force him to hit some "how-the-hell-did-he-do-that??!!?!?" type of shots. Bizarre cramping in the press conference, though, huh?

We love to rail against Donuts'N'Danish Dave, but he actually looks pretty fit these days. And too bad he couldn't get one of those two close sets off of Rafa, because he was showing some of his 2003 form out there. I agree with the talking heads who said he's probably the best player in the ATP not to have won a slam in that generation. It's easy to forget that, though, because he's been so absent so often either with a lot of injuries and/or an out-of-shape body. If only he took a page out of the Mardy Fish book, where Mardy says "I just didn't want to wonder late in life 'what-if' if I hadn't given it my all." IMO, Nalby has more innate tennis talent than Fish does, but Fish is doing better these days because of his monster dedication. Granted, Nalby's résumé shows much more accomplishment than Fish's, but Fish is "aging well" in ATP results.

Loved the "Connors Memoir" from '91. I remember it like it was yesterday. The grueling matches against PMac, Krickstein and Haarhuis were stuff of legend. The fact he did it at 39 makes it purely phenomenal. They better have a "Jimmy Connors Court" or "Jimmy Connors Stadium" pretty soon at that venue, he's won more titles than any male player in history, won the USO on 3 (yes 3!!!) different surfaces, and made the frickin' SFs of the USO at 39!!!

Side note, PMac was quite the cutie back then.

Um...yay, Roddick, but, he really hasn't had to do too much yet. Happy for the result, but I'm still skeptical/realistic.

Um, yay (or do I mean "meh?") Donald Young. He's been hyped for 7 years now. He's been pampered and coddled by the USTA far more than he's deserved...especially with wildcards, to the detriment of other players who were more deserving. That's still a gripe with me. But still, better late than never. Only time will tell if this is just a Ginepri-esque/Oudin-esque run. All that hype and terrible results might just be on hold for this tournament, we'll have to wait and see. His win against Wawrinka was more impressive than his win against Chela.

Still good for American tennis...with Fish, Isner, Young, and Roddick all still hanging around. Such a breath of fresh air.

In the DelPo/Simon match, it was painfully obvious just how far JMDP has to go to get back to Slam-winning form. Yikes, DelPo's 2011 forehand is but a cheap imposter of his 2009 forehand. Before the wrist injury, that shot was a HAMMER! Anytime DelPo had his feet set to hit a forehand, the point was pretty much over, usually just one walloping stroke, maybe two or three, but 99.9% of the time point Del Potro. Granted, he was weary in the Simon match, but even when he had his feet planted and a very crushable ball to his forehand, he wasn't putting the ball away, or even doing anything special with it. He's still young, so even if wrist injuries are notoriously difficult to bounce back from, maybe he can get the wrist back to 90 or 95%. Right now it doesn't look like it's even at 80%. I don't know if it's possible for him to shut it down the rest of the year to focus solely on rehabbing that wrist, but I wish he would. Who knows if 4-5 months of intensive rehab would get the wrist back to 95%, but if he continues on, I don't see how his game can truly get back on track.

Allez Tsonga...best ever result at US Open and I would much rather see Tsonga/Fed than Fish/Fed (of course assuming that Federer gets past Monaco). Mardy has had a great summer and its ashame he lost but I couldn't root for him over my Jo Willy. The wind is absolutely crazy out there today and with the weather thats about to come the schedule is going to get jacked up. Those who played today are lucky. Those who haven't are going to have to play a lot of tennis in a short amount of time.

I read on another board that Mardy Fish called either Tsonga or Bernades (the chair ump) a "dumbass". It had something to do about Tsonga having words with Fish about people in his box. Then it sounded like Mardy was complaining about the Tsonga box. Ugh...I don't know. If Mardy called Jo Willy a dumbass or Bernades its not cool. I guess since Mardy is the #1 American now he feels like he needs to act bratty like Roddick always does?

Edited to add:

Ok I read somewhere about the exchange and someone had more of a transcript. Apparently both boxes were a little hyper so after Tsonga started complaining about Fish's box, Fish then asked Tsgona to control his box. So Tsonga said to Fish that he could just tell them to calm down himself and they will and Mardy said to Tsonga "I don't speak French you dumbass". Ugh. So glad he ruined Mardy in the fifth set now. Apparently Mardy is as much of a douchebag as Roddick.

<accidental double-post>

So Mardy Fish is a douchebag based on a transcript (that may or may not be accurate) of a situation where we don't know the whole story, or anywhere near ... uh, no. Maybe Mardy Fish is a d-bag, although he seems to be widely well-liked on the ATP Tour, by both Americans and international players. But that conclusion based on sketchy-at-best insight into the incident (if it even rises to the level of an "incident") is just silly. Oh, and Andy is just a (supreme) douchebag to umpires, not his opponents. There are very strict lines drawn in other sports that govern players' and coaches' interactions with referees/umpires. Whenever I see one of Andy's tirades of abuse (that always go on waaaaaaaay too long), I wonder why the hell tennis doesn't adopt some.

But back to the subject of the match ... In the fifth set, it was a jump ball between Mardy & JW. JW kept going for it while cleaning up his unforced errors whereas Mardy made some eyebrow-wrinkling UEs at critical points. I really didn't know who to root for in this match. On one hand, how can you like tennis and not like Tsonga?? While lacking consistency, the guy has the most spectacular game when he's on. Plus, he has one of those utterly infectious smiles that always makes me smile whenever I see it, even when I'm grumpy. As for Mardy, how can you not root for a guy who reinvented himself at this stage of his career? I never thought Mardy would be a solid top-tenner, especially at 29, but he's proven just how far hard work and discipline can take you. In the end, I guess I was rooting for the American (I always root for the underdog, which I felt Mardy was, despite his higher ranking), but no doubt that JW deserved this win. And I'd much rather see a Roger-JW quarterfinal (wonder who Roger was rooting for ... tee hee) than Roger-Mardy. As much as Mardy's improved, I still don't think he has much of a chance against Roger. JW, on the other hand ... verrrrrrrry interesting.

It was a verrrrrry interesting first set between Novak & Dolgopolov. Novak seemed to be completely flummoxed, not just by the Dog's slice backhand but also Dog's changes of pace (skimming slices mixed in with pounding flat shots and the occasional looping topspin)and hyperquick service motion. Novak was so out of sorts that for a stretch he regressed to the Old Novak, the player who counted more on an opponent missing than taking the bull by the horns. But when Novak eked out the 1st set tiebreak by the skin of his teeth and then broke Dolgopolov in the 1st game of the 2nd, it's like the Dog's spell was broken and Novak returned to his 2011 form.

Next up for Novak is countryman Tipsarevic. I realize I'm in the minority when it comes to Janko, but damn! I think the guy is so bleepin' sexy!! Hey, I gotta focus on something because Tipsy & Troicki lose their matches to Novak in the locker room.

Well thats the conclusion and opinion I have thank you very much.

Is this enough proof for you oh great knowitall wise one?

Tennis Trash Talk: Mardy Fish Calls Tsonga a Dumb Ass

Fish has played a lot of tennis this summer. Doesn't matter that he's in his best shape ever. He's still 29 years old, and on the tour that catches up with you in a hurry. He had to have the muscle treatment in this match, and Jo Willy just outmanned him. Tsonga knew once the 5th Set was at hand, the 29 year old Fish was pretty much tamed.


And count me in that Janko minority . I'd always loved his look. And he's in better physical shape now than he was then.

So mdterp rises up in defense of Kanye West's beyond-douchebag behavior to Taylor Swift at the VMAs (behavior West himself later admitted he was very ashamed of) yet fires up an attack of Mardy Swift because he called JW Tsonga a "dumbass" (oooooh, I'm sure it'll take Jo-Wilfried decades of therapy to get over that one).

Pathetic. That's all I have to say. PATHETIC.

Wow I'm so flattered that you remember the things that I post from so long ago on this board cuz I couldn't give two shits to remember something that someone I communicate with via a freaking message board has written last week let alone from...what was that...two years ago? But nice total deflection since your whole "oh well you have no proof of it so don't go making judgments" thing blew up in your face now that you have video and audio of the incident. Thank you. Class is dismissed.

Anywho...moving on....what we can agree on is the attractiveness of Janko Tipsy. He is very sexy to me as well. I have been a Juan Carlos Ferrero fan for years though. I find him to have very classic handsome features. He's the kind of guy I'd love to take to a sophisticated event with him dappered up in a tuxedo. Janko is the kind of guy I'd like to take see in a leather motorcyle jacket with us just shooting the breeze at some dive bar. Obviously I fantasize too much.

Liberals are so absolutely intolerant of hypocrisy (e.g., whenever a family-values politician gets caught in a sex scandal), so of course they're terribly embarrassed when their own hypocrisy is flagged red-handed. According to mdterp, when a black person is horrible to a white person, that's OK. But when a white person is unpleasant ("dumbass" hardly rises to the level of horrible, or anywhere near) to a black person, then the white person deserves to be raked over the coals. mdterp, why don't you quit while you're behind? I'd hate to see you embarrass yourself further.

Forgive the politically-tainted digression. Back on topic ...

As Wertheim tweeted, who in tennis (outside of Donald Young's immediate family) would have guessed before the Open that Donald Young would be in the tournament longer than Mardy Fish? I agree that Donald Young was coddled with too many wild cards for far too long. He threw a hissy fit over not getting the USTA WC into Roland Garros (he was given a spot in a playoff, with the winner getting the WC), but that might have been a blessing in disguise. 22 is no longer young (no pun intended) in tennis, sadly enough, but it's far from over-the-hill. If top-ranked American Mardy Fish could turn his career around at 29, then Donald Young can certainly do it at 22. I love little guys like David Ferrer who can occasionally slay the Goliaths. I don't know if Donald Young (5'9") is capable of it, but best of luck to him.

voicemale, I agree that Tsonga definitely looked the fresher of the two in the fifth set. However, there were a couple of critical points where Mardy got to the ball, had his feet set, but his arm turned to stone and instead of an easy put-away, he bricked the volley. No denying, 29 years of age is a physical hurdle, no matter one's dedication to fitness. But when he bricked those easy volleys, I had to think that being 29 is also a psychological hurdle, i.e., the pressure of knowing he doesn't have many more bites at the apple got to Mardy.

Ok I'm not trying to get into a dick swinging contest over this but when exactly did I say it was ok for a black person to be horrible to a white person? Show me THAT quote since you seem to know all about me.

There's never a separate thread for Doubles at The Majors but there is one really unique match taking place today in the Mixed Doubles event. Get this..


Leander Paes is teamed with Elena Vesnina, and they are two extremely capable and accomplished Doubles Players. Wanna know who they play today for a spot in the Mixed Doubles Championship?? Wait for it......

Jack Sock & Melanie Oudin!!!! Two American teenagers have have blasted their way into the Mixed Doubles Semi Final! best of luck to them today. We all know what Leander is gonna do - he's gonna try to blister Oudin at the net. But what a story if the kids pull this one off!!

Oh you know how the racist-ish are....any suggestion that there might be some nuance when it comes to people of color throws them over the edge.

There should be a doubles thread. I always watch for the Leander Paes or Bryan Bro matches. Who saw the Oudin/Sock team doing so well?? They both have had a lot of singles hype and little results.

BTW, I loved watching Roddick play Sock and not have an visible socks on.

watching the replay of del potro-fedrer US OPEN FINAL on ESPN. i still can't believe federer lost it. he totally choked.

Racist -ish??!!! i love that term.

The weather totally sucks...they have released the schedule for tomorrow so while nadal and others will be playing a fourth round matches federer will be playing his quarterfinals.

My play on the Jamie Foxx joke re: Whitney....I don't know if she's a crack head, but she's certainly crack-ish.

Oh man I didn't even realize that Andy Roddick got banished to Louis Armstrong stadium!! GOOD!! They just said he's played on Ashe 39 straight matches and yes he won the Open in 2003 and is American but seriously... even Martina Navratilova was saying the other day that they needed to send his ass to Armstrong for a match or two.

As for the weather tomorrow, they will be lucky to get play in then since there is 90-100% chance of rain through tomorrow evening. We may not see live tennis until Thursday or Friday.

I love how Nadal, Roddick, and Murray banded together about how the USTA is putting them on a freaking hard court when its still raining and still wet. I don't know why they can't put a roof on Armstrong, Grandstand, and the new show court (17). Its impossible to put a roof on Ashe but you can on the other 3 I mentioned. If play doesn't get through today you've got the guys playing their 4th round matches today having to play best of 5 for the remaining days of the tournament. Its more feasible for the women who would have quarter, semi, final on Thursday, Fri, Sat (but still not ideal). One of the things that I'm sure players like, even the females, at the majors is that day off. I know this has come up many times before when rain has hampered the Open but I really like the players speaking up for themselves today.

And the support didn't stop there. Serena weighed in via tweet and said to Nadal "Preach, my booty brother. Preach!" . The discussion - in fact debate - on ESPN among all the talking heads centered around the decision to schedule the Men's SF & Final on back to back days. This spreads out the schedule in the first week, when the First Round matches are played over 3 days instead of two. All of this is done to accommodate CBS, who plays the USTA huge rights fees to televise the event. It's terrible for players, especially in this era when the game has changed so much and become much more physical than ever before. You can also understand CBS not wanting to fall into the NBC Wimbledon/French Open trap, where they televise the Semis on a Friday when nobody's watching them. And I have read a lot of legitimate complaints on this board about NBC's frantic decision making on what to do, yet they can't do much. So all the actors in this drama have a legitimate concern.

The players may bitch about the USTA only being concerned about "money", but were it not for the money CBS paid them, along with a host of other networks in the world paying rights fees, the players today wouldn't have the uber-fat bank accounts they now have, plus all the endorsements from advertisers - advertisers who buy time on the networks coverage to generate income to shell out sponsor dollars to players. But the USTA still needs to accommodate player safety first. On the court the way it was today, one slip by any of these guys can buckle a knee and end a career, and no event's fans are worth that.

On thing that seems reasonable at the US Open to pull off for the Men is to have a Friday Evening SF schedule since they have lights. It gives them at least an extra half day for recovery. That's something ESPN would be great for, and then CBS can have the Final, Women Saturday and Men Sunday. Given that Ashe is already standing, adding the roof might cost as much or more than tearing the whole thing down and rebuilding it with a roof.

I totally agree!

Why aren't Ferrer & Roddick playing yet?

An air bubble on Armstrong

... and they're moving to 13

A couple of nice wins for Isner and Roddick both in 4 sets. And Murray got no challenge at all from Young.

I, like JC, thought Ferrer would have no problems with Roddick, given his record, Andy's lack of recent match play, and the way Ferrer kicked his happy ass back in Davis Cup. So congrats Andy, your prize, a match with Rafa. Enough said.

I'm much happier for Isner. This is the first QF in a SLAM for the big fella. Good to see him continuing to improve, especially given his less-than-stellar results since the Big W Monster-Thon...and also given Querry's free-fall, and that grouchy Fish went out to Tsonga. Isner's only played Murray once, a straight set loss at the 2010 AO in the 4th round, so there's not a lot of historical data to go on, but there's no question Big John has to be serving impeccably. Long rallies vs Puff the Mopey Dragon could very well exasperate Isner so it's not a big leap of faith to know that Isner will want to keep the points short and sweet.

I like Fed's chances vs the Djoke better than anyone's, but his other tough matchup now is with JWT. Even with all their history, I can seriously say I have no idea who'll win, but I actually hope it's the Fed. I think the Fed can beat the Djoke and is quite hungry to do so...JWT, not so much. Even though JWT has the slimmest of wins in the H2H vs Nole, the 2011 version of Djoke is light years ahead of the pre-2011 Djoke...but the Fed is the only player who (really, not via ret.) to beat the Djoke this year.

Oh Jo Willy...horrible showing. Rogelio was on point from the start and quickly got that over with. So now the USTA has changed the schedule with the women's semis on Saturday night and the women's final Sunday at 4. The men's semi will be Saturday afternoon with their final on Monday afternoon. Why is the men's semi before the women's semi when the women have to play the next day and the men don't have to play the final until Monday?

Yeah, it kind of strained credulity to think Tsonga could defeat Fed for two Slams running (and a third time in a row), but a virtual repeat of his embarrassment at Fed's hands in the AO semis last year was lame. I guess he had too many days off to think about the task at hand. I have no idea who will come out on top in the latest grudge match between Djoko and Fed; the good news is that I can be happy that at least one of them has to lose. Really hoping any of the four guys left in the bottom half ends up with the trophy instead, but I kind of think the Djoko-Fed semi will decide the title in advance.

In other news, I was holding a ticket for the women's semis, which turned out instead to be Murray v Isner, Nadal v Roddick, and Dulko/Schwank v Oudin/Sock. Can't complain. I didn't exactly hold a great desire to see Angelique Kerber in person, anyhow. Mostly blue skies out my window at the moment, which I hope remains the case when I arrive at Ashe.

Tsonga just did not serve well at all. Federer was able to crack and wail on 2nd Serves all match long, which helps his cause. Federer wasn't going to let that golden opportunity pass. And Tsonga paid dearly.

As to your question: the women play Best of Three all the time, everywhere. Majors. WTA Tour events. At the regular tour events all their matches are always on successive days. It's only the men who have the different structure: Best of Three on the Tour and Best of Five at the Majors. It's same old same old for the women. That's why the priority is given to the men.

andy roddick is a prima donna bitch, easily the most overrated american male tennis player.