US Open 2007 Preview

This year looks to be more of the same. There is no indication that the Swiss No. 1’s momentum is slowing, while Sharapova, though nursing a sore shoulder, started out hot during the US Open Series with the title at San Diego.

“I know what happened last year when I won here and then went on to win the US Open, so this gives me a lot of confidence,” Sharapova said after San Diego.

Serena Williams remains a mystery as a thumb injury had the younger Williams withdrawing from four straight events entering August. Both sisters then withdrew from the Toronto event in early August.

Unless new mommy Lindsay Davenport asks for a US Open wildcard, the U.S.’s hopes lie solely with the sisters from Compton.

On the American men’s side, three players are currently exciting fans with their play: Top 10-ranked Andy Roddick and James Blake, and towering 6-foot-9 tour rookie John Isner who ran all the way to the final at Washington in only his second career ATP event. Critics speculate that Isner’s serve makes him a can’t-miss top prospect, but for the time being the University of Georgia graduate will likely spend the post-US Open year playing tour qualifying or Challenger events as his ranking will still be too low for direct entry into ATP events.

Roddick will try and erase his last Slam result, perhaps the toughest of his career, failing to close out a two-sets-and-a-break lead against Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon. The Washington title early during the US Open Series was a Roddick confidence-builder.

While U.S. men’s fans look to Isner for new hope, internationally the current best hope to break the Federer-Nadal stranglehold lies in world No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who fears neither the world No. 1 nor the No. 2 on hardcourt or any surface. At Montreal Djokovic beat Federer, Nadal and Roddick, the first time a player had beat the Top 3-ranked players at a singles event since Boris Becker in 1984.

Last year Federer became the first man to win three consecutive US Open titles since Ivan Lendl in 1984-87 (John McEnroe also did it in 1979-81), and this year attempts to become the only player in the Open Era to win four consecutive. The all-time record holder? Richard Sears in the amateur years of the Open won the event during the first seven years beginning in 1881.

This article appears in the September 2007 issue of JAX Tennis magazine, Northeast Florida's Tennis Source at www.jaxtennismagazine.com.