As we roll into the first week of the U.S. Open, the media continues to overflow with stories about how American tennis is flailing. With the retirement of Andre Agassi, (adopted American) Martina Navratilova, the dubious state of the Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport, and the general speculation about the state of American tennis, it’s […]

When Serena Williams takes to the court Tuesday or Wednesday for her first-round match at the US Open, it will likely answer only a couple of the multitude of questions regarding the former No. 1 and her fluctuating physical condition, including her chronic knee injury. The younger Williams sister has not reached a tournament final […]

Since my esteemed colleague Sean Randall decided to totally slough off the women’s singles draw in his US Open preview, for reasons unknown to me except that some people (read: males) seem to forget that women do play professional tennis, I feel that I am honor-bound to cover his mistake this deficiency.

If you haven’t seen the US Open draws yet check ‘em out here.

At first glance the men’s draw looks to be all Roger Federer’s. On a second glance, it’s still Roger’s!

Sir Roger will likely not drop a single set on his way to a 10th straight Slam semifinal, a feat only accomplished by Ivan Lendl. Fed’s road is quite cozy – or the exact opposite of what he got at Wimbledon. Jim Wang, Tim H, etc., though Juan Carlos Ferrero could play him tough in the 16s, and in the quarters Tomas Berdych, James Blake or Dmitry Tursunov could snag a set, maybe. But that’s it.

If the latest WTA Rankings are correct it’s an historic week in women’s tennis. With Lindsay Davenport dropping from 10 to No. 11 in the Monday rankings leaving exactly ZERO American women in the Top 10 for what I think – and feel free to prove me wrong – for the first time in the history of the WTA Rankings, which go all the way back to November of 1975.

Why does ESPN hate tennis fans so much? They have now apparently hired Justin Gimelstob to do sideline reporting for the Rogers Cup in Montreal for the weekend.

Big story this A.M. is the “shock” defeat of Roger Federer yesterday to Andy Murray at Cincy. I didn’t get the chance to see it live – hey, I’m working, okay? – but I caught the replay of the last set on ESPN after the Roddick match.

Fed clearly didn’t look like the Fed that we have known, and I wonder just how much the Swiss wanted to partake in Cincy. Fed added winning Toronto, Cincy back-to-back was next to impossible. Well Rog, Andy Roddick did it a few years ago if I remember correctly, so it’s not impossible. You just got to want it.

Getting ready for the U.S. Open? Got your giant tennis ball and camera all ready? Here’s a quick t’do list for next week:

Well…I’m back from my last vacation of the year, or at least the last of the summer, and it’s catch-up time in the tennis world. Fortunately I had a cable TV handy, unfortunately I had to endure that fill-in Sean guy on ESPN.

As it was my vacation, I saw several other people vacationing also. Namely WTA stars like Justin Henin, Amelie Mauresmo, Venus Williams, etc. Okay, I didn’t see them but I get the feeling they along with a few others are enjoying their rest based on all the pulls from Montreal the past few days.

My week with the boys of the ATP comes to a close now. It’s been a great fun and we got to see a ton of amazing matches. Who would have ever thought going into this week that Arnaud Clement would walk away with the prize? Who would have thought that Andy Roddick wouldn’t even play in the tournament? Or that Andre Agassi would play for a mere 62 minutes?

The past couple of days have been very busy with the quarters and the semis seemingly back to back. I actually slept until 11am this morning, which felt good, but was very confusing when I got up. I’m usually a crack-of-dawn kind of girl. I’ll probably skip a lot since my note taking has been spotty. I opted not to take my laptop to the tournament, which I think was a good idea for my back, but probably a bad thing for readers. If I do this again, I could be convinced to tote my laptop, but only if properly goaded.

Sorry about the technical delay in getting the post up yesterday. Wordpress ate half of what I wrote and the X-ers held it until I was able to get to a computer. Thanks for your patience.

Yesterday’s matches were punctuated by the 2 hour rain delay that made the temperature drop 20 degrees and made the excitement rise accordingly. We rolled in and went over to the Mardy Fish – Andrea Stoppini match, opting to pass over the Lleyton Hewitt –

I’m going to try and smush two days posts into one here. So let’s roll through the report from Tuesday, shall we?

I got up there around 5:30pm and watched most of the Paradorn Srichapan – Kenneth Carlsen match. It was a great three setter. As I’ve said before, part of the fun of cheering for Paradorn, besides the fact that he’s a great player, is that the Thai Tennis fans are so much fun and are having such a good time.

I’m sure people are curious, so I’ll just get right to Andre Agassi and maybe post about the rest of the day later.

We spent most of the first set in the Grandstand watching Marat Safin–Nicholas Mahut, while keeping an eye on the scoreboard during the change-overs and listening to the cheers from the Stadium.

First things first. I need to make a retraction on something: I was totally wrong about the heat. The heat is here, and the week is only going to get hotter. Ack! As I’m writing this it’s just after 8am. The temperature is 86 degress, but the weatherman is saying it “feels” like 94 (What is with that anyway? Do they have a special meterological ‘feel-o-meter’ or something?). Humidity is at 70 percent, which hangs like a damp mist in the air, and immediately turns your clothes and your person into a soaking wet mess. They’re calling for Code Orange today through Thursday, with temps over 100 — plus humidity. Gawd help us all.