I don’t have a whole lot of time to do a comprehensive preview of the world’s premier hard court tennis tournament, so I thought I’d just jot down a few thoughts:
1. Who the hell made up this draw? I’m most annoyed by the fact that Donald Young (pictured) has to play James Blake tonight in the first round. That’s right, by tomorrow the number of African-American men in the draw will be cut in half. Even though I’ve been critical of the state of American Tennis, the lefty Donald Young is a true bright spot. He’s a charismatic 19-year old African-American, currently ranked 99th in the world.
2. Is this the beginning of a new era? Not only does the current defending four-time champion, Roger Federer, come in as an underdog, but he enters a grand slam tournament as something other than the number one seed for the first time since . . . since . . . I don’t know when. Hey Rafa, good luck being the hunted. Which leads me to:
3. Can Nadal win his third straight Grand Slam of the year? Yes. Will he? I’m not so sure. While Rafael has already proven he can win on hard courts, he’s yet to get past the quarters in New York. He is also on a collision course to meet Andy Murray in the semi-finals. Murray is currently ranked #6, but since his coming out party at Wimbledon this year, he’s been playing some amazing tennis. He’s also my pick to win the whole thing. You read it here first!
4. Who is going to win on the Women’s side? Due to Justine Henin’s early retirement, the women head into this tournament without a clear favorite. In fact, there are six women who have a shot at becoming number one in the world with a win here at Flushing Meadows. Even though Sharapova is out with an injury (you’ll still see plenty of her during the commercial breaks), I’m still making a bold prediction that this year’s winner will be Russian—the Russian women swept the medals in Beijing. My pick: look for Dinara Safina (Marat Safin’s younger sister) to win the first of many slams to come.
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3 comments:
Wow. It started out as a snoozefest (the D-Young lost the first set in 18 minutes 6-1), but the last two sets (in the five-setter) between Blake and Young were absolutely phenomenal. I don't think I've ever rooted against Blake, but I sure wanted a changing of the guard tonight. Good luck to Blake for the remainder of the tourney.
I didn't watch it, but heard this morning that it was a good one.
I don't know if this could have been done, but it sure feels like this tournament is too close to the Olympics. Didn't most of these guys and gals play in Beijing?
Yeah, I was surprised so many decided to play in Beijing. I think all the tennis was done before last week, but still, that's a serious case of jet lag. McEnroe was commenting that they actually earned computer ratings points for the Olympics for the first time this year. He was complaining it wasn't enough.
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