And The Qualifiers Are . . .
Michael Berrer (GER), Thierry Ascione (FRA), Sebastien de Chaunac (FRA). Roman Valent (SUI)

Singles First Round
7 Andreas Beck (GER) def. Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) 6-4 6-2
Bjorn Phau (GER) def. Rainer Schuettler (GER) 7-6(1) 7-6(5)

Tuesday’s Order of Play

And The Qualifiers Are . . .
Filippo Volandri (ITA), Santiago Ventura (ESP), Pere Riba (ESP) and Julio Silva (BRA)

Singles First Round
Peter Luczak (AUS) def. Karol Beck (SVK) 7-5 7-6(6)
Marcel Granollers (ESP) def. WC Petru-Alexandru Luncanu (ROU) 6-2 6-7(3) 6-1

Tuesday’s Order of Play

Rafael Nadal pulled out of next week’s Thailand Open due to the abdominal tear that became problematic in Cincinnati and further complicated at the US Open. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who happens to be the defending champion, will now be the top seed at the tournament.

This is a good move for the Spaniard. Why complicate or risk injury in a small tournament? He needs to play less of these tournaments anyway since he consistently does well in the Masters tournaments and grand slams.

The Mallorcan and his people need to be more mindful of his schedule. They should be aware of wear and tear because of the way he plays. The minute he stops doing well in the Masters tournaments and grand slams then he can start playing these tournaments.

Nadal should just play Shanghai and London and focus on healing this year. He can then train in the off season and give them hell in Australia next year where he defends his title.

Nicolas Massu and team celebrate their victory over Austria after Massu comes through in rubber five over Stefan Koubek 6-4 4-6 6-4 7-6(6).

(Image: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images)

Semifinals
Spain def. Israel 4-1
Czech Republic def. Croatia 4-1

World Playoffs
Serbia def. Uzbekistan 5-0
The Serbs sweep Uzbekistan despite Novak Djokovic being sidelined.

France def. Netherlands 4-1
After Gael Monfils dropped the first rubber against Thiemo de Bakker, France rallied to win the next four matches. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played rubbers 2-4 and made sure France won.

India def. South Africa 4-1
Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna anchored India’s team to victory.

Switzerland def. Italy 3-2
Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka easily advanced Switzerland over Italy.

Sweden def. Romania 3-2
Robin Soderling participated in rubbers 2-4 and won all three after Romania’s Victor Hanescu won the first rubber.

Belgium def. Uzbekistan 3-2
Christophe Rochus and Steve Darcis won their first rubbers. Ukraine rallied with Sergiy Stakovsky in rubbers 3-4. Steve Darcis came through in rubber 5.

Ecuador vs. Brazil 3-2
Nicloas Lapentti did a lot of damage in Brazil. After his brother, Giovanni lost the first rubber. The older Lapentti beat Thomaz Bellucci and Marcos Daniel. With his brother, they beat doubles specialists Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa.

Chile def. Austria 3-2
Nicolas Massu and Paul Capdeville started out nicely for Chile. Austria rallied, but Massu put it away in game five for Chile.

City: Metz, France
Surface: Indoor Hard
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: Dmitry Tursunov
2008 Doubles Champions: Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra

Defending champion, Dmitry Tursunov will not defend his title this year, as he is out because of ankle surgery. Gael Monfils tops the seeds and is the hometown and crowd favorite. Mostly French and German players join him this week.

Philip Kohlschreiber, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Philipp Petzschner, Fabrice Santoro, Benjamin Becker, Andreas Beck and Ivan Ljubicic round out the other seeds. Richard Gasquet will also be on hand to try to return to form. Fabrice Santoro puts in his last appearance at the tournament since he will retire at the end of the year. On the doubles side, Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra are back together and will defend their title for the second-straight time.

As stated before, it is harder to tell the clear favorites, as injuries and burnout become the tale of the season. This should be an exciting tournament, as there are plenty of quality players duking it out this week.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

Monday’s Order of Play

(Image: Open de Moselle)

City: Bucharest, Romania
Surface: Outdoor Clay
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: Gilles Simon
2008 Doubles Champions: Nicolas Devilder and Paul-Henri Mathieu

Two-time defending champion, Gilles Simon will not defend his title this year. His knee injury has forced him out of Davis Cup and now this title.

Hometown favorite, Victor Hanescu earns top-seed honors and will be the one to beat. He will enjoy audience support and will have the incentive of not letting them down. Nicolas Almagro, Juan Monaco and Igor Andreev will be on hand to mix it up with Hanescu.

As the season winds down, it is harder to tell the clear favorites, as injuries and just burnout become the tale of the end of the season. We shall see who steps up this week in Bucharest.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

Monday’s Order of Play

(Image: Getty Images)

Spain and the Czech Republic both wrapped up their Davis Cup ties today. Both team won their doubles rubbers today and advanced to the finals in December.

The Czech two-man wrecking crew of Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek made easy work of Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko 6-1 6-3 6-4 today after 2 hours and 16 minutes. It was an easy day for the pair after the two players played almost ten hours in their singles rubbers yesterday.

Their December rivals, Spain surprisingly wrapped up their tie today. Tommy Robredo and Feliciano Lopez had to overcome the Israeli doubles team of Andy Ram and Jonathan Ehrlich.

The Spaniards were able to hold serve in the first set and sneak off with it in the tiebreak. The Israelis then rallied to take the second set. It was at this time that professional asshat, Justin Gimmelstob decided he would pile on the Spanish team by over-emphasizing the Spaniards' volleying weaknesses.

Every player possesses weakness in his game, and that is frankly the beauty of tennis. There are also reasons why players end up doubles specialists in the first place. The Israelis' weaknesses just so happened to be the Spaniards’ strengths, which were their serves and groundstrokes.

It was in the third set that the Spanish team exposed the Israelis shortcomings. The Spaniards upped their serves and drew their opponents into groundstroke shootouts. It was at this point that Robredo and his forehand started playing target practice, and Lopez did a great job of picking off balls at the net.

After the Spaniards won four-straight games, the asshat extraordinaire became quiet for the rest of the match. The Israelis rallied back into the third set, despite Ehrlich having to call for the trainer to treat his elbow. At 4-5, the Spaniards were able to close out the third set. In the fourth set, the wheels came off the Israeli team, and the Spaniards were able to close out the set, the match and the tie 7-6(6) 6-7(7) 6-4 6-2 after 3 hours and 47 minutes of play.

The Spaniards are heavily favored to successfully defend their title, but they take the Czech team for granted at their own peril. The Czech team has let Berdych and Stepanek carry the entire load to the final. They had no problems taking out talented and deep teams -- just ask the French. If Rafael Nadal is able to play, Spain has a great chance to repeat. But if he is not around, the Czech double-trouble team could do a lot of damage.

Video highlights of the Spanish match en espanol below:



(Images: Darko Bandic/AP, Manu Fernandez/AP)

Croatia vs. Czech Republic
Croatia
Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic, Roko Karanusic and Lovro Zovko

Czech Republic
Radek Stepanek, Tomas Berdych, Jan Hajek and Lukas Dlohy

Friday's Matches
R1. Stepanek def. Karlovic 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-6(6) 6-7(2) 16-14
R2. Berdych def. Cilic 6-3 6-3 3-6 4-6 6-3

Saturday’s Match
Karanusic/Zovko vs. Dlouhy/Hajek


Spain vs. Israel
Spain
Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Feliciano Lopez

Israel
Dudi Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram

Friday’s Matches
R1. Ferrer def. Levy 6-1 6-4 6-3
R2 J Ferrero def. Sela 6-4 6-2 6-0

Saturday’s Match
Erlich/Ram vs. Lopez/Robredo

Watch Live
R3 – Tennis Channel - 9:00 AM EST

A sidelined Rafael Nadal is on hand to cheer on his Spanish teammates. He sits in the players’ box with Tommy Robredo and Feliciano Lopez, who is rocking the two-day bender look, during David Ferrer’s match.

(Image: Manu Fernandez/AP)

Tomas Berdych beat Marin Cilic 6-3 6-3 3-6 4-6 6-3 after 3 hours and 48 minutes of play. Berdych pulled out the win in another long match to put the Czechs in the lead at 2-0. After just two matches, these two teams have clocked in almost ten hours of play. The Croatians are now going to have to dig deep if they want to turn this deficit around.

(Image: Hrvoje Polan/AFP/Getty Images)

Radek Stapenek and Ivo Karlovic ended up battling it out in an 5 hour and 59 minute-marathon match. Stepanek rallied after losing the first set 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-6(6) 6-7(2) 16-14.

The Czech withstood 78 aces from Karlovic. Of the 78 games played, there were only three breaks of serve. His second and deciding break of the match came in game the 29th game of the final set. This single match was longer than Spain's first two matches with Israel.

Stepanek’s epic win gives the Czech Republic a 1-0 lead. A loss like this could be hard for Team Croatia to rebound, but Marin Cilic, who plays next, has been playing well of late.

(Image: Darko Bandic/AP)

Dudi Sela came out playing pretty aggressive, and it looked like the newly world no. 29 would give Juan Carlos Ferrero some trouble. Ferrero was solid and steady but more importantly, patient. The two players really pounded it out for the first twelve games. After long rallies in the beginning of the match, Ferrero eventually wore down Sela.

Sela fought off seven break points in his first service game of the match. After eight break points, Ferrero finally broke him in the seventh game of 4-3. From there, the Spaniard held on for the first set. Sela dug in at the beginning of the second set. The turning point of the match was when Ferrero was able to break back in game four of the second set for 2-2. The former world no. 1 raced off to win ten-consecutive games in a row and take the match 6-4 6-2 6-0.

Spain is now 2-0 over Israel. The Israelis have a good shot at taking doubles tomorrow with Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram. It looks good for Spain right now, but anything can happen.

(Image: AFP)

David Ferrer played today as if he had things to do today. He beat Harel Levy 6-1 6-4 6-3 to put Spain up 1-0. Levy put up a fight in the second set, but Ferrer proved to be too much for the Isreali.

(Image: Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images)

As a team it is a goal we put together last year. We try to win the group and now we try to go to the World Group. For me specially is going to be the most important tie. Depending on this result, I am gonna know what my future is going to be like. If we go to the World Group next year, it will be an extra motivation to keep playing tennis.

-Nicolas Lapentti

Let's hope he is not implying that he trying to retire from tennis. First, it was Marat Safin and now him. We can only handle so much loss. Nicolas Kiefer better not get any ideas.

Croatia vs. Czech Republic

Croatia
Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic, Roko Karanusic and Lovro Zovko

Czech Republic
Radek Stepanek, Tomas Berdych, Jan Hajek and Lukas Dlohy

Friday's Matches
R1. Karlovic vs. Stepanek
R2. Cilic vs. Berdych

Spain vs. Israel

Spain
Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Feliciano Lopez

Israel
Dudi Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram

Friday’s Matches
R1. Ferrer vs. Levy
R2 J Ferrero vs. Sela

Watch Live
R1 – Tennis Channel - 6:00 AM EST
R2 – Tennis Channel - 9:00 AM EST

(Image: Sergio Carmona)

Juan Martin del Potro is having a whirlwind week. He won the US Open, moved passed Andy Roddick to world no. 5 and qualified for the ATP finals. The Argentine then went on an American media blitz, and some people think he can keep up tennis' golden age. Finally, he went home and received a hero’s welcome. It is nice to see del Po receive some love.

Bernard Tomic wins Junior title (Fox Sports)

The 61-year-old ballboy at the US Open speaks (Boston Herald)

Roger Federer fined for use of profanity (ESPN)

Scattered seeds questioned at USO (WSJ)

Dick Enberg’s awkward moment. Ultimately, the tennis broadcast mafia should be broken up. New blood is desperately needed (NYT)

USO scheduling is always under debate. They need to scrap the one match on Saturday and let both match play on Friday. I know they would like to milk their broadcast deals, but the practice is unfair (LA Times)

USO scores ratings winner during the men’s final (CBS Sports)

Bricker’s CBS report card (Tennis News)

Juan Martin del Potro - 10% Champion
Roger Federer - 10% Finalist
Rafael Nadal - 30% Semifinalist
Novak Djokovic - 10% Semifinalist
Andy Murray - 30% Round of 16
Gilles Simon - 10% Third Round

The majority picked Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal and is now three of ten. We are now batting 30%. The Shanghai poll will be next. I guess the wheels are coming off quickly, but we can make it back to 50% if we guess correctly for the rest of the season.

On the bright side, Rafael Nadal won the topless poll with 53, and Nicolas Kiefer is in second place with 38%.

Juan Martin del Potro puts Tandil on the map (NYT)

Jeremy Chardy replaces Gilles Simon for Davis Cup (ESPN)

Juan Carlos Ferrero will replace Rafael Nadal for Spain’s Davis Cup semifinal (Fox Sports)

Nadal's pull out gives Israelis hope (Jerusalem Post)

Rafael Nadal admits 2009 year has been unlucky. I suspect a certain someone possesses a voodoo doll (Live Tennis)

2009 and Nadal’s injuries (USA Today)

Dmitry Tursunov will have ankle surgery. He could miss four to six months (Sacramento Bee)

Tennis is becoming more brutal (NYT)

Goran Ivanisevic will play Andrei Pavel in his last match (Croatian Times)

It would be really, really nice if Juan Martin del Potro took the whole enchilada. I guess a girl can dream. Let’s hope this fortnight is exciting and chalked full of surprises.

-me

Someone finally granted my wishes. Juan Martin del Potro won the US Open singles title over five-time defending champ, Roger Federer 3-6 7-6(5) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2. I did not watch it because I am superstitious, but I am so thrilled the 20-year-old Argentine won his first title.

Del Potro is the first Argentine to win the title since Guillermo Vilas did it in 1977. He also breaks up the Federer-Nadal monopoly since Djokovic won the Australian Open in 2008. It is nice to see new blood step up to the plate. Let's hope there are more titles for the kid to come.

(Image: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

Fourth-seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leandoer Paes upset third-seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 3-6 6-3 6-2 to capture the US Open doubles title. Since their pairing in 2008, the Czech-Indian duo have won two grand slams and an additional title together. This title bookends their grand slam title earlier this year in Roland Garros.

(Image: Elise Amendola/AP)

VS.

(Images: Kathy Willens/AP, Julian Finney/Getty Images)

No thanks to the tournament, Nadal took charge of his destiny today at the US Open in just 33 minutes. The Spaniard was locked in the dogfight with Fernando Gonzalez when rain suspended his match at 7-6 6-6(3-2) after 2 hours and 3 minutes of play on Thursday.

After being rained out all of yesterday, the tournament resumed play this afternoon. The question would be which player could come out immediately and resume his level of play without having chance to play his way into the match. This would be most important since the match would resume in the middle of the second-set tiebreak.

Unfortunately for Gonzalez, he came out rusty. His biggest weapon, his forehand let him down. Gonzalez missed three forehands in a row and immediately found himself 2-6 in the tiebreak. Nadal won set point when Gonzalez could not return his serve and was able to wrap up the second set in less than two minutes.

After losing the second set, the Chilean was visibly frustrated and inconsolable. He never got his head back into the match and basically melted down in the third set. Nadal, on the other hand, managed his points well by playing conservatively. He allowed Gonzalez to make all the errors that lead to him bageling the 29 year old and winning the match at 7-6(4) 7-6(2) 6-0.

Nadal secured the final spot in the semifinals and will meet Juan Martin del Potro tomorrow. Nadal is 4-2 over del Potro, but the Argentine has won their last two meetings. Sometimes the stats are useless when you are talking about grand slams.

In the last four years, Federer and Nadal have had the advantage and had a basic monopoly over the other players. Some players play well all year and then get to the slams and crumble. It will be interesting to see if del Potro is able to overturn the Spaniard’s big advantage. The same will be true for Novak Djokovic in his semifinal against Federer. He did it once at the Australian Open in 2008, but will he reassert himself and do it again? We will see tomorrow.

(Image: Emmanue Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

Rafael Nadal



















Juan Carlos Ferrero

























Gilles Simon


















David Ferrer

















Nicolas Kiefer



















Marat Safin


















Juan Monaco



















Viktor Troiki















Nicolas Lapentti


















Evgeny Korolev
















Frank Dancevic











There are some tennis polls some readers have pointed out and felt outrage at some the choices in these polls. I have received recent requests from readers over the week to do a proper topless poll. In light of the recent weather developments at the Open, I thought I would give you a treat.

I have gone to through the tennisfiend photo archives to compile a list for my fellow tennis fiends. By no means is it a comprehensive list, as I do not have photos of everyone. This poll will also be a tribute to the many of the fallen and the few who remain in the tournament that is steadily coming to a close this week despite the weather.

So, please participate in a proper poll of the ATP’s finest. Since this is a scientific poll and it may be hard for you to choose just one, we are going to do this one Chicago style -- so vote early and vote often.

Update: The formatting in IE is messed up. If viewing this post in IE , the pictured are as follows from the top to the bottom: Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Gilles, David Ferrer, Nicolas Kiefer, Marat Safin, Juan Monaco, Viktor Troiki, Nicolas Lapentti, Evgeny Korolev and Frank Dancevic.

(Images: Denise/tennisfiend)

Rain caused the suspension of the Nadal-Gonzalez quarterfinal Thursday evening. The weather was worse today and caused the tournament to cancel play. Now, the Open is looking to finish the final quarterfinal tomorrow. The final has already been pushed to Monday.

Poor Rafa. This is the third grand slam where Nadal gets caught in rain delays. It happened in Wimbledon 07, US Open 08 and now US Open 09. Now, “Mr. Goat” gets to patiently rest to play him.

At Wimbledon 07, Nadal had to play every day during the second week because of the weather, and Federer received almost a week off after he played early and Haas pulled out of his fourth-round match. The Spaniard still made it to the final and almost beat him if it was not for his knees.

So when our crack "sports analysts" get on air and lecture Nadal about playing too much, they should first look at some of these tournament schedules. Nadal has been continually been on the short end of the scheduling -- and do not get me started on the draws. It has become ridiculous and unfair not to just Nadal, but to the other players. It was after Wimbledon 2007 where I became turned off by Federer because I felt he was being propped up by the scheduling at the tournaments.

Nadal will be at a great disadvantage should he make it to the final. If Federer wins the title, everyone will pretend that is was great skill when it is really that he is just better rested than the other players. Remember he was the only male player to play before the women’s match at night, which was pretty bold.

(Image: AP)

Juan Martin del Potro won the battle of the 20 year olds in yesterday’s quarterfinal. He rallied to beat Croat Marin Cilic 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-1. The world no. 6 advances to the semifinals and posts his best grand-slam performance to date. With the win, del Potro will also move up a spot to world no. 5 next week.

The Argentine awaits the winner of the Nadal-Gonzalez match. It might be awhile since rain delays prevented that match from completing last night, and it is supposed to rain throughout the day today.

(Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Travis Parrott won the mixed doubles title with Carly Gulickson. The American duo upset the second-seeds Leander Paes and Cara Black 6-2 6-4.

This is Parrott’s first title of the year and fourth career title (others w/Polasek, del Potro and Gambil). More importantly, it is his first career grand slam. The title is a nice consolation, as he and his usual partner, Filip Polasek lost in the first round to Yen-Hsun Lu and Dudi Sela in men’s doubles.

(Image: Charles Krupa/AP Photo)

Novak Djokovic celebrates after beating Fernando Verdasco 7-6(2) 1-6 7-5 6-2 in yesterday’s quarterfinal match. Roger Federer will get a chance to test the Serb in the next round. Djokovic is currently 4-8 against the Swiss champion. It will be a tough task tomorrow, but he is very capable of beating Federer.

(Image: Darron Cummings/AP Photo)

Tuesday’s Matches
Singles Round of 16
16 Marin Cilic (CRO) def. 2 Andy Murray (GBR) 7-5 6-2 6-2
3 Rafael Nadal (ESP) def. 13 Gael Monfils (FRA) 6-7(3) 6-3 6-1
6 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) def. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) 6-3 6-3 6-3
11 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) def. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 3-6 6-3 7-6(3) 6-4

Doubles Quarterfinals
1 B. Bryan (USA)/M. Bryan (USA) def. C. Ball (AUS)/C. Guccione (AUS) 6-4 7-6(2)
5 M. Mirnyi (BLR)/A. Ram (ISR) def. 2 D. Nestor (CAN)/N. Zimonjic (SRB) 6-7(4) 6-4 6-0
3 M. Bhupathi (IND)/M. Knowles (BAH) def. I. Ljubicic (CRO)/M. Llodra (FRA) 6-4 4-6 7-6(4)
4 L. Dlouhy (CZE)/L. Paes (IND) def. 7 W. Moodie (RSA)/D. Norman (BEL) 6-3 5-7 6-4

Wednesday’s Order of Play

Watch Live
Tennis Channel - 11:00 am – 7:00 pm ET (Doubles/Juniors/Wheelchair)
ESPN2 - 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
ESPN2 - 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm ET
US Open
ESPN 360

Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils have to be two of the most entertaining and athletic players on tour. It was a lot of big hitting, long rallies and ridiculous gets. As billed, this match did not disappoint, at least for two sets.

Monfils came out hitting big and running down everything. The Frenchman was getting into long rallies with Nadal and winning them. His defense-to-offense was amazing. The question of the evening would be if the Frenchman could sustain that kind of play for three to five sets.

On the other side of the net, Nadal looked tentative and made a lot of forehand errors. The Spaniard started coming into the net. It looked like he was trying to shorten points because of his physical condition since there were lots of questions about it before the match.

Early in the first set, Monfils struck first by breaking Nadal during his second service game, and he quickly jumped out to a 4-1 lead. Things looked bleak for the Spaniard until he changed rackets in game eight and started finding his range with his shots. Nadal broke back in the ninth game and then held serve to level the set at 5-5. In the tiebreak, Nadal made two costly errors, and Monfils came up with some really big shots. This allowed the Frenchman to win the tiebreak and the set.

All was even in the second set. In game five, the Frenchman has a bad game, and you know who took advantage. Next game, it was Nadal’s turn for a sloppy game, and Monfils accepted the charity. After a set and a half of pounding it out with the Majorcan, Monfils was tired and was keeling over at the end of points. On cue, Nadal broke back and served for the set at 5-3. Nadal held to win the set. Most importantly, Nadal already wore Monfils down.

Nadal drew blood first in the third set and was off to the races. The Spaniard was back to wearing his opponent down, and then steamrolling his way over him for the victory. The former no. 1 eventually chopped down Monfils 6-7(3) 6-3 6-1 6-3 to advance into the quarterfinals and sent home the lone Frenchman in the draw.

This was the first match since his return where Nadal started to look like his own self and seemed more confident. He was back to his deep, penetrating shots and pushing his opponent around. Hopefully, he can continue to play his way into the tournament.

In the short-term, he will have to contend with Fernando Gonzalez and his big forehand in the quarterfinals. The Chilean played really well in his fourth-round match with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Nadal leads their matchup 6-3. It will be another challenge for him, but he will definitely win if he is up to it. With his win and Murray’s loss yesterday, the Spaniard is now back in the number two slot.

At the end of his match, a fan ran onto the court and tried to kiss him. The fan would later be arrested for interfering with a sporting event. Nadal was a sport about it. When asked about the incident in his press conference:

Rafa: For me, it wasn’t a problem. The guy was really nice.
Question: Did he say anything?
Rafa: Yes, he was a great fan. He said, “I love you,” and he kissed me.
Question: Was he speaking in Spanish or English?
Rafa: No, in English but I understand that.

(Image: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Sixteenth-seed Marin Cilic upset second-seed Andy Murray 7-5 6-2 6-2. It is best grand slam showing to date and his first breakthrough win of his career. Cilic started out the year strong with titles in Chennai and Zagreb but faded this year. The Croat picked a mighty fine time to turn things around.

Cilic will now meet Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals. It will be the battle of the 20 year olds on Thursday, so it should be another good matchup. At this point, del Potro and Rafael Nadal need to send the Croat some flowers for taking out the second biggest obstacle out of the tournament.

As for Murray, he is still young and has time, but there is something about the grand slams where he just flakes out. I still think he had a great opportunity at Wimbledon and this week. I am not going to pile on because the guy is going to be skewered in the British press in the coming weeks.

In other action, Fernando Gonzalez and his forehand took out Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6 6-3 7-6(3) 6-3. Del Potro won the battle of the Juans by taking out Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 6-3 6-3. The Argentine is looking good, so I definitely can see him in the final. The tournament brackets are starting to shape up nicely and interestingly.

(Image: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

After his 6-1 6-3 6-3 victory against Radek Stapenek, Novak Djokovic had a little fun by first challenging his new coach, Todd Martin to a tennis duel and then John McEnroe. The Serb then treated the crowd to his McEnroe impression, which was pretty spot on.

It was nice to see him connect with the New York audience, and they gave him some love in return. Last year, it was painful when they turned on him. Granted, some of it was his fault.

Djokovic will now play Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals. Both players performed well yesterday, so it should be an exciting match on Wednesday. Djokovic leads their head-to-head matchup 3-2, with the world no. 4 winning the last three meetings. He is going to have his hands full though, as Verdasco is starting to play like he did in the Australian.

Might he coach? "No, no. Playing is one thing and teaching is completely different. It looks simple but it's really not. It's a really tough job." TV commentating? "I'm different to other people who want to lay back and do nothing for the rest of their lives and talk nonsense on ESPN, talking about my match against Sampras. I will not do that."

This quote from Marat Safin encapsulates the main problem with tennis broadcasts in the United States. John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Brad Gilbert, Mary Jo Fernandez, Mary Carillo et al. basically have a lock on most of the tennis broadcasts. If you want to watch a match on television in the States with the sound on, you are going to be treated to these fools.

They could careless about what is going on the court and the current crop of players and love to talk about themselves and their useless opinions. I have heard children give better “analysis” of matches than these people. Normally, I turn off the sound and watch the matches with music on. The last two days, I attempted watch matches with the sound on to try and see if I could learn something interesting but was only treated to a headache from the verbal diarrhea spewed by these people.

I literally watched two minutes of the Davydenko-Soderling match this afternoon before John McEnroe worked on my nerves with his nonsense. We should be telling him, “You can’t be serious with your bullshit analysis!” Yesterday, he took a narrow reading of the trainer rule to act like Rafael Nadal was cheating and attempted to feign false outrage. In the same Nadal-Almagro match, Mary Carillo said that the reason Nadal pulled out of Wimbledon was to focus on the US Open. Really?

We then have Brad Gilbert who basically trashes all of the non-Anglo players. The man is an overall tennis creep that acts as if he were commentating a WWE match. The audience has hear about how he coached Andre Agassi and Andy Murray every two seconds, and we do not hear boo about when he was a player stinking up the court.

And don’t get me start about Martina Navratilova, who can only talk about what she would do if she were playing and trash the current players. She reserves special ire for the Williams sisters. Say what you want but those girls have 18 grand slam titles between the two of them. They have to be doing something right.

I am going to miss Safin for his play and personality. Who else can sum up what everyone else is thinking in one sentence in his third language? The sad part is that I think Safin would actually be a good commentator, but these trolls have scared him off from doing that.

Monday’s Results
Singles Round of 16
1 Roger Federer (SUI) def. 14 Tommy Robredo (ESP) 7-5 6-2 6-2
4 Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. 15 Radek Stepanek (CZE) 6-1 6-3 6-3
12 Robin Soderling (SWE) def. 8 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 7-5 3-6 6-2 ret.
10 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) def. John Isner (USA) 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4

Doubles Third Round
2 D. Nestor (CAN)/N. Zimonjic (SRB) def. R. Kendrick (USA)/J. Tipsarevic (SRB) 6-2 5-7 6-4
3 M. Bhupathi (IND)/M. Knowles (BAH) def. Y. Lu (TPE)/D. Sela (ISR) 6-4 6-4
4 L. Dlouhy (CZE)/L. Paes (IND) def. J. Knowle (AUT)/J. Melzer (AUT) 7-5 6-4
C. Ball (AUS)/C. Guccione (AUS) def. L. Friedl (CZE)/J. Levinsky (CZE) 6-2 6-1

Tuesday’s Matches
Singles Round of 16
2 Andy Murray (GBR) vs. 16 Marin Cilic (CRO)
3 Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. 13 Gael Monfils (FRA)
6 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) vs. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs. 11 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI)

Doubles Quarterfinals
1 B. Bryan (USA)/M. Bryan (USA) vs. C. Ball (AUS)/C. Guccione (AUS)
2 D. Nestor (CAN)/N. Zimonjic (SRB) vs. 5 M. Mirnyi (BLR)/A. Ram (ISR)
3 M. Bhupathi (IND)/M. Knowles (BAH) vs. I. Ljubicic (CRO)/M. Llodra (FRA)
4 L. Dlouhy (CZE)/L. Paes (IND) vs. 7 W. Moodie (RSA)/D. Norman (BEL)

Tuesday’s Order of Play

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Usually John Isner gives a lot of players trouble, as we witnessed when he beat Roddick on Saturday night. Fernando Verdasco was patient and able to hang with the big guy and his serve. After losing the first set, he picked apart the American’s game and rallied to secure his quarterfinal appearance at 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.

The Spaniard played well, and we got a glimpse of the player who took Australia by storm earlier this year. He now waits for the winner of tonight’s Djokovic-Stepanek match.

(Image: AP)

Musketeer extraordinaire, Gael Monfils during his tricolor match with Jeremy Chardy.

A look at Monfils, Tsonga, Simon & Ouanna's bond on and off the court. They, as a group, put in a respectable showing at Flushing Meadows after having a rough last couple of months. Two of the four are now into the second week (NYT)

An examination of Safin’s career that was plagued by questions of what if (SI)

The top ten dominate, but really the top three REALLY dominate (WSJ)

The always smart and thoughtful, Mats Wilander likes Juan Martin del Potro (Busted Racquet)

His run for the USO title my be difficult and hampered, but Nadal is winning the shirtless poll hands down (PopSugar)

A crazy story about Canada’s Peter Polansky's freak accident and recovery (NYT)

What a difference 18 months makes for Serbian players (New York Observer)

Rafa-mania at the USO (Straight Sets)

(Image: Denise/tennisfiend)

Sunday’s Results
Singles Third Round
2 Andy Murray (GBR) def. WC Taylor Dent (USA) 6-3 6-2 6-2
3 Rafael Nadal (ESP) def. 32 Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 7-5 6-4 6-4
6 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) def. Daniel Koellerer (AUT) 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-3
7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) def. Julien Benneteau (FRA) 7-6(4) 6-2 6-4
24 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) def 9 Gilles Simon (FRA) 1-6 6-4 7-6(5) 1-0 ret.(knee)
11 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) def. 17 Tomas Berdych (CZE) 7-5 6-4 6-4
13 Gael Monfils (FRA) def. Jose Acasuso (ARG) 6-3 6-4 1-0 ret.
16 Marin Cilic (CRO) def. Denis Istomin (UZB) 6-1 6-4 6-3

Doubles Third Round
1 B. Bryan (USA)/M. Bryan (USA) def. G. Garcia-Lopez (ESP)/O. Rochus (BEL) 7-5 6-3
5 M. Mirnyi (BLR)/A. Ram (ISR) def. S. Bolelli (ITA)/A. Seppi (ITA) 7-6(5) 6-7(8) 6-2
7 W. Moodie (RSA)/D. Norman (BEL) def. 11 M. Damm (CZE)/R. Lindstedt (SWE) 6-7(4) 7-6(2) 7-6(5)
I. Ljubicic (CRO)/M. Llodra (FRA) def. J. Chela (ARG)/P. Cuevas (URU) 7-5 2-6 6-3

Monday’s Matches
Singles Round of 16
1 Roger Federer (SUI) vs. 14 Tommy Robredo (ESP)
4 Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. 15 Radek Stepanek (CZE)
8 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) vs. 12 Robin Soderling (SWE)
10 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) vs. John Isner (USA)

Doubles Third Round
2 D. Nestor (CAN)/N. Zimonjic (SRB) vs. R. Kendrick (USA)/J. Tipsarevic (SRB)
3 M. Bhupathi (IND)/M. Knowles (BAH) vs. Y. Lu (TPE)/D. Sela (ISR)
4 L. Dlouhy (CZE)/L. Paes(IND) vs. J.. Knowle (AUT)/J. Melzer (AUT)
L. Friedl (CZE)/J. Levinsky (CZE)vs. C. Ball (AUS)/C. Guccione (AUS)

Monday’s Order of Play

Rafael Nadal may not be out of the clear in his return to form. He was able to secure a straight-set victory against Nicolas Almagro 7-5 6-4 6-4, but re-aggravated a stomach injury that occurred two weeks ago in Cincinnati. It was not the prettiest of matches, as there were 13 breaks of serve, but the Mallorcan will take the win.

He advances to the round of 16 to play the winner of the Acasuso-Monfils match. Let’s hope this injury is minor and does not affect him in the second week, where the matches become more difficult.

(Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)