first again, i think. steve, great analysis, but you forgot to mention rolle, who took out tati. to me, that was the greatest american performance of the day.

I can't beleive Tati was taken out, she's going to lose a lot of ranking points. It's a shame because she just came back from injury.

Venus looked hungry and angry and ready to kill.

Serena looked like she just left the all you can eat buffet.

Vincent Chase,
I agree with you that Rolle is the best American performer of the day yesterday. We already knew about Isner from DC and Kuznetsov from last week action in New Haven playing doubles.

ST,
Jackie Joyner-Kersee looked in better shape than Rolle. How can a young girl on tour like Rolle expect to go far in that shape?

I think Russell may give James Blake a hard time today. It was just three years ago Russell was playing Futures to get back in the game and has made all three grand slams this year. I don't know about you, but the James Blake fan club is something I think even Blake would like to see go away.

How is the construction going on site? I will be there tomorrow.

right, shocking win for rolle. really can't believe golovin lost that. i only saw match point, unfortunately

yup, rolle deserves the honorable mention. and what an upset.

still feeling bum after baghdatis' loss. i don't know who else to root for...

my usopen team has lleyton hewitt, fernando gonzalez, venus williams, and martina hingis. of the four im most confident only in venus, but the uncertainty is partly why it would be fun to root for them.

So for "Concrete Elbow"'s Player of the Day, the honor goes to Asha Rolle of the United States in her stunning upset over 17th seed Tatiana Golovin. The best win of Rolle's career by a country mile, and it capped off a promising day for American tennis.

"Concrete Elbow" Player of the Day
Day 1- Asha Rolle

She won over Feliciano Lopez, Donald Young, John Isner, and Max Mirnyi

patrick, a quick update: watching mirza - kanepi. mirza was in control in the second, but gave up the break and lost in a breaker. we're in the third now. mirza is showing none of the form we saw earlier. kanepi is hardly an outstanding player but she's giving mirza all she can handle.

Vincent Chase,
As we know, Mirza is probably the most streakiest player on the WTA. If her forehand is on, she will blast you off the court byt if the FH is off, she will struggle. We are about to find out playing all the available tournaments(Cincy,Stanford,SD,LA,New Haven) in the USA is going to have it effects on Sania.

patrick, watching nicole now. she's looking good and just broke kudrayavtseva in the opening game. no signs of any ailments.

patrick, nikki is on fire! she's really brought her good stuff today. remember, kudrayavtseva is the woman who nearly took out venus at wimby.

Vincent Chase,
Nicole did say that she trained for 3 weeks at Nick's place in Bradenton, FL to get ready for USO building up her strength. Alla also gave Maria a run for her money in the second set at RG but could not close the set.

Vincent Chase,
Guess the biggest wildcard for the USO on the WTA won easily 1 and 2 over a pretty good opponent. Maria may have this from the R 32- Radwanska/Vaidisova, Chakvetadze, Kuznetsova/Petrova, Henin/S Williams/Jankovic/V Williams/Ivanovic winner to repeat. That path is not easy as it seems to most people.

Correction on my post at 1:45 PM
.... Radwanska, Vaidisova, Chakvetadze......

Maria has got to be shaking in her boots, everyone seems to be playing well
including a few unknowns making moves into the draw .I hope her serve shows up. all the pressure is on maria to defend, this is going to be a real test for her.
serena did not play well, but her serve is there, and thats how she started the AO.

Kaia Kneppi can play, saw her play last season and thought she could become a player on this tour. Unfortunately she pretty much stunk it up all season this year. If she can find her form, she can be dangerous. Is that match still going on?

Update-

See that Sania won handliy in the 3rd. Agie Radwanska put a beat down on Morigami in a big way, not even close. Same with Kirilenko over Mueller, again. Razanno won won the battle of the French girls, remains a dark horse to upset somebody.

Jaun Martin del Poto is taking Mahut to the back shed and whoppin him with the ugly stick. That surprises me, thought that one would be real competitive.

Steve,

I'm all right with most of what you've written here, but I take exception to your characterization of John Isner (or his game) as a "circus act" and "goon tennis." Isner is no Frankenstein's monster. He possesses a good head, good feel around the net, and solid movement for a man his size. He's much more than just a serve, though it is obvious his serve is his primary weapon.

And hey, maybe with the rise of players like Karlovic, Isner, Querrey and others we'll see a return of the serve-and-volley style, which can only be a good thing, right?

So here's a question for you all: what exactly is it about Sam Querrey that has the American commentators drooling so much? He's got a nice serve, and the forehand is a potentially great shot, and he moves better than the other tall guys. But he has lousy shot selection, and that backhand is uglier and less effective than Roddick's. I simply cannot see him reaching the top 10, even with his age being taken into consideration. He's done virtually nothing outside the United States (neither has Blake, but at least he's done quite well IN the United States), has nothing on clay, and failed to live up to his weapons on grass. If I'm missing something, please let me know, but beyond his serve and energy, I don't see much that's special about him.

Isner on the other hand knows how to play to his strengths. I don't like watching him play, but he certainly knows what he's doing out there. He's actually got good hands, something many of the big servers lack, and understands how to play at the net. He's not going to last long as a pro (the taller, the injured-er) but he's almost certain to make a deep run at a big tournament someday, something I have trouble imagining Querrey doing.

Willie the Speare Shaker,
Blake has won Stockholm in 2005 and 2006. Sydney 2006 and 2007. Also, finished as a finalist at the ATP YEC in Shanghai in 2006. Querrey,though, got another lesson in Slam tennis.

There should be another section for over 6'4. Call it 'should have played basketball section.' Not pretty to watch. Not.

Willie, Im not so excited about Querrey the way I am Young (and same for Isner but his serve motion is terrific and fun to watch), and that was before today's meltdown aganist Stefan Koubek.

You said it perfectly. He is a near copied version of Roddick with a stiff backhand and a shaky net game for a person his size. But the fcat that he is in the Top 50 at 19 (and ranked ahead of Del Porto of all people) is the reason why people are buzzing.

Still, I'll take the hype for Taylor Dent back a few years ago over Querrey anyday. Dent was exciting to watch and it is a shame he never lived up to his potential because of injuries.

Syd-

That was funny. Unfortunately I totally agree. I call them the Plodosaurs.

But is there any question that Querrey would never have had the opportunities he has without his American roots? He's been getting maindraw wildcards since last spring, and won a round here or there because of extremely benign draws (how many American wildcards did he face in the first round last year? Spadea, Vahaly, Reynolds, Bogomolov...hardly buzz-worthy opposition) and hadn't had a truly good win since Blake at Indy. As great as it is to beat Blake, every commentator in the world has said repeatedly that Blake didn't perform like a top 10er until about two weeks ago. I'm just confused about what he's actually done to deserve the buzz. Beating a few lousy US players and some over-ranked internationals (Benneteau twice, Monaco and Acasuso on hard courts) isn't exactly the pedigree for the next American standard bearer. Roddick was knocking on the door of the top 10 at that age, and had the big wins to back it up (Sampras, Kuerten, Rios, Johansson on grass).

Nothing against Querrey, but the hype seems unwarranted at this point. Give him a year to do something significant, then figure out if he's the next Roddick, or the next Dent (and I agree, Dent was terrifically fun to watch).

dudes, back with ya for a while. went out drinking with some pals. now i see julia - dani 1 - 1. i think julia takes this one. like i told you, patrick, i'm enjoying the upsets!

Guys-

Dani is in a big hole right now and is fighting for her tournament life. Also I told you about Kostinic Tosic, she just took out Vesnina with relative ease. Kostinic is crafty good, but never has been great. She's easily underestimated as a jouney women but at the end of the day she will live a nice and comfortable life because of pretty decent tennis career. Vesnina on the other hand is still young but she had better find another gear else she will find herself as a mid-career underachiever.

Hantuchova is going out 1st rnd. Whatever Vakulenko is throwing at her, Dani has no answer. Very disappointing performance from the Slovak.

Vincent Chase,
Good call on Julia. Now I am up only by 1(4-3). What happened to Dani? Had Dani losing in round 3 to Makiri on my bracket.

Patrick-

How many matches have you and Cenzo called that have both been wrong?

patrick and m, i love it! julia took out dani! i'm psyched!

patrick, i don't know why you didn't call this. dani was in terrible form and julia is a giant-killer.

hey guys, how about my baby nikki making some splendid noise today?

Cenzo-

She did! (Vaidisova) Obviously she's been playing albiet not on the tour. Although she wasn't tested much today, she looks to be in pretty good shape. Let's see what happens with her legs and footwork after she's played 2 or 3 matches. She's definitely dangerous.

M-Life,
Forgot to keep up with that tally on myself and Vincent Chase. I am only keeping up matches that we disagree on.

Vincent Chase,
Nicole made a very loud statement to the bottom half of the bracket. Please see my post at 1:45 PM for details. I guess Julia can play on surfaces besides clay and Dani disappoints once again in a Slam.

Querry is an American, which is all it takes for the commentators to drool, but I enjoy his game much more than Isner's. I just get tired of one huge serve after another, though Isner has a good forehand. Vaidisova looked pretty good today after that illness and layoff.I liked her challenge, where the ball was in and it said "out". Not a good day for Sam, though, or for Hantuchova, who got beaten by another six-footer. The size of players these days is just amazing. Hewitt looked very good. I had to go to work and missed Djokovic.

James needs to step it up and close out this match. Russell is playing some really good tennis.

Max is as fun to watch as Taylor. I like old guys, and he must have come in 170 times yesterday. It worked for him against Blake last year at Wimbledon, and it's nice to see pure serve and volleying now and then. The serving is so important. When Edberg's serve was on, he was unbeatable. When it was off, he could get upset. I wonder how Isner's serve will stand up to the pressure, including that rocket he hits for a second serve. He averages 114 on that, as compared to Federer's 94. Justine often averages over 90 mph on her second serve. She has about the fastest second serve on the tour, which is why her first serving percentage doesn't hurt her much. I'm a bit concerned with her shoulder. As I knew would happen, none of the women have any evidence of injury whatever, other than her soreness, which shouldn't be a problem with days off. Let's hope the next year is injury free. If the top women start skipping events between now and the YEC because of injury, I'll just laugh out loud.

I see Fabrice and Patty are on track to make the finals. That's good to see. I just hope I can see both of them play at least once. I've never seen any player who can drive opponents nuts like Fabrice can. He's so unique that I never miss a match, but they almost never show him, or Patty. Since Fabrice will play James next, they should televise that. Fabrice will be 35 this year, and we'll never see anyone like him again.

patrick and m, what the heck happened to vesnina? she lost to kostanic tosic, what the...? what's going on?

anyway, right now, i'm watching the blake match, which i'm sure no-one gives a crap about. will let you know when i'm back with the ladies.

by the way, nice win for martina.

bob, with all due respect (or am i kidding? you'll never know), i'm pretty sure we'll never see anyone like you again!

dudes, they're showing schiavone - dechy!? this is a battle of america's never next top model. i'm about to pass out and unless a babe comes on, that's exactly what i'll do.

patrick, anabel is kicking wozniak's butt. yes! looks like we'll be even very soon.

I just posted this to the previous thread, thinking I was posting to this one.

As for the "power" discussion we were having on the previous thread, players in all sports have been weight training for at least 15 or 20 years. Power tennis has been here since Steffi arrived on the scene, and Monica. The players are simply bigger and more powerful now, and the racquets are much different. There is also a big question as to how much such weight training affects power. When you look at the dominant arm of most one-handers in history, it's noticably larger than the other arm. That was true with Vilas 30 years ago, and it's true with the modern players. You can even see it with some two-handers. Since you have the same genetics in both arms, it appears to be the constant play which does more to develop muscles and thus power than any weight training. If weight training was the big factor, then we'd see arms of the same size, but we don't see that. I do think we've seen more weight training in golf in more recent years, but in athletic sports like tennis, it's been around for a very long time. I do think weight training is important to maximize strength, since you need to exhaust a muscle to reach maximum potential, and that never happens in actual play of a sport, but it's obvious when you look at the arms of tennis players that the constant play really has a huge effect on strength, irrespective of any weight training.

Hingis won her slams in the general absence of a healthy Steffi, and before the emergence of numerous young power players, but they all emerged within a few years of each other, so there is no evidence that would support the contention that any of them influenced the power of others.

I wish they did compile statistics on groundstoke speed, though they'd have to limit it to the ten or twenty fastest strokes, since so many groundstrokes are slices, drop shots, junk balls, and other finesse shots. It's impossible to determine what players hit the fastest shots, on the average fast stroke, and also depends so much on the angle they hit, and how deep the ball is when they hit it; but it would be an interesting statistic, and if they took the fastest ten shots in a match, it might be a valid statistic.

Vincent Chase,
If Medina Garrigues holds on, we will be even at 5 on disputed matches. If you crash out on Schiavone/Dechy, you are excused as long as you wake up when Masha play in 1.5 hours.

"what exactly is it about Sam Querrey that has the American commentators drooling so much? "

He's American

The scheduling sure seems odd. Half of the bottom half of the men's draw hasn't played in the first two days. When you have good weather, I'd make sure these matches stay on track. The women's are more important, since their final is on Saturday, but we're already in a situation where Nadal needs to play 7 matches in 12 days, whereas Federer has 14 days to play 7 matches.

Here is tomorrow's schedule:

http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/schedule/schedule9.html

Wozniak is horrible.

Thanks for the update Patrick. Quick look through it, not to much of the women looks all that interesting. Katerynia Bondarenko vs. Safina could be good. So to with her sister A. Bondarenko vs. Daniilidou one to watch. Wozniacki vs. Alize Cornet is a look forward a few years and will interesting which of the two can impose their game on the other. Maria Elena Camerine is just the kind of player that Serena Williams should just kill. Beside that, kinda boring.

M-Life,
If Eleni shows up to play, she will beat Alona Bondarenko. That may be the best match of the day. Also, will Safina explode?

patrick, wait a sec! flavia won and anabel won, that means, i'm ahead, no? please correct me if i'm wrong, but i think i'm slightly ahead. waiting for your response...

patrick, by the way, i seem to remember that both of us picked schiavone. so, it doesn't really matter what happens with this match. i still think i'm ahead...

m, good win for your gal!

patrick, here are the "interesting" matches for tomorrow:

knapp - rolle: knapp.
alona - eleni: alona.
k. bondarenko - safina: k. bondarenko.
bychkova - dushevina: bychkova.
cornet - woznaicki: cornet.

generally, a very boring day.

your thoughts?

Not much competition on the women's side among the top players, but we're already having some good men's matches, and in the third round several of the top women will need to start playing well. In the fourth round, we'll really see some great matchups. As slams go, this one has more depth and potential than I can recall, especially in the top half. Serena's first two opponents are very easy, but then she'll need to play better. Sharapova has an easy first couple of rounds (though I enjoy watching Vinci play), but she'll have a bit of competition in the third round, and probably Vaidisova in the fourth round, which could be interesing. For all it's weakness, the bottom half does have some players with potential to be dangerous in a given match.

Vincent Chase,
We are even at 5 so far. Srebtonik beat Molik for my only win today.

Here are my 3 disagreements:
Daniilidou in 3 over A Bondarenko
Safina in 3 over K Bondarenko
Wozniacki in 3 over Cornet

Other than that, I agree that tomorrow is going to be boring.
Upset of round 1 (top) Golovin (bottom & overall) Hantuchova

Patrick-

Regarding both A & K Bond. I think I'm agreeing with you as far as I can read it. Safina will explode and Eleni beats A Bond. Kateryna wins and Alonya loses.

hey, has anyone noticed how ludicrously wrong the stats that the usa network gives us are? all the break points are wrong, and sometimes they actually say stuff like "breakpoints won: 2/0". just shocking! who's overseeing this debacle? now that's the real question...

and man, oh man, did any of you see that disputed call in the nikki match? when the replay showed that the ball landed on the line and the wording on the call said that it was "out"? seriously, though, so far this has been a grand slam with a very not-so grand officiating crew...

Cenzo-

I think Patrick's got it right with Wozniacki/Cornet. Caroline in 3 good, tough sets.

Was wondering what happened to Dushevina? Hadn''t seen her name. She seems to me a lot like Vesnina. Almost good but not quite, or, just good enough to make you wonder if it will ever happen and it just doesn't.

Well, so much for the savvy veterens. Szavay killed Kloesel. Now only Paszeck needs to hold up her end against Gretta Arn and its move over old timers and make way for young guns.

Seppi and Calleri are in a dog fight. To bad all the best matches are off on outer courts. The matches they scheduled on the Grandstand have been boring. Cenzo, Masha is about to start her match.

m, no way cornet loses to wozniacki! no way, dude, have you seen her play? she's quite a package, by the way...

patrick, nice to see the 7-ft freaks karlovic and querrey out. down with tall guys whose only trick is a huge serve and volley! up with short dudes who baseline and get everything back!

m, what's your take on my previous two posts, about the usa network's ineptitude, and that absurd hawkeye call during the nikki match?

There's a line in Annie Hall, a Woody Allen classic (I'm showing my age), in which Woody is at a party with a lot of intellectuals and wants to find the tv in the bedroom to watch a basketball game. His first wife asks him "what's so fascinating about watching a bunch of pituitary cases throw a ball in a hoop" or something like that (I'm paraphrasing). I know that sounds "heightist", but I'm beginning to feel the same way about all these 5'9" and taller tennis players. To me, it takes something away from the game, even with Isner who appears to have more skills than just a big serve. I can't articulate exactly why I find the height issue a detriment, but I just viscerally react to it that way.

Of course, I meant 6"9"

dudes, masha crushes vinci with almost a double bagel! i love you, baby, and damn, you looked gooood in that sparkling red dress. keep it warm, honey, this open is yours.

patrick, by the way, here's another bold prediction from yours truly: justine will lose tomorrow to pironkova. take that, bob and that annoying female justine kad, whatever her name is.

The number one "Shriekster" lover right here, getting carried away again over a win aganist the giant we know as Robretto Vinci, haha

Radwanska and Vadisova will definitely test her with how they played today.

Vincent Chase & M-Life,
Maria was all business in another classic mismatch. How many points did Vinci win today? 25(10 in 1st set)? Maria had a lot of love games. I am surprised that Maria has not double bagel anyone since 2002.

Henin/Georges
S Williams/Kerber
V Williams/Nagy
Ivanovic/Nakamura
Jankovic/Gadjosova(sp??)
Sharapova/Vinci

Between the above Vincent, M-Life, and Jerell, which match was the toughest one on "paper"?

Now, Roddick is playing an exhibition match.

Vincent Chase,
Henin will win 6-3,6-1 over Pironkova. Do this one count as a disputed match?

Really, Nakamura was more of a threat because I belive she is more accomplished on hard courts, but Gadjosova had the best weapons of all of them and should be better than what she is.

Vinci been around, but she is better on clay courts clearly, and really, even if the match was on clay, it may have been the same result.

And I can't believe im saying this, but for tomorrow, two words: GO Justine!

c'mon vincent honey, masha played lights out against someone who was your classic deer in the headlights case. if you had tickets to ashe tonight, well, ballyhoo for your lost bucks. the day matches were certainly more exciting!

since you're all such women loving men in here, just wanted to say that i loved the hewitt and djoko wins today. such pleasure!

as to seeing all the "injured" top players suddenly hitting the ball with power and precision, well, i'll laugh along with you, bob, when they all call in sick between sept 9 and doha (or wherever the yec will be held).

safin plays the canadian qualifier tomorrow on armstrong before justine takes to the court in her adidas flames.

julia v was wonderfully calm against the flaky dani. i was impressed with her returns and simply sizzling ground strokes. and she kept hitting behind hantuchova.

It will be interesting to see if players get appreciably taller than they have been. The few NCAA events I watched had giants with huge serves, but I don't know if that is common. When they get to the pro ranks, they don't move well enough. Karlovic and Isner isn't much of an impact scenario, but Berdych is 6'5", Safin is tall, and Querry, and there may be a few others. So far I see nothing majo, in terms of very tall players. Martin was tall, so we've had tall players in the past. At the top, Federer is 6'1", Djokovic is 6'2", Roddeick is 6'2", but they aren't taller than the past. PEte was 6'1, Agassi was 5'11, Courier 6'1, Becker 6'3, Edberg 6'2. Hewitt is 5'11, so teh 5'11-6'2" range has been the ideal size for more than 20 years. Perhaps 3"-4" taller than the average young man, on the average, and are just as athletic as smaller men.

Somewhat ifferent story in the women's game. They are probably around 7" taller than the average young woman, and keep getting taller.

So at this stage, the top men must be really athletic, and 6'2" is not tall to be very athletic for millions of men.

Six feet tall is however very tall for a woman, with only a tiny percentage of women that tall, and almost none of them are athletic at that height. The women players are very athletic for their height, but not athletic like smaller female athletes. It's a pure power game, with big serving and groundstrokes, and based upon the idea that the opponent is not athletic or fast enough to get to the shots, and/or can't hit the ball hard enough to make the big groundstrokes difficult to hit. We saw that tonight. Vinci is not a powerful hitter or a deep one, nor is she fast. It was one sitter after another.

Many of the young taller players are faster these days, so perhaps we'll see more athleticism in women's tennis, despite their size. Side-to-side, most of the tall players move pretty well. When you play Sharapova, you need to hit the ball hard and pretty deep, and then get her moving. If you give her anything short or soft, where she has time, she'll crush it.

With the women's draw being so lopsided this year, I'm interested in how the draw gets made. How many players get into the main draw? Do the top 60 get in directly? How many qualifiers? And what about wild cards? I'd appreciate information from anyone who knows.

alista

http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld/2007/08/quick-draw.html

hi guys! kuerten is trying a comeback a la davenport in doubles.

http://tinyurl.com/32zzlg

im so happy!:)

There apparently has been some discussion of fixing the top 8 seeds, instead of the top four, but I don't think I've ever seen that done. We'd have quarterfinal matches of

Justine-Serena
Kuznetsova-Ivanovic
Jankovic-Chakvetadze
Sharapova-Petrova

Federer-Robredo
Davydenko-Roddick
Djokovic-Blake
Nadal-Gonzalez

I don't think it matters all that much. Usually there isn't much spread in talent between 5-8.

Who is the player of the day for Day 2?

Is it
A. Arnaud Clement
B.Julia Vakulenko
C.Nicole Vadisova
D.Maria Sharapova
E.Justin Gimblestob
F.Wayne Odesnik
G.Thomas Johansson

Whose your pick

Man, I want to pick Gimblestob (and Roddick for their great interview and you know what, I certainly will, over Clement, Odesnik, Vakulenko and the others

Santoro is my player of the day. 35 years old and still winning slam matches with finesse and pure shotmaking. None of the matches were real surprises, including his. It's nice to see Nicole in good health, but at this point, it's impossible to make any determination as to who is playing well on the women's side. In the third round we'll get some good matches, but only the rare one before then. I'm hoping for some impact in the third round by young women, but I really don't know if we'll see them. We'll certainly see them in the fourth round. That's pretty good for women's tennis in a slam.

sveltrogue, thanks for the link on the draw. It cleared up quite a few things. It still isn't clear to me how the non-seeded players get in, though.

I was impressed by del Potro and Santoro's scores today. Since when does Santoro blitz?
patrick, I agree with you. Pironkova can rock the big ships, but she can't flip over Henin.

people, come on! give credit where credit is due. i'm sure patrick will back me up when i say that vinci has had some good results of late, and not just on clay.

svelterogue, this was NOT a deer-in-the-headlights case. vinci is a much more accomplished player than, say, georges or nagy, or even kerber.

and masha blitzed her. absolutely crushed and destroyed her. be afraid, masha haters. be very afraid. she's baaack!

p.s. LOVE the dress!

and patrick, yes, i maintain that pironkova will beat henin. so it does count as a disputed match.

just checked, vinci is ranked 51. i'm pretty sure that's much higher than the three ladies i mentioned in my previous post. so i repeat, this was not a "deer in the headlights" situation.

Sharapova could win this tournament. She could also lose in the semis.

eddy, if they both make it that far, who do you think will win, serena or justine? also, who do you favour between venus and ana? the top half will start having incredible matches from the third round onwards.

patrick, forgot to mention, there was a minor upset in that shvedova lost to dellacqua. what has happened to yari this year? after that win in bangalore, greatness was expected but, instead, she's just gone downhill.

Steve,

"Somewhere along the way tennis ceased to be thought of as a quintessentially American sport."

When was it ever thought of as a quintessentially American sport? The answer is - never. Tennis has always been thought of as a quintessentially ENGLISH sport: American doesn't rate a mention outside of the United States.

"no country has a longer or stronger tennis tradition than the U.S".

Well, given that the game originated in Europe (and was devised by an Englishman, England and France have a significantly longer tennis tradition and Australia has an equally long, equally proud and equally successful one.

"Tilden, Wills, Budge, Kramer, Gonzalez, Connolly, Gibson, King, Evert, Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi the Williams sisters—that’s a history"

Sure it is but: Brookes, Crawford, Bromwich, Quist, Hopman, Sedgeman, Hoad, Rosewall, Newcombe, Emerson, Fraser, Laver, Court, Goolagong, Cash and Rafter - that's a history too and a darn site more successful than the one than you listed.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Wimbledon - that tournament all of the players say is the most important and prestigious in the world- isn't in New York.

Jerell,
Pick for day 2 is Justin Gimelstob. He played great and kept all of the sets close. I thought Roddick would have gave him another Wimby beatdown. If it was not for Justin, my pick would have Julia Vakulenko for beating Hantuchova. Another Slam disappointment for Dani.

ST:

Gimbelstob has always been one of my least favorites and may be close to the top of least favorite Americans on the ATP tour. Behavior in juniors and ATP only has improved the past few years as he makes a try at a media gig.

All Time Ugly Americans:

#1- McEnroe
#2- Gimbelstob
#3- Agassi
#4- Connors

All Time American Sportsmaen

#1- Sampras
#2- Ashe
#3- S. Smith
#4- Chang

ST:

Gimbelstob has always been one of my least favorites and may be close to the top of least favorite Americans on the ATP tour. Behavior in juniors and ATP only has improved the past few years as he makes a try at a media gig.

All Time Ugly Americans:

#1- McEnroe
#2- Gimbelstob
#3- Agassi
#4- Connors

All Time American Sportsmen

#1- Sampras
#2- Ashe
#3- S. Smith
#4- Chang

In my opinion, out of the top 6 contenders, Maria had the toughest match on "paper".

Jerell,
On Vinci, she did win Bogota this year beating Cornet, Loit(4th seed), Pennetta(2nd seed who plays well on the South American clay season), and Garbin(1st seed)along the way. Those ladies are pretty good on clay. Except for Nakamura(49), Vinci is ranked higher than the other ladies mentioned in my post at 9:07 PM on 08/28/07. Even though Nakamura may be more accomplished on hard courts, Vinci is a better player on all surfaces.

Now, on to the second round.

Which match is the toughest one between the 6 contenders?

Henin/Pironkova
S Williams/Camerin
Jankovic/Govortsova
V Williams/Olaru
Ivanovic/Rezai
Sharapova/Dellacqua

My vote is Ana in a close vote over Justine. Rezai has a victory over Sharapova. Pironkova took a set off Serena at 2007 RG and beat Venus at 2006 AO.

ST:

I agree with you that Sweeting vs Tipsarevic is worth watching though the winner gets Nadal.(be there today) I have seen Sweeting play a few times this year in Challengers and seem to have a lot of weapons. This would be a great win for him against a guy who has done well in the majors this year and been on tour a while. The 4th round at Wimbleton was a great showing by Tipsarevic.

Andrew
lets line all our champions up on a chess board and got to war.
why are guys always obsessed with who's is bigger or greater.
Players from before 1955 had the good fortune of not having to play players from diverse backgrounds, if you know what I mean, due to some crazy social engineering, which probabaly has stunted the growth of the sport( and the world).
I truly doubt margret court at her best could compete with the top 15 women today. Yeah the rackets...yada yada yada
players are better trained, stronger and bigger now
so there!

Patrick
Vinci has never won a match at the USO in 3 attempts(now 4). Considering Marias serve wasn't that great 53% first serve, 3 DF's top spead 116mph, she played well otherwise, but they keep fudging with her serve. that is a recipe for disaster...they where fiddling with her service motion during the AO and see what happened there.

Mayor Ghouliani,
I said Maria had the toughest match on "paper". If I said toughest match on surface, I would not have said Vinci. We will see if Maria serve % get better as the USO goes along.

Not sure who mentioned it, but Tracey Austin just doesn't let go. She doesn't like the Williams sisters we get it. She even had the nerve to compare Sharapova's footwork (which has emproved, but not by much) to Serena. She really needs to shut her mouth. Her hatred, jealously and unfairness when it comes to the Williams sisters is so transparent.

Now on to Maria’s dress. When she came out I wondered where the ice was. She looked like a figure skater not a tennis player. I wasn’t in love with that jacket either. I thought that plus the bag cheapened the outfit. It looked much classier without the frills.

patrick, agree with your 8:15 post. i think rezai is the toughest. had this been clay, this would have been a real doozy.

Vincent Chase,
I agree with your comment on Ana-Rezai at RG(clay).

"Now on to Maria’s dress. When she came out I wondered where the ice was. She looked like a figure skater not a tennis player."

i thought the same. the ausopen dress looks better.

"Not sure who mentioned it, but Tracey Austin just doesn't let go. She doesn't like the Williams sisters we get it. She even had the nerve to compare Sharapova's footwork (which has emproved, but not by much) to Serena."

Yeah -- even John McEnroe disagreed when Tracey Austin said Serena doesn't normally have the best footwork. Sure Serena was a little sluggish at the beginnig of the match --but, where the heck did that comment come from?

But, she did snark all over Maria too -- when Maria tried to come to net early on -- saying Maria shouldn't do that too often because she doesn't know what to do once she gets to the net "ouch"!

And Austin also didn't give credit to Venus in terms of volleying, just mentioning Henin and Mauresmo.
oh vey.

Ok, despite his attitude in juniors and all, I think I'm leaning towards giving the nod to Gimblestob. But I really should have thrown Fabrice Santoro in there

So, I take it to the today's "Day 2" thread

I do not think that Tracy hates the Williams sisters. Saying something like Serena may not have the best footwork does not equate to hating her. It is a remark strictly confined to the technical elements of the game .

The new racquet technology afford players to hit with an open stance and is also forgiving if the players do not have a great footwork. Maybe this is what Tracy was referring to.

Serena has great court coverage, but may not have the best footwork - this does not mean that her footwork is bad either!

vincent

ok i concede that vinci is better than the other players the other top seeds had to face but i would also like to say that what happens on the court does not always match what is written down as "history" or "track record". the hantuchova vakulenko match is a prime example of this. someone not interested in tennis would have definitely seen that the momentum was clearly with the ukrainian and she was playing the far better tennis than the seeded slovakian.

as for the sharpie vinci match, the italian looked grossly overwhelmed by the occasion and just couldn't get a handle around the situation at all. maria doing the typical "c'mons" and shrieks certainly did not help. i am not a maria hater but i root against her every single time. let's just say i've seen other players play better and with better on court demeanor (yes, it matters to me on the women's side!).