So Close, Yet So Very Very Far

Good evening everyone. I apologize for my lack of posting recently. I have finally arrived in St. Louis after 17 hours on the road. I spent a couple of hours yesterday desperately seeking a way to spend the night in Cincinnati and thus give myself the opportunity of visiting the Masters tournament that is currently underway. No dice. I wouldn't have arrived in Cincy until 11pm and would've had to hit the road around 11am.

So, I may not have been able to make it in person, but I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the Western Southern Financial Masters event this week. Let's talk Roger Federer. He's into the quarterfinals of Cincy after a finals showing last week in Toronto. I guess this is a little misleading. Roger has played a total of 7 games all week. He had a bye in the first round, Istomin retired, and Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out of their match before it even started. Pretty good week in my book, but not great practice. He'll be up against Davydenko next, who hasn't had the best results lately and Roger has a very heavy winning percentage against Kolya, but it could be tricky. I still think Fed will come through.

Andy Murray is fresh off a Masters 1000 win in Toronto, but faces tough competition in his QF. Murray has also played a lot of tennis lately and in some pretty exhausting conditions, the poor guy has drawn mostly day matches. Anyway, Mardy Fish is ridiculously in form and has a great shot here. Murray's likely to be tired and Fish is on a roll. I'm looking for the upset here. Also, Andy played a three set match today against Ernests Gulbis and is looking a little vulnerable.

If Andy Roddick is feeling better, and that's a big if, he should be able to power past Novak Djokovic. Nole seems to have been having some serious issues with the heat lately. I haven't seen the order of play yet but my money's on Andy in a day match.

Poor Julien Benneteau had all the chances in the world today against Rafael Nadal, including match point, but couldn't convert. Nadal eeked out the win, but he's going to have to do a lot better if he plans on winning the US Open for the first time this year.

On a side note, John Isner was forced to retire from his match against David Nalbandian yesterday, after rolling his ankle. All signs were good last night when John posted on his twitter that his ankle should be fine with some rest and ice. However, Patrick McEnroe tweeted this evening that Johnny is now in doubt for US Open. This would be a big loss for the Americans. I'm not sure he was on his way to winning the title this year, but I was expecting an impressive performance and a run into the second week. My warmest recovery wishes are going out to John this week. Clearly this should do the trick.

I'm very excited for this year's US Open. No one looks invincible and it could be anyone's title. I'm doing my best to make travel reservations for Labor Day weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to give you guys some live insight.

My apologies if you find mistakes in this mess. I think I'm still delirious from the drive ;)