Top Ten Surprises of the 2009 US Open

***REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG "LIVE AND LET DIGRESS***

ORIGINALLY DATED September 13, 2009

10. Marat Safin loses in the first round of his last Grand Slam event.

*This wasn't actually a surprise considering how he's been playing this year, but I couldn't let his retirement go by without saying something. People tend to forget that he is a two time major winner ('00 US Open and '05 Australian) and as late as last year made a run to the semis at Wimbledon. He has provided us many years of incredibly entertaining and dramatic play as well as entertaining and dramatic press conferences.

9. Roger Federer's between the legs shot on the penultimate point of his semi-final match against Djokovic.

*No one but Federer would have been able to pull this off, if you missed this shot, please check out this video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVQhIEPbM0g

8. Dinara Safina maintains number 1 ranking regardless of her miserable play during the Open.

7. Kim Clijsters captures women's title after several years of retirement. The last US Open she played was 2005, which she also won.

6. Andy Murray loses to Marin Cilic in the fourth round.

*I had him going all the way to the final again this year.

5. The majority of the seeded women are defeated early in the tournament. Almost every early round match seemed like a huge upset. Only half of the quarterfinalists were seeded, only 1 in the top 5.

4. Serena Williams threatens to kill a linesperson over a foot-fault call in her semi-final, resulting in a point penalty on match point.

*We all knew she was terrifying, but never expected this. A $10,000 fine is not enough, and she should not have been allowed to play in the doubles' final. The WTA should really consider suspending her form the Australian Open. This unsportsmanly behavior reflects poorly on the whole sport.

3. Andy Roddick loses in the third round to 6'9" American John Isner, who precedes to lose to Fernando Verdasco, resulting in the first time an American man has not made it to the quarter finals at the US Open.

*Seriously Andy Roddick, every time I start to believe you can win another major, something like this happens. I'm expecting great results at the Australian.

2. Unseeded American Melanie Oudin, only 17 years old, beats Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova en route to her first major quarterfinal.

1. Juan Martin del Potro defeats Roger Federer in the first five set final since 1999.

The Giant Masters the Maestro

***REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG "LIVE AND LET DIGRESS"***

ORIGINALLY DATED September 15, 2009

The US Open is over and the king of Flushing Meadows has been dethroned. For the past five years, I have been able to confidently watch Roger Federer dispatch a slew of final opponents to take home the title. So yesterday, I sat down with my roommate, a little disappointed the final had been moved to Monday, ready to watch del Potro crumble under the pressure of playing in his first Grand Slam final against the almost supernatural Roger Federer, who has proven himself to be the best player ever. I am certainly not going to take anything away from del Potro, he played the match of his life against an opponent he had near been able to conquer and gave us the most dramatic Us Open final in 10 years. However, Roger Federer was not the genius we saw crush Djokovic, who was playing excellent tennis, in Sunday's semi-final. Frankly, if Andy Roddick was watching last night, he was most likely wondering why he couldn't have played 9/15/09 Roger Federer, who at one point was serving just above 30%, at Wimbledon, instead of the Federer who served 50 aces in one match. Last night, for the first time, I saw a Roger Federer who was content to lose. He came into the match overconfident, although I'm not sure we can blame him for this, and once it finally occurred to him that he could lose, it didn't seem to matter anymore. I can't really fault him for this slump in ambition; he did achieve a career Slam, break Pete Sampras' record for all time majors, regain the world number 1 ranking, get married, and become the father of twin girls all in one year. However, I hope the old Roger is out for revenge at the Australian Open in January.

I spent a lot of time discussing Federer's faults in the last paragraph, but I wanted to take the time to congratulate Juan Martin del Potro on what was truly a stunning match. This was absolutely an incredible accomplishment for a 20 year old, in his first major final. del Potro showed an amazing amount of heart to get back into the match after being down a set and a break in the second. The match looked to be over. Juan Martin is not always a favorite on the tour because he seems a bit stoic, but last night he proved how much this title meant to him. Maybe it's time to start spreading the wealth. It seems the Federer/Nadal monopoly may be coming to an end, or at least breaking up a bit. The Australian Open has always been the most likely Slam for breakthrough performances, so it looks like an interesting season to come.