Day Late: US Open 2010 Week One Review.

Ricky is doing a great job writing about the Open, we just can't seem to get his work up in time. Better late than never, no? Here's what he had to say yesterday:

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With all the extreme heat and wind that has occurred this week at the US Open, we are finally into the second week. There are still some interesting fourth round/quarterfinal matches to be played, and some surprising upsets. Here are some of my storylines so far:

Performance of American Men

Andy Roddick was bounced in the second round of the US Open by Janko Tipsarevic in four sets. After the foot fault incident, Roddick’s Grand Slam performance ultimately stands as another disappointing performance at a major. He had a good opportunity to take advantage of a favorable draw in New York as well as during Wimbledon and failed both times. The tenth ranked American’s recent performance has made American tennis fans wonder now if he will ever win a major again. Eighteenth seed John Isner also lost his third round match to twelfth seeded Mikhail Youzhny in four sets. His serve was dominant as usual, with 33 aces, but the problem was his footwork and forehand were not on Sunday night. Can Isner build around that powerful serve? He had a great chance to make the quarterfinals with Andy Murray’s loss and failed to take advantage. I expect a big 2011 from Isner if he can recover from the 70-68 fifth set with Mahut at Wimbledon and once the torn ligaments in his knee are healed.

As for some positives, twentieth seed Sam Querrey has matched his best performance at the US Open with a dominating straight sets’ victory over fourteenth ranked Nicolas Almagro. Also, twenty first ranked Mardy Fish has continued his great summer with a berth in the fourth round against Novak Djokovic. However, American men have struggled on Arthur Ashe Stadium with a 0-3 record in this tournament. Querrey and Fish did their winning on Louis Armstrong Stadium and the grandstand, but with the central spotlight on them, can they come through?

Top Seeds Show Form

On both sides of the draw, the one seeds have held their own. Without Serena Williams in the draw, top seed Caroline Wozniacki has had the luxury of not being on the court that often. Through her three matches, she has been on court for an average time of one hour and one minute. However, she has yet to face the tougher competitors in a Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, or a Kim Clijsters.

On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal has looked strong on the hard courts, particularly with his serve. He has raised his velocity on his serve into the 130 miles per hour range. He has also not had his serve broken in this tournament despite some close sets in each of his first two matches. He had his best match of the tournament against former top ten player Giles Simon in the third round. With Murray out of the draw, Rafa has a great shot to make his first U.S Open final at the age of 24. He might have to play Federer and his tweener shot in that final. As for me, I hope Rafa-Fed happens this year.

Can the Brit Win a Slam?

Andy Murray suffered a third round loss at the hands of the number 25 seed Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets on Sunday. A lot of experts picked Murray to advance to at least the semifinals in this tournament, but the Scot disappointed once again. Last year, he was the two seed until losing in the fourth round to Marin Cilic. Murray had a chance to put the Swiss away when he was up a break in the second after winning the first set in a tiebreak, but failed to do so. A lot of pressure is on him to be the first person from the United Kingdom to win a slam since Fred Perry, but will they have to wait for the next British phenom? Only time will tell.

Extreme Weather Conditions

I live in New York City and have experienced these conditions first hand of extreme heat and wind over the last week. With winds up to thirty miles per hour on Saturday and heat going up to 100+ degrees on the court in the first week, it has been tough for some players to deal with the conditions such as fourth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia on the women’s side. She lost to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in the third round on Saturday in straight sets. On the men’s side, six time finalist Roger Federer used the wind to his advantage in his win over Paul Henri-Mathieu and looks like he has a great chance to win his sixth US Open title.