U.S. Open Round 1 Preview

Things go crazy fast in the sports world. Just as the Olympics end, the U.S. Open begins. It's a recipe for getting no work done once again.

This year's open is much more exciting for a few reasons. Firstly it's Nadal's first tournament as the #1 seed. Secondly it features the return of Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Thirdly this tournament is only a week from the Olympics in which Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic played until the last day. Fourthly there is the crazy battle for #1 at the top of the women's rankings. Fifthly, strong hard court tournament showings by Andy Murray, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Kiefer, Juan Martin del Potro, Marin Cilic, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki, and Dominika Cibulkova are going to be put to the test. Sixthly, Jelena's leg problems, Ana's thumb problems, and Sveta's head problems may or may not spell disaster for the top. We'll see...

1st round women's matchups of note (to me):
Nathalie Dechy vs. Amelie Mauresmo - they know each other so well, should be very competitive
Nicole Vaidisova vs. Petra Cetkovska
Shahar Peer vs. Na Li
Tamira Paszek vs. Maria Kirilenko

The women's favorites play the following 1st round matches:
Ana Ivanovic vs. Vera Dushevina
Dinara Safina vs. Kristie Haerim Ahn
Serena Williams vs. Kateryna Bondarenko
Venus Williams vs. Sam Stosur
Elena Dementieva vs. Akgul Amanmuradova
Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Shuai Zhang
Jelena Jankovic vs. Coco Vanderweghe

1st round men's matchups of note (to me):
Tomas Berdych vs. Sam Querrey
Kei Nishikori vs. Juan Monaco
Juan Martin del Potro vs. Guillermo Canas
Ernests Gulbis vs. Thomas Johansson
Marin Cilic vs. Julien Benneteau
Nicolas Almagro vs. Frank Dancevic
Tommy Haas vs. Richard Gasquet - maybe the best

The men's favorites play the following 1st round matches:
Rafael Nadal vs. Bjorn Phau
Novak Djokovic vs. Arnaud Clement
Roger Federer vs. Maximo Gonzalez

I think Jelena has the easiest opener of the women's favorites and Venus or Serena the hardest, but they should all win. Novak has the hardest of the men's favorite and Rafa should have the easiest if he is on form. We'll see.

Darkhorses for a deep run or the title include Wozniacki, Cibulkova, Cornet, Radwanska, Gulbis, Blake, del Potro, Murray, Safin. For the title the favorite should be Nadal on the men's side and the women's side is a complete mess, so probably Serena Williams. Now if some guy breaks through on the men's side it would be pretty awesome (aka another Tsonga), but I really hope one of the favorites win on the women's side. They need some steadying faces so that women's tennis can get more popular and more respect!