Its that time of year again, eventhough I'm still hiding under a rock since Federer defeated Murray in the final last year.

Fed defeated him again in Cincinnati, and Murray won in Montreal. So who does that make favourite? Obviously Federer in my book. Murray really needs to pull it out the bag to win, and will need to return and serve drastically better if he's to down Roger. Don't rule out Djokovic yet though a finalist in the last masters tournament I spoke of, and looking confident. Surely it's too early for Nadal to show what he's made of especially on a hard court, I think we'll have to wait till next year to see him at his best.

Two final candidates must be in with a shout as well though Del Potro who showed his fine form in Washington and Montreal, but there is a big question over his stamina in a tournament as rigorous as the US open. The final candidate is the obviously Roddick, with his rocket serve no longer what he had seemed to hide behind. His new coach unlocking the other tennis skills he seemed to have forgotten about. Could it be his turn in his home country.

My heart says Murray, but my head says Fed.

Official site

Murray begins with Gulbis whom he thrashed at Wimbledon, and Federer plays the American Devon Britton. Djokovic has a difficult opener against Ljubicic, Roddick faces Bjorn Phau, while Nadal faces a difficult one against Gasquet on his return to the sport, and Del Potro faces off against Juan Monaco. Some difficult openers for the big guns, particularly Nadal and Djokovic.

quote Cloudstrife87

Its that time of year again, eventhough I'm still hiding under a rock since Federer defeated Murray in the final last year.

Fed defeated him again in Cincinnati, and Murray won in Montreal. So who does that make favourite? Obviously Federer in my book. Murray really needs to pull it out the bag to win, and will need to return and serve drastically better if he's to down Roger. Don't rule out Djokovic yet though a finalist in the last masters tournament I spoke of, and looking confident. Surely it's too early for Nadal to show what he's made of especially on a hard court, I think we'll have to wait till next year to see him at his best.

Two final candidates must be in with a shout as well though Del Potro who showed his fine form in Washington and Montreal, but there is a big question over his stamina in a tournament as rigorous as the US open. The final candidate is the obviously Roddick, with his rocket serve no longer what he had seemed to hide behind. His new coach unlocking the other tennis skills he seemed to have forgotten about. Could it be his turn in his home country.

My heart says Murray, but my head says Fed.

Official site

Murray begins with Gulbis whom he thrashed at Wimbledon, and Federer plays the American Devon Britton. Djokovic has a difficult opener against Ljubicic, Roddick faces Bjorn Phau, while Nadal faces a difficult one against Gasquet on his return to the sport, and Del Potro faces off against Juan Monaco. Some difficult openers for the big guns, particularly Nadal and Djokovic.

3 of my friends went.

And so Fed streaks through: 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

Fed was in first gear for most of the match, but managed to lose a break in each of the second and third sets. Britton is a tad on the early stage of his development though, so he shouldn't be downhearted.

Roll on Murray tomorrow.

Gasquet against Nadal? That's some first-round match.

Ivanovic goes out early yet again. [shakes head] Completely out of form this year...only one Finals appearance in a tourney, and no further than the fourth round at the other three Slams.

Pretty bad for a former #1.

Del Potro looked composed and rarely troubled against Monaco, and Nadal sweeped through, so having seen all of favourites bar Roddick. I'd say anyone could win it.

Although Fed managed to come through a tough second round against Greul, which was very impressive. Greul played very well he's really unlucky.

I see Dementieva is out of the women's as well now. Sharapova looked not too bad as well against Perenkova (sp).

Jankovic just lost too, a lot of the top seeded women are dropping like flies.

Yeah I saw that, Jankovic got some bad news before the match, but her opponent did play very well.

Sharapova wins again against McHale. Not a great start, but she was blowing McHale away by the second set.

Will miss Roddick again because its on too late. He's already started I think though.

Can't wait to see more Murray.

And Roddick goes down to Isner! First Top 16 seed in the men's to fall.

Safina lost too.

But the big story is Isner and Oudin.

Isner is gonna be a Top 10 player one day, he's been getting better and better. Has a hell of a serve, and is surprisingly quick on his feet for such a big dude.

I'm definitely jumping on their bandwagon, they are the top 2 candidates to bring back American tennis

Verdasco knocked Isner out today in 4. Was it 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4?

Oudin marches on in 3 again, against Petrova. She definitly has a big future in the game. Amazingly I think she lost to Britain's Laura Robson at Wimbledon, yet Robson didn't even make the US Open. Guess its the jump from jrs to pro that explains that one.

Murray demolished Dent last night. I was expecting a difficult match, but Murray's game is well suited to Dent's I guess. Murray and Cilic tomorrow, along with Del Potro, and Nadal in action in their respective matches.

Fed is back on form as well after Hewitt, what happened to Feds forehand in that match?!

Watch for Del Potro demolishing Cilic in the quarters.

Murray seemed to be having an off day, whereas everything Cilic did came off perfectly. Murray should still be beating him, and maybe if he'd taken either of those set points in the first set then he might have done. Still, this has just proven what has been fairly evident all year; on form big hitters pose a big threat to Murray. Verdasco, Gonzalez, Roddick and now Cilic.

One helluva match going on between Monfils and Nadal right now holy crap.