US Open Drama: Vika, Berdych, Polansky

• Canadian Peter Polansky pulled off a big upset yesterday when he defeated Juan Monaco in a straight sets victory. Polansky has played better than he ever has this summer, and if he keeps it up I think he has a really good chance of taking out James Blake in the next round. 

• The biggest upset of the tournament so far has to be the loss of Tomas Berdych to Michael Llodra.  Berdych was one of the favourites to make it until at least the quarterfinals, and for him to go out in the first round after such a successful year has got to be tough. Llodra will play Hanescu in the second round, and he should have a great chance of winning that match and moving on.

• In yet another upset, American Ryan Harrison defeated 15th seeded Ivan Ljubicic in a four set match. Harrison will play Ukranian player Sergiy Stakhovsky in the next round. 

• Victoria Azarenka collapsed on the court today in her match against Gisela Dulko, and was forced to retire. Vika later said that she was warming up in the gym before the match and fell during her sprints, which caused her to hit her head. She started to feel dizzy during the match, and after she collapsed she was taken to the hospital for testing and was diagnosed with a mild concussion. 

Murray Looks Questionable at Farmers Classic

Andy Murray did not look good yesterday. True, he did win his match, but it took him three sets to win against an opponent who he should have beaten very easily. It was obvious when watching the match that something was wrong, but it was hard to tell exactly what. In a later interview Murray said "I was struggling a little bit with my movement, when I got stiff and sore. But I managed to find a way to win." So there you have it. He was stiff and sore. Which is fine I guess, but also a little worrisome. But maybe it was just a "first match back" thing and he'll be totally fine for the rest of the tournament, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Looks like there will be some good Quarterfinal matches today at the Farmers Classic. In fact, all of the singles matches have the potential to be interesting:

Schuettler vs. Querrey (predicted winner: Querrey)
Tipsarevic vs Baghdatis (predicted winner: Tipsarevic)
Lopez vs. Blake (predicted winner: Lopez)
Murray vs. Falla (predicted winner: Murray)

Sam Querrey is the defending champion but he's likely going to have to go through Murray to win the title. In a previous post I predicted a Murray/Querrey final and I still think that's likely.  Let's just hope Murray isn't stiff and sore tonight.

Baghdatis, Tipsarevic, Murray and More!

Nice work by Marcos Baghdatis to beat American Ryan Sweeting 36 62 63 at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles. Okay, so maybe Baghdatis should have won in straight sets since this Sweeting character is only ranked 118th in the world, but this is the first tournament back for Baggy since Wimbledon so let's just be happy for him, okay?

Congrats also to Janko Tipsarevic (who is quickly becoming my favourite player on tour because he is the best tennis tweeter ever!) who defeated Somdev Devvarman from India 76(9) 62. At least this was a straight sets win. Goooo Tipsy!

Baghdatis and Tipsarevic will face each other in the next round, and my money is on Tipsarevic to win the match. I think I'm choosing Tipsarevic solely on the fact that he seems to be on a roll with his twitter account, and therefore I assume he'll be on a roll on the court. And yes, I'm aware that my thought process in this instance is idiotic.

On to Andy Murray! Very, very excited that he'll be playing tomorrow. My Murray love seems to be growing everyday and I have no idea why. He should win his match fairly easily since I've never even heard of his American opponent, Tim Smyczek (just looked him up and he's ranked 192 in the world, so yeah, Murray might want to beat him).

Other matches tomorrow include Feliciano Lopez vs. Dudi Sela (worth watching just because Feli Lopez is perhaps the most attractive athlete on the ATP tour), Alejandro Falla vs. Ernests Gulbis (remember how Falla almost beat Federer at Wimbledon?) and James Blake vs Benjamin Becker (not so interesting).

Is it bad that I just want all of these smaller tournaments to be over so that the Rogers Cup can start and I can see Federer and Nadal again?

And the Hardcourt Confidential winner is...

Me! It's true, I'm tight with Patrick McEnroe. Okay so that's not true, not even a little bit, but I did win a copy of his book "Hardcourt Confidential" today, and that made me happy. I've actually already read it and liked it a lot so it will be great to have my own signed copy.

Thanks PMac!

Atlanta Tennis Championships Early Predictions

Obviously you've got to go with Andy Roddick as the favourite here, but there are a few other good players in the draw who have a chance at the title as well, including Lleyton Hewitt and John Isner.

Based on the draw here are my early predictions:

Quarters: Roddick vs. Malisse, Blake vs. Fish, Tipsarevic vs. Hewitt, Schuettler vs. Isner

Semis: Roddick vs. Fish, Hewitt vs. Isner

Finals: Roddick vs. Hewitt

Winner: Roddick

I would actually love to see a Roddick vs. Hewitt final. When these two play I always feel like it's 2003 again.