Rogers Cup Photos and Recap: Qualifying Day 1

Back home from my first day of covering the Rogers Cup in Toronto. I'll be at the tournament every day this week, so check back often for photos, videos, and news. As expected, there were not many big name players on the practice courts today, as they either withdrew (Federer, Nadal, Roddick, Ferrer, Wawrinka, Almagro, and most recently Feliciano Lopez) or they're still at the Olympics (Djokovic and Murray). However, I did get a chance to see lots of great players sweating it out in the ridiculous heat of Toronto.

First up on Court 1 was Italian Fabio Fognini who defeated Canadian Pavel Krainik in the first round of qualifying.

I heard Milos was on the practice courts so I quickly ditched the Fognini match and headed over to watch everyone's favourite Canadian. He was practicing with fellow Canadian Peter Polansky.

Then Milos stated telling his coach some crazy story where he made monster-like movements with his arms.

While watching Milos on the practice courts I turned around to catch Bernard Tomic posing for photos with a bunch of fans. Made me like him a little more.  

US Open Matches to Watch: Day 7

Ana Ivanovic vs. Kim Clijsters
This one is going to be a heart breaker. How can you want either of these two women to lose? I think Kim will win the match, but Ana is finally playing better again and I at least hope that they both play well.

Rafa Nadal vs. Gilles Simon
Gilles became a father this week when his wife gave birth to their son four weeks early. Unfortunately, as it was so unexpected, he was unable to get back to France on time and he will have to wait until after the US Open to meet his baby. Obviously Rafa is the favourite in this match, but maybe Simon's excitement about becoming a dad will help him play better, or maybe he just wants to get the hell out of New York City and fly home to see his wife and child. I'm going to go with Rafa winning this one.

Sam Stosur vs. Elena Dementieva
I really don't know who I think will win this match. I'm hoping that Sam can make it through to the next round, but obviously Dementieva is a tough opponent. I think this match could go either way, but I'm going to pick Sam to win in three sets. Mostly because I feel that me predicting Sam to win will help her actually do it.

Andy Murray vs. Stan Wawrinka
Murray is the clear favourite for this match, but we all know that Wawrinka is capable of playing really good tennis. Plus, he's Swiss...which clearly means he has superior tennis genes. I'll go with Murray winning in four sets.

David Nalbandian vs. Fernando Verdasco
This will probably (hopefully) be the most exciting match of the day. Verdasco is the higher ranked player, but we all know Nalbandian has been playing well beyond his ranking all summer. I was going to write that both players have an equal chance of winning this match, but honestly I'd be surprised if Verdasco won this one. He just hasn't looked that great recently, so I'm going to have to go with Nalbandian moving on to the next round.

John Isner vs. Mikhail Youzhny
Everyone was afraid Isner would have to pull out of the US Open due to injury, but he's playing and he seems to be doing fine for now. I'm not sure there's a favourite for this match, but Isner will have the crowd support behind him and that might make all the difference. I think Isner will win in 4 sets.

Analyzing the US Open Men's Draw

Click here for the official men's draw for the 2010 US Open.

First Quarter (or Nadal's Quarter)

Obviously Nadal has to be the favorite to make it to the quarters, along with Verdasco, Nalbandian, and Ferrer. I wouldn't be surprised if Gulbis made it far as well, and I'd love to see him play Nadal in the quarterfinals.

Most interesting first round match:
Gulbis vs. Chardy or Ferrer vs. Dolgopolov.

Most interesting possible second round match:
Nadal vs. Istomin (and really, Nadal should kill him...but not many interesting second round matches to choose from so if you're going to watch someone you might as well watch Rafa)

Most interesting possible third round match:
Nalbandian vs. Verdasco

Most interesting possible round of 16 match:
Ferrer vs. Nalbandian (or Verdasco)

Quarterfinals prediction:
Nadal vs. Nalbandian

Second Quarter (or Murray's Quarter)

In my opinion, Murray and Berdych are the clear favorites to reach the quarterfinals in this section. Querrey and Wawrinka are capable of upsets but they'd have to beat Murray to get to the quarters, and I can't see that happening. Berdych could have some trouble with Almagro, Youzhny, or Isner (but that's only if Isner plays and if he's healthy, which at this point seems like it won't be happening), however, I'd be surprised if Berdych doesn't make it to the quarters.

Most interesting first round match:
Berdych vs. Llodra or Youzhny vs. Golubev

Most interesting possible second round match:
Stepanek vs. Robredo (I tried to find a better one, really I did)

Most interesting possible third round match:
Murray vs. Wawrinka or Almagro vs. Querrey

Most interesting possible round of 16 match:
Murray vs. Querrey or Youzhny vs. Berdych

Quarterfinals prediction:
Murray vs. Berdych

Federer is Back! And other news...

Amazing match yesterday evening at the Rogers Cup with Federer defeating Chela 7-6, 6-3. The Toronto crowd was very pro-Roger and they went absolutely crazy when he won. Federer looked confident and played aggressively and I really think he's going to go far in this tournament.

Other exciting matches yesterday included Nalbandian vs. Ferrer, with Nalby winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Soderling vs. Gulbis, with Sod defeating Ernie 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Berdych vs Stakhovsky, with Tomas winning 6-2, 6-4; Verdasco vs. Chardy, with Verdasco going through 6-0, 5-7, 6-2; Monfils vs. Devvarman, with Monfils winning 7-6(3), 6-3; and Wawrinka vs. Dancevic, with Wawrinka knocking out the Canadian 6-1, 6-4.

Below are some match photos from yesterday...

Analyzing the Rogers Cup Draw

I haven't had much time to post about the Rogers Cup draw because I've been at the event watching practice sessions all weekend, but today is my day to relax so I hope to get this site fully updated!

In case you missed it, I've been profiling the players I think have a chance to win the title in Toronto this year. Here they are in no particular order (click on the names to be taken to the original posts):

1. Rafa Nadal
2. Roger Federer
3. Andy Murray
4. Tomas Berdych
5. David Nalbandian

I made most of these picks before the draw came out, so let's look at the potential match-ups this week.

Nadal's Quarter
Nadal and Querrey should meet in the third round (although I'm not giving up the wild hope of Canadian Frank Dancevic beating Wawrinka in the first round and Nadal in the second), but the bottom of this quarter is trickier as a number of the men could make it through. As long as everything is okay with Andy Roddick (and things have not looked good the last few weeks) then he should make it to the third round where he could face Cilic, Kohlschreiber, or Tipsarevic. I'll go with Andy and Rafa playing in the quarterfinals with Rafa making it through to the semis.

Murray's Quarter
Murray should make it to the third round where he'll likely meet either Monfils or Gonzalez (Feli Lopez is a possibility as well). The other half of this quarter has the most interesting first round match of the tournament: Nalbandian vs. Ferrer. It's too bad these two drew each other for such an early match, but because of his amazing play last week I'm going to pick Nalbandian to make it through. A Soderling/Nalbandian third round match is a good possibility and although this could really go either way, I'll take Nalbandian to meet Andy Murray in the quarterfinals. If Nalbandian is on and plays his very best, then I think he can win, but anything less and I'll take Andy to make the semis.

Federer's Quarter
I'll take Federer and Almagro meeting in the third round, with Tomas Berdych and Gilles Simon making it to the third round in their half of the quarter. Federer and Berdych should win their matches and face each other in the quarterfinals. I wouldn't be surprised if either of them made it to the semis, but I think Roger will be the favourite and will win the match.

Djokovic's Quarter
Djokovic will likely meet Jurgen Melzer in the third round, with Davydenko and Verdasco the favourites to play each other in the third round of their section of the draw. If things play out like this I would expect some tough matches, but I'd take Djokovic and Verdasco to meet in the quarterfinals, with Djokovic making it through to the semis.

First round matches start today, and once we get through the first couple of rounds I will make predictions on the semifinal and final results.

Keep checking back here today as I will be posting more photos from the practice sessions this weekend.

Rogers Cup Pick: David Nalbandian

Name: David Nalbandian
Current ATP Rank: 45 (he moved up 72 positions this week!)
Can he win the title? A week ago I would have said no, today I say why not!

Nalbandian just had an amazing week where he won the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington. Along the way to the title he destroyed Rajeev Ram 6-4 6-0, Stan Wawrinka 6-3 6-1, Marco Chiudinelli 6-1 6-0, and also took out Gilles Simon and Marin Cilic before beating Marcos Baghdatis in the final 6-2, 7-6. Those are some pretty crazy scores from David, and when he's on (and not injured) it's almost impossible to beat him.

When I started making my picks for the Rogers Cup last week Nalbandian was definitely not on my list. However, after his play in Washington I decided I would include him in my top five (which means I'm leaving out other top players like Djokovic and Soderling). I'm not sure that Nalbandian will be able to keep up his level of play this week, but if he can then I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the finals. Welcome back Nalbandian!