It can be a little deceptive to use a player's form heading into the US Open as a prediction of how the US Open will turn out. Let's take a look at last year's US Open and how various players did leading up to that point. Recall Roger Federer reached the finals of Toronto and
It may have been prophetic. Novak Djokovic was playing a match against Tomas Berdych. Berdych has secured a break in the middle of the first set on the heels of an amazing point. Although Berdych held to lead 5-3, it would be the last game he would win. Four games later, Novak Djokovic claimed the
And then there was four. At the beginning of the tournament, there was some hope that the top four seeds might make it to the semifinals. Such occurrences are rare enough. There were question marks hanging over the heads of 3 of the top 4 players who lost early in Montreal. With the loss of
It seemed like a danger sign, didn't it? Tomas Berdych dispatched of Nicolas Almagro, 6-2, 6-2. Almagro is no chump. He's had one of his best years. But Berdych is a player when he's on, and that's rare, he may be the most talented pure hitter on the planet. Alas, he's not usually on, and
Beating Nadal is no easy task. He can come back from a grinding match like he did against Verdacso and come back fresh as a daisy the following day. Mardy Fish, who is having his best summer ever, wasn't about to believe that Nadal was going to roll over. As he headed out onto court,
Gilles Simon knows that they way he's likely to win is to grind out long points. He's quick, he's steady, and occasionally, he can hit a hard shot. It's possible to overpower Simon, which seems to be the right way to play him, but as David Ferrer found out, power can lead to errors. It's
James Blake is a stubborn man. Blake kept his old racquets strung at some ridiculously high tension for years even when he didn't have a contract, even when the racquet was no longer being made. Blake's style is to be aggressive. In a way, he's like Roger Federer. He wants to attack the ball early,
Infuriating. David Ferrer is number 6 in the world and the best short man in the game. He plays a form of Nadal-lite. He lacks Nadal's heavy strokes or his raw athleticism, but when he plays well, he can pressure you and beat players much bigger than him. And yet Gilles Simon is one infuriating
Verdasco must get a lot of heartache playing Nadal. He's never beaten him in 11 attempts, and for a while, he was struggling to win sets. But if Verdasco had a chance to upset Nadal, today was it. Nadal had burned his fingers at a dinner handling a hot plate. He had lost to Dodig
