US Open Preview

Hi everyone, hope you're all having a great week.

Obviously I was reluctant to writing this blog post. Writing a pre tournament preview is always interesting, but with Rafa gone, it suddenly becomes more of a chore. However, I'm still going to give my verdict to all of the non Rafa fans out there (probably not many that follow me!).

The US Open is less than a week to go. I've already spilled out all my thoughts about Rafa's absence (see my previous post) but I'm going to try and enjoy it the best I can. It's still the last grand slam of the year, and a huge tournament.

I should probably add, for a few days I will be in New York. Unfortunately I'm not visiting the open, but I'll not be posting any blog posts for those 5 days. Apologies in advance.

Let's get on with the post! Time to analyse some players…!

Djokovic

Toronto and Cincinnati were incredibly disappointing tournaments for Novak. Out in the 3rd Round in BOTH. That's early exits in hard court masters… not something we see very often from Djokovic. I think the main issue was with his mental state. What he wanted to do with his body, his mind didn't let him. It was a very strange thing to watch. Obviously we're not sure what the issue is, but Novak's confidence will surely have plummeted. Having said that, we're used to top players making comebacks, so who knows what will happen. But Novak is no Rafa, can he snap out of it quick enough? With many rounds to play and 5 set matches, I would be surprised if he had another early exit in this slam. He'll either drop out early or go far.

Federer

Finalist of Toronto and winner of Cincinnati, Fed's having a good hard court season. With no Rafa or Novak to stop him, Rog got lucky. Having said that, he's still playing well. He isn't playing consistently in some matches, such as the Cincy final and that wash over 2nd set, but when he's playing well, he is really good. I'm interested to see how he performs at the US Open. I defiantly think that top contenders would be Novak, Rafa and Roger (before the injury), so with Rafa out and Novak questionable, Roger has a big chance, defiantly.

To be honest with you, I'm pretty confident either one of them will win, but there are still some underdogs.

Tsonga

We can't rule out Jo! He's showed us he has what it takes to succeed on hard courts, after winning Toronto, but can he rise up to the challenge on the big stage? He can succeed and knock out top players at slams. If his body and mind are perfect, I wouldn't put it past him. He could really give the top guys a challenge.

Dimitrov

Grigor has a lot of potential, there's no doubt about that. He's determined to succeed, and that could give him a boost in this slam. Personally, I'm not sure if he will be up there with winning a slam yet, but he's on the right track. With Rafa out, his path does open up. A quick gush of wind can pick Dimi up and whisk him right on track… can he handle it?

Ferrer

I love David, I really do. He was a finalist in Cincinnati and gave Roger a tough time out there. He has incredible mental stability and never gives up, not on the same par as Rafa, but similar. You wouldn't think of David to win a hard court slam, but again with Nadal gone, another opportunity opens. Let's see what happens!


You can see the trend here, right? Our Rafa is injured, so thats a big top guy out. If Rafa wasn't injured, I could see him grabbing the title, defiantly. I'm actually quite intrigued to see what happens. There isn't a standout top guy for me at the moment… I think Roger and Novak are on par. It all depends on whether Novak can sort himself out before next week. We'll see…

Enjoy the tournament, Rafans. (Well try to anyway.) I'm sending out support to you all during this injury break, we've got through it once, we can do it again.

Grace x