The U.S. Open may have started this past Monday, but we hadn’t seen an epic until James Blake stepped on to court to face the “Magician” Santoro last night. James had a winning record against Santoro and had given him “trouble” in their past meetings. However, Santoro proved to be more difficult for James than most of us thought. Not only he pushed James Blake to the brink, he made Blake feel angry, flustered, and rather silly at times. Once James won the third set, he knew he had to win the fourth one. After all, Blake was 0-9 in his five sets matches. But as it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise for Blake to lose that four set. No one would have guessed, except maybe the J Block, that Blake would go on to edge a crippled Santoro in the fifth set and reverse his 0-9 record in fifth sets.

Now that the “monkey” is off his back, Blake needs to step it up a notch and start beating very top players or all this would have been for nothing. James Blake certainly has the game to trouble the likes of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal. But, he won’t be beating them the way he played against Santoro. So while it is a sweet victory for Blake, he should be concerned with his early form at the U.S. Open. Fortunately for Blake, he is still in the 2007 edition of the U.S. Open, and he gets another day to make things right. He has the likes of Murray, Davydenko, and Federer in front of him, so he better step it up.

John Isner surprised everyone a few weeks ago when he reached the final of an ATP main tour tournament just to barely lose to then No. 3 in the world, Andy Roddick. Isner then managed to lose two tough matches to David Ferrer, an excellent returner, who by the way managed to beat Roddick once as well. Coming to the U.S. Open, there were questions about Isner’s ability to beat a decent returner such as Jarko Niemenen. That didn’t turn out to be the case as he managed to top the Fin in 4 sets to advance to the second round. Now, bearing a major upset in the second round, John Isner will get his first crack at Roger Federer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to take a set of the Swiss Master.

If Roddick is praying for Federer to fall to Isner, he is simply mistaken. Roger Federer will beat Isner as he is a better server than David Ferrer, and he is a much better returner than David Ferrer, and he is a superior player to the fiesty spanish bull. But, it will be fun to see the contrast of styles, grace vs. power. In the end, Federer’s grace will  beat the power of Isner and Roddick for that matter.

U.S. Open 2007 is going to the first U.S. Open in post-Agassi era. U.S. Open 2006 was won by Roger Federer, but as Patrick McEnroe and many others mentioned times and times again, it was about Agassi. He was the star of the show. No matter what Federer, Nadal, or anyone else did for that matter, Agassi was going to be the winner in fans’ hearts. One would think that now that Agassi is gone, all the focus will be on Federer and Nadal, but with Djokovic beating Federer and other surprise hot performers such as Isner and Blake, can we see a non Federer-Nadal in two weeks? Here are, what I believe, will be the stories of this year’s U.S. Open:

1. Nadal will continue to struggle on hardcourts: Nadal has got a decent draw this year. But his first real test, if he is healthy, should be against the winner of Tsonga and Tursunov. I certainly don’t believe Tim Henman will be fit enough or motivated enough to knock out Tursunov, but I could be wrong. If Nadal’s successful there, I put my money on Nalbandian to face him in the following round. David Ferrer is good, but Nalbandian shoud beat him this time. In short, there is nobody except maybe Djokovic that Nadal shouldn’t be able to beat on his way to the final. The question is will he be fit enough to get there. I think he will be in the final if he is healthy. But he is definitely beatable on U.S. Open hardcourts unlike clay.

2. Blake Will Reach His First Semis: Blake has got a favorable draw this year. Not only he doesn’t have to face Roger Federer in the quarters, if he is lucky, Federer will be knocked out somehow before the semis, giving him a good chance to grab his first slam against Nadal in the final. Of course, this is all speculation. Federer is unlikely to be upset by anyone on his way to the semis. Nadal may not make it to the final, and Blake has shown in the past that he could beat almost anyone and lose to almost anyone. My money would be on him reaching the semis, but beyond that would be a miracle.

3. Djokovic will make his third straight Semis: Novak may have beaten a passive Federer in Montreal, but he is not as strong as a favorite as experts claim him to be. He has not shown in his previous Grand Slam efforts that he is fit enough to win 5 or 6 best of 5 set matches in a Grand Slam. His draw is also not very favorable, and if Nadal is healthy, I would expect the Djoker to fall to Nadal in 5 sets in the semis, if he gets there. Next year’s Australian Open should be his first crack at a Grand Slam Final if he stays healthy and avoid Federer.

4. Roddick 2nd Slam Drought Will Continue: Roddick has claimed that he is a much better player since hooking up with Connors. However, we have seen glimpses of old “mojo less” Andy this past couple of weeks. Losing to Ferrer and Dancevic is not exactly a confidence booster for Roddick. I expect him to make it to the quarters and lose to Federer yet again.

5. Hewitt will be the main Dark Horse: As much as I like Djokovic and Nadal, an in-form Lleyton Hewitt is more than capable of springing a surprise and reaching another Grand Slam Final. Earlier I mentioned that I expect Nadal to beat Djokovic in 5 sets in the semis if they both get there. But, I don’t think the Djoker will be there as he will fall to Hewitt in round 4. Hewitt came close to beating Federer in the semis of Cincinnati Masters and Federer was playing quite well then. So, if Hewitt manages to reach the final against Federer, it will be a special match. Let’s not forget the curse of U.S. Open series winner. Federer could fall victim to that just like Andy Roddick has for a couple of years (not suggesting that Federer is as vulnerable and limited as Roddick!)

Quarter Final:

Federer vs. Roddick

Blake vs. Davydenko

Youzhny vs. Hewitt

Nadal vs. Gonzalez

Semis:

Federer vs. Blake

Final:

Hewitt vs. Federer

Winner: Federer

Hewitt vs. Nadal

A year ago, we all knew that Federer would at least win 2 Grandslams in 2007. However, I doubt anybody believed that his number 1 ranking would be in jeopardy by Nadal despite those 2 slams. Federer has been at the top of the game for more than 3 years. He has held the No. 1 position for 180+ weeks in a row, and he is definitely one of the best ever, if not the very best, to pick up a tennis racket. But perhaps no one has changed the game of tennis like Federer. He has managed to push the game to new heights each and every year. and now the young guns such as Nadal and Djokovic are catching up to him. Djokovic still has ways to go to challenge Federer on a consistent basis. Nadal on the other hand seems to be destined for the inevitable, holding the No. 1 ranking in the world. The fact that Federer claims that his goals have changed now, and he is only after Grandslams makes absolute sense. But is he also pointing to the inevitable?

We have no immortals on a tennis court. There comes a time when every champion has to admit he/she is not good enough to hold that No. 1 position. Federer’s getting to that point now. I still firmly believe that 2007 belongs to Federer. He will end the year ending No. 1 position as long as he stays healthy. However, doing that in 2008 will be his toughest challenge yet. We all know that Nadal will be winning 4-5 clay tournaments every year. Therefore, Nadal will always have a better chance of defending his points than Federer. Federer’s ranking points come on grass and hardcourts, and with the young guns getting closer to the Fed, he is prone to losing a bunch of those precious points each and every year. But one can argue that Federer does not need No. 1 ranking anymore. He has nothing to prove to anybody. Federer’s goal should be winning 14 or more slams to carve his name as the best ever in the history of the game. Of course, winning the French and his 6 straight Wimbledon title could only help. But the No. 1 ranking should be his least of priorities. Federer may very well pull out the No. 1 ranking at the end of 2008 season, but Nadal or Djokovic will definitely make him earn it!

Toronto ATP masters ended today with a bang as Novak Djokovic managed to outsmart Federer in 2 tie-breaks to beat him 7-6, 2-6, 7-6. Djokovic’s masterful performance was truly a joy to watch. Federer will be kicking himself as he should’ve one the first set when he broke Djokovic in the eleventh game and rushed to a 40-0 lead on his own serve just to drop serve. Federer was a disaster in both tie-breaks as he managed to get only a handful of points in both combined. Federer certainly did not play his best or anything close to that. In addition, he seemed tenative and too cautious. Djokovic punished almost every single short ball that Federer threw at him and that put Federer under a lot of pressure. By beating Federer, Nadal, and Roddick, Djokovic has done something that is deemed impossible on the ATP tour these days. With today’s victory over Roger, Djokovic has established himself as a true superstar. Berdych, Gasquet, and Murray had all beaten Federer before, but this is the first time that Djokovic has done it. The more intriguing part about this victory is the possibility of rematch between the Novak and Roger next week in Cincinnati Masters. If Novak manages to beat Roger again in Cincinnati, and we all know it’s possible now after Canas beat Roger twice in a week earlier this year, Novak will be the only youngster outside Nadal to have defeated Federer on multiple occasions. I do believe that Novak still has a way to go to beat Roger and Nadal in a best of 5 sets match, but these victories can certainly boost his confidence. He is now the firm No. 3 in the world, and with Nadal unbeatable on Clay, and Roger’s inconsistency this year, a three way horse race is certainly on for 2008!

As many of you may have heard earlier this week, Davydenko, the No. 4 tennis player in the world is under investigation for match fixing. We in the U.S. believe innocent until proven guilty, so in my eyes, Davydenko is not dead and buried yet. The odds of him coming out and confessing that he has fixed some of his matches is also very slim. So, we may never find out what has happened. One thing is clear though. This story is a black mark for the tennis community. Not a week ago, a top SI tennis analyst was claiming that tennis has been lucky with the lack of scandals as other sports such as Baseball, Football, and Soccer are constantly suffereing from embarrassing incidents caused by their sportsmen. Guess what SI? People are now cannot stop pointing out that tennis is in fact dirty and has been so for quite some time. Of course, that does not make it true, but it is still a shame that such story has come to light. I personally agree with Andy Roddick. It only takes one “idiot” to bring down the reputation of the whole sport. The scandal with the illegal betting in the NBA by a referee is going to be a catalyst for this scandal. People who do not even know what tennis is will be talking about it in newspapers and other media about how every tennis player is bought and sold by rich mob guys. Davydenko is a talented player and is probably a superstar in the making, and I firmly believe that he is innocent. It would be sad for the tennis as a whole if it’s proven otherwise. How much money would you ask for to sell your soul?