What a day it was at the U.S. Open. First we had Federer beating down a stunningly bad Stepanek in straight sets (6-3, 6-3, 6-2). Then we had Roddick beating Seppi without too much trouble as expected. We also saw the end of Tsonga’s campaign tonight as he was dominated by Tommy Robredo in a stunning fashion. Finally, we had Gonzo take out the Fin Niemenen in 4 sets.

But the story of the night was the Djokovic Cilic match which was surprisingly close with Djokovic winning in 4 tight sets 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6. Djokovic was really struggling at the end facing break points and losing break leads left and right. He came through though, so the Roddick - Djokovic quarters match is still on.

If you were hoping for a Nadal - Blake rematch at the U.S. Open this year, you are going to be sadly disappointed. While Nadal was in his ruthless form in dismantling Victor Troicki 6/4, 6/3, 6/0, Blake was busy losing to Mary Fish in straight sets 6/3, 6/3, 7/6. With Ferrer losing to Kei Nishikori, and Del Potro winning against Simon, We are going to have a very young finalist this year.

Roddick, Federer, and Djokovic will all be hoping to join Nadal, Murray, and Monfils in the round of 16 today. They will face Seppi, Stepanek, and Cilic respectively. But whatever happens today, we have officially seen the start of the changing of the guards in the men’s tennis. So many young brilliant players, one shouldn’t be surprised if the top 10 got a major make over early next year.

Andy Roddick aced his first test at the U.S. Open by beating Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets to set up a mouth watering match with Ernest Gulbis in the 2nd round. Santoro was short of match practice after taking 6 weeks off, and it showed as he won only a handful of points on Roddick’s service and was broken early in the first and 2nd set to hand Roddick an easy win. After the match, Santoro had some words for Roddick as he thought Roddick had tried to attack him with a serve. Either way, Gulbis will be much tougher test for Roddick. That’s a given.

Federer and Safin had two very different paths to the 2nd round of the U.S. Open. In a move reminiscent of his match against Tursunov earlier this year, Safin foot faulted on a 2nd serve against Spadea and then left the court just to be encouraged back by the tournament officials. But he dug deep to beat Spadea in 5 sets. Federer on the other hand played an OK match against Maximo Gonzalez (to whom the hard courts are very foreign) and beat him in straight sets 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.

While many argued that Federer should have dropped less games against Maximo, he played decent enough for the first round. Let’s see how he can play against Stepanek, Davydenko, and Djokovic.

It was a fun day at the U.S. Open last night. First we saw the new world No. 1, Nadal, struggle a bit against Phau of Germany but he did win 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 in straight sets. Blake however struggled mightily against a low on confidence Donald Young and almost lost before winning out in the end 6-4 in the fifth set!

In other news, we can now confirm that Roddick is not working with John Roddick for now. He has hired Patrick McEnroe for the duration of the U.S. open with the option to continue after. Of course, if he loses to Santoro or Gulbis, one shouldn’t count on Patrick taking over as his coach.

Today, we will get a chance to see Federer and Venus in action. Federer has a decent draw and should easily make it to the quarterfinals, but he has lost to so many players this year that anything is possible (could meet Stepanek in the third round).

The draw for the U.S. Open 2008 is out. Just as expected, Federer has gotten Djokovic in half of the draw whereas Nadal has gotten an extremely difficult path to the final with Murray, Blake, Nalbandian, Berdych, and Troicki all on his path. Andy Roddick, the top American hope didn’t get any favors from the draw with Santoro in the first round and Gulbis possibly in the 2nd round.

While Nadal seems to have a tough draw, Federer has the toughest draw with Roddick, Djokovic, Davydenko, and Stepanek all on his way to the final. But if the form holds, we wouldn’t see Roger past the semis, and it will be a Djokovic Nadal final. We shall see. Here is the full draw.

Just a year ago, it seemed almost unthinkable for Federer to lose his No. 1 ranking anytime soon. He had survived Nadal’s onslaught at Wimbledon and had dominated the indoor season with the victory at the year ending championships. Fast forward a few months and Federer is barely hanging on to No. 2 position. In fact, Fed could lose No. 2 if he fails to reach the quarters, and Novak goes on to win the title. Now many are asking why Federer has fallen so fast…

It’s really simple. Federer was playing out of his mind for the past few years. But he was going for hots that a normal human being wouldn’t be able to make in a consistent basis. You could say that he was going for 10% shots but making them 80% of the time. Well. The law of averages do catch up with you, and that’s why Federer is missing some of those shots. But the other reason for Federer’s incredible run was his confidence. You combine genius and confidence together and you have one powerful mix. Federer today doesn’t have the confidence though his genius is intact. Time is not on his side, and his confidence against Nadal seems to have all but shattered after the heardbreaking Wimbledon loss.

Nadal on the other hand is not as genius of a shotmaker as Federer, but he is close. But his level is so consistent that you can’t find a player who can go toe to toe with him for 5 sets. People give him  1 or 2 sets but ultimately winning 3 sets matters. More than that, nadal is supremely confident on the tour now. He has reversed his losses against Federer, Blake, Youzhny, Berdych, and now Djokovic, so there doesn’t seem to be anyone who goes into a match with Nadal thinking that he can be beaten. That is recipe for disaster really (which is why we have seen so many dominating results lately for Nadal).

Federer Nadal rivalry is more than about tennis. It shows you that in any sport, consistency ultimately beats genius. Whether it’s in tennis, soccer or MMA.

There are a lot of people who play tennis around the world. We have a 12 times grand slam champion. A bunch of former world No. 1s and grand slam winners who will be playing at the U.S. Open. But there is only one question that matters: who can stop Nadal? I thought before the Olympics that Djokovic would be the one stopping him, but now I see that beating Nadal in a best of 5 sets matches is absolutely difficult and will take a superhuman effort. Guys like Djokovic, Federer, Blake, or even Murray may want to disagree, but at this point, the new No. 1 has so much confidence that he goes in every match as a hot favorite. Now if he gets injured, that’s a whol other story but if Nadal plays his best, there will be no one that can stop Nadal. As far as Federer is concerned, he may have to think about his plans for next year already. With his confidence in an all time low, he has absolutely no chance of beating Nadal, and unless Nadal gets Djokovic in the semis, I can’t see how Federer can win this tournament.

Early predictions: Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray in the semis. Winner: Nadal (against any of the other three regardless of the draw).

The new rankings for men’s tennis are out, and for the first time in about 5 years, Nadal is leading the ranking. He is leading it by a whopping 770 points! Nadal has 6700, and Federer has 5930. Djokovic is back at 5105. The interesting fact is the gap between Nadal and Federer is almost the same as the one between Federer and Djokovic. At this rate, I don’t believe Federer has any chance of winning the No. 1 back this year, but he can certainly be caught by Djokovic if he stumbles at the U.S. Open. Nadal has had one of the best years one can have, and he is surely going to challenge big time for the U.S. Open title. So he can push his advantage to more than a 1000 points if he wins the U.S. Open. The question at this point is, who gets Djokovic time time around being that Nadal has gotten him a lot when he was No. 2.

Gonzo was no go today against Nadal as he was dominated from the start pretty much to finish (6-3, 7-6, 6-3). He had two set points against Nadal in the 2nd set, but how many times have we seen Nadal save 2, 5, 10, or 20 breakpoints and set points and come away unscathed. This man simply plays the bigger points better than anybody else in the world. That’s why he is No. 1. That’s why he is golden. Congratulations Rafa.