Tsonga did what he should have done at the Australian Open final, beat Djokovic. This time Tsonga did not let an early lead slip by and won it 7-6, 6-4. Sure the Thailand Open is a great win for Tsonga but I know he’ll be kicking himself for not using the same strategy against Djokovic (though it needs to be said that Novak had more confidence back then).

Roddick survived another tie-break loss this week to win the Beijing open. After losing a tie-break to Ferrero and Phau, I personally thought Roddick would reverse the streak, but he was solid enough to win two sets after losing yet another tie-break set, this time to Sela. Let’s see if Roddick can back up this result with a win over a top player

The Beijing and Bangkok Open continued today, and 3 of the favorites made it to the finals of these opens. Roddick again survived a bad second set to beat Phau and reach the final. Tsonga was in impressive form and demolished Monfils 6-0, 6-3. Djokovic was also the victure against Thomas Berdych 7-5, 6-1.

While these tournaments are not huge per se, it’s still good to see a few top players competing in them. But I personally can’t wait for the next masters series which we will see the “fab 4″ in action.

The U.S. teams Davis Cup title defense came to a premature end when they were defeated in the semi-finals by the spanish team spear-headed by Nadal and Ferrer. Nadal beat Querrey and Roddick, and Ferrer defeated Roddick to give Spain the 3 points needed to advance. Perhaps the turning point of the match was when Roddick lost heartbreaker to Ferrer in 5 sets. Had he won that point, the U.S. would’ve had a legitimate chance to advance, but that loss coupled with Nadal’s win over Roddick (6-4, 6-0, 6-4) made the last match between Querrey and Ferrer a dead rubber.

Russian and Argentina are locked in battle with Argentina leading 2-1 on the scoreboard.

Davis Cup got underway today, and as expected the home teams held serve. Spain dismantled U.S.A’s finest as Nadal and Ferrer beat Querrey and Roddick to take a commanding 2-0. With Nadal having one more match to play, this tie is as good as done.

Russia didn’t put up much of a fight against Argentine as Nalbandian grinded down Andreev, and Davydenko self-destructed against Del Potro. I don’t see anyway out of this one for the Russia, but unlike the U.S., these guys have a chance.

Tomorrow is the doubles day. Will these ties finish up tomorrow or will we see some live matches on Sunday?

In the wake of the news that Bob Bryan had to pull out of the Davis Cup tie with Spain, Patrick McEnroe put a brave face on as he claimed that he believed the U.S. had a legitimate chance of upsetting Spain if they managed to win a point on the very first day against Rafa and Ferrer.

I don’t think it’s impossible. It’s definitely not impossible. We feel we have a chance. As I said, we’re the underdog, but we’re certainly not here strictly for our health. We’re here because we think we can win.
Saying that, we’ve been in tough situations before, in Seville in the final, 2004. It was a great team. Rafa was just coming up then. Moya was playing well. Ferrero. They had many great players. We went over there, we fought extremely hard. Andy played a great match against Rafa on the first day. He had a chance to go up two sets to one in that match.
I feel like if we can be in that kind of situation on the first day, we have a chance to win a match, anything can happen. So obviously it’s difficult, but we played a lot of away ties, particularly these guys here played in a lot of away ties. We’ve got that experience of sort of expecting the crowd to be loud, expecting lots of things to happen.
We’ll just try to go out there and play our best.

I do believe that they have a chance to win a match or maybe too (a dead rubber), but I doubt U.S. has a legitimate chance of beating Rafa or getting more than a match from the other 2 singles matches. But stranger things have happened in the past. Right now it looks 4-1 for Spain.

It turns out Davydenko was telling the truth after all. Well, not exactly. But ATP was not able to prove that Davydenko had bet on his own matches, so he has been cleared once and for all. Let’s hope Tennis is as clean as it seems to be. But the latest decision certainly doesn’t prove anything.

It’s official. Blake will not let us to see him play against Nadal on clay. I think the result really is a foregone conclusion as far as playing Nadal is concerned on his favorite clay. But it would’ve nice to see if James could keep it close with him. James had a few good wins on clay in the past couple of years, including his win over Almagro. But now Roddick and Querrey will have to try to get 2 points from their 4 matches.

I do think that James was dropped by McEnroe rather than him pulling out by himself. James form has been questionable and he seems to have not gotten over his Olympics and U.S. Open experience. After all, he has nothing to show for the U.S. hard courts season, so he may as well take some time off and recharge his battery for a push for that Masters Cup spot.

So much for people counting out Roger to win another slam. Sure. It wasn’t easy. Tough matches against Andreev, and Djokovic, but Roger pulled it off by beating the hottest player on the tour right now (Murray) in straight sets 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. Murray had his chances in the 2nd set and arguably should’ve won it as Roger had a backhand wide that was missed by the umpire. Murray didn’t challenge and that was the turning point as Roger never looked back from that point on.

Murray should take a lot of pride in what he has done. He beat the best player in the world in a dominating fashion right after beating the most in-form player in the world in Del Potro. He just didn’t have it in the final. Whether it was fatigue, bad strategy, or injury, Murray was not able to mount a real challenge in his first grand slam final.

Congratulations Roger for your 13th major. Sampras’ record is oh so close now.

So the final for the U.S. Open is set and Nadal didn’t make it after all. After all the talk about Rumble in NY, and how Federer Nadal final was inevitable, Murray stunned Nadal in 4 sets to have the golden opportunity of winning his first grand slam. Murray will now go to the final with a winning record against Roger Federer and should go on to pick up his first slam.

Final Analysis: Federer has played heroically this year. He wasn’t expected to make it far but he has. But Murray has just beaten the best player in the world, and he has the game to beat Federer as he has shown in the past. As much as I like Federer, the time is now for Murray. Murray will take his chance and win it in 4 sets.

The U.S. Open for men will come to its conclusion on Monday (now that’s history in the making) as Federer will face the winner of Murray-Nadal (Murray up by 2 sets and dominating) for his 13th grand slam title. This was the tournament that everything was supposed to come unglued for Federer, but to his credit the King bounced back from a miserable 4th round against Andreev to beat Novak Djokovic in a dominating fashion today and erase any thoughts of his demise. Federer was very consistent today and didn’t shank many balls which was very surprising to see. In the end, he had too much game for a grumpy Djokovic and won 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2.

Murray defied the odds at Armstrong court to take a two set lead over Rafael Nadal (6-2, 7-6). Nadal had his chances in the 2nd set even though he should’ve easily lost it. The only good thing going for Nadal at this point is his one break lead in the third set (3-2), but he needs to win 3 straight sets against a red hot Murray who is poised to win his first slam title.

The stars seem to be aligned for a new star to be born and I believe if Murray gets over Nadal, he will go on to beat Federer in 4 or 5 sets to take the title. He has beaten Roger before and is not just a good match up for Federer. But he has to beat a Nadal who is an expert in coming back from two set to love down situations. Matches to be continued on Sunday. Stay tuned.