U.S. Open Men's Preview

As we tend to write about the same sports over and over (e.g. football and basketball), I figured I'd add a piece previewing the U.S. Tennis Open since the men's and women's draws were set on Thursday afternoon.

Men's Draw

Top 4 Seeds:

1. Novak Djokovic (SRB)

2. Rafael Nadal (ESP)

3. Roger Federer (SUI)

4. Andy Murray (GBR)

Others to Watch:

7. Gael Monfils (FRA)

8. Mardy Fish (USA)

18. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)

Favorite:

Djokovic

Djokovic has had an historic season, with only 2 defeats to this point (Federer - French, Murray - Cincinnati), he did have to retire with a shoulder injury in the Cincinnati final and looked extremely gassed throughout the tournament. I think the grueling schedule Novak has put himself through this season getting to #1 is finally catching up with him and he's not going to be taking home his first US Open title this season. The draw is good for Djokovic, until a potential quarterfinal matchup with Monfils, where I can see the charasmatic Frenchman taking out the #1 seed.

While Federer has a challenging section that includes solid players such as Philipp Kohlschreiber, hard-hitting Bernard Tomic, 11th-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki, and Fish, I like R-Feds to get to the quarters of that draw relatively easily. American Mardy Fish has been hot on the hardcourts this summer, winning 2 tournaments and the Olympus US Open Series, and will pose a strong challenge to Roger in the quarters. While I like Fish's play this summer, R-Feds's history is too strong to go against him.

Murray has a loaded section of his draw with 5-seed David Ferrer, 6-seed Robin Soderling, 2009 US Open Champion Del Potro, and the hardest server on the ATP Tour in John Isner, all in his section. Murray did win Cincinnati when Djokovic had to retire, however, I just don't believe Murray is playing well enough or is skilled enough on the hard courts to make it out of this section. I'm going with Del Potro out of this section as he is now healthy and appears poised to make a run to another US Open title that he wasn't in top shape to defend last year.

Finally, the bottom half of the draw is all about Rafa. While Andy Roddick (seeded 21st) is in this section, he has been playing terribly all summer long that I can't see him making it past the 3rd round at Flushing Meadows this season. Nadal has no other single digit seeds in his section of the draw and appears to have a pretty easy and straight-forward path to the semifinals.

My picks:

Semifinals -

Federer vs. Djokovic

Del Potro vs. Nadal

Finals -

Federer vs. Nadal

Champion - Roger Federer

I'm going with Roger Federer adding to his all-time major record with another US Open title in 2011. I expect another epic Federer-Nadal battle in the final on 9/11/11, but I have R-Feds winning in 4 sets to once again be the King of New York in the tennis world.