U.S. Open Tuesday Preview

By Mike McIntyre

There are four big men's matches scheduled for play on Tuesday at the U.S. Open as the field quickly approaches the final eight competitors. The tournament has avoided any major upsets amongst the guys and one has to wonder how much longer that will continue.

Andy Murray vs. Donald Young

American Donald Young will attempt to keep his best-ever Grand Slam showing moving along as he faces fourth seeded Andy Murray in the opening match on Arthur Ashe stadium at 11am. It is hard to believe that Young is only 22 years old as it seems he has been struggling on the ATP World Tour for years already. Actually, he has been struggling on the Tour for years as he rushed into his professional career at the tender age of 15.

Young has slowly begun maturing and making some strides this year that have signalled he is ready to move towards the expectations the tennis world has held for him for so long. Earlier this year he defeated Murray on the hard courts of Indian Wells. More recently he made the semi-finals of a level-500 tournament in Washington, D.C. as well.

That meeting in March was the only career encounter between Young and Murray, but expect a much different result on Tuesday. Young has been riding an emotional roller-coaster in New York with big wins over Stan Wawrinka and Juan Ignacio Chela, but faces a player of an entirely different calibre in Murray.

The Scotsman has amped-up his game over the past month and is not playing at the same mediocre level he was at earlier in the season when they first met.

Young can take home a lot of confidence from New York but he won't take another victory.

Prediction: Murray in three

Gilles Muller vs. Rafael Nadal

No-doubt recovered from his press-conference cramping incident from Sunday that was highly and uncomfortably covered by television cameras, Rafa Nadal will be feeling just fine as he faces severe under-dog Gilles Muller.

Nadal has yet to drop a set in the tournament and the defending champion rarely bows-out of a Grand Slam early. While I still have doubts about his ability to defend his title from a year ago, I can't see him getting bounced by Muller.

The pair have a career head-to-head record of 2-1 in Nadal's favor, but Muller's win was back in 2005 when Nadal was still discovering his game on hard-courts. More recently, they met at Wimbledon this summer with Nadal prevailing 7-6, 7-6, 6-0.

Muller has performed well in New York before, making the quarter-finals in 2008. He may give Rafa a challenge for a set, but otherwise will have to come up with the best tennis of his career to cause an upset.

Prediction: Nadal in four

John Isner vs. Gilles Simon

In a match that will offer fans a real contrast in styles, bit serving American John Isner will take-on the hustling baseline game of Frenchman Gilles Simon. This will be the first meeting between the two and the result is really anyone's guess.

Simon's best Grand Slam result was the quarter-finals of the Aussie Open in 2009 while Isner has made the fourth round at three majors including this one.

Both players have solid winning records on the Tour this year while Isner came into the Open with a tournament win in Winston-Salem. Both have had to beat top-level players in their journey here so far, with Isner defeating Marcos Baghdatis in the fist round and Simon just coming off a victory against Juan Martin Del Potro.

I see this one going the distance with at least a couple of tie-breaks given Isner's outstanding service game. Could go either way but I'll take a leap and go with Isner thanks in-part to the crowd support he'll receive.

Prediction: Isner in five.

 Andy Roddick vs. David Ferrer

In the opening match of the evening session, the third American man in action on Tuesday will be 2003 champion, Andy Roddick.

Roddick has finally found his game after struggling with injuries and consistency issues all summer long. He dispatched Julien Benneteau in routine fashion in the previous round and the Frenchman had been playing some great tennis coming in. Things are about to get a whole lot harder against Ferrer.

The Spaniard can hang on any surface and will never, ever, get tired. Ferrer holds a 5-3 advantage over Roddick in their prior matches and defeated him this year in Davis Cup play in straight sets on hard-courts. For those who don't know Roddick well, he is a guy who lives for representing his nation. He gives 110% in Davis Cup matches, so you can imagine how well Ferrer must have been playing to attain the victory on that day.

While I feel that Andy may yet have a crack at going deep in another Grand Slam before the end of his career, I don't see it happening here with Ferrer standing in his way.

Prediction: Ferrer in four.

Australian Open - Men's Qualifying Draw

By Mike McIntyre

The 2010 Australian Open officially begins on Monday but important matches have already begun in the qualifying draw.

The 128-player draw will work its way down to a fortunate group of 16 players who will advance to the main draw of the tournament.

Seeded first in the qualifying draw is Xavier Malisse of Belgium who advanced to the second round of the qualies with a 6-2, 7-6(5) win against Alex Kuznetsov of the United States. Malisse is a talented but under-achieving veteran who reached a career-high of 19 in the world in 2002, the same year he reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Currently ranked 92nd, Malisse does not necessarily have to win all of his qualifying matches to advance into the tournament. Should any player who is entered in the main draw withdraw from their opening match ahead of time, Malisse would become the first lucky-loser to fill-in due to his ranking.

Other names of interest in the qualifying draw include former American phenom Donald Young who won his first match 7-5, 6-0 against Marc Lopez of Spain. At only twenty years of age, the possibility of Young reaching his enormous potential still exists, although it seems his game is at a stand-still at the moment ranked 194th in the world.

Former NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman holds the 27th seed amongst qualifiers and won his first match easily 6-2, 6-1 against local Australian James Duckworth. Going to school at the University of Virginia, Devvarman won the NCAA title in back-to-back years in 2007 and 2008. He defeated current top-fifty ATP played John Isner in the 2007 final so the kid certainly has skill. Perhaps this is the year he finally breaks out on tour. 

Canadian youngster Peter Polansky fell in the opening round 1-6, 2-6 to Marsel Ilhan of Turkey. The 21 year old is my home country's best hope for a top-fifty player in the future and is currently ranked 186th in the world. A tough break for Polansky, as he made the main draw in Australia a year ago and even pushed Igor Andreev to a fifth set in the first round before falling. Polanksy actually qualified for three Grand Slam tournaments in 2009, losing in the first round of each in five sets.

The main draw will be announced this Friday.

US Open Blogs: Ana Ivanovic and the NYTimes

I'm kind of loving the NY Times' coverage of the US Open this year, and I am really enjoying the blog. Interesting tidbits: Andrei Pavel's emmy-worthy performance as foil to the American hero; TIF (The Immaculate Federer) was the one major player who came over to Donald Young to wish him luck in the locker room; Ljubicic's sorry support; and Federer = what musician?

Here's Ana's blog.

Move Over, Donald Young

The future of American tennis may be in the hands of an 18-year old-Californian named Sam Querrey--and not the struggling, but talented Donald Young.

'Youngster Querrey Impresses' / Querrey's USTA Profile

Tough Times for Donald Young

Even as presumed next star Young loses in boys' Wimbledon match, group turns to Evert to lift sagging fortunes. Read the Story

Doubts About Donald Young

From the Sun-Sentinel (Charles Bricker's blog):

This was perhaps my 10th or 11th meeting with Donald Young and every time you sit down with this kid you come away with such a pastiche of emotions. He's a great teenager, never full of himself, never rude, never elitist. If you're a parent, as I have been for several decades, this is the kid you want to have.

So, it's a pleasure talking to him. Whether it's about his growth (he's now nearly 5-foot-11) or what it was like having been a premie (he was barely two pounds at birth and spent a week in an incubator before going home). And then there's his tennis. At 14, when he was smaller and exhibiting that wonderful range of shots and precocious understanding of the game, I had the same hopes everyone else did that he could develop into a top player.

Berlocq Double Bagels Donald Young

From ESPN: Young not concerned despite winless record

It was the most thorough drubbing of his short pro career, a 6-0, 6-0 whitewashing in the first round of the Nasdaq-100 Open that took just under 49 minutes Thursday, and kept world junior champion Donald Young Jr. winless on the ATP Tour after nine tries.

An optimist would look at every loss as a learning experience, but at what point will Young stop soaking up knowledge and start feeling like a punching bag?

Young Not Number One Junior Yet

From ESPN: Young and restless: No. 1 still up for grabs

It appeared to be a foregone conclusion. Donald Young of Atlanta, who had held the International Tennis Federation's No. 1 junior ranking since his January win at the junior Australian Open, was poised to be the youngest player ever to claim the Junior World Championship.

The player closest to Young in the standings, Croatia's 17-year-old Marin Cilic, lost in the third round of the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament last week in Key Biscayne, Fla., and said he was hanging up his racket for the season.

Donald Young

Only the second round of the juniors and Donald Young actually rates AP media coverage:

Even Donald Young was impressed with his 131 mph serve.

"I couldn't play after that," the 16-year-old said.

He did, of course, and his 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory Wednesday over David Navarrete of Venezuela put the tournament's top-seeded player into the third round of the U.S. Open junior boys event...

Young has yet to win a match on the men's professional tour, where he is overpowered by bigger players.

"When I'm up on them, they play better," Young said of the pros he's met. "When I was up two set points in my pro match, they had two big serves. ... In the juniors I get a lot of balls back and make them play."

Donald Young

The Boston Globe has an excellent article on Donald Young today (registration required).  In short he really is a normal kid, his parents despite their protests are the proverbial tennis parents, and he does have to deal with the resentment of other junior players about his "chosen one" status and consequently has no friends there: The US's great Young hopeful

He is small. Too small, perhaps.

He is a slender 5 feet 9 inches, bottoming out in gigantic feet that have, somehow, managed to carry all the weight. Not his weight -- he barely swings the needle to 145 pounds -- it's the expectations, the hope that falls on his shoulders and pools down into those size 12 1/2 sneakers. Donald Young is next.