US OPEN 2014 SEED PREVIEW

4 days and counting

With only 4 days to the last Grand Slam Tournament of the year, I have sadly missed the past two weeks due to other kinds of life requirements. 

Are you looking forward to the US Open? Who are your picks for the Men's and Women's titles. 

On the Men's side, once again, the tennis fandom will feel the stinging absence of Rafael Nadal, sidelined by a wrist injury. 

On the Women's side, Li Na will also be glaringly absent. 

We have the following seeds on the Men's and Women's side for the next fortnight, as well as their opponents for the first round.

Women's Seeds
1.   Serena Williams vs Taylor Townsend
2.   Simona Halep vs Danielle Rose Collins
3.   Petra Kvitova vs Kristina Mlandenovic
4.   Agnieszka Radwanska vs Sharon Fichman
5.   Maria Sharapova vs Maria Kirilenko
6.   Angelique Kerber vs Qualifier
7.   Eugenie Bouchard vs Olga Govortsova
8.   Ana Ivanovic vs Alison Riske
9.   Jelena Jankovic vs Bojana Jovanovsky
10. Caroline Wozniaki vs Magdalena Rybarikova

And the three standout matches from that line-up for me is where the biggest upsets could happen:
Serena Williams vs Taylor Townsend
Petra Kvitova vs Kristina Mlandenovic
Maria Sharapova vs Maria Kirilenko

And depending on the form of the qualifier, keep an eye out for Angelique Kerber's match too. 

Men's Seeds

1.   Novak Djokovic vs Diego Schwartzman
2.   Roger Federer vs Marinko Matosevic
3.   Stan Wawrinka vs Jiri Vesely
4.   David Ferrer vs Damir Dzumhur
5.   Milos Raonic vs Qualifier
6.   Tomas Berdych vs Lleyton Hewitt
7.   Grigor Dimitrov vs Ryan Harrison
8.   Andy Murray vs Robin Haase
9.   Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Juan Monaco
10. Kei Nishikori vs Wayne Odesnik

And the three standout matches from that line-up:
Tomas Berdych vs Lleyton Hewitt
Grigor Dimitrov vs Ryan Harrison
Andy Murray vs Robin Haase

Also keep an eye out for the match between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Juan Monaco

So, just looking at the top 10 seeds of the Men's and Women's Singles draw, it seems that the first two days at the Billy Jean King Tennis Centre at Flushing Meadows, NY is going to be a smashing exhibition.

Final picks... Serena and Novak.

Follow all the action on live TV, but if you can't, then pop in frequently
on the Official US Open site. Also check out the complete Men's and Women's draws there.

http://www.usopen.org/

Simona Halep - World number 2, next step... #1

Simona Halep moves up the rankings to within 1 spot of the top, new #2

This week, without even lifting a racquet, Simona Halep moves yet another step closer to that coveted top spot in the Women's Tennis rankings. 

Largely due to an injury absence from Li Na, who will unfortunately be out for the rest of the season, the charging young Romanian will now assume her new role as the 2nd best player in the world. 

No matter how she got there, there has been no doubt amongst the fundies, that Simona will reach the top. We want to congratulate Simona on amazing solid performances over the last year. She is deserving of all the praises sung to her and all the accolades coming her way.

The goal of reaching #1 is not so illusive anymore. Simona may be still some way behind Serena Williams, but it is now firmly in her sight along with the Ladies Trophy at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, which starts in two weeks. 

So with this elevation in the rankings, the pressure will start mounting on this delightful, intelligent player. Pressure, something she has shown us she can handle, to perform and reach the highest echelons of every tournament she enters. 

Simona is one of my final 4 picks at the US Open this year. However, not always a good thing to express those views publicly all that often, I feel that the few weeks she has taken off, may have done her the world of good. 

What a terrific two weeks of tennis to look forward to before the US Open, the excitement is building. 

New champion at Flushing...???

Come on Simona, take that last step... get to where you deserve to be!

Roger's Cup Montreal... last 8 women standing

Rain interrupted yesterday's play, may the quarterfinal action not be interrupted by inclement weather.

With the hectic-ness of life kicking in all round again, I have been away from my keyboard for far too long. I apologise for the slow content updates my friends. 

I would like to stop by on the tour at the Montreal edition of the Roger's Cup for the WTA. This is one of my favourite ATP-WTA tennis stops on the North American Hard court swing pre US Open. For the pure and simple reason that this is a floating tournament. And even though it is a WTA and ATP combined tournament, the men and ladies are not even in the same town. And it is only in the same place every two years, alternate years, the men and women's tournament swop venues. 

This year's Women's edition takes place in Montreal, while the Men are fighting it out in Toronto. 

So defending Ladies Champion, the illustrious Serena Williams, is defending her Toronto Title in Montreal this year, and so far she is looking ready to put all of this year's disappointments behind her, while she is preparing to rack up another US Open Series title. 

Joining Serena in the first set of quarter-finalists in Montreal is her next opponent, former World #1, Caroline Wozniaki. Wozniaki dusted off young pretender Shelby Rogers who had a magnificent 1st round win over Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard. 

In the second quarterfinal the surprise package is Carla Suárez-Navarro, who efficiently dealt with the 3 set queen, Maria Sharapova. 

(I say that for this reason Maria's 3 set win-loss record over the past 3 and a half years, looks as follows 41-8, check out this year-by-year breakdown...

2011 - 12-1              2012 - 14-1              2013  -  5-1                 2014  -  13-5

Thus far 2014 has been her worst year in 3-setters, and yesterday was one of those bad days at the office... but this is a topic for another day)

Sharapova, in her first tournament back since her 4th round Wimbledon exit had a delicious win over Suárez-Navarro's doubles partner, the stunningly talented Garbine Muguruza in her first match back. 

Suárez-Navarro confounded Sharapova with all sorts of angles and spins, and with that amazing one-handed backhand reminicent of a Justine Henin of old, crafted delightful points to win through a rain interrupted match.

She will face Venus Williams in her quarter final, who had her own magical win over Angelique Kerber yesterday. 

The question now remains that should both Williams sisters notch up a win, if either one of them will be withdrawing. A highly contentious subject that haunts the sisters, although... each still has one match to win before that can be talked about.

The 3rd quarterfinal pits Vika Azarenka against the crafty backwall, Aga Radwanska... Vika leads their head to head 12-4, but the last time they played Radwanska defeated her, in Australia, if memory serves

However, Vika seems to be back on track too after a few months out due to injury. This match should be a humdinger.

And the 4th quarterfinal will pit Coco Vandeweghe against Ekatarina Makarova both surprise packages, Vandeweghe defeated and in-form Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic in consecutive matches to make it through to the quarters and Makarova had an equally impressive win over Petra Kvitova in the previous round. 

So Friday night is Ladies' quarterfinal action, things are already interesting, let's see who comes out victorious. Or will Serena repeat at the Roger's...

Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova Winners on Hardcourts

Serena wins Bank of the West Classic

This week Serena Williams made a return statement. With an impressive run through the draw she clinched her third Bank of the West Classic title in California. 

Angelique Kerber started off to a flyer and raced to a 5-1 lead, then Williams' survival mode kicked in and she rattled of that first set and sprinted though the second to a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory.

It hasn't been the greatest of years for Serena in the majors, but on the Women's tour, she now leads the ladies again with 4 titles on tour this year.

Serena looks set for a three-peat at Flushing in less than a month's time.

Read the in-depth article here:

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4051465/title/serena-storms-back-wins-stanford

Svetlana Kuznetsova wins the City Open in Washington DC

And on the other front, Svetlana Kuznetsova has won her first title in 4 years, when she defeated an inspired Kurumi Nara over three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Sveta as she is affectionately known, now boasts with 14 titles on the WTA. And she has climbed to 23 in the race to Singapore leaderboard. 

Read the full report here:

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4051681/title/kuznetsova-ends-four-year-drought

The year-end race is about to get heated. Stay tuned for the Roger's Cup in Montreal this week where Maria Sharapova returns to the court for the first time since Wimbledon. With a possible 2nd round encounter with the Serena Slayer, Garbine Muguruza.