T minus a day, and its that nervous anticipation for the 256 players to make a statement in the last Grand Slam event of the year.

Got to hit on the Grandstand late this afternoon, and they are playing pretty quick. There is less grit on the surface of the court then I remember in years past, and the lively Wilson balls don’t fluff up, adding to the court speed.  It should be ideal serving conditions, which could definitely benefit Americans like Roddick, Querrey, Isner and the Williams sisters.

I don’t think that Roddick could have asked for a better court — his serve will be really tough to break. And I saw Fed practicing today and he is looking extremely sharp, and he is hitting the ball incredibly crisp. Looking forward to the USTA honoring Andre tomorrow night, should be a great show with Venus and Roddick on the ticket after.

Definitely after watching Fed practice totally reconfirms that he is the man to beat, and remember no man in the Open Era has ever won a tournament 6 times in a row. That is something Rog very realistically could accomplish by the end of the fortnight.

With two tournaments under her belt I think that Kim Clijsters is poised to have a deep run, so keep a close eye on her.

The threeladies that are under the most pressure have to be Safina, Dementieva and Double J, with all three having the luxury of being on the other side of the draw as the Williams sisters.

I also think that Querrey is a dark horse to go far after four finals this summer and he has a favorable draw.

Well the wait is over, the draw is out and now it is time to analyze and prognosticate.

Roger Federer on the top half looks like he is in a very good section, not that he needs much help anyways. In the first round Fed plays Devin Britton, the young American NCAA champ, who probably can’t feel too happy about that first-round assignment.

The first thing that we looked for to see was which half Rafa was on, and he is on the bottom half (it’s still a little weird to see that No. 3 in front of his name). That means that the Djoker is on the top half, but he is in the same quarter as Andy Roddick, and Andy has to feel pretty good about his placement in the draw considering he’s beaten Djoker three times this year already.

On the bottom half the big dogs are Murray, Rafa, Del Po and Tsonga and Murray opens up against the highly-talented but very underachieving Ernests Gulbis. And we we could potentially have a Murray vs. Del Po quarter, which would be a rematch of the 2008 quarterfinals, and that whole section is loaded. I feel that it is the toughest quarter in the draw.

Rafa opens against Richard Gasquet who is finally making his return after facing his suspension, certainly not an easy task for the Frenchman.

On the ladies side, Dinara Safina, the number 1 seed, looks like she caught a break with both Williams’ sisters on the bottom half. I think it’s a little tougher mentally for the sisters when they know they could meet before the finals.

Shaza and Dementieva could potentially play each other in the third round, which could b e the first big popcorn match of the tourney.

The resurgent Kim Clijsters is in line to play Marion Bartoli in the second round. Clijsters beat Bartoli a couple weeks ago and she is in Venus’ quarter. I really like Kim’s chances to make a deep run.

Serena looks to be in a very good position, with potential hurdles being Sybille Bammer and Sam Stosur who both beat her this summer.

I’m going to check out the qualies tomorrow to get a more accurate read of the court speed, some of my favorite matches to watch all year are the last round of qualies, which will be going on tomorrow, definitely the best free ticket day in tennis.

And props to Sam Querrey for winning the US Open series, edging out Murray and Del Po with his consistent results all summer.

My pre-tourney pick in the men’s field is Club Fed. Even though she hasn’t played well this summer it’s extremely tough to go against Serena.

What an incredible two weeks for the ATP Tour, possibly the best back-to-back weeks that I can remember.

First we had the top 8 make the quarters in Montreal and then the big 4 in the semis in Cincy. The ATP must be very happy. Any time you see the top 4 together a little more then a week before the US Open a lot questions are gonna be asked, and the answer came back a resounding FED, as Roger Federer came up with convincing wins against Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic to win his first hard-court title of ‘09. Federer is moving the best on hard court that I have seen him in quite some time.

Fed also ended that 4-match losing streak to Murray and still only two players have beaten Fed five times in a row: David Nalbandian early in his career and of course, Rafa.

In the Open Era Fed is the only player since Rod Laver in 1969 to reach all four Grand Slam finals in the same calendar year. He did it in ‘06 and ‘07 and now has a chance to do it again, which is just another remarkable achievement in his illustrious career. And after that that strange finish to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week that saw Federer double fault on match point, this win will do a world of good for Roger’s confidence and he will be the definitive favorite heading into the Open.

The Djoker also made step up in the semis in defeating Rafa, but it looked like Rafa may have tweaked his stomach muscle a little bit during the match, but he is playing a lot better and hopefully he can be 100% healthy for the Open.

Big ups to Elena Dementieva for taking out Shaza in the final as well as Serena in the semis. Shaza struggled with her serve once again, but is still definitely getting closer to being a lot more like her old self.

It has been a very wide-open summer for the ladies with a different winner every week, which would make you think it’s anyone’s title to take at the Open, but then again Serena usually steps it up big time in the majors.

Really looking forward to the US Open, with ESPN completing our Grand Slam with coverage from the Big Apple for the first time.

On an absolutely scorching day in Montreal, Andy Murray had to dig extremely deep to fight off Del Po 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-1 and it was the legs and the supreme fitness that won it for the young Scotsman.

Del Po was hammering away as he did in defeating Nadal and Andy Roddick in night matches as he had a quicker turn around today. At 7-6, 6-5 ahead Del Po, who looked to be out of gas, kind of curiously called for the trainer, which seemed to first annoy and then inspire Murray. And after the injury time out Murray stepped up, held serve at love and then dominated the tie breaker, which seemed to deflate the big Argie. A

fter that Murray ran through the third set in no time at all as Del Po was completely checked out.  He seemed completely depleted from playing 10 matches in 13 days. Del Po is such a phenomenal young player, the only thing missing in his game is to be a bit fitter. However, Murray, who spent three weeks training in Miami before Montreal looks to be in the best shape of his career.

Also, congrats to Andy for breaking the four-year stretch of dominance of Federer Nadal in the top 2. 

 On the women’s side,  a massive win for Double J after routinely defeating Safina, 6-4, 6-2, before this her year had been very lackluster. There were a lot of big name players in Cincy and I didn’t even have her on the radar for winning the title. Getting a huge win like this should give her a big boost of confidence for the rest of the summer. The women head North to Canada with another star studded field. And then men move on to Cincy to finish the second leg of what I believe is the toughest tw0-week swing on the ATP tour.

In Cincy the draw has Fed, Roddick, Murray and Del Po all in the top half, talk about stacked! This is also an extremely important week for Rafa to get more matches under his belt in time for the Open. And even though Murray is in that rough section of the draw, he is still the player to beat.

What an unbelievable day in Cincinnati.

Both William sisters went down in the third round. I can’t remember the last time the sisters both fell on the same day so early in a tournament. Venus lost to an in-form Flavia Pennetta, and in an amazing shocker Sybille Bammer took out Serena in straight sets.

Believe it or not, the 29-year-old Austrian veteran now has a 2-0 record against Serena. It looks like Serena could possibly be saving herself for the Open.

The fairy tale start continues for Kim Clijsters, as she beat Kuznetsova in 3 sets. If Safina wins tonight then she’ll play Clijsters in the quarters, and I got a feeling that Clijsters is gonna win that match, what a statement that would be!

In the men’s Montreal event 6 of the top 8 are in the quarters, led by Roddick’s outstanding 7-6 in the third victory over Verdasco, setting up a highly-anticipated matchup with the the Djoker, which I am looking forward to a lot.

Rafa  looked a lot better today in defeating Petzschner but he is really gonna have to step up when he plays Del Po tomorrow, and that will be a really good indicator of where Rafa’s game is at.

If Fed and Tsonga win tonight, it will be the first time ever at a Masters event or even a major for that matter that all top 8 players have made the quarters.

Andy Murray looks to be in excellent form early, and I think right now he is the player to beat.

After a couple of non-eventful first weeks of the US Open Series on the men’s side, we had an outstanding week at Washington.

In the semifinals the defending champion, Juan Martin del Potro got his first career win over Gonzo and Andy Roddick was pushed to the limit in defeating John Isner, who is starting to become a much better player.

Big John is now at a career high rank of 55, and I see no reason why he can’t finish the year in the top 25.  He has gotten much fitter, he is moving better and after a really poor 2008 he is now on the right path. Props to his new new coach Craig Boynton for doing such a a great job.

This leads us to the Roddick-del Potro final, which was played under blisteringly hot conditions that always brings a smile to my face.  After Roddick jumped out to a quick 6-3 start, it looked like it would be a short final. But Del Po reached back and played a phenomenal match in winning 7-6(6) in the third, hitting an astonishing 5 aces in the third set breaker.

This was also the first time that Del Po defended a title in his career, which is a huge step forward for the young Argentine. I feel like both Del Po and Roddick couldn’t have asked for a better preparation heading into Montreal, which has an absolutely loaded field, with the big 4 playing together for the first time since the French Open.

I never remembered the courts being as quick as they were at Washington this year, continuing the theme of fast courts throughout the US Open Series, which seems to have benefited the American players so far.

I guess after the surprise win of Marion Bartoli over Venus Williams in the Stanford final, we had another equally surprising winner in Flavia Panetta, who beat Shaza in the semis and then routinely denied Sam Stosur of her first career WTA title.

I was very surprised to see Safina go out early and that Maria, although she did make it all the way to the semis, hit a jaw-dropping 61 double faults in 5 matches. I guess you could say it’s a testament to her fighting spirit to grind out matches despite her serving woes. Once she fixes that serve, things should start to get a lot better for her.

This week starts the big upgrade for the women, at what used to be a small event at Cincinnati, but is now over $2 million in total prize money and features 18 of the top 20-ranked women. And how about Kim Clijsters’ impressive return on Monday night. After 27 months away from the game, Kim routines Marion Bartoli. I feel that if she can get a few matches under her belt that Kim will be a huge factor at the US Open, and at only 26 years old there is no reason why she couldn’t get back into the top 5 in the rankings within the next 9 months, and without question she would be a welcome return to the WTA tour.

What an interesting first week for the women at the US Open Series Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. There was plenty of upsets all tournament long.

First, Sam Stosur shocked Serena Williams. The big hype match between Venus and Maria Sharapova turned out to be a blow out.  It seems that Maria still has a lot of work cut out for her on her serve and hopefully she can iron it out in time for the Open.

But if someone would have told me at the start of this week at this loaded field that the last one standing would be Marion Bartoli, I would have said “Excuse me!” She first knocked off Double J after saving two match points in the second set. Then she took out Sam Stosur in the semis, which set up Sunday’s encounter with Venus.

Bartoli came out with a great game plan and was firing on all cylinders as she raced out to a 6-2, 5-3 lead which had the crowd stunned, me included. Somehow Venus clawed her way back into the match and I thought for sure it was gonna be a rout in the third set.  But a very tired and weary Bartoli came up with goods with an improbable 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 win — denying Venus of her first hard court title on U.S. soil since 2002.  I still can’t believe that stat.

I was very surprised that Bartoli was able to stand toe-to-toe and was was even pushing Venus off the baseline, which doesn’t happen very often.

On the men’s side, the third time was the charm for Sam Querrey, as he beat another improbable finalist, the the young Aussie/American Carsten Ball. After being the prohibitive favorite in the last two finals against Rajeev Ram and Robby Ginepri, this had to do a world of good for Sam’s confidence, especially in front of his home crowd.

Ball is qualifier that came into the event with a three-match losing streak on the Challenger tour. Carsten is the son of former Aussie pro Syd Ball, but grew up in Newport Beach, CA.  He has a huge lefty serve and is a much better player than his rankings and results have so far indicated — maybe this is the boost he needs to break through to the next level.

It is still really disappointing that there was no top 20-ranked player in Indy, and especially LA, which really seemed to take some of the buzz out of the event.  Not too long ago, I can remember when I was coaching Andre that LA was one of the premier events on tour, generally featuring multiple top-10 players in the draw and numerous sell outs.

The men head to DC this week, with the return of Roddick, as well as half of the top 32-ranked men.

Dinara Safina headlines the Carson event, which looks to be a very strong field as well.

One early round match to keep an eye on is the potential second round showdown between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka — although it still feels a little odd to see Maria unseeded.