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.