A Long Year It's Been BUT One Major To Go!

Well the show has begun and the first act consisted of the live draw - only the Internet age could allow something as simple as drawing names out of a US Open trophy to be as riveting as it was.

Copious amounts of press photographers on hand to zoom in on shots of an ever evolving Men's Singles Draw soon to be followed by... yes you guessed it the Womens Singles sheet.  I was hooked - in the early morning Australian Eastern time staring at the computer screen wondering whether Andy Murray would feature in the Federer or Djokovic half of the draw.  Who were going to face the dreaded floaters like Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters?  Both ranked lower than their capabilities (Venus unseeded altogether), but funnily enough the last 2 women to have won successive US Open crowns and not a joyful sight at the other end of the court for the top seeds early in the event.

The answers came quickly, and Roger could be heard somewhere swearing that the wretched Serb had received the better end of the stick by avoiding the Murray factor until the final, should both reach that far.  Mind you I don't believe that Andy poses too much of a threat to either of the 2 top seeds because the depth in mens tennis, whatever spin you might try to put on it, is fairly thin at the elite level.
True Murray played out of his skin at Wimbledon to reach his first final and then wipe out both Novak and Roger to win Olympic gold at the same venue.  However this is hard court and the ones that have actually won at Flushing Meadows love it to death.

Del Potro won here in 2009 and is playing well but unluckily again is under an injury cloud coming into this year's event.  Novak should dispense with him quite swiftly should he so be required.  I really cannot see anything else in this 128 field to change the final from being a number 1 and 2 seed benefit - Ferrer, Tsonga, Isner and the like will be mere sideshows along the way and the fun will be to see what upsets occur before the semis.

Novak will eventually exact his revenge on Roger for the Cincinatti incident - that bagel was not nice to taste even if it was made from Swiss ingredients - but more so for the Wimbledon semi defeat.  Defending his title will be a proud day for Mr Djokovic.