A 'Murrican Tennis Outlook

My sleep/work schedule is rejoicing tennis being back in the States. Matches are so much more fun to watch when they're on primetime television with an adult beverage in hand or well-rested on a relaxing weekend afternoon. On Friday night I watched, with heavy eyelids, Serena Williams battle back to defeat Ana Ivanovic. On Saturday, an ultimately disappointed Donald Young held his own against Milos Raonic.

Besides the Williams sisters, American tennis is going through a long-winded lull. The players are less exciting (we kinda-sorta miss you, A-Rod, but you're doing a bang up job as an analyst) and the number of events on home soil has dwindled and become more scattered, but we'll focus more on the players, or lack thereof. Given Serena's roller coaster ride of a 2014, we're forced to gaze into the crystal ball and see the future landscape of American tennis, and it's exactly what you'd expect to be looking at when confronted with a crystal ball: fog and lots of it.

Really, really sad

To be fair, the Grand Slam prospects on the women's side look pretty decent. Madison Keys has had ups and downs, but has mostly made strides in 2014. Even through her ugly patches (speaking of roller coasters...), Sloane Stephens still has considerable talent that can be honed. Vicky Duval is in the Top 100 (and kicking cancer's ass in the process) and Taylor Townsend has shone brightly on and off of the court. However, the men are a totally different story. John Isner has been lumbering in and largely out of the Top 10, Young is getting his bearings together yet again, and Steve Johnson is only beginning to make a name for himself on the main tour. Jack Sock has seen steady improvement, but Sam Querrey has been...sad.

Among all of the aforementioned names, Big John is the only one that could feasibly win a Slam by 2015. However, Jizzner's game makes any given match a toss-up, and that amounts to a <1% chance of winning seven matches in a single event (yes, I did the math). We also seemingly lack personalities that we can love (or love to hate). Serena and Sloane started to give us some of that last year, but have largely been consumed by their respective on-court woes since. Madison, Vicky, and Taylor are all likable girls, but have yet to show their on-court prowess deep at the biggest stages, leaving them fairly anonymous with casual fans.

All of that said, Serena is still #1, the tournament favorite everywhere she plays, and a household name. Venus is still plugging away and doesn't seem to be hanging it up anytime soon. Taylor is a future star in training. Sloane is Sloane, as she would say, and is still giving us something to talk about, NuvaRings and all. There were seven American boys in the last 16 of Wimbledon's Boy's Championships, two of whom faced off in the final. We may have a bit more fog to wade through, but it can be cleared pretty quickly with some strong results, especially if they can come within the next five weeks on home soil.

Thoughts? Rebuttals? Leave a comment! #MERICA

Slammed Shut

Istanbul and London are right around the corner for the Top 8 women and men, but let's take a moment to look back on four tournaments that supercede the WTA Year-End Championships and the ATP World Tour Finals.

What the heck happened in Melbourne, Paris, SW 19, and New York, you ask? Well, take a seat, grab a drink, and read this recap of the Grand Slams of 2013!

Australian Open

Defending champions pre-tournament with their 2012 trophies.
New photo shoot deemed unnecessary.

What happened: see last year's Australian Open. Actually, that's a slight on Oz 2012, which was a really exciting tournament. This year's Australian was a bit of a yawn. Djokovic won for the third straight year, defeating Andy Murray in four relatively unremarkable sets, and Azarenka defended her 2012 title against Li Na. Sharapova and Serena were cruising through the early stages of the tournament when they were abruptly stopped by Li Na and Sloane Stephens (with help from an injured ankle and back) respectively. There were no real surprise losses on the men's side. As something of an anti-Nadal fan, I definitely missed his presence late in this year's Oz, especially considering how good the final weekend of last year's tournament was with him in it.

What will be remembered: for the women, the big stories of the tournament revolved around Sloane. Her beating Serena was a story that lasted the entire season with many twists and turns throughout. She was also the victim of MTO-gate when Azarenka viciously stole the match from her grasps (lol). We will also remember the rebirth of Stan Wawrinka in that epic match with Djokovic in the 4th round where Stan just ZONED, but Novak dug in and pulled it out in the end. Lastly, although she ended up getting blasted away by Li Na in the semis 2 & 2, Maria Sharapova started the tournament by winning her first TWENTY-EIGHT GAMES. What.

French Open

What happened: exactly what you expected, but you couldn't help, but be impressed by how remarkable the achievements of Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal were. Serena finally won her first Roland Garros title since 2002, the kickstarter of her eponymous "Serena Slam." For someone who had always found the clay a pain, Serena's variety was on display throughout the tournament alongside her ever-present power and she found herself cruising through most of her matches (shoutout to you, Sveta).

This also happened. Who knew protesting same-sex
marriage could make a man look so gay?

Rafa's run was a bit more complicated. He got off to a bit of a slow start in the first three rounds and collided with Djokovic in another 5-set thriller in the semifinals, recovering from a break down in the last set and eeking it out 9-7. While the final versus David Ferrer was the most assured forgone conclusion in tennis history, it was a coronation of Nadal's comeback and his cemented status as the King of Clay with his eighth French Open title (fourth in a row), becoming the winningest player at any single Grand Slam. Sorry, Roger.

What will be remembered: three of the four semifinals will be remembered for many different reasons. The airtight three-setter between Sharapova and Azarenka was one of the best matches of the tournament, Serena's demolition of 2012 finalist Sara Errani in 46 minutes was unreal even for her, and Novak's tragic net violation while up a break in the fifth set against Rafa took the air out of the remainder of his 2013 (until his recent title runs in Beijing and Shanghai).

We will also remember the run of Gael Monfils and the many pictures he inspired, Venus's wonky match with Ula Radwanska, and Andy Murray's boredom. I think we'd all benefit from Andy skipping the French Open from now on. He's probably never going to win the thing and his tweets were such a value add for the for tournament.

I would need a seat if I had blown four match points, too.

Wimbledon

The world pouted with you, Rog :(

What happened: The real question is what DIDN'T happen? Rafa went out to Steve Darcis on the very first day, then EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER was eliminated on Black Wednesday including Victoria Azarenka (injury), Ana Ivanovic (suckitude), Caroline Wozniacki (suckitude aided by injury), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (injury aided by suckitude), and Marin Cilic ("injury"). Sharapova joined the fray when she went down (literally; she slipped on the grass several times) on Court 2 to fellow gruntie Michelle Larcher de Brito. However, all of those exits paled in comparison to the ousting of Roger Federer at the hands of Sergiy Stakhovsky, Fed's first loss before the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam since Roland Garros 2004 (if I could ALL CAPS numbers, I would). A truly historic day in tennis. Serena would join the upset club soon after, blowing a third set lead to Boom-Boom Lisicki in the Round of 16 on Manic Monday. Absolute madhouse of a tournament.

Oh yeah, there were winners at this year's Championships! Sir (well, almost) Andrew Barron Murray made it rain and ended a 77-year drought for a British male singles Wimbledon champion by completely outplaying Djokovic in the final. There were cheers, there were blown calls by Mohamed Lahyani, there were Djokovic meltdowns, there were pointed celebrations at the media. The match had everything. I was even inspired to write down a few thoughts on Andy here.

On the women's side, 2007 finalist Marion Bartoli made the most of the messy draw to scrap her first Slam. With the Top 3 out of the way, Marion didn't drop a set (nor played an opponent ranked above her) culminating with the blitzing of Sabine Lisicki in the final. It would be the last match win of her career. What a way to go out!

Maria's DGAF face.

What will be remembered: other than everything, you mean? Aside from the above, we will remember Jerzy Janowicz's breakthrough to the semifinals, the decimation of the bottom half of the men's draw and the complete shitshow that became of the entire women's draw, Juan Martin Del Potro re-arrival for the second time in 2013, Laura Robson's good showing, and Murray leaving the entire country on the edge of their collective seats during his comeback win versus Verdasco. Off the court, this was also the tournament where Serena and MaSha aired out their dirty laundry about each other's love lives. Tennis drama at its finest. It was phenomenal. I'm slightly embarrassed at how much I enjoyed all of it.

U.S. Open

King of ... Cement?

What happened: competing with the Australian Open for most forgettable Slam of the season. Both finals were good theater, but the finalists were all but guaranteed and the winners were pretty much called weeks before main draw matches got underway. Serena and Rafa capped off career-best seasons by downing their primary rivals and contenders for Player of the Year in Azarenka and Djokovic. So many parallels with Serena and Rafa's season. Both win the French Open, go out early at Wimbledon, and come back with a vengeance in the summer hard court swing and add to their tally of major titles and improve their arguments in their respective G.O.A.T. debates.

What will be remembered: two one-handed backhands soared while one fell away. Stan Wawrinka played another 5-setter with Novak Djokovic in the semifinal, once again going down. He wasn't playing as well as he did in Melbourne, but props for ramming through Berdych and Murray, then taking Novak the distance. Richard Gasquet finally made the quarterfinals, then got all greedy and made the SEMIFINALS. He ended up getting killed by Nadal, but good on ya, Reesh. The same can't be said for Roger Federer, who is starting a new kind of streak. He lost in the Round of 16 to Tommy Robredo in straight sets in what was a confusing match. His forehand couldn't find the court and he quickly lost his first match to Tommy Robredo on his eleventh try, denying us our first Fedal encounter at the U.S. Open. Lame.

She was a little excited.

Serena killed her competition through the semis, but her fourth round match against Sloane featured probably the most exciting set of tennis in the tournament pre-finals. The match had an edge to begin with, with all of their off-court drama and whatnot, but what struck me as incredible was how Serena was able to win with her defense. Sloane was crushing her forehand, yet Serena was there for nearly every one of them. Sloane eventually started to go for too much in the second set, which was one-way traffic for our champion.


So what's to come for the rest of the year? Can Serena remain motivated and hungry to finish the year as strongly as she started (she already won Beijing)? Will Rafa win his first World Tour Finals title? Will Djokovic or Vika (or Maria or Andy or, dare I say, Sloane Jelena?) make any dent in the confidence of the top man and woman of their respective tours? We will see what the end of the season has in store, it could mean good things in 2014 for those who make the most of it!

Draw-ful: U.S. Open Men's Draw Preview

Yaaaawwwn.

Compared to the women's draw, the men's draw hardly has anything going on that will interest. Still, we press on and figure out who will lose when to Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray before we get to the juiciness of the later rounds.

Quarter 1

Novak Djokovic arguably has the toughest draw of the Top 4 seeds with Juan Martin Del Potro, one of the opening line favorites, looming on the other side. Even with Djokovic not at his best this summer, you have to assume that he will be fine through the Round of 16. Grigor Dimitrov, his potential third round opponent, may do a little more damage here than at Roland Garros, but Djokovic should be able to get past these mini-threats before a would-be-thrilling quarterfinal against DelPo. Only other interesting potential matchup is a third round clash between Benoit Paire and Fabio Fognini. I'm sure it will be difficult deciding which meltdown is more handsome.

Speaking of our beloved Tower of Tandil, his draw has a couple of players that can be troublesome, including a second round clash with the winner of Hewitt-Baker. Tommy Haas is the next seed in his section which features my favorite first rounder between David Goffin and Alexandr Dolgopolov. That will be an epic mess with beautiful ball striking and puzzling errors and shot selections. Can't wait.

Prediction: Novak Djokovic def. Juan Martin Del Potro

Quarter 2

Andy Murray should have a straightforward path to the quarters strictly because this is not the French Open. The other three seeds in his half (Nicolas Almagro, Andreas Seppi, Juan Monaco) are primarily clay courters and there are no floaters of note lurking. Moving on...

The bottom eighth is where it gets tricky for our defending champ. Tomas Berdych is anchoring the quarter. In my opinion, if New York were not under threat of a tornado during their semifinal clash last year, Andy Murray does not achieve his first major in 2012. Should be a very intriguing quarterfinal matchup, unless Stanislas Wawrinka has something to say about it. He hasn't been playing well as of late though.

Prediction: Tomas Berdych def. Andy Murray

Quarter 3

THIS SECTION OF THE DRAW IS WIDE OPEN. I'M LOOKING AT YOU ERNIE, JERZY, AND MILOS.

Seriously, the top seeds in this quarter are a surprisingly struggling David Ferrer and never-makes-a-quarterfinal Richard Gasquet. This is a BIG opportunity for a high-quality result for Milos Raonic, Jerzy Janowicz, or even Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis should easily make the third round where he faces Ferru. The winner will likely face Jerzy Janowicz in the Round of 16. Male JJ literally has no one in his section (and by "no one" I mean Janko Tipsarevic). Milos also has a very favorable draw to meet up with, and beat up on, Gasquet, who will be standing somewhere in Citi Field to return Milos's serves.

Just please, for the love of God, someone take advantage of this. Please. If Ferrer makes it out of this section, I will cry.

Prediction: Jerzy Janowicz def. Milos Raonic

Quarter 4

The infamous Fedal quarter. But Rafael Nadal has a solid draw. He owns Fernando Verdasco outside of blue clay and just beat John Isner in Cincinnati, so it should set him up to stomp all over Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. The Raging Bull has been en fuego all year outside of London, so I expect nothing less in New York.

Federer, who actually gave Nadal a match in Cincy, will want to start salvaging his year at his second favorite Grand Slam. He really should have no problems through the fourth round, even against Kei Nishikori who beat him in Madrid this year. Hey, who knows? Fed isn't feeling any pressure to beat Rafa anymore, maybe it'll help him settle down.

Prediction: Rafael Nadal def. Roger Federer

Semis

Prediction: Novak Djokovic def. Tomas Berdych

Novak should run away against Berdych. His name is name is branded on Tomas's backside right under the words "PROPERTY OF". Expect another adorably sad congratulatory tweet from the Birdman.

Prediction: Rafael Nadal def. Jerzy Janowicz

I expect Jerzy to give Rafa his first real test, but beating Rafa in a best-of-five format is one of the hardest things to do in tennis. Jerzy is still too erratic on serve to really corner Rafa too much.

Final

Prediction: Rafael Nadal def. Novak Djokovic

This will be a coronation on Rafa's season: owning the hard courts over Novak Djokovic. Nole has been struggling mentally in big moments as of late whereas Rafa has been thriving. This should be another epic. Bring the popcorn, and keep a second and third bag on standby. You will probably need to eat during what should be a 48-hour match.

(Note: I will be at Flushing Meadows Friday checking out the last  of qualifying. Come say hi!)

Draw-some: U.S. Open Women's Draw Preview

This is it. Last major of the year. Let's make it count.

Although it is Sugarpova-free, the ladies' draw is quite tasty with opportunities abound for many players. Time to dig in!

Quarter 1

Serena. That's all.

Okay fine, there are other players here. Angelique Kerber anchors the next eighth of the draw also inhabited by Venus Williams. One blockbuster to look out for is Serena's potential Aussie Open rematch with Sloane Stephens. Cannot wait for the hyperbole of that. Sloane has to get through Jamie Hampton in the third round first.

Prediction: Serena Williams def. Kaia Kanepi

Quarter 2

Aga's quarter has a couple of land mines, but most are on the other half where they will likely be stepped on way before she has to see any of them. Her side is not completely free of threats, with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Ekaterina Makarova, and Sabine Lisicki occupying various places. Out of all of them, however, I only trust Makarova to live up to her seeding where I expect Aga to out-craft the Russian southpaw.

The other half of this quarter is lead by the volatile Li Na. Luckily, her section seems clear of high levels of danger. That's bad news for Jelena Jankovic, however, who has Madison Keys and the winner of Puig-Kleybanova in the first two rounds, with Sorana Cirstea as a projected third rounder. Oh my goodness.

Prediction: Agnieszka Radwanska def. Jelena Jankovic

Quarter 3

The top seed is Errani, but this quarter is all about Caroline Wozniacki. This is it. This is her comeback draw. She's been playing much better this summer and the draw gods have granted her the easiest path any woman can ask for. I haven't forgotten my pick for Woz to win the U.S. Open this year way back in January. I don't think it will happen, but this is her best chance yet to re-announce herself as a relevant player in the upper crust of the circuit.

Oh yeah, there are players other than Caro! Most of the notable ones (Simona Halep, Donna Vekic, Svetlana Kuznetsova) are on Errani's side. Really uninteresting quarter other than Woz's wide open path to the semis.

Prediction: Caroline Wozniacki def. Simona Halep

Quarter 4

All I want in life is a Petra Kvitova-Victoria Azarenka rematch. We've been teased and taunted for two years and it hasn't happened. They are once again drawn into the same quarter. Vika is solid. She will get there. It's all up to Petra, as it usually is. Will she be able to find the court for long enough to win four consecutive matches? WHO KNOWS.

Other happenings: Andrea Petkovic could meet Petra in the second round, Sam Stosur has a pretty nice path to the Round of 16, and Christina McHale could reignite the spark with against a struggling Julia Goerges in her opener.

Prediction: Victoria Azarenka def. Petra Kvitova

Semis

Serena Williams def. Agnieszka Radwanska

We've seen this movie before. Serena should dominate if her serve is clicking and isn't ailed by a stomach bug.

Vicotoria Azarenka def. Caroline Wozniacki

I really expect this to be a tough one, but Vika is just too solid off both wings and can push just as much as Caro without giving away too much.

Final

Vicotoria Azarenka def. Serena Williams

I really think that this is the time Vika breaks through Serena at a Grand Slam. She's hungry and she has the game to challenge Serena as she has proven here last year, in Doha in February, and in Cincinnati just a few days ago. I expect another thriller.