A Little Rain Must Fall

Yes, it is the tennis grand slam US Open in New York.  Last night was the much anticipated match between Andy Roddick (who is retiring at the end of this event) and Juan Del Potro.  Del Po, you may remember (or know without reading my blog) has beaten all the top players and was destined to be the next great, but then he was injured and two years ago did not play and last year played marginally, but not good and this year good, but ....  So it is not impossible that Roddick who has been struggling this past year, falling out of the top ten and who never has broken into the top four, now ranked 20--it was not impossible that he could beat Del Po.  Just unlikely.  And then it rained.  And the match was postponed to today.  How agonizing.  And then it rained some more this morning.  And then I checked the computer and the match was on.  Andy won one set, but Del Potro beat him in the end and then it was all over.  The end of America's greatest hope for a great male player (no offense, Fish, Isner and Quarry, but you agree with me). 

We still have Serena.  She is playing awesome!  She lost in doubles, but I really like Kiralenko and Petrova, so it was hard to be sad about that (until they also lost today--now I don't care who wins women's doubles, although, I could be an Italian fan--Errani is quite the scrappy player, so I guess I'll root for Errani/Vinci, but I digress).  Serena is blowing through opponents that should be at least a bit of a challenge, but last year she ran out of gas at the final.  She'll have no trouble with Errani (I know, I was just saying I like her, but not as opposed to Serena, duh), but if she runs out of gas against Sharapova, this might be Maria's year.  She is definitely due to win another major--she has been working her petuka off.  She's had a lot of tough matches to get through to the semi-finals, but even though Azaraka is ranked number one, Maria wants it a lot more and she's got a lot more experience at this level.  On the other hand, women's tennis is nothing if it is not unpredicable.  What the hey, I'm going to say Serena all the way.

Men's this year are kind of boring.  All the American's are out and some of the guys that made it through to the round of sixteen, I haven't seen in years.  Kohlschreiber, Almagro?  I've seen these guys play before, but it's been a while.  No Nadal, he's injured, boo hoo.  Djokovic isn't having the slightest challenge along the way.  Federer had a walk over with Fish out injured.  Murray has had a tight couple of matches (I haven't seen the Cilic match--it's on tape, but it looks like Cilic just folded).  Tomic was supposed to be an up and comer, but he didn't get the memo and simply folded to Roddick, that was a yawner.  Isner had some very long matches, but never got very interesting.  I have to say, players that have excited in the past, just really fell flat so far.  I expected great games from Verdasco, Ferrer and Lopez.  Ferrer has played really well and Djokovic better watch out, but in the end it is going to be Djokovic vs. Federer and Murray is going to continue to be a big disappointment.  Or not.  I hope that I am wrong.  Men's tennis could use some excitement.  If Nadal doesn't come off the injured list soon, I might just fall asleep.

CBS has been covering tennis this time around and they have a cable sports network, so I can flip back and forth between two matches some time.  That was nice.  I even got to see a fair amount of doubles and I'm liking the Bryan Brother's changes for another title.

Last week in mixed doubles, Bob Bryan and Kimmy Clijsters lost.  That was Kimmy's last game before she retired.  And now Andy.  Venus is already done.  I have to say it feels like rain.