Planting the Seeds

The seeding list for the US Open must be announced, and while most of the regular crew are in there, it's still slightly bizarre. For the first time in what feels like a thousand years, we are not going to have Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in slots #1 and #128. No, while Roger holds down #1, Andy Murray has moved into the bottom slot... which means we could potentially see a Federer/Nadal semi, a prospect which, although interesting, does not exactly fill me with joy.

Currently, Murray deserves the #2 spot. He and Federer have clearly proved that they are the players to beat on the hard courts by splitting Montreal and Cincinatti between them. However, the real great rivalry of our sport today is Federer/Nadal, and it would be a shame to see it peak in a semi final. So I'm crossing my fingers, hoping Nadal gets drawn in the third quarter and praying for the best.

The usual suspects make up the top ten - Roddick, del Potro, Tsonga, Davydenko, Verdasco and, at #9, Simon, who still hasn't dropped down the rankings yet... it has to be coming, surely? Then we have an assortment of other good guys like Soderling and Gonzalez, Haas, Cilic, Stepanek, Ferrer, Wawrinka... you know, the regular crew. But then as we get down to the mid-twenties, we come across some players I would swear are nowhere near seeding level. Mardy Fish? Victor Hanescu? Viktor Troicki?

I guess even when you write about tennis every day, you can still be a little out of touch!

Over in the women, Dinara Safina is at the top and Serena the bottom... you wouldn't put money on the seeds playing out this way, really, much as I would love Dinara to come away from New York with a title and to get that Slam final/Slamless #1 monkey off her back. Sam Stosur is seeded at #15 - go Sam! And although one of my special favourites, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, hasn't made it onto the list, my favourite up and comer, Sabine Lisicki has, at #23. I was also happy to see Sorana Cirstea on the list at #24 - I've got my eye on her. No Alize Cornet - I guess she's fallen faster than her Hopman Cup partner Simon.

So let's the game begin!

...after New Haven, anyway.


Today's Results

Pilot Pen Tennis (New Haven)

Men's Draw

Nikolay Davydenko def. Robert Kendrick, 7-6 (12-10) 6-3
Fernando Verdasco def. Paul Capdeville, 6-0 6-3
Jose Acasuso def. Tommy Robredo, 3-6 7-5 7-6 (7-5)
Igor Andreev def. Kevin Kim, 6-3 6-1
Victor Hanescu def. Janko Tipsarevic, 6-4 6-7 (8-10) 6-3
Bjorn Phau def. Nicolas Almagro, 2-6 6-3 7-5
Jurgen Melzer def. Pablo Cuevas, 6-2 3-0 retired
Frederico Gil def. Philipp Petzschner, 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (10-8) 6-3
Simone Bolelli def. Andreas Beck, 6-4 6-4
Igor Kunitsyn def. Taylor Dent, 6-3 6-4
Fabrice Santoro def. Potito Starace, 7-5 6-0
Andreas Seppi def. Yen-hsun Lu, 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5


Women's Draw

Amelie Mauresmo def. Alona Bondarenko, 6-1 6-1
Anna Chakvetadze def. Sybille Bammer, 4-6 6-4 7-5
Flavia Pennetta def. Ioana Raluca Olary, 6-1 6-2
Marion Bartoli def. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, 4-6 6-3 6-1
Samantha Stosur def. Alize Cornet, 6-7 (8-10) 6-2 6-4