Cincy -

Cincinnati

I missed the tournament at Montreal, so for me Cincinnati was my first masters event of the summer. I ended up sliding in on a wild card entry with young American, Sam Querrey. In the first round, we drew Nenad Zimonjic and Novak Djokovic. It was quite a tough draw as Djoko was straight off his win in Montreal and Zimo is quite the accomplished doubles player. We got up early, but went down 6-3, 6-4.

Other notes from the tourney.....

Upset-day (Weds) - The day started off with Hewitt handling Gasquet. I don't really consider this an upset, cause Hewitt has a very impressive record against the young Frenchman.

Soon to follow, was my DP (Querrey) getting it done against Mikhail Yhouzny. Yhouzny just reached a career high last week ( #10), so this was a big win for Sam.

Next to fall was Nadal, who suffered an injury and went down to Monaco. This sounds like a bad loss for Nadal, and probably was, but Monaco is confident and is ranked #25 for a reason. That reason may be that he's won 3 tour events this year.

And...to cap off the day...Novak Djokovic, after showing the world that he's ready to be considered in the top of the men's game, bombed out to former Cincy champ, Carlos Moya in his first match.

Behind the Scenes....
A lot of people wonder what players get up to when they aren't playing matches. The player's lounge is often full of tvs, computers and sometimes video games. I'm not a huge arcade game player, but this week I decided to give Mrs. Pac Man a go. I've played the game before, but decided I was really going to figure it out. I was in the middle of posting my biggest score of the week (33,000), when Andy Murray came behind me and started verbally abusing me for my poor play. I thought this was another case of Andy shooting his mouth, but when he took control the next game, I was very impressed. After watching him post 83,000 (my best for the week was 53k, and I was in the zone for that game) I picked up a few techniques...

1. Its all about eating up the ghosts, especially in the early rounds. You need to get all 4 almost every time.

2. They never change direction, so sometimes you can follow them and they won't turn around and get you.

3. From watching Andy, it helps to talk trash to the ghosts. I never realized Pac-Man could be a game of confidence...but he was often berating the ghosts for how slow they were. It seemed to really work well.

That's the news from Cincy....

DC -

So, the US Open..."ROAD TRIP" is in full swing, and although I am not winning many matches, the tourneys roll on. This week's stop, DC.

I'd love to know people's thoughts on this "US Open Series." I feel like the idea is good, but it's not really catching on. I think the lack of top players is hurting it, although that will change in Montreal and Cincy, the next two stops. In LA, Indy and DC, pretty much the top names we are seeing is Roddick, Blake, Safin and Gonzolez. I don't think this is enough star power to get people excited enough. While I absolutely love the Federer-Nadal rivalry, I don't think we are hurt by it in a way over here, because they play so much of their tennis over in Europe. Sidenote, don't know if anyone has noticed, but after winning Stuttgart, a Gold Series ATP event, Nadal has stretched his lead over Federer in the ATP Race, 936-801. Now obviously there is still 1 slam left (US Open) along 4 Master's Events (Montreal, Cincy, Madrid, Paris) and the year-end championships (Shanghai), none of which are on clay, Nadal's best surface. But....135 points is a size-able lead for Rafa. Anyone doubting Fed's ability to still get the #1 year end ranking???? Nah, me either.

Anyway, me recent early round losses have given me a chance to sit back and watch some of the tennis being played...Here's what has impressed me so far.

DROPPING BOMBS - Sam Querry hit 10 consecutive aces against James Blake in a 3 set victory in the quarterfinals of Indy. I think a lot of players have had those games where they hit 3 aces and want to hit 4 in a row to finish off a game, but they smash two serves about 10 feet long. Well, only Sam knows how it feels to do that, then do it again, and then tack on a couple more after. Well done...wonder if it helps being about 6'12"!!!!

WAITING FOR SO LONG - Frank Dancevic breaking through to make the Indy finals, beating Roddick along the way. Frank is talented and has been on the verge of making a big result in a big tournament for a while now. This could be the stepping stone he needed to move his game up to the top 50.

LOVE YOUR STYLE - Somdev Devarmen - I got to watch Somdev play in qualifying at the Legg Mason and could not have been more impressed. I know winning the NCAA's this year, he should be confident. But disposing of veteran Andre Sa, 6-2, 6-1 was one of the more impressive performances I've seen. Somdev doesn't have a ton of power, but has the speed, feel and placement of a world class player. Even more than his skills, I was so impressed with his focused, calm, positive attitude and I am looking for huge things from him in the future.

That's the latest news from the tour....

- Booty