The period of the time where the entire population are tennis fans is now over and attention has turned to golf and then cricket as people fill the void created by there being no football on. Even for actual tennis fans, there doesn't seem to have been much going on. The US Open series is slowly getting underway, but the top 4 aren't likely to be in action until Andy Murray inevitably wins in Montreal to get our hopes up for a good US Open run before crashing out to a mediocre player in a particularly frustrating manner. However, that doesn't mean there hasn't been plenty of action.
Mardy Fish might win the US Open Series
The US Open series does not entirely make sense. Most years it is won by Federer or Murray but the 2009 winner was Sam Querrey. He did this by virtue of winning one tournament, Los Angeles, and doing very little else. This years series began in Atlanta, which had a very retro line up of Xavier Mallise, Tommy Haas and Lleyton Hewitt. Mardy Fish and John Isner had a fairly epic battle in the final with Isner having two MPs before Fish triumphed in three. Winning a tournament by beating Mahut, Deverrman, Harrison and Isner gets almost as much points as Murray will get for winning Montreal. Fish is lining up in Los Angeles this week, and although JMDP is probably favourite for the title, a good run by Fish could see him secure the US Open Series before Murray et al even go on court in Montreal.
James Ward does something again
After his epic run at Queens, James Ward reverted to type and stopped winning any matches for a while. He was comprehensively dismantled by Gilles Muller in the Davis Cup too. However, at the Lexington Challenger last week Ward had an impressive run to the final and approached a new career high. He was seeded 1, and lost in the final when he finally faced a player I had heard of, but it is a step in the right direction. Jamie Baker also reached the quarters in an impressive week for the Brits.
We have an answer to the question of whether a random club player would win points off Andy Murray
The answer is no, after ex-pro Laurent Bram could only win 15 points in a 6-0 6-0 6-0 victory in the Davis Cup. Dunblane went on to win the tie 3-0 and now face Hungary, while England could only draw 1-1 and face a tough replay in Luxembourg City. Rumours that Brams performance was still impressive enough for the LTA to offer him funding were denied.
Finally, the new youngsters are making a move
Ryan Harrison made it into the top 100 with his performance in Atlanta. He has had a fairly impressive year after breaking through in last years US Open. Tomic, Raonic, Dimitrov and Harrison are all now in the top 100 and there may finally be some new players challenging at the top in the next year. Tomic could have beaten eventual champion Djokovic at Wimbledon had he not lost concentration for a set, while Dimitrov also made headlines for a gallant effort against Tsonga. At least one of these four will make a big impact at the US Open.
There still isn't all that much happening
Roll on Montreal in a few weeks and the start of some tennis on Sky Sports. Otherwise we will be stuck reading about a rueing outbreak in the SPL.
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