US Open 2010 - Preview

US open, the last Grand Slam of the year, starts in less than a week from now. US open courts are the fastest among the slams and suit big servers a lot. Defending champion Del Potro has officially withdrawn from the men's singles championship. Seeding were announced yesterday. Now the qualifiers are going on and the draws are scheduled to be out on 26th August. Irrespective of how the draws pan out, here we shall look at the potential contenders for the US open crown this year.

Rafael Nadal is the world No 1 and is seeded No 1 in US open as well. He is the reigning French and Wimbledon champion and he is the clear favorite for US open title. If he wins US open this year, he would be completing the career slam as only the seventh person to do so. His hard court form is not that great having been knocked out of Rogers cup and Cincinnati Masters. However there are rumours that US open court might be slowed down for reasons unknown. If that happens, one need not look beyond Nadal for this year's champion.

Roger Federer regained his world No 2 ranking last week. He has been in good form in hard court events like Rogers cup and Cincinnati masters. He seems to have come out of the shock defeats he had to endure in French Open and Wimbledon this year. He is still the Australian Open champion and fancies his chances in faster courts where his serve and volley approach works quite well. He has no pressure whatsoever entering US open, as he is neither the defending champion nor the world No 1. Federer certainly has the form and history (five time champion at US open) to see him through.

Andy Murray, the British hope, was in terrific form at Toronto where he defeated Federer to take the title. However he got beaten up by unseeded Fish at Cincinnati. Murray has a good all round game which simply suits hard courts. As always, media pressure mounts on him once he reaches the semi finals of the slams. US open also won't be that different. If he can surpass the outside pressures, Murray can not get a better opportunity to lift a Grand Slam crown which he fully deserves.

Novak Djokovic is a good player. That is all about him. I stopped having any great expectation about him as he has the habit of getting kicked out surrendering meekly to arbitrary opponents. On his day, Djokovic can defeat any player on earth. He is too inconsistent to expect him to lift the US open crown. There are quite a few valid points behind backing Djokovic to enter the semi finals atleast.

Robin Soderling is a good player with great forehand and he also lacks consistency. Andy Roddick is growing old and his game has become too predictable. Tomas Berdych is improving with every slam and he has the game to surprise a few top ranked guys. Nikolay Davydenko is a fighter and I do not expect him to go too far into the torunament. Fernando Verdasco has the game to trouble even Nadal, but on present form he stands less chance against top ranked players.There are other potentially good players on hard courts like Marcos Baghdatis, Marin Cilic, David Nalbandian, Lleyton Hewitt who can trouble the top seeds on their day.

I expect the top 4 ranked players to reach the semi finals of US open this year. From there on, it will be any body's title. Nadal is slightly ahead of others in the title race. I would back Federer to win this US open to add to his already five wins at the Arthur Ashe stadium. We are in for a treat during the first two weeks of September and some great matches are about to be played. I am geared up to witness another potential final between Federer and Nadal.