There are a few places left in the US Open, but there aren’t too many Americans who have gotten into it. There were three men who got onto it on the draw, two of whom were over 25 years old and one who is 20. Usually, this is where people look for young tennis talent when they move forwards. But with the older players right there, it’s harder to know where the new American players are going to be. It isn’t much better on the women’s side. The US Open is going to start in just a little while and of course you’re going to see some of the best players competing. But you would have hoped that we could get some more young players in there to get some Grand Slam experience. Next year?

Ok, so the title is a little misleading, because he didn’t protest all that loudly or anything. Rafael Nadal has been injured for much of the season and dropped out of the #1 spot over the course of the year. He came out yesterday saying that the tennis season is much too long. It lasts from January 1 to December 5. That’s 12 months of active competition. He says that that’s dangerous for the players, because they have to run around the whole time and possibly harm their own bodies as time moves forwards. As the season runs forwards, they will just push themselves and possibly run their bodies into the ground. Nadal’s knee tendinitis has caused problems for him all year and he thinks it might be because there are so many tournaments all year and you feel obligated to compete in all of them.

When we’re thinking about the tennis world right now, it’s getting to be interesting. Soon the US Open will begin and people are starting to wonder who might be able to pull it out. There are lots of interesting possibilities on the women’s side alone. Before, in Toronto, Sarapova and Dementieva battled it out for an exciting championship, and Dementieva was able to win it. After that, the whole thing is back up in the air. Some people still seem to like Safina, but it’s not completely clear why. Yes, she’s #1 but she’s been having trouble getting herself into the final rounds of the Grand Slam titles for a long time. In a way, she has had this problem for years now. But with Sarapova and Dementieva grinding it out, it could actually be a very exciting Grand Slam tournament once again.

It feels like we’re back to normal in the tennis world. For awhile it looked like Nadal was going to sweep the season, then it looked like Federer would. But now they are both back on the ATP tour. At the Cincinnati event, Federer, Nadal and Murray all have quarterfinal berths, as well as several other lesser known players. Federer had a tough time against his opponent but ultimately outlasted him to reach that level of the competition. Murray is having an outstanding year right now, having won several tournaments and playing his way through difficult opponents. 2009 is a fantastic year to be a tennis fan; even people who aren’t usually so interested in the sport are now joining the fan crew!

Andy Murray was able to take push back the tide that is Juan Martin del Porto. This guy is one of the best players in the country and has been able to get himself into a great position over the course of the last few tournaments. This weekend he beat out the young player del Porto. He showed that he is in probably the best physical condition of his career so far! Although del Porto had him running all over the place on the court throughout the match, Murray was able to keep up and even tire out the other guy somewhat. He looked like he would lose, though, having lost the first set and then struggled in the second. He eeked that one out and then won the final set convincingly. We’ll see how long he can continue this kind of strength moving forwards.

Rafael Nadal. What more do you need to say? He is on his way to a good showdown, it would seem, with a bunch of different players. He has been out with knee issues for many months now, and he’s pushing to get his way back into the elite of the tennis world. The site of his current improvements? Montreal. He has now seen some very tough players and beat them in short order. Nadal’s moving better, he’s standing taller and just playing better altogether. What about next time? He might not be ready to take on all the best players, but this is a good movement up. Will he start foiling Mr Federer again? It will only take a little while to find out the answers to these questions.

Even though Safina lost to Zheng, there were yet more interesting matches coming along afterwards. Flavia Pannetta got the biggest win of her career so far when she beat out Samantha Stosur in a great final match in the LA Championship. This may not be a big turning point for the world tennis scene, but it was an interesting situation for us to see. None of the really big names in the competition were in the finals or even the semis. We will continue to move on to the next tournament, with Davis Cup matches coming up as well as the US Open. It will definitely be a fun time the next couple of months, so let’s get ready for it! You can watch in person or on TV, but there will be some hard-hitting action!

At the LA Women’s Championship, Dinara Safina looked like we could count on her to win another match and head towards winning the championship. She has been winning the smaller ones trying to move forwards and keep her #1 ranking. But then came in the spry Jie Zheng, who made some strong plays and kept Safina moving around the whole time. She said that she knew that Safina didn’t move around so well and that her forehand wasn’t that great. So she played up both of those weaknesses and got a shocker win over Safina. Dinara herself said that Zheng had been able to make the real plays and that she had done well. It was a very fun afternoon of tennis with two strong players.

During a match last month, some people were upset. This isn’t usually an issue, except that the people who were upset were the four players in a doubles tournament. The play went this way: Leander Paes serving to John McEnroe. McEnroe hit back, then Paes returned and his Robert Kendrick in the side. McEnroe got upset about it and acted like he wanted to fight. Then he said “are you serious??” and paced back and forth, snarling a bit. Then a few minutes later, Kendrick drilled Paes and made the universe even-keeled again. Here we are! That’s it, really. But looking at the first hit, a veteran observer said that it wasn’t clearly intentional, nor was it at point-blank range. It was just a mistake really and this kind of thing happens in the course of doubles tournaments especially. Interesting to think about though.