U.S Open 2009: 10 Notes on Days 3 and 4

(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Dementieva crashes out to a young American. Jankovic and Ivanovic continue their inconsistent play, and the men continue to roll almost entirely as expected. It's been an interesting week already out there. Let's take a look at ten more thoughts on the U.S. Open action thus far.

1. Ivanovic and Jankovic days are numbered. While Jankovic appears to have greater potential for surviving a bit longer, Ana is clearly in a spiral downward, and it's not in her head, her game needs some serious re-tooling.
2. Melanie Oudin, the young American who went into the fourth round at Wimbledon is continuing her maturation as a serious contender. You wouldn't know it watching the Dementieva match, but I'm still not convinced she's ready for a slam. Maybe by next week she will be ;)
3. The big guns on the men's side are walking through this with relative ease thus far. Federer, Nadal, Roddick (playing tonight), and Djokovic (on court now) haven't really had any kind of scare in their early matches. Perhaps expected...
4. Federer should have a solid test against Lleyton Hewitt in the third round, one of our first true showcase matches of the tournament. Expect Hewitt to fight like hell, but we all know how this should turn out.
5. Adios Marat Safin! You wowed us with crazy raw talent. You made us laugh with your on-court character, and post-match interview. You made us shake our head in astonishment that someone so talented could serve up the results you did.
6. Should Blake survive into the fourth round to face Federer and presumably lose, I would consider this a great success for the struggling American. A great success. Let's hope he moves on and beats Robredo to face Federer.
7. For the record, winning the Open will net you $1.6M, doubles teams get $420K, and mixed will net the pair $150K. What's encouraging to see is that even third round qualifying losers earn $8K for their troubles. Not bad.
8. Ok, Rafa got a haircut everyone. Is it more like Federer's like so many are noting? Well, sure, if shorter hair is more like Federer's. I don't know, seems silly.
   
9. Sharapova is on again tonight under the lights, in a showcase match. Not bad for the 20th-something seed. Do any of the players care that the one-time U.S. Open champ is being handed such prime-time t.v. space?
10. ...And finally, Kim Clijsters is on a collision course with Venus Williams should they both win their next match, and they will. I'm not sure what to say here, for whatever reason, I feel like Kim not only can win this match, I'm expecting her to. Should be fun!

Enjoy the tennis!
MarkOskar

The Tennis News Authority

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