2009 US Open First Round Top Quarter Picks

Roger Federer (1) def. Devin Britton
The top player in the world begins his quest for a sixth straight US Open title against the 1,364th ranked player on tour.  Good luck, kid.

Giovanni Lapentti def. Simon Greul
Greul is 1-6 at the majors and 0-1 at Flushing, so I’ll give the edge to the qualifier, who has at least been winning matches already this week.

Juan Ignacio Chela def. Oscar Hernandez
Hernandez beat Chela in straight sets this year in Austria, but that match was played on clay.  Outside of the French Open, Hernandez is 1-14 at majors, including an 0-4 mark in Queens.  Chela, on the other hand, reached the quarters here the last time he played in 2007.

Lleyton Hewitt (31) def. Thiago Alves
Alves has never lost an opening round match at the Open (2-0), but neither has Hewitt (9-0).

Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo def. James Blake (21)
Not a good first round matchup for Blake, who lost to Ramirez-Hidalgo in a hard court event three years ago.  Blake could be in danger of exiting his third straight Grand Slam without a match win.

Olivier Rochus def. Igor Kunitsyn
Rochus has had a little more success at this event and holds a much better wining percentage this year, despite a lower ranking.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Peter Polansky
Garcia-Lopez has only lost once in his previous seven Grand Slam opening matches.

Tommy Robredo (14) def. Donald Young
The qualifier should be no match for this five-time Round of 16 combatant.

Robin Soderling (12) def. Albert Montanes
Montanes defeated Soderling at the 2007 French, when the Swede was forced to retire down a set, but the 12-seed has had much more success than his opponent at hard court majors.

Mischa Zverev def. Marcel Granollers
These two are pretty evenly matched, but I’ll give the edge to Zverev who has a better hard court record.

Dudi Sela def. Kevin Kim
Coming off a fourth round finish at Wimbledon, Sela is looking to continue his rise up the rankings as he faces an American he beat in a non-Tour event last year.

Sam Querrey (22) def. Michael Yani
Querrey reached the Round of 16 in 2008, so he should have no problem with the qualifier.

Paul-Henri Mathieu (26) def. Mikhail Youzhny
Youzhny leads the all-time series, 4-1, and his only loss came in two tiebreakers this year.

Marco Chiudinelli def. Potito Starace
Starace has lost his last nine hard court major matches, so I see no reason why the qualifier can’t knock him off.

Rainer Schuettler def. Jan Hernych
Schuettler is 2-0 in his career against Henrych and the German has had more success at the majors.

Nikolay Davydenko (8) def. Dieter Kindlmann
In his past three US Opens, Davydenko has reached the semis twice and the fourth round once.

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Jordan Schwartz is Bleacher Report's New York Yankees Community Leader. His book "Memoirs of the Unaccomplished Man" is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and authorhouse.com.

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