Cincy: Early Rounds

Another Masters Series kicked off this week for the ATP tour. After Novak Djokovic's tremendous run last week, all eyes are on him to see if he can do it...again.

Roger Federer got knocked out here last year by the brooding Scot, Andy Murray, but that is unlikely to happen again this year. Murray's current form, what will his multitude of injuries, is pretty...bad.

I read an interesting interview with Marat Safin earlier today. Basically, he stated the him and his new coach have zeroed in on what they want to fix, and that he (Safin) is not worried by his...bad...play of late, as he is looking much further into the future for results, I guess after him and his coach 'fix' certain elements of his game. It is a shame to see him in this shape, as he is so capable of so much more. Or is he? Maybe his time, like that of Roddick, Henman, Hewitt, and others, is just over.

This tournament also sees the return of 6'9" John Isner to the tour, as he received a WC into Cincy. Unfortunately, his fairy tale run of DC will not be repeated, as he has already lost in the first round to Spaniard David Ferrer. It was a straight sets win, with the first set...yup, you guessed, a tiebreak!

Also of note, Indy champion Dmitry Tursunov is already out in the first round, same as last week. He has such a monster game, it would be great to see him work on some consistency week to week. Like Safin, you never know what to expect. Maybe it is a Russian thing.

And one of my favorites, Jonas Bjorkman, is also out of the singles in the first round. Actually, this is good, because when he does well in singles, the doubles suffers, and let's face it, that is where he belongs. We haven't seen much out of him and Max so far this year, so maybe they'll make some noise this week.

All for now...I need to go check the order of play to see what juicy matches are coming up!