Mornin', folks. I feel obliged to write a Rafael Nadal post a little later, because he too is at a crossroads, and where his crossroads intersects with Roger Federer's crossroads you're likely to hear a screeching of brakes followed by the sound of glass exploding and metal crumpling like paper in the hands of a lover jilted the old-fashioned way. So watch for that later.
In other news, I was glad to read that Roger Federer may be playing Davis Cup in September, against Italy. Actually, in all the talk about how Federer has scaled all the peaks, it's easy to forget that he simply doesn't have the Davis Cup record of most of his fellow superstars. Some of this is a result of Federer's nation, Switzerland, not having had a realistic shot for lack of a solid no. 2 singles man - a handicap that's been alleviated by the emergence of Stan Wawrinka. It would be great to see Roger now move Davis Cup honor higher on his "to do" list, and in some ways the timing for such a decision is perfect.
John Isner is up to the same tricks that catapulted him into the limelight at the Legg Mason event in 2007, where he served his way through a succession of tiebreakers to reach the final. Yesterday, he beat Benjamin Becker in a pair of tiebreakers in Los Angeles. The scuttlebutt I've heard is that Isner simply didn't work as hard as he might have after making his debut in Washington, and that's left him spinning his wheels and unable to rely on much beyond the hope that a hot serving hand will earn him enough Ws to keep his career on track. That's a big gamble, but hey - it's his life, right?
And Svetlana Kuznetsova will be missing next week's WTA event in Carson, having withdrawn with a foot injury. Not much to say about that one, so without futher ado, I'm turning it over to you. Enjoy the tennis. Back later.
-- Pete