TENNIS.com Sunday picks:

Marion Bartoli (FRA)[10] v. Serena Williams (USA)[8]Arthur Ashe Stadium – 1st match

Serena has yet to hit her stride, but she’ll have to start doing it from here on in, because her potential road looks something like this: Bartoli, Henin, Venus/Ivanovic/Jankovic, some poor, unsuspecting finals opponent.

Illness and exhaustion have contributed to making the hardcourt summer a poor one for Bartoli, but the Wimbledon finalist has turned things around nicely now she’s back in a big event again.

The two have only played once before, at Miami in 2003. If memory serves correctly, Serena was familiar with Bartoli even at the time – Richard Williams had struck up a rapport with Bartoli’s father and coach, Walter, and the two players had hit briefly.

Bartoli firmly believes she can win this latest encounter, but then again, she was a set and a break down against Justine Henin at Wimbledon and still believed she could win that match. It happened – and beating Serena could too, but the odds are against it. Serena has a better serve and much better movement, so even if Bartoli is striking her two-fisted strokes extremely well, Serena will still control most of the match. She just has to make sure her hits outnumber her misses.

Prediction: Serena Williams

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) v. Rafael Nadal (ESP)[2]Arthur Ashe Stadium – 2nd match

Tsonga’s potential is finally coming to the fore this year after a length spell of back trouble. It’s been felt in full force by Andy Roddick (Tsonga won a 20-18 tiebreaker against Roddick at the Australian Open) and much of the challenger and futures circuit (where he won 25 of 26 matches during one stretch). When he lost to compatriot and friend Richard Gasquet in the fourth round of Wimbledon, Gasquet observed that Tsonga could end the year in the top 20 if he could keep up his form.

But Tsonga didn’t play again till New Haven and lost in the first round, but made a little run here and ended Tim Henman’s Grand Slam career in the process. It will probably stop here against Nadal, but there could be a whole lot of very entertaining tennis played before that happens.

Nadal looked better in his second-round match after being severely hampered by left knee trouble during his first round. If the laser treatments he’s been getting live up to their publicity and he can run and push off his left leg as normal, Nadal should able to counter Tsonga’s shot-making and grind him down. If he’s a bit restricted and Tsonga gets hot, an upset is possible.

Prediction: Nadal

Venus Williams (USA)[12] v. Ana Ivanovic (SRB)[5]Arthur Ashe Stadium – 3rd match

As Ivanovic tells it, somewhere in her house there’s a photo of her and Venus – snapped by Mario Ancic’s tennis-playing sister Sanja – taken when Ivanovic was a star-struck junior and Venus was already one of the world’s top players.

They’ve met a few times since, and Venus has won all three encounters with increasing ease. That’s something Ivanovic is keen to reverse, particularly since the last meeting was just a couple of months ago in the semifinals of Wimbledon.

Venus has looked sharp since the tournament begun, though she struggled a little with her serve in her last match. If that happens again and Ivanovic finds the range with her forehand, she could end up notching her first win against the two-time former champ. But if Ivanovic is nervous and her own serve goes off a bit, Venus could find the going easy again.

Prediction: Ivanovic