Morning, all. As you know, Pete is on vacation until August 20th. Meanwhile,this is your daily post for discussing the tennis in Cincy and Toronto, and anything else tennis-related. The Order of Play for the men in Cincy can be found here, and for the women in Toronto, use this link.
How cruel is it to be either Andy Murray or Mario Ancic today? Ancic has been on the sidelines for some months due to a nasty case of glandular fever, and Murray injured his wrist while playing in Hamburg, and has won only one match on the tour since, against a below-par Robby Ginepri in Montreal's first round last week, going down in the second round to Fabio Fognini. Both have slipped in the rankings since then. Ancic is due to face Tommy Haas later today (they last played in Davis Cup earlier this year, an encounter Haas won, though it seems likely that Ancic was already in the early stages of his illness at that point). Murray, meanwhile, faces Marcos Baghdatis, against whom he is 0-1 career-wise, after a tame defeat at Wimbledon last year.
It is interesting to see that, however some of us feel about the new doubles format, we continue to see many of the top ATP players entering in the doubles draw in Cincy and other Masters Series events. Rafael Nadal has swapped Lleyton Hewitt for Richard Gasquet this week; we also have Tomas Berdych playing with Nicolas Kiefer, Fernando Gonzalez with Ivan Ljubicic, Nicolas Almagro with David Ferrer, Novak Djokovic with his countryman Nenad Zimonjic, and Disco Tommy (Robredo) with Jurgen Melzer. The likes of James Blake have also been in action in recent weeks.
I'm not sure how many of have actually seen any of the matches - doubles isn't usually screened here in the UK, except during the Slams (or, as in Rome, when Federer and Nadal are on opposite sides of the net), and I get the sense that it isn't being seen in the US, either. But if the top players are finding it easier to compete in doubles, and, presumably, using it as a way of sharpening their match-fitness, I am finding it ever-harder to argue with the changes made to the game, at least at the top level. At the current time, it looks (at least ) to be a good way of showcasing the top players in a different context. I much prefer this idea to the discredited and abandoned Round Robin formula. I just wish that more of it could be seen on TV.
-- Rosangel