Day 1 of The U.S. Open

Day 1 at the U.S. Open on the women's side pretty much went as planned. There was no "huge" upsets. The big surprise was how razor thin close Venus Williams was to being given the boot out of the tournament by a relative unknown, but one of my favorite names Vera Dushevina. Venus was 2 points away from being eliminated in straight sets, and being sent home for the first time in the 1st round of the U.S. Open. But on a bad knee she fought hard, and with the combination of Dushevina's nerves kicking it, Venus was able to come back and win the 2nd set and take control of the 3rd and not look back and luckily advance. In her post match interview she talked about how she is going to need "prayer, ice, and do whatever she can do", to make it better so she can play. Its a little dramatic if you ask me. These types of injuries are more and more common in tennis at this moment. Plus she seemed to look better and better as the match went on. So i'm not really buying it. She may be hurt, but its not as bad as she wants everyone to believe it is. Keep playing to the crown Venus I'm sure it will help in some future matches, and if that knee still is bothering you, you can always amputate.

Serena in her match today cruised to an easy win over fellow American Alexa Glatch....Kim Clijsters rolled to an easy win in her return to Grand Slam action, after having a baby and retiring..... WTA tour "geezer" Jill Craybas won and advances to a 2nd round matchup with Elena Vesnina...... Flavia Pennetta continues her hot summer and will be in the 2nd round...... Only 2 seeds lost in the first day on the women's side. Tennis mom Sybille Bammer the 28 seed lost to the Spanish woman with 4 names Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, and the 25th seed Kaia Kanepi also lost, but to an unknown named Kai-Chen Chang of Chinese Taipei or for those that recognize them as Taiwan..... Day 1 on the womens side was quite quiet even for a day with both Williams' sisters playing. Kind of shocking really.

The men on day one were just as boring as the women unfortunately. Roger Federer in an attempt to win his 6th straight U.S. Open beat up on an 18 year old American by the name of Devin Britton. (yeah, I've never heard of him either) Britton although didn't look all that bad and could be the next Mardy Fish or Robert Kendrick. Hopefully he continues to work on his game and doesn't become the next Justin Gimelstob..... Andy Roddick put the "POW" to Bjorn Phau in straight sets in a match that didn't end until almost 1 in the morning. Roddick will face veteran Frenchman Marc Gicquel in round 2......James Blake who has been bothered by a broken toe, because he got pissed he lost a previous match and kicked a wall won on Monday, defeating unknown Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo. Blake will face one of the midget Rochus brothers Olivier in the 2nd round..... Soderling, Davydenko, Hewitt, Kohlschreiber, Stepanek, and Haas were the other seeds advancing.......2 seeds became upset victims. 26 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu lost to Russian Mikhail Youzhny, which in my opinion isn't much of an upset. Both players are pretty even..... American John Isner who has been playing well this summer in the U.S. Open series events upset 28 seed Victor Hanescu of Romania. And this as well isn't that huge of an upset. Isner playing in front of a home crowd and on somewhat on a roll outlasted the seeded Romanian.

I can't really complain about the TV coverage on the first day. ESPN did a solid job and stayed on the air from 1p.m until the completion of the Roddick-Phau match which ended at about 10 minutes to 1. Seeing Mike and Mike on the grounds makes me gag a little bit, and wondering why in the hell Hannah Storm is a studio analyst is confusing, for how she struggles to say many of the foreign players names. Oh well, its atleast tennis and I don't have to see Colin Cowherds face for a couple weeks. Thank you ESPN.

Anyways looking forward to tomorrow: Kuznetsova, Safina, Djokovic will all play their day matches at Arthur Ashe stadium court. The night matches will feature the overrated Maria Sharapova and a interesting match between up-and-comer Ernests Gulbis and the favorite of many to win this tournament Andy Murray. Gulbis has struggled for most of this season, but has the hard hitting tools to make it a competitive match.

Upset pick for Day 2: The 19th seeded woman Patty Schnyder of Switzerland will lose to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, also look for Shahar Peer of Isreal to take out the 32nd seed Agnes Szavay. I do not see any real upsets on the men's side for Day 2.

Day One was a solid day of tennis without any real shocking moments. Maybe day 2 will be a day where a favorite will lose. We'll have to wait and see.