Day 3 of the U.S. Open

I'm trying to shorten these up, so lets get right to the news and happenings of the day.

#15 seed Sam Stosur and #17 seed Amelie Mauresmo both lost today. Mauresmo losing to a game opponent in Aleksandra Wozniak, and Stosur losing to young American Vania King. Odds are you will see both Stosur and Mauresmo along with Martina Navratilova drowning their sorrows at a local pub with a rainbow on the door. I wonder if Martina's chopper seats three?

The women's side offered up a few more upsets today. Kim Clijsters outlasted #14 Marion Bartoli. A match which I made one of my upset picks of today. My other upset pick was Anna Chakvetadze over Vera Zvonareva. I was wrong on that one, but Chakvetadze gave her a good match. Zvonareva won a tough 3 set match..... #20 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues fell victim to Kristen Flipkens of Belgium, but probably the biggest shocker was #12 Aggie Radwanska losing to Russian Maria Kirilenko. Kirilenko was at one time a top 15-20 player, but really had not done much of not the past year and a half surprised Radwanska who in all reality was playing pretty average tennis the past 6 months. Maybe Kirilenko is starting to put her game back together again and is ready to make another run. Or has Radwanska fallen victim to the curse of Verdasco? Wait and see I guess.

Both Venus and Serena overpowered lesser opponents in easy victories.....Victoria Azarenka made short work of Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova..... and the hot Flavia Pennetta "double bageled" Sania Mirza. On a side note there has been lots of attention to how gorgeous or pretty Sania Mirza is. I just don't see it. That is all.

The men's side of things was much more quiet. Rafa Nadal smoked, or should i say "snorted" Dick Gasquet in straight sets..... "The Rog" beat Simon Greul in straight sets in a night session match. Greul the Steve Nash lookalike gave Federer a tough hard fought match. He didn't just roll over and let the moment beat him......Lleyton Hewitt put a whoopin on his "loogie nemesis" Juan Ignacio Cha Cha Chela. After the beatdown they had a nice handshake. Looks like the hatchets were buried.......Seeded players Juan Martin Del Potro, David Ferrer, Gael Mon chi chi Monfils, and Gilles Simon all won their first round matchups with little trouble.....Today saw both Marat Safin and Fabrice Santoro close out their Grand Slam careers in disappointing losses. Jurgen Melzer took out Safin in a match that I had predicted yesterday, and Juan Carlos Ferrero beat the magician Santoro. Both players will be missed. Safin for his volatile attitude, and Santoro for his odd and crazy style of play. Hopefully both have a change of heart and give it another go in 2010....... There was no real surprises in the men's side today. Everything pretty much went as predicted.

Looking forward to tomorrow (Thursday) there isn't very many intriguing matchups. On Ashe Dementieva-Oudin start it out. Dementieva should crush the youngster. Jankovic plays some girl from Kazakhstan. When you play someone from Kazakhstan its like getting a bye. James Blake plays one of the midget Rochus brothers named Olivier. Knowing Blake he could pull a choke job, but I don't see it happening. In the night session Maria Sharapova plays jabroni American Christina McHale. Someone tell me how Sharapova gets these primetime night matches. It doesn't make sense. Rounding out the night session is Andy Roddick and Marc Gicquel. One thing I will predict is Roddick will be a sweaty pig by about the first changeover. The crafty Frenchman won't put up much of a fight. Roddick in straight sets.

Lets see if there might be any upset specials for day 4. I can see Gisela Dulko giving "Flying" Bondarenko sister Alona a tough match. Also American Jesse Witten may surprise Maximo Gonzalez and move into the 3rd round. I'm not real confident in either pick, but just a couple things to look for..... My one upset pick I do like is #15 Radek Stepanek losing to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. Stepanek plays like he doesn't really care if he wins or loses a lot of the time and Mayer has been playing well since his upset of James Blake at the French. Look for him to keep his hot streak going and take out the Czech who bones Nicole Vaidisova. (yeah, i don't get that one either. She could do so much better, just ask Gimeldouche.)

No real "BIG" matches tomorrow. No matchups that make you all excited. But these are normally the days when weird things happen. And hopefully one of them weird things is Roddick getting his ass kicked on center stage in primetime.