Day 7 of the U.S. Open

FINALLY!!! One of the Williams' sisters has been eliminated. "The Gimp" Venus with her bandaged leg, which I'm sure will be used as a casual excuse for her play, even though she hasn't played worth a piss since she jobbed and let Serena win Wimbledon. Kim Clijsters continues her comeback from retirement and did us all a favor knocking out Venus....Na Li will face Clijsters in the quarterfinals after beating Francesca Schiavone on Sunday.

Serena continued her dominance (ugh) by smashing Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0.... Serena will play Italian Flavia Pennetta who is on a dominating hot streak of her own. Sunday night Pennetta beat Vera Zvonareva who was in full meltdown mode in the second half of the match. Zvonareva who looked like a mummy by all tape and bandages around both of her knees raced out and beat Pennetta 6-3 in the first set. The 2nd set was close and ended up going to a tiebreaker. Flavia was able to outlast Zvonareva and even the match with a close 7-6 set. After the tiebreaker is when it got good. Zvonareva began throwing a temper tantrum, throwing "F Bombs" at the chair umpire. Ripping at her bandages, crying, putting a towel over her head, hitting herself in the hand,knees, and head with her racket. It reallly was a thing of beauty. Reminded me of my sister at a young age. Hell at an older on as well. So that pretty much sealed the deal. Zvonareva totally went to the shitter and Pennetta dispatched her from the tournament with a 6-0 3rd set. Hopefully Pennetta can put Serena on tilt in the next round.

Mens side went as planned for the most part. Tsonga beat up on fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau...."Cheating Chilean" Fernando Gonzalez overwhelmed Tomas Berdych....Gail Monchichi Monfils put Jose Acasuso into submission who quit at the beginning of the 3rd set.....Rafa Nadal who showed signs of a stomach muscle problem got passed Nicolas Almagro, but a round of 16 matchup with Monfils will give him much more trouble.....Del Potro, Cilic, and Murray all won their matches with ease.....#9 seed Gilles Simon had to retire in his match with Juan Carlos Ferrero because of a knee injury. Simon was the only lower seed to lose on Sunday.

Monday will feature some excellent mens matchups and some not so great, but yet intriguing womens matchups.

Starting with the women: Petra Kvitova faces off with Yanina Wickmayer. I don't know diddly squat about either of these players. I do know that both will be making an improbably dream come true for them to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. I'm picking Wickmayer to continue her cinderella run with a 3 set victory.

"Flying" Bondarenko sister named Kateryna plays Argentine Gisela Dulko. Gisela Dulko is looking to take the scalp of another Bondarenko sister. She beat Kateryna's sister Alona in the 2nd round. Well its not going to happen. Kateryna gets revenge for the family and scrapes past the clay court specialist.

In a interesting matchup the 17 year old American Melanie Oudin plays Nadia Petrova. Oudin who is on an amazing streak of beating down Russians Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, and will take out Nadia Petrova who is the worst of the 3. Oudin continues her storybook run with a comfortable victory over the up-and-down Petrova.

In what could be the best matchup on either the mens or womens side Caroline Wozniacki plays Svetlana Kuznetsova under the lights at Arthur Ashe stadium. Wozniacki has just been red-hot this summer (just ask Fernando Verdasco) and has been dispatching her opponents with ease now faces her stiffest challenge (thats not named Fernando Verdasco) Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kuznetsova the French Open champion and former U.S. Open Champion is quietly working her way through the draw with little fan-fare. (thanks ESPN) Its about time both of these women get center stage in a great matchup. I would like to see Kuznetsova continue on, but I think Wozniacki who is on top of her game will come out with a victory. Either way, whoever wins this match can pretty much punch their ticket to the final. I called it here first.

Lets look at some of the mens matchups for Monday:

Roger Federer vs. Tommy Robredo. Federer should win fairly easily. Robredo is a clay courter who doesn't like the fast pace of the hard stuff. Should be too easy for "The Rog"

Robin Soderling vs. Nikolay Davydenko. This is an interesting matchup between 2 different styles. Davydenko is the small quick guy who doesn't make too many mistakes and just keeps returning anything you throw at him. Soderling has what Davydenko doesn't, and thats power. Soderlings forehand blew Rafa Nadal off the court in Paris. Its that nasty. Soderling although isn't much of a mover, he runs like his legs are in cement boots. So if Davydenko can get him going back and forth and keeping Soderling on the run he has a great chance to move on. Although I think Soderling has too much power on both his serve and ground strokes. I like Soderling to win in a tough 4 possibly 5 set match.

Novak Djokovic vs. Radek Stepanek: Stepanek is kind of a weirdo. He plays great about 35-40 percent of the time and the rest of his matches are a disaster. Well today will be a disaster. Djokovic has too much of a total game and will neutralize anything Radek throws at him. Djoker will move on in straight sets.

Fernando Verdasco vs. John Isner: Isner just played a greuling 5 setter against Roddick the other night. Verdasco also played a greuling 5 setter against Tommy Haas. The difference is Fernando is used to playing long tough matches back in Spain where playing on the clay is tough no matter how many sets. Isner blew his wad. Hes done. He's not used to playing deep into Grand Slam play, let alone 5 set matches. His lack of fitness and inexperience will show. Verdasco will win in 4 sets. Isner will win one (probably the 2nd set) in a tiebreaker and thats it.

8 pretty solid matches on Monday. Enjoy.