Day 8 of the U.S. Open

How impressive has Caroline Wozniacki been this week?  For someone who's game isn't that powerful, and has been criticized for being a "pusher", which basically means she just gets the ball in, almost never trying to hit a winner.  Relying on her opponent to make the errors, for her to get points and therefore a win.  She must be damn good, to be a "pusher" and kick everyone's ass put in front of her.  Its not only this week, but she has won the previous 2 tournaments coming into the U.S. Open.  She is absolutely on fire, playing excellent tennis.  I really cannot see how anyone can beat her right now.  If you break it down, she has Dominika Cibulkova next.  Well they have almost mirror image games, but Wozniacki is about 2 steps ahead of her.  So that should be a fairly easy win.  After that would be a semifinal match between Zvonareva or Kanepi.  Wozniacki will be the heavy favorite against either of those women.  The final will be a tough match against either Clijsters, Venus, Schiavone or Stosur.  Wozniacki matches up really well against all them players other than Clijsters.   It would make for a rematch of last years final, and a really good matchup sylistically to watch.  Who knows how its all going to unfold, but after this week, and watching Wozniacki dismantle a lot of the experts pick to win this Maria Sharapova, I always doubted Wozniacki, and her style, but she has gained my respect.  She definitely is for real.

While Wozniacki is the real deal,  Svetlana Kuznetsova, not so much.  Kuznetsova has been on the WTA Tour for what seems like forever, and has 2 Grand Slam titles. Basically a shoe-in for the tennis hall-of-fame, but for all the experience she has gained you would think she would be mentally prepared for hard times on the court.  That is not the case for "Kuzie", on Monday she got frazzled by Dominika Cibulkova who is a little waterbug on the court.  She is Melanie Oudin, but actually good.  Cibulkova is only 5'2" but is quick and makes you play every point.  Cibulkova does not have the talent of Kuznetsova, but there is one thing she has that Svetlana does not, and that is mental toughness.  Kuznetsova lost the match in 7-5, 7-6, but "Kuzie" had all the opportunities in the world to make this an easy win.  She ran out to a 4-2 lead in the first set, and was a point away from being up 5-1.  Then in the 2nd set Kuznetsova had a 3-1 lead, but in both of the sets Cibulkova fought for every point and managed to get back into the match.  I'm not sure what Kuznetsova expected from Cibulkova, maybe that she would roll over and die?  Instead, Svetlana got tight, and in the match served 10 double faults and had 42 unforced errors.  When the things got tough, it was Kuznetsova rolling over and dying on the court.  You would think that someone so engaging, and intelligent would be able to work through these types of problems.  It just seems like she is cursed with having mental blocks while on the court.  It makes me think, "How did she win 2 grand slam tournaments?"  Well the answer is in who she beat for them titles.  Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina.  Two people with bigger mental problems than Kuznetsova.  So if you are a fan of Svetlana Kuznetsova, get used to this kind of play from her.  I don't see it improving anytime soon.  If anything, you know her matches will not be boring.  There will be lots of ups and downs, so hop on the rollercoaster, and enjoy the ride.

In other womens matches, Kaia Kanepi was getting blown out of the water by Yanina Wickmayer in the first set.  Wickmayer took the first set 6-0, and then got up a break in the 2nd set.  It was time to put Yanina into the quarterfinals on the bracket, but then Kanepi woke up and harnessed her power, and totally shifted the momentum of the match.  Kanepi was able to win the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6.  Wickmayer then seemed to "gas out".  She has had some long grueling matches this week, and add on Kanepi's power, it just wore down the young Belgian.  Kanepi took the third set and match 6-1, and it sets up a matchup with the underrated Vera Zvonareva who had no problems with Andrea Petkovic, winning 6-1, 6-2.

The mens matches on Monday were not the most thrilling.  Gael Monfils started the day off by winning in straight sets over fellow countryman, Richard Gasquet.  Monfils now advances to the quarterfinals and face Novak Djokovic next.  Djokovic toyed with Mardy Fish and used his great athleticism and even better tactics to keep Fish on the run, and totally uncomfortable.  This was Djokovic's best match so far this tournament.  His game was on, and if he can keep this up, he'll be tough to beat.

Robin Soderling was supposed to blow Albert Montanes off the court (well atleast in my opinion), but that wasn't really the case.  Montanes won the first set over the heavily favorited Soderling.  The old Solderling would of gotten frustrated and probably lost this match, but he seemed to just accept the challenge and then got into a rhythm with his heavy ground strokes.  Once in the rhythm Montanes couldn't really do much.  Soderling pushed him well behind the baseline and when Montanes tried to answer he was so far back he didn't have much "juice" on his shots.  That would go on for the next 3 sets and Soderling was able to set up his quarterfinal date with Roger Federer, who beat Jurgen Melzer in straight sets.  It wasn't easy for Federer though, Melzer hung tough and stayed with Roger for a good two-and-a-half sets.  It was just that whenever there was a "big" point to be won, it was Federer winning it.  He was just more clutch, or a little more lucky.  Either way he was better on the scoreboard, and that is where it matters.

PREVIEW FOR TUESDAY:

Stanislas Wawrinka will beat Sam Querrey.  Wawrinka is looking really good, especially after that win over Andy Murray, and Querrey is a "choker".  That all adds up to a Wawrinka 4 set victory.

Venus Williams will get a win over Francesca Schiavone in a highly entertaining match.  Schiavone when on is as fun to watch as anyone, and she will give Venus a good fight, but for some reason I just feel that Venus is somehow going going to pull this one off, which is really unfortunate.

Kim Clijsters the defending champion will move on to the semifinals with a win over Samantha Stosur.  Stosur I have a feeling will still be fatigued from that battle with Elena Dementieva that took them past 1:30 a.m. on Sunday night.  That will be enough for Clijsters to get a straight set victory.

Rafael Nadal will spank Feliciano Lopez.  Yes, I know Lopez beat Nadal just a few weeks ago on hardcourt, well that doesn't matter.  Nadal is motivated, and the much much much better player.  Lopez will not even win a set.  Just what we all wanted, another night match blowout.

Mikhail Youzhny will take out Tommy Robredo in 4 sets.  Youzhny is playing well, but I pretty much have no faith in Robredo.  I picked him to lose in the first round, so with every win he shocks me more and more, and makes me think the next match is the one he will lose.  Which will be this match.

And last but not least, the best match of the day:  David Ferrer vs. Fernando Verdasco.  Coming into the U.S. Open, neither one of these guys did anything substantial on the hardcourts over the summer.  Verdasco lost early at Wimbledon and was really struggling.  Ferrer was a little more solid, but not getting tremendous results.  Now fast forwarding to today, Ferrer has yet to lose a set at the U.S. Open and Verdasco is coming off a impressive blowout of a in-form David Nalbandian.  Verdasco has a history of hardcourt success, like last years Australian Open run that took him to the semifinals and almost to the final, but he lost that epic 5 set battle with Rafael Nadal.  Going by trends, this is also the time that Ferrer normally flames out of Grand Slam tournaments.  I would absolutely love to see Ferrer beat Verdasco, and get his chance to play at night against Rafael Nadal, but that almost seems too good to be true.  Verdasco will win this match in 4 sets.