Hi All,

I’m busy typing this on my flight from Dayton, OH to White Plains, NY. (via Philladelphia) We lost to the Bryans last night. We lost the first set and were 5-1 up in the 2^nd set breaker and it felt as if we lost 6 coin tosses in a row (now that’s unlucky?!?!) to end up losing 13-11 in the 2^nd set breaker. A tie-breaker: Also commonly know as a heart-breaker….

The Bryans, no doubt, were sound asleep and were probably looking forward to playing the semi’s, while I was in my hotel room at midnight trying to plot my next movements across the USA. At 1am I finally decided on a flight and had to go through 3 different websites because they didn’t like the billing address I was using. After that it was on to a car rental, which was a little easier and then I made preparations for arrival with the tournament in New Haven. (Hotel booking, airport pickup etc) I’m arriving Sat afternoon in White Plains and on Sun I’m off to JFK to pick up my wife and daughter (and friend) and then hopefully will make the quick trip back to New Haven, CT.

I’ve just been to the toilet on the plane, or as the Americans like to say, “restroom”. (I get the feeling that “toilet” is seen as a crude word here. I guess “restroom” seems to soften the blow….maybe you’re not supposed to let everyone know what you need to do – if you go to the “restroom”, you could just be going to wash your hands, but there are normally only two things you can do when you go to the toilet…..)

I’m on a rather small passenger jet and I’d love to see Ivo Karlovic (6’10) get up to use the restroom on this flight. I’m 6’5 and I feel like I have to get into this amazing gymnastic position (didn’t know I was that flexible) to just fit inside and close the door. Now I certainly don’t want to see Ivo Karlovic with his pants down but I just don’t see how it’s possible for him to fit in there! He’d probably have to ask the lady in 28D to move out so he can leave the door open and then shoot for the hoop a metre away…..hopefully that’s all he’d want to do….otherwise I’d make sure I’m up in the front.

So, as I write, it’s a Federer/Murray semi and a Nadal/Djokovic semi. I doubt it’s going to be a Federer/Nadal final though. Federer downplays his losses to Murray but I think it’s because he’s on a 4 match losing streak and finds it difficult to beat him! He reminds everyone that he won the most important meeting (a year ago) in the US Open final. One thing working in Rogers favour is that he is coming off back to back grandslam wins and so the pressure may be slightly less to actually beat Murray in Cincinnati. Murray may have more to prove and Federer might feel it’s a chance to work Murray out before they meet at the US Open or maybe Aus Open where it is no doubt more important to win. I reckon both matches are going to be a 50/50 chance of either player winning.

The other night I watched an “ESPN classic” - Sampras vs Agassi 2001 US Open quarter final, night match. I picked it up from half way through the third set. All I can say is WOW. Absolutely incredible tennis. Sampras won 67 76 76 76. Federer now has 15 grand slam titles and deserves to be called the best player ever BUT in my PROFESSIONAL opinion (so no arguing here) Sampras, playing at his best at the US Open, would beat Federer playing at his best 8 out of 10 times. So come on….lets see some comments on this…..

I still back Federer as the best ever, also taking into account that if you put these guys  on a different surface then the odds on Federer greatly increase – probably to the point where Federer would win 9 out of ten times on a slow clay court. I think the amazing thing about Federer has been his consistentcy, year on year and surface to surface….No other player in the history of the game has come even close to the most  consecutive grandslam semi-final appearances as Federer – to me that is a record perhaps as incredible, if not more so, than his 15 grandslam titles….

So the soon the tour moves to one of the busiest and interesting places in the States: NYC. Will be sure to write from there.

Wes.