Some Like It Hot

In case you haven't heard, it's freakin' hot in New York.

And while ninety-plus degree weather may be great for lounging on the beach this last official week of summer, it's not exactly ideal for running around a tennis court for a couple hours.

But so far, that hasn't seemed to affect the top players at the U.S. Open. Mardy Fish's much talked-about fitness allowed him to withstand a relatively quick five setter while his first round opponent faded in the final sets. Novak Djokovic somewhat surprisingly got himself out of trouble, albeit helped by the encroaching shade late in his match, to pull out his own marathon win. Even players like Marcos Baghdatis who lost their openers did not blame the heat.

These guys are used to it -- as Andy Roddick said last year after his semifinal win in D.C., "You think this is hot, you should try playing in Houston in August." Or Florida. Or Cyprus. Or Argentina. It's a good thing they're all so well-conditioned. Today promises to be even hotter -- both in temperature and in action. A couple guys still have to finish off their first rounds, while other early victors look to continue their runs.

Fourth-seeded Andy Murray begins his campaign in New York this afternoon against Lukas Lacko, a young Serbian who beat Baghdatis at Wimbledon and kept Michael Yani on court for five hours in Paris. It should be an easy day for the Brit, as his improved fitness should help him deal with the elements. But if he's forced to chase down balls over a marathon, the exertion might eventually get to him.

I'm a little more worried about the prospects for John Isner, who faces Estoril finalist Frederico Gil on Louis Armstrong Stadium today. We all know John can last on the court, but he had a bit of trouble in the heat of Atlanta, where he lost sets to world #206 Gilles Muller and college-days rival Kevin Anderson before ultimately succumbing to Mardy Fish in the finals. He's never played Gil, and might get the bonus of a late, cooler match if the matches before him go the distance. But the ankle injury he sustained might give him some troubles -- hopefully, though, the big guy won't tire out in front of the supportive New York crowd.

Roddick has already survived one scorcher at the Open, getting past Stephane Robert in about ninety minutes in the hot August sun-- though it was a solid win, he did start looking a bit tired by the end of the match. Headlining the evening session today, he'll take on Janko Tipsarevic, a feisty player who nearly -- and probably should have -- ousted Sam Querrey in Los Angeles and actually beat Andy at Wimbledon a few years back. The Serb has been nursing an injury over the last few weeks, but Roddick himself is still not a hundred percent recovered from his bout with mono. The man who likes to sweat might do so a bit more than usual tonight as he tries to make another run at this championship.

There is some relief in sight, however. For the guys who survive the next forty-eight hours, it looks like the Labor Day weekend offers a comparatively chilly forecast. And all the winners will have to rely on something more than the weather to heat things up!

Time to Shine

The beauty of a boutique tournament like Estoril is that a few unknown players really have a chance to advance well into a bracket without the concern of a major force stopping them early. The problem with a boutique tournament like Estoril is that every now and then one of those major forces finds his way into the draw and threatens to mess up everything for everyone else.

And that's almost what happened this year, when top-ranked and top-seeded Roger Federer entered the fray. After a series of early upsets since winning the Australian Open title in January -- he hadn't made a quarterfinal since -- it must have looked promising when no other player in the top twenty made the first round. Roger began the tournament as he should have, beating Bjorn Phau in straight sets and being challenged slightly by Arnaud Clement in the third round, needing a first set tiebreak before eventually succeeding.

He must also, surely, have felt comfortable against Albert Montanes in his semifinal match. The two had met three times before, with Roger only ceding one set at Roland Garros in 2008 -- he proceeded to win the next two sets, one and zero. The twenty-nine year old Spaniard is actually strong on clay, as he's won all three of his titles on the surface, including Estoril last year, but he had lost in the opening round of the last two tournaments he's played. It should have been an easy match for King Fed.

But Montanes was determined to support the major selling point of these tournaments -- he would not be intimidated by the multiple record-holding Federer. After rain delayed their match for more than two hours, the Montanes got the early break and never looked back. After less than ninety minutes, the world #34 had handed the long-time #1 his fourth big upset of the season.

In the finals he met Frederico Gil, another man who benefited from a boutique draw. After taking out sixth-seed (and forty-eighth ranked) Florian Mayer in the first round he had an easy road to the finals, challenged again only by fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the semis. Gil, the #2 player from Portugal -- both are ranked in the triple digits -- had never played in a final before. Estoril certainly was turning out to be a great opportunity for him as well.

Montanes started the championship match swinging, undaunted by the man he'd beaten last year in Casablanca. He was serving for the trophy in the second set when Gil finally got a break back to even things up. The two traded serves again to force a tiebreak which Frederico ultimately won, pushing the game to a deciding third.

Gil began the third set by taking two service games away from his opponent, but Montanes won three games in a row to get back on serve. Finally after more than two and a half hours of play, he broke Gil again to capture his fourth career title, eventually cementing himself as a real force on the dirt -- maybe not quite as strong as Rafael Nadal, but surely someone not to be ignored.

Incidentally, a similar pattern played out on the women's side in Estoril. Twenty-year-old Anastasija Sevastova opened her run by upsetting top-seeded Agnes Szavay in the first round while her final opponent Arantxa Parra Santonja waited a bit longer before dismissed #2 Sorana Cirstea in the semis. The two, both ranked in the low double-digits had never played in a final before, so clearly they were taking advantage of the opportunity in Portugal.

There was plenty of sloppy serving on both sides of the net on Saturday -- the Latvian got just over half of her first attempts in, and Arantxa won forty percent of her second attempts. But Sevastova was able to break her opponent six times and held on for the win in about seventy minutes of play.



So now, just two weeks away from the start of the French Open, we have a slew of new players to keep in mind. While it's probably premature to call any of them favorites to win the Major, they certainly could cause more than a little turmoil in the draws. After all, if they could pull off upsets like these in Paris, it doesn't look like anyone is safe.