The Rogers Cup Wrap Up

Tennis has a new number two and his name is Andy Murray. It took over four years to break the stronghold that Roger and Rafa had over the top two spots in the world, but with a semifinal win over Jo-Willy Tsonga (no. 7) at the Rogers Cup, Andy Murray did it. Roger and Rafa had ruled the roost at the top of men's tennis since July 2005, but with Rafael Nadal's (no. 3) nagging knee injury and Murray's consistent success, the Scot proved he is deserving of this new echelon.

On the other side of the draw, Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro (no. 6) topped America's best Andy Roddick 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in a rematch from last weekend's Legg Mason final. Again, Del Potro proved to be just a little too much for Roddick. At 5-5 in the third set, Roddick either tightened up or felt fatigued as he started and ended the game with a double fault - two weeks in a row, Andy has blinked in critical moments of a big match. Unfortunately, there seems to be a consistency to this theme for Andy this summer as I'm sure he still wakes up at night thinking of the volley that got away in the second set breaker at Wimbledon.

What a story line for a final: the new world's no. 2 versus the guy who beat the former no. 2. Murray and Del Potro seemed to be on a collision course for the final throughout this tournament as they carved up the competition match by match. The final was nothing short of spectacular, at least for the first two sets, each taking a set in a tiebreak before fatigue got the best of the Argentine as Murray steamrolled 6-1 in the third set to win the tournament.

This match confirmed for me that Andy Murray is ready to win the U.S. Open, yet this tournament also confirmed for me that so can ten or so other guys. At the top of the list you have the world's number one, yet despite all of Roger's success this year, I think we see he is not a given to win in New York like he was in year's past - perhaps this is either because Roger doesn't seem quite as dominant over his peers as he once was or that the competition is that much better 0r maybe some of both. Next, you have Rafa who is not the player he was a few months ago, but you'd have to be crazy to count him out. Then you have this bunch of guys who are a virtual tie in ability and all are very capable of winning - Roddick, Djokovic, Del Potro, and Tsonga. Flushing out this mess, you have these wild cards who are incredibly dangerous - Verdasco (no. 10), Gonzalez (no. 12), Karlovic (no. 29) - to name a few. Unquestionably, this tournament answered a lot of questions for us, but yet why do I feel like we still have no idea who is going to win the Open?