[FlameOn]

Good luck.

[KarlyM]

Thanks to a few withdrawals, James is now in the MD for Winston-Salem.

[KarlyM]

Cincy R3: James lost to Federer 4-6 1-6.
Federer + lots of unforced errors =

-------------------------------

Winston-Salem draw (3rd Quarter):

[6] K Anderson (RSA)/Bye
V Hanescu (ROU) vs. [WC] R Harrison (USA)
M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs. J Blake (USA)
[10] R Haase (NED)/Bye
[14] G Dimitrov (BUL)/Bye
[WC] D Young (USA) vs. M Berrer (GER)
C Berlocq (ARG) vs. A Haider-Maurer (AUT)
[3] A Dolgopolov (UKR)/Bye

Just to note - Roddick and Isner are both in the top half.

[mateusz2904]

Nice draw, I think. I hope James won't play many long matches before US Open.

[KarlyM]

Winston-Salem R1: James def. Kukushkin 7-5 6-1 in 74 minutes.
The first set was so-so. He started the match by getting broken, then broke right back. He got up a break to get to 4-1, but Kukushkin got back on serve. There seemed to be a lot of errors. He obviously got more comfortable in the 2nd set.

He said in the on-court interview afterward that his knee and shoulder feel good. Mal Washington was doing the interview and he mentioned his loss to James in Newport 1999 (James' first ATP win and Mal's 2nd-to-last match of his career). Mal was making some jokes about it saying it was the worst loss of his career and it ended a long ATP losing streak for James (not even true ). James joked back that he thanked Mal's bad knee for the victory.

James' ranking is up +21 to #63!

[FlameOn]

James . Good he's healthy in the knees and shoulder.

[mateusz2904]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQPsHRUnhE

here's the interview with James from Winston Salem. it really seems that he's done with all the injuries

[FlameOn]

Lost to Haase in R2. Still, Robin's a good player and won a title recently. Nothing too bad.

[KarlyM]

The stats weren't good - got destroyed on his 2nd serve, didn't win much on return games, and was 1 for 10 on BP opportunities. I hope this was just a bad day at the office (no injuries) and it won't hurt his confidence for the US Open.

[KarlyM]

US Open draw (opposite end of Rafa's quarter):

[5] David Ferrer (ESP) - Igor Andreev (RUS)
James Blake (USA) - Qualifier
Olivier Rochus (BEL) - Qualifier
Adrian Mannarino (FRA) - [26] Florian Mayer (GER)
[21] Andy Roddick (USA) - Michael Russell (USA)
Jack Sock (USA) - Marc Gicquel (FRA)
Denis Istomin (UZB) - Ryan Sweeting (USA)
Julien Benneteau (FRA) - [10] Nicolas Almagro (ESP)

Could have been worse. There doesn't seem to be any big names left after R1 of qualifying - half of the seeds lost.

[mateusz2904]

Originally Posted by KarlyM

US Open draw (opposite end of Rafa's quarter):
Could have been worse. There doesn't seem to be any big names left after R1 of qualifying - half of the seeds lost.

could have been worse, could have been better. Ferrer seemed to have some problems. After loss in Wimedon R16 he played two good matches in Davis Cup (against Roddick and Fish), then was in Bastad final (l. to Soderling) and during US Open Series won only one match (Dimitrov in 3 sets in Cincy). It doesn't seem like perfect preperation to the Grand Slam event.

But R1 first. Just hope James won't have any problems there

[FlameOn]

Good draw for him! He usually does pretty well at the USO. Good luck James.

[KarlyM]

James' first round opponent is Jesse Huta Galung.



Look who showed up to the Taste of Tennis event last Thursday night...

[KarlyM]

US Open R1: James def. Huta Galung 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-4

US Open R2: James lost to Ferrer 4-6 3-6 4-6

^There are highlight videos in the US Open website links I posted in the scorelines.

Andrew Lawrence at SI did a good write-up following the loss. Highlight of the article:

Afterward he confessed that the straight sets clinic was disappointing, but not that disappointing. "I'm going to keep playing until it stops being fun," he said. How close is he to that? "Not close at all."

I don't know what James' schedule is for the fall. He hasn't entered any ATP events yet. Maybe he will go to some of the U.S. challenger tournaments, like the two $100K California events in early October. We'll see.

[FlameOn]

Oh well, losing to a top 5 player is no shame.