Cincinnati Quarterfinals

If the Rogers Cup was chaotic, Cincinnati has been anything but, especially for the men.  The top men's seeds have restored the order with six top 8 seeds making the quarterfinals.  The top women are still in tact but there have been a few upsets, with only four of the top 8 making the quarterfinals, though there is only one unseeded woman remaining, and Halep has been on fire since the French Open ended.

Here are the remaining players:

Men
1) Novak Djokovic (SRB)
2) Andy Murray (GBR)
4) Rafael Nadal (ESP)
5) Roger Federer (SUI)
6) Tomas Berdych (CZE)
7) Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
John Isner (USA)
Q) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)

-Three of the quarterfinals from 2012 remain: Djokovic, Federer, and Del Potro
-Of the other 2012 quarterfinalists, Wawrinka and Chardy won only one match, Fish was eliminated in his first round, Cilic was absent, and Raonic lost in straight sets to Isner in R3.
-Djokovic and Nadal are the only players to reach the quarters at both Rogers Cup and Cincinnati this year.
-Tursunov is through to his first Masters quarterfinal and 7 rounds of 16 and is enjoying a bit of a resurgence at the age of 30.  He is up to no. 35 in the world in the live rankings.
-Eight different countries are represented in the quarterfinals.
-Nadal could get to no. 2 in the world if he wins the title and Murray loses his next match.  Berdych, Federer, and Del Potro could all finish between 5 and 7 in the rankings.  (Next Monday's rankings will determine the US Open seedings.)

Women
1) Serena Williams (USA)
2) Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
4) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
5) Na Li (CHN)
10) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
12) Roberta Vinci (ITA)
14) Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
Simona Halep (ROU)

-Three of the quarterfinalists from 2012 remain: Serena, Radwanska, and Li
-These three women are also the only players to reach the quarters at both Rogers Cup and Cincinnati this year.
-Other 2012 quarterfinalists were Kerber, Kvitova, and Stosur, who came within one match of the quarters, and Venus and Pavlyuchenkova lost early.
-There was a number of good third round matches:  Li def. Kerber in a rematch of last year's final, Wozniacki def. Kvitova as the Dane is trending up following a few horrible tournaments, and the all-Italian battle where Vinci def. Errani.
-Eight different countries are represented in the quarters
-Errani will move into the top 5 unless Li wins the title.  Wozniacki is up to no. 8 after Kvitova to struggled to defend all her points.  Halep is up to no. 23 in the world.

Djokovic certainly has the easiest road to the final of the Big 4 players, because he is in a half of the draw by himself.  But he has potential land mines in Isner and Del Potro to avoid, both of which have beaten him in the past.  Djokovic has reached the Cincy final 4 times but never won it, the only Masters tournament he has never won.  Federer and Nadal meet in the US Open series for the first time ever, and after all this wait one thinks it may be a dud and an easy win for Nadal.  But Nadal has never even reached the Cincy final while Federer was one it 5 times.  Murray would seemingly be ready to pounce on the winner, but he plays his personal kryptonite in Berdych.  So we have some intriguing matchups in the works.  If forced to choose, I'd pick Murray, which also likes these courts, but I could really see one of 5 players winning these tournaments (not including Berdych due to his draw).

Serena remains the favorite to win this tournament, which unbelievably she has never won before, though she did drop a set to Bouchard in her opening match.  Li waits in the semis after Radwanska pulled out to attend her grandfather's funeral.  Azarenka is expected to reach the final with the 3 double digit seeds still in her half, but Wozniacki appears to be surging and Jankovic has played well in the past here.  On a happy note, Kleybanova returned to tour action and defeated Arvidsson before falling to Kerber.

And here is my small tribute to one of my favorites to watch, Marion Bartoli:

I always liked watching Marion's quirkiness on the court, and thought it was pretty cool that she had such a high IQ - athlethes are often not the most academically smart people. I was very surprised by the announcement but after thinking about it does sort of make sense if she really had all these nagging injuries. She really did put an incredible amount of stress on her body especially with her extra movement and her intensity. She trained and practiced and played for many years and finally tasted success at a major. She's reached the pinnacle of the sport. She's likely not going to be in another major final, so in reality she's accomplished everything she really could with her talent level. Now she's going to go do something else with her life.

I will miss that double handed forehand and the angles she could create with it, all the practicing of her strokes between points, and for some reason this sticks out. She had just lost the IW final to Wozniacki in maybe 2010, and she commented how Caro's box was full of people but then only Walter was in her box. Just the bond between father and daughter was nice to see.

Allez Marion! 

American Play
The American men have gone 6-7 so far in the tournament with only Isner still standing.  Blake, Harrison, and Baker each won matches.  Then Harrison led Ferrer in the 3rd set in the second round.  Querrey, Fish, Sock, and q-McDonald lost their opening matches, but Sock took a set from Raonic.  Fish lost to Kohlschreiber and his ranking plummets.  Querrey continues to slump and will barely earn a seed at the US Open.  McDonald is an 18-yr-old from Berkeley playing his first ATP main draw match, but won only 2 games against Goffin.

The women have gone 9-7 which is very good.  Only Mattek-Sands lost in the first round.  Hampton, Lepchenko, Venus, Davis, and q-King won matches as unseeded players.  Stephens upset Sharapova but then lost a tight match to Jankovic, and of course Serena is still in the draw.  The women the other's lost to is murderer's row of Stosur, Radwanska, Li, and Azarenka, not counting Vesnina who beat Venus.  So this is a plus and nice bounceback following a miserable Rogers Cup

Third set tiebreaks
Men: Benneteau def. Stepanek (R2), Goffin def. Pospisil (R2),
Women: Kirilenko def. Tatishvili (R1), Kleybanova def. Arvidsson (R1) (9-7)

Tomorrow's quarterfinals
Djokovic vs Isner
Del Potro vs Tursunov
Nadal vs Federer
Murray vs Berdych

Serena vs Halep
Radwanska vs Li
Vinci vs Jankovic
Azarenka vs Wozniacki