2009 officially underway

It was the first day of the 2009 tennis season, and while nothing too spectacular happened, I was still thrilled. Thank goodness tennis has one of the shortest off-seasons in all of professional sports, because I don't know how much longer I could have lasted. As for the action that took place today...

Andy Roddick, who I'm still hoping makes a good run at the grand slams and maybe captures a few masters series shields this year, had a good day against Ivan Navarro in their first meeting. It's always nice to have an easy first official match of the season to get things underway. Monfils also did well, routing Jan Hernych. Both Fernando Verdasco and Dudi Sela (who I saw play at last year's New Haven tournament) won today. New Haven champ Marin Cilic also had a good day, but New Haven runner-up Mardy Fish wasn't quite so lucky, losing to Jurgen Melzer.

Fish is one of a few American players in their late twenties that I think may be on their ways out this year. James Blake is another. He lost again today, making his record for the season 0-2. At least his official ATP season hasn't started yet! He lost to Dominik Hrbaty in the Hopman Cup. Of course, I hope they both do well, but I wouldn't be shocked if they both started a slide.

The other big match of the day was Baghdatis/Nieminen, as I mentioned yesterday. Unfortunately, Baggy went down in three sets. He served under fifty percent and had eleven double faults. His ranking is hovering around 100 and he does not seem together, physically or mentally. It's a shame, because he's such a dynamic and fun player to watch, when he's on his game. He's only 23 - I hope he can pull himself together this year. He might just need a favorable draw to get some matches under his belt. Of course, that's tough when your ranking is slipping...

There's quite a few very exciting matches tomorrow, too. Nadal versus Fabrice Santoro! The magician just will not retire! Nadal should come through in straights, but I bet it will be entertaining. Also, Bobby Reynolds vs. Kei Nishikori (He's currently ranked 61, but I bet he finishes the year in the top 20) and the marquee match: Novak Djokovic against Ernests Gulbis. I don't think Gulbis has much of a shot tomorrow, but depending on how tight Djokovic is coming out of the off-season, an upset is an outside possibility. Regardless, expect Gulbis to make some waves over the course of the season.

And Federer looks to start off his year by beating Potito Starace for the fourth straight time. I'm sort of surprised to see that he's between a 12:1 or 23:1 favorite at the tennis odds websites I like to check. It could be 500:1 and it would still be a foolish bet. Federer wants to start 2009 better than he started 2008, and I'll bet he wants to do it emphatically.