New Haven and US Open qualifying wrap-up

First of all, looking back at the week's tournament in New Haven, I have to say ... it's a pretty disappointing week for a tournament that's in danger of losing its title sponsor. The women's tournament was, uncharacteristically, much more interesting than the men's. Only one of the top eight seeds even made the quarterfinals on the men's side, and Baghdatis fell to Sergiy Stakhovsky, who - to his credit - went on to win the tournament.

Stakhovsky is an odd player. He's won two titles this year, but aside from those two title runs, he's never won more than two matches at one tournament. He's lost in his first match at ten tournaments this year. He's definitely hot and cold. The other players who made deep runs at this tournament are all solid pros, but none of them have any recognition in the U.S. I can assure you that the tournament organizers were not hoping for a Stakhovsky-Istomin final, though it was good tennis.

The women's side had more identifiable players in the last rounds - and Caroline Wozniacki ended up taking the title for a third year in a row, just before she heads to New York as the top seed. She played six sets in the final and semis against two tough Russians, and she may run out of steam at the U.S. Open. She does like to play a lot of matches, but combine the stress of her being the top seed with trying to live up to her final run from last year, and that may be enough to cause the great Dane to waver.

The U.S. Open draws are now out, qualifying is complete and those players have been placed in the draw. I'll look at the men's and women's draws tomorrow, but I'll do a quick analysis of how the quallies went, since I find them more interesting than most, I think.

First of all - I am thriled that Jack Sock, the 17-year old American from the Midwest, was given a wildcard into the main draw. But I really think that may have been better spent being given to Nicolas Mahut - the Frenchman fell in the third round of qualifying against a veteran Brazilian player. Honestly, Mahut would have gotten the tournament a lot more attention, even if he had lost his first match, than another American teen. Sock has the potential to be a great player in the future, but he's probably not going to win a round here. This is a dropped ball by the USTA, as far as I'm concerned.

Also, Ryan Harrison is another American teen who has won a handful of ATP-level matches already. He doesn't have a stellar record, but he's 4-9, which isn't too shabby for an 18-year old. But he didn't get a wildcard, either, and he fought his way through three rounds of qualifying. This may not be his time, but Harrison will be an American star in the next four or five years. I could easily see him making top 50, maybe even top 20. He's a dynamic character, too - reports I've read say that his third match was the most exciting of the qualifying tournament. He gave his shirt to a fan at the end of it. Keep an eye on Harrison.

A couple more players to keep eyes on - Lithuanian player Ricardas Berankis, who just turned 20, made it through qualifying as well. He won the U.S. Open juniors in 2007, so he knows the grounds here. The 2006 Junior champ, Dusan Lojda, also made it through qualifying. A couple more young guns who made it through are Japanese player Kei Nishikori and Canadian Milos Raonic, who I've been a fan of ever since I saw him lose a tight match to Fernando Gonzalez at the Canadian masters event a couple years ago.

There are also some more veteran players who came through qualifying, like Croatian Ivan Dodig, Frenchman Marc Gicquel, American Robbie Kendrick, and South African Rik de Voest. These guys could easily put together a good couple of matches here, and the players who come through qualifying have the advantage of having more familiarity with the court conditions than their early-round opponents, and they usually manage to stage an upset or two.

On the women's side, I'll admit that I'm less familiar with more of the players who made it through quallies, but it's good to see Sania Mirza and Michelle Larcher de Brito get through - they're both fun players. Larcher de Brito in particular is a polarizing figure, one of the loudest grunters you'll ever see on the court.

There are some young players who made it through on the women's side, as well. American Irini Falconi, Canadian Rebecca Marino (there actually were a ton of Canadians getting through quallies), and Aussie Sally Peers. All of them were born in 1990. We're getting to the point where the up-and-coming tennis players were born in the 90's, as the results of this year's qualifying tournaments indicates.

Tomorrow - more in-depth looks at the main draws.