US Open Day 4

As the second round of the tournament continued, the rash of upsets kept on going as well. That seems to have been the theme of this tournament, so far - at least, the story of the upsets runs parallel to the story of the incredible heat. I'm willing to bet that those two facts are related.

For example, the heat was for sure a factor in the match between Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori. It's a great match for Nishikori, who followed up his win two years ago over David Ferrer by ousting another seeded player. I don't know how well the Japanese 20-year old is going to be able to bounce back for his next match, because he must have been whipped. The match with Cilic lasted for just a shade under five hours, and in 95 degree heat, that is absolutely brutal. A tough loss for Cilic, who had a good run here last year, but has not been on his best form recently.

Another upset featured Richard Gasquet dominated Nikolay Davydenko. The Russian had looked great in his first round match, but Gasquet was playing the best tennis I've seen him play for a couple years. He was striking the ball beautifully, moving like Federer, and serving bombs. Davydenko just wasn't up for the challenge, amazingly. It'll be interesting to see if Gasquet can keep it up.

Tomaz Bellucci also lost, but he was facing big-serving South African Kevin Anderson, and that's a match that could have gone either way. Belluci lost it in a fifth-set tiebreaker, which is a situation that favors the six-foot-eight-inch player for sure. Bellucci is still maturing as a player, but he'll make a run here at some point in the future.

Ricardas Berankis, a twenty-year old from Lithuania, very nearly upset Jurgen Melzer - the former US Open junior champ was up a break in the fifth set, but he couldn't close it out, and lost it 7-5. Still, a very encouraging performance, and we haven't heard the last of him, either.

Speaking of close calls, Bethanie Mattek-Sands served for the match against Andrea Petkovic and had multiple match points, but just when she needed it, her first serve deserted her and she couldn't close it out. It was very nearly a big win, but the Americans did have something else to be excited about. Teenager Beatrice Capra upset Arevane Rezai - even though Melanie Oudin couldn't follow up last year's performance, we may have another U.S. teen breakout story for this year. Also on the women's side, Aggie Radwanska, the ninth seed, lost today to Chinese player Shuai Peng.

The other top players pretty much cruised. Wozniacki didn't even drop a game. Federer, Sharapova, Mardy Fish, Kuznetsova, Soderling, and Ferrero barely did. James Blake won too, as did Novak Djokovic. And they get to face each other in the next round! That could be a fun one. Jelena Jankovic also came through a tough match, just barely.

Tomorrow, we finish up the men's second round, and the women's third round starts off. That means that the seeds can start meeting, if they both made it that far. It happened a couple times.

The line-up on Ashe is pretty great - Dementieva plays Hantuchova, Clijsters plays Kvitova, and Andy Murray plays the exciting Jamaican Dustin Brown. I can't imagine Brown being able to do much against Murray, but it should be a fun match to watch, regardless. In the night session, Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal should have relatively easy going against their lower-ranked opponents. Istomin might be able to briefly challenge the world number one, but it would be a shocker if he even won a set.

There are three more Americans in action - Isner, Querrey, and Harrison, all of whom have winnable matches tomorrow. All three were strong in their first match, but they need to keep it up. Other matches to watch are are Ivanovic-Razzano, Schiavone-Bondarenko, and Peer-Pennetta on the women's side. On the men's side, check out Youzhny-Sela, Kohlschreiber-Simon, Ferrer-Becker, and Hanescu-Llodra. Benneteau-Robredo could be fun, too. This tournament is coming together nicely on the men's side, no question. I sort of hope that the rash of upsets takes a break tomorrow, because the third round matches we'll get on Sunday if things go by the seedings are going to be stellar. It would be a shame to spoil too many of them.

But no matter what, this is going to be a great weekend.