sharapova’s night dress cover-up

Fashion (un)focus: For the curious, the greys and blacks of Maria Sharapova‘s night outfit is complemented by a navy blue cover-up. The same neon green in the straps of her dress trims the placket and the collar of the jacket.

And we’ll say it again: that Sharapova Head racquet bag is the bag that we’ve all been waiting to buy. Partly by virtue of not being obnoxious with visual branding, but mostly because it’s sleek and sexy as an accessory. (We can’t wait for a harder men’s version to come out.)

Battling away: Maria, the third seed, just won the first set in her U.S. Open second round singles match, against Anastasiya Yakimova. The winner of this match faces Flavia Pennetta; they share the same half of the draw as second seed Vera Zvonareva. (Draw: Women’s Singles)

(screengrabs by TSF)

beige beauts

Two members of the Wilson stable — Anne Keothavong and Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova — and Tennis Channel’s Cari Champion dressed in flesh tones for the fashion show put on by Wilson at the Exit Art gallery space in New York City on Wednesday, August 31, 2011.

(photos by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Wilson Racquet Sports)

yes, please: horia tecau

Adam Levine — is that you?

(Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Wilson Racquet Sports)

shirtless: juan monaco

Juan Monaco at the 2011 U.S. Open. The Argentine is still in the singles draw, beating Seppi in the first round and next playing Stepanek. They share the same section of the draw as Federer and Fish. (Draw: Men’s Singles)

(via)

(ot) 30 rock’s ‘muffin top’

I was looking up the full video to 30 Rock‘s “Tennis Night in America” promo — I realized that I’d never seen the full version — and I stumbled upon this slow (the first half, at least) version of Jenna Maroney’s “Muffin Top” song. Adding this to my playlist!

Lyrics here.

sa watch: us open 2011

Sa Watch: One of our favorite blotters makes its annual appearance as we check in on Andre Sa; he’s in this year’s U.S. Open doubles event with partner Olivier Rochus. The duo lost to Julian Knowle and Horacio Zeballos in the first round. (And in case you missed it, the Bryans were upset by the team of Karlovic and Moser. (Draw: See how the rest of the dubs bracket is stacking up.)

(image by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

we just want to love feliciano lopez

Collective sigh from us. And maybe Kolya. Pic of Feliciano Lopez taken at tonight’s Wilson fashion show at Exit Art.

(image by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

video: wilson conjures up world record

658 strong. Add Andrea Petkovic and Mardy Fish to 656 local New York kids and what do you have? A world record, that’s what. On Friday morning, Wilson gathered the group to set a Guinness World Record title for the most people bouncing tennis balls on tennis racquets in one location. Watch the goodness above.

neon matchables

Attention to detail. We had to tell this ball girl yesterday that we just loved her nails. Loved! While lots of the bright colors at this year’s USO are coming from full-fledged kits — particularly adidas — if you look closely, this gal took subtle brightness to another level, using neon yellow on her fingernails to go along with her Polo Ralph Lauren top. We dig it.

Neon-plosion. In fact, it’s actually very hard to tell just how bright a lot of these clothing items actually are. Rafael Nadal’s Nike is blindingly yellow, though both TV and still cameras dumb it down a little. The same goes for the tones of bright reds, pinks and oranges that adidas is experimenting with. Below: David Nalbandian.

As Nick noted in a tweet yesterday, Wilson is doing the same thing, though they are going more of the Nike route (accents) than adidas (full color blocking/in-your-face patterns).

Which do you prefer? Below, a good shot of the adidas kit that Sania Mirza had on today — similar to the bright number that Christina McHale rocked yesterday — both on the new Court 17.

And don’t forget that this all comes back to PRL, too. Their ball persons are in the same fashion game as the players. Anyone noticing a trend?!

(top image by TSF; others by getty images)

trophy watch: and the glass has it

Glass happy: Before we get too deep into the US Open, let us not forget about the winners from last week: Caroline Wozniacki, John Isner and Sabine Lisicki. The trio all got awarded with glass trophies, clearly a good sign for the glass industry, no? Isner followed up his semifinal win over Andy Roddick by downing Julien Benneteau in the final, 4-6 6-3 6-4. Wozniacki beat a one-Slam wonder in the semis, as well, eliminating Francesca Schiavone before beating unheralded Petra Cetkovska 6-4 6-1 in a rain-interrupted final. It was Caro’s fourth straight title in New Haven.

At the inaugural Texas Tennis Open in Dallas, it was Sabine Lisicki winning in fine form, beating Aravane Rezai 6-2 6-1 in the final. Has anyone else enjoyed the steady rise that Lisicki has?

More: Lisicki has Alona Bondarenko in the 1st round of the USO

(Isner and Wozy via Getty; Lisicki AP)

18 crumbs from taste of tennis

And by “crumbs,” we mean people, of course. Thursday night, TSF made its way to Taste of Tennis, the yearly event that combines food, the chefs that make it and a line-up of US Open tennis players for an evening that’s quite delectable. It was our first time there, and we were lucky enough to be joined by the talented photographer Billie Weiss, who snapped all 13 of these images in this post. But while Billie took in the visuals, we worked the green carpet and nabbed a few folks for a word or two before they headed in to snarf and socialize.

Our leading man, Gilles Simon, above, worked the green carpet longer than anyone else, happily obliging to speak with every single reporter and blogger (and there were plenty of us!) along his way.

TSF: What’s been the most surprising thing about year one of fatherhood? Hardest?
Gilles Simon: Well, it’s not surprising because I wanted it. [Smiling.] The mother, she is fabulous. When I have a match and the baby is crying in the night, I don’t wake up, she will always do that. For me, I just have the good things during a tournament: I get to enjoy him and when I don’t win a match he makes me smile because he is always happy to see [me]. I tend to forget about tennis around him.

TSF: Are you guys always traveling as a unit?
GS: We are not always together. But when we are, the mother helps me a lot — she is very patient. I try to have them with me as much as possible, of course.

TSF: What’s one thing you love about coming to New York?
GS: I am from Paris so shopping is not a big deal here. [Smiling.] It’s just being here. You cannot see this city anywhere else in the world. Nothing is the same. At night, sometimes it is too much for me, but it’s only two weeks. I can do that. I really enjoy traveling in different parts of the world. New York? You can’t find it anywhere else.

TSF: Tell us what you’re doing here tonight.
Gigi Fernandez: I’m here as an ambassador for the event. I’m delighted that I get to combine my two passions: tennis and drinking. [Laughs.] No, no. Tennis and food. Rums of Puerto Rico [one of the sponsors] asked me to come tonight and I’ve done stuff with them before. I did an event with them in Washington DC that was an Iron Chef-style competition where the chefs had to prepare food using different rums. And I was one of the judges… we got to drink and eat. It was great! It’s always fun for me to represent anything Puerto Rican.

TSF: OK, you’ve made two drink reference so far. What’s your favorite drink?
GF: Mojitos. They’re my favorite.

TSF: What else are you up to these days?
GF: Being a full-time mom is a full-time job. I do a lot of corporate clinics and several events during the Open. I play in the Senior event at the Open and I did so at Wimbledon and the French Open, too.

TSF: Do you care to weigh in on the women’s side this year?
GF: I think if Serena can stay fit then she’s clearly heads above the rest. When she’s 100% she’s the best player in the world.

TSF: Have any of the younger American girls caught your eye at all?
GF: Yeah, actually. Monica Puig is a Puerto Rican player. She’s the highest-ranked American junior coming up and she’ll have a similar dilemma to the one that I had in trying to figure out who she will represent. She’s definitely the one with the most potential.

TSF: What is on the iPod these days?
Vera Zvonareva: Well, I like Rihanna a lot. I like Nickelback right now and Linkin Park. There are a couple new songs from Bruno Mars out there, too.

TSF: Do you ever try to see anyone live when you’re traveling?
VZ: That’s something that I would love to do one day. Unfortunately, it never really works out with the tournaments. When you listen to music live it’s a great feeling. It’s something that I really want to do eventually.

TSF: What about when you have an afternoon or evening to yourself? What is me-time for Vera?
VZ: I lock myself in the hotel room and put a movie on and I can watch three or four movies at a time.

TSF: And your fave?
VZ: Bodyguard.

TSF: Touché V!

TSF: Pilates or yoga? What would you go for?
Janko Tipsarevic: I would go for yoga. I tried it once on P90X and I only made it to two days because of my schedule. I was imagining that it was going to be really easy but it really is not. It’s all about focus.

TSF: What about starting a line of your own roller-bags at some point?
JT: I would, but the company — Technifibre — they were not really a big fan of that bag. But I always say, “Why wear it over your shoulder when you can roll it on the ground?” I know I look like I’m going to the airport but it’s so much easier.

TSF: Do you think that Djokovic’s run has motivated the rest of you Serbians to play better as well?
VZ: With winning the Davis Cup, it really inspired all of us to play better. With Novak, I’m really happy to have him as a friend. I have a front row seat to see what he is doing. I’m not afraid to talk to him and see what he is doing and what he is thinking. It’s only helped me improve.

TSF: What if you could make one meal? Where would it be? What would it include?
Tamira Paszek: One meal? That I cook? I love risotto, especially before the beginning of a tournament. Like a mushroom risotto with truffle oil. I cook sometimes … it’s relaxing. At Wimbledon we rented a house and we cooked then.

Tommy Haas chatted with a few folks on the line, then made a dash for the food. Leftovers? Loved the just-showered wet-hair look.

Rafael Nadal MUST have had a change-of-shirts after sporting the same outfit at Macy’s earlier in the day. He looked surprisingly fresh-faced after the mob on 34th. Leftovers? Benito responded to a question in Spanish with Italian.

Fernando Verdasco is really looking his best we’ve seen in a long while. Love the hair, love the (lack-of) facial hair. Leftovers? Has he lost weight?!

Click for more crumbs from TOT — and Billie Weiss’ photos.

ain’t it grand?

As the NYT‘s coverage of the U.S. Open goes into high gear, let’s not forget this one about where to grab food close to (but not on-) site: Mr. Critic points us to some awesome Chinese food in Flushing, including the recently opened Grand Restaurant. Sadly, Yelpers seem to have a different feeling about this place…

Bonus: Turns out, Mr. Critic wrote a more fleshed-out article that appeared on the website on August 26. Check out his non-Chinese recommendations here.

(photo by Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)

inspired by her us open kits, maria redesigns some flats

Sheer beaut: The on-point Maria Sharapova wore Vera Wang to the party celebrating the launch of her Fall 2011 Collection by Cole Haan, held at the company’s SoHo store this past Thursday.

Maria accessorized the sheer white dress, plucked from Wang’s fall runway collection, with some Tiffany jewelry (love that necklace!) and of course a bag and shoes from her CH line.

The event also served as the preview for two special editions of CHMS Air Bacara Ballet Flats; these ones were inspired by the colorways of Maria’s Nike-designed U.S. Open day/night dresses. “The Air Bacara Ballet is one of my favorite Cole Haan styles within my collection,” Sharapova said in a press release. “We wanted to do something fun and special inspired by my love of fashion and sport.”

The day shoe comes in a feather grey/neon pink combo — crafted with perforated leather — while the night ballet pairs black perforated suede with a bold chickadee yellow. Note that signature corset-lace detailing at the heel.

On your mark: The limited edition ABFs ($148) will be available for sale on September 8 at Cole Haan SoHo, and select other Cole Haan stores in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Merrick Park. The rest of the Fall 2011 collection’s already available. (Check out colehaan.com to see the goods. Our fave? The peep-toe monk-strapped ankle boot from the Alexis line.)

Bonus: See how Maria’s Vera Wang dress looked on the runway, plus the rest of the super-chiffoned VW Fall 2011 collection — all at style.com.

Looking forward: TSF’s resident bracketologist Chris has Maria making it all the way to the finals of next week’s U.S. Open before falling to Serena. Do you agree with his prediction?

(event photos by Joe Schildhorn/BFAnyc.com; product images courtesy of Cole Haan)

flashback: irene inspires irina bump lookback, 1997

Irene-a. While we’re bent on avoiding hurricane — oops, we mean hurrican’t — jokes for now, TSF contributor Troy Venechanos sent this text along to the TSF crew earlier today: “hope you survived hurricane irina spirlea!”

It was one that had us cracking up out loud, and brought to mind the famous “bump,” which — upon watching it again — may have delivered more force to Flushing Meadows than Irene herself. Hard to believe this was 14 years ago in 1997, when a 17-year-old Venus Williams took down Irina Spirlea, the Romanian, 7-6 (5) 4-6 7-6 (7) in the semifinals.

TSF Vault: Flashbacks

bracketology: it’s all about serena (plus more predictions)

By Christopher Phillips

Venus and Serena: potential final showdown? Or just posing for the red carpets? At the Hamptons magazine cover party last week. (Getty)

More: See Christopher’s breakdown of the men’s side of things here.

Caroline Wozniacki — Quarterfinals | Maybe the world’s no. 1 will play better now that her relationship with Rory McIlroy (someone who has actually won a US Open) is out and she’s back to her winning ways in New Haven. Her draws not the easiest of the top eight. She opens against no. 127 Nuria Llagostera Vives, then would likely play no. 43 Elena Vesnina in the 2nd round. 29th seed Jarmila Gajdosova could be trouble in the third round, but her summer’s been as underwhelming as the Dane’s. Wozniacki’s first challenge is in the 4th against Daniela Hantuchova, the 21st seed. Can the Slovak knock Wozniacki out of a slam for the second time this year?

Vera Zvonareva –- 4th round | The Russian opens against a qualifier and meets either hard-serving Lucie Hradecka or Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round. 30th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues is the first seed Zvonareva will face and shouldn’t pose any difficulties. With all the attention on the slamless Wozniacki, the Williamses, and Maria Sharapova, maybe this is Vera’s year to sneak back into the finals. We can’t completely imagine it, though.

Sharapova –- Finals | The serve seems to be less of a question for Maria coming into this year’s US Open than it has been in recent memory. Maybe because her return game has improved? She beaten four of the top 15 players in the world to win her last tournament in Cincinnati and, given her draw, it’s difficult to see her meeting any real challenges until 5th seed Petra Kvitova or 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals.

Victoria Azarenka –- 3rd round | Were it not for one woman –- 28th seed (?!???!?) Serena Williams –- Azarenka would be a bonafide lock to the semifinals. Unfortunately, Serena stands in her way. Don’t be surprised if some of Azarenka’s nerves about her upcoming match with Serena start showing during her second round battle against Rebecca Marino or Gisela Dulko.

Petra Kvitova –- Quarterfinals | If anyone can get in Sharapova’s way to the finals, it’ll be Wimbledon champ Kvitova. The Czech got the better of the Russian in England –- can she make it two for two this year? She could have a tricky first round against Alexandra Dulgheru and 27the seed Lucie Safarova could prove problems (if not an upset) in the third round.

Li Na –- 4th round | Li is capable of winning this thing or flaming out to Simona Halep in the first round. How about middle of the road? We see her losing to the ever-improving 10th seed, Andrea Petkovic, who has become the belle of the media’s ball this year and will do so even more with a run here.

Francesca Schiavone –- Quarterfinals | She’s got a relatively easy draw until a potential match-up with Cincinnati finalist Jelena Jankovic, the 11th seed, in the 4th round. Winner of that match loses to Serena in the quarters.

Marion Bartoli –- Quarterfinals | Bartoli’s strong statements in Toronto and Cincinnati? They didn’t happen. Marion made the semifinals in Brisbane and Doha earlier this year, finals at Indian Wells and Strasbourg, semis at the French, wins Eastbourne and takes out Serena at Wimbledon in route to the quarterfinals then follows it up with a trip to the Stanford finals. Hopefully early losses in Canada and Cincy — as well as a lackluster performance in New Haven — leaves Marion even more hungry for a run at Flushing.

Serena Williams –- Winner | Somehow she manages to look almost more relaxed and hungrier at the same time than ever before. Her play this summer only reinforces the fact that the rest of the field is just playing for second place. But can she stay injury-free?

Dark Horses | Potential winners? Probably not. But these gals could pull a few upsets and find themselves in week two at Flushing.

Petkovic | Sadly she’s made more news this summer for running off the court mid-match, but she’s got two wins over Kvitova since the Czech’s Wimbledon title, plus hard court wins over Wozniacki, Sharapova, Bartoli, Jankovic and Venus from earlier this season.

Can JJ find her 2008 form at Flushing this year? (Getty)

Jankovic | If anyone has enough gumption and attitude to upset Serena, it’s Jelena. A potential quarterfinal match-up between the two looms.

Hantuchova | With wins this year over Wozniacki, Zvonareva, Azarenka, Li, Bartoli and Venus, she’s capable of beating any given player on any day. Oh, Dani!

22nd seed Sabine Lisicki | The Dallas champ and Xperia Hot Shots winner is on her way back to the top after injury –- nowhere to go but up! But Venus looms in the second round…

TSF Vault: US Open | Bracketology

First Round Matches to Watch

13th seed Shuai Peng vs. Varvara Lepchenko | The Chinese no. 2 pulled out of this week’s tournament in Dallas and withdrew from Toronto and Cincinnati mid-tournament. If she’s not fully healthy, the American Lepchenko could end up with the biggest win of her career.

15th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Sara Errani | The world no. 38 Italian narrowly missed out being seeded and lost a three setter to the 2004 Open champ earlier this season.

26th seed Flavia Pennetta vs. Aravane Rezai | The former top 10 Italian has been slumping the past couple years. Has Rezai shaken off her Aussie Open family drama?

Gajdosova vs. Iveta Benesova The big-serving Aussie has lost in the first round at six of her last seven tournaments.

Jill Craybas vs. Madison Keys | Battle of the Americans –- the old guard versus the new guard.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands vs. Polona Hercog | It’s the no. 2 American’s first match back since Wimbledon. If she looks good here, you’ve got to believe she can upset 24th seed Nadia Petrova in the second round and give 10th seed Samantha Stosur a run for her money in the 3rd round.

See the full women’s draw here | Qualies

Predictions | 4th round
Wozniacki d Hantuchova
Petkovic d Li
Serena d Peer
Schiavone d Jankovic
Kvitova d A. Radwanska
Sharapova d Peng
Bartoli d Stosur
Lisicki d Zvonareva

QFs:
Petkovic d Wozniacki
Serena d Schiavone
Sharapova d Kvitova
Lisicki d Bartoli

SFs:
Serena d Petkovic
Sharapova d Lisicki

Finals:
Serena d Sharapova – 2 (relatively easy) sets

sunday survey: your USO winners

Grab that crystal ball. It seems as though it might be a little easier to pick a men’s champion than women’s at the year’s US Open. But you really never know. Perhaps Andy Roddick could shockingly come out of the wood work and finally nab a second Slam to add to his lone trophy — though we really doubt that happening. With the Open less than 24 hours away, we invite you tell us who you think is going to win this year’s final Major on both the men’s and women’s side. And: did we leave anyone out?

Bracketology: Our picks for the men | And women

(Photo by stinkerbell1 via flickr.)

bracketology: the men of flushing (and how they’ll fare)

By Christopher Phillips

Cool and calm: Novak is the US Open’s top seed for the first time ever. (Getty Images photo)

More: See Christopher’s breakdown of the women’s side of things here.

Djokovic — Winner | Shoulder injury aside, you’d be hard pressed to not pick Novak. He opens with a qualifier then would play either Pere Riba or Carlos Berlocq, two dirtballers, in the 2nd round. His first challenge could be in the third round against Nikolay Davydenko. 13th seed Richard Gasquet, 22nd seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Kei Nishikori, Ivo Karlovic, and Fernando Gonzalez could all be waiting Novak in the 4th round.

Rafael Nadal –- Semifinals | Nadal’s road is quite a bit trickier than that of Djokovic. He opens against Andrey Golubev. The Kazakh is currently ranked no. 97, but the ATP’s Most Improved Player of the year for 2010 was as high as no. 33 in October of last year. Nadal should get through that match without too much difficulty, but could face former Top 5 players David Nalbandian or Ivan Ljubicic in the 3rd Round, then two-time Open Semifinalist Mikhail Youzhny or 17th seed Jurgen Melzer in the 4th round.

Roger Federer –- Semifinals | Federer opens against Santiago Giraldo, who hasn’t played a match on hard courts since Miami, and then could play the Brazilian lefty Thomaz Bellucci, who just missed being seeded, in the second round. Ryan Harrison or 27th seed Marin Cilic should lie head in the 3rd Round with 23rd seed Radek Stepanek, 15th seed Viktor Troicki or Philipp Kohlschreiber potentially waiting in the 4th round.

Andy Murray –- Finals | This summer’s Cincinnati champion comes into New York in fine form. He’ll open against Somdev Devvarman in round one. Big-serving Robin Haase could challenge Murray in the second round and 25th seed Feliciano Lopez in the 3rd round could pose problems for Murray, but his solid return game should counter any danger there. | TSF Vault: Murray

David Ferrer — Quarterfinals | Ferrer reached the semis in New York back in 2007 and lost a thrilling fifth-set tiebreak to countryman Fernando Verdasco here last year in the 4th round. He also tasted a Major semifinal earlier this year in Australia. The only thing that brings about concern about Ferrer living up to his seeding is his lack of hard court match play this summer: an injury sat him out for every event save Cincy. To his credit, however, he beat Roddick and Fish in Davis Cup in early July — two giant wins on American fast courst. His biggest challenge to the quarterfinals will be 10th seed Nicolas Almagro or 21st seed (how strange is that number?!) Andy Roddick.

Robin Soderling –- Second Round | The Swede hasn’t played a hard court match since early losses to Juan Martin del Potro and Kohlschreiber in Miami and Indian Wells, respectively, but follows Djokovic with the second-most hard court championships this year (three). Soderling’s lack of play this summer could send him out early to rising American veteran Alex Bogomolov Jr.. Bogomolov beat Soderling 2 and 2 in Indianapolis in 2004, so there’s no reason to think he can’t do it again.

Gael Monfils –- Quarterfinals | Of the top eight, Monfils has the toughest draw into the quarterfinals. He’ll open against potential future star and current heartbreaker Grigor Dimitrov, before possibly meeting former USO finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero in the 2nd round. 31st seed Marcel Granollers, Albert Montanes or Xavier Malisse could wait in the 3rd round before a potential match-up with 9th seed Tomas Berdych — who’s never made it past the 4th round here — or Montreal semifinalist 20th Janko Tipsarevic in the 4th round.

Not filleted: Fish is riding a strong summer coming into the USO. (Getty)

Mardy Fish –- Round of 16 | Opening against German Tobias Kamke, Fish should have pretty smooth sailing to the 4th round where he’s likely to meet Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga could come through in that match-up, but potential matches against big servers Thiemo De Bakker in the second round and Kevin Anderson or 29th seed Michael Llodra in the third round could give Fish the extra batting practice he needs to beat the Frenchman. | TSF Vault: Fish

Dark Horses | Potential winners? Probably not. But these boys could pull a few upsets and find themselves in week two at Flushing.

11th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | Tsonga’s play has been one of the most exciting to watch this year. Assuming he’s regrouped and healed since his retirement against Novak in the Montreal semifinals, he’d meet slumping 19th Fernando Verdasco in the third round followed by “your country’s eyes are on you for a change” 8th seed Fish in the R16. Should Tsonga make it through both of those, he’ll face 3rd Federer for the 5th time this year and will be going into that match with some serious momentum beating the Swiss in their last two meetings.

16th seed Mikhail Youzhny | Youzhny has twice been a semifinalist in New York before: last year and in 2006. Despite a relatively easy loss to Nadal here last year, he did get the better of the Spaniard in 2006. He’s set to meet Nadal in the 4th round this year and — given the Spaniard’s unimpressive summer — it’s highly possible that Youzhny could find himself in the semifinals for a third time in six years.

18th seed Juan Martin del Potro | Well… in as much as a former champion can be considered a “dark horse.” JMdP has underperformed this summer, with second round losses to Federer and Cilic in Cincinnati and Montreal, respectively. Perhaps he’s just saving himself for the big show? The Argentine’s first challenge would be against 12th seed Gilles Simon in the 3rd round (Simon has never been past the round of 32). A potential 4th rounder versus 28th seed and Winston-Salem champ John Isner or Soderling would come next.

20th seed Janko Tipsarevic | The Serb loves the big stages and they don’t get bigger than Arthur Ashe Stadium. Janko opens against a qualifier and would face 9th seed Berdych in the 3rd round. Tomas’ track record in New York isn’t very good, so Janko could see himself in the 4th round against Monfils. And depending on the Frenchman’s form that day, perhaps even into the QFs to take on countryman Djokovic.

TSF Vault: US Open | Bracketology

First-Round Matches to Watch:

Youzhny vs. Ernests Gulbis | The Latvian was at his career peak at no. 21 in the world earlier this year, but has done little this summer since upsetting del Potro and Fish on his way to the Los Angeles title. He got the better of Youzhny at the Masters tournaments in Paris and Madrid last year.

23rd seed Radek Stepanek vs. Kohlschreiber | The dancing Czech dropped out of the top 70 earlier this year, but his title in Washington bodes well for him. The German has seen better days — but he’s always capable of an upset.

Harri situation? Ryan’s always an eye-brow raiser. (TSF)

Cilic vs. Harrison | Can the young (hot) American continue his hot summer?

Isner vs. Marcos Baghdatis | Just about anytime the Cypriot is on court, it’s going to be a fun match.

32nd seed Ivan Dodig vs. Davydenko | The Russian and former world no. 3 missed being seeded by a few spots, but twice a semifinalist here, he knows how to get it done.

Fernando Gonzalez vs. Ivo Karlovic | It’s great to see the Chilean back in action. Combined ages? 63.

See the full men’s draw here | Qualies

Predictions | 4th round:
Djokovic d Gasquet
Monfils d Tipsarevic
Federer d Stepanek
Tsonga d Fish
Del Potro d Isner
Murray d Wawrinka
Ferrer d Almagro
Nadal d Youzhny

QFs:
Djokovic d Monfils
Federer d Tsonga
Murray d Del Potro
Nadal d Ferrer

SFs:
Djokovic d Federer
Murray d Nadal

Finals:
Djokovic d Murray – 4 sets

fans flock to rafa’s big (shirtless) unveil

They came to see Him, with a capital “H”: Do you love a tourist-crowded department store in the middle of New York City on a weekday afternoon? If so, please quit reading this blog — we don’t understand you. TSF joined the likes of fellow blogs Tennis Panorama and Down the Line! on Thursday afternoon at Macy’s in Manhattan’s Herald Square for the unveiling of Rafael Nadal‘s Armani jeans billboard at the store. Oh right, and there were hundreds of Rafafanatics there, too. (See above.)

Crowds poured into the usually-packed-anyways Macy’s for the unveil, which saw the world no. 2 step onto stage, say, “Hel-lo” into a mike and get his photo snapped — with the billboard of himself. How do you think he looks?

Above: A reporter records a spot on the stage where Nadal would later hand out 100 pairs of briefs bearing his signature for the first 100 customers to spend over $150 on Armani collection items that day. Below: TSF’s view from behind a barrage of cameras flashing at Rafa.

Plenty of Rafa posters welcomed fans around the store on Thursday.

(TSF photos; lead image by Getty)

in new haven, an earthquake-inspired tee

Rumbling creativity: On Tuesday, when an earthquake rocked much of the East Coast, the New Haven Open at Yale wasn’t spared. The shaking was so bad, actually, that the tournament issued an official evacuation of the site, halting a match between Elena Vesnina and Jelena Jankovic.

And what better to do than to create some fashion after a natural disaster? The quake, it should be noted, didn’t record any major injuries or deaths at the site, so Joel Cobden of Campus Creations, the retailer at NHO’s on-site shop came up with the shirt above. It was being printed by late Tuesday night and on the grounds by Wednesday. Click to enlarge.

And Irene? The tourney is doing its best to “survive hurricane,” too. Today’s final between Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Cetkovska was moved up to a 1 p.m. start from 5. Can they get ‘er done?! We hope so.

More: Nick’s NYT write-up on the NHO

(TSF photo)

from stanford to cincy: sabine’s silly vid makes its debut/xperia winner unveil

It happens tomorrow: The Xperia Hot Shots video series will unveil the hottest shot of them all. The six ladies — Alize Cornet, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Sorana Cirstea, Dominika Cibulkova, Sabine Lisicki and Heather Watson — battle out for a $100,000 payday. Fans could submit their votes up until Aug. 22. But this is all about popularity, right? We’re going with Lisicki on this one… and not because we want her to win, only because we think she is going to win.

Above: Sabine takes a few fans’ questions and then one suggestion — serving blind-folded in her final vid.

After the jump: Dani joins in on the fun, too.