Future Tennis Stars

Andy Roddick made possibly the dumbest move of the year yesterday by stating he will be skipping the Olympics to play in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. That idiot.

His reasoning is that defending his title will better prepare him for the US Open. Apparently, Roddick hasn’t been paying attention to the tennis world for the last few years. He is not now, nor has he been, a favorite to take a Grand Slam title since he won the 2003 US Open. He hasn’t been in contention for a Slam title in years. Had he gone to Beijing this summer for the Olympics, he may have gotten a bronze which would be far better than another Legg Mason trophy.

However, I understand Roddick’s thinking, why go all the way to Beijing and face the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Gasquet and the rest of the Top 10 and most likely come up empty handed? But, here’s the flaw in his thinking (I don’t actually think he does think), he can go to Washington DC, face a cartoonishly weak field and walk away with the trophy not facing one player who would seriously test him and his preparation for the US Open would be incredibly poor. Wouldn’t you rather go where the top competition is? Perhaps the tournament is paying him a bundle just to show up.

Sure he beat Nadal and Djokovic in Dubai but those results are few and far between. If he were to face Nadal, Djokovic and Federer in a Grand Slam, I wouldn’t like those odds for Andy.

Two days ago, David Ferrer beat Rafael Nadal. Today, he gave Nadal a gift. Nadal beat third ranked Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 to keep Djokovic winless in round robin play in his first trip to the Masters Cup. Still, Nadal needed a Ferrer win to keep Richard Gasquet from having a chance to move into the semifinals. Ferrer did just that and beat Gasquet 6-1, 6-1 in a rout.

Andy Roddick already made the semifinals and will face Roger Federer on Friday. If Federer wins, he will be the last semifinalist no matter if Davydenko wins as Federer has an edge in sets won.

Roger Federer drew Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez and Nikolay Davydenko in the Red Group when the Masters Cup draw was selected on Wednesday.

The Gold Group, which opens play on Sunday, includes Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet.

Federer is of course the favourite to win his fourth Masters Cup title. Nadal isn’t in top form and Federer’s draw is similar to that of the US Open when he beat Roddick and Davydenko en route to the title.

Djokovic is also a threat and a rematch of the US Open finals is most likely what we will get in just over a week.