The Flashing Meadows, US Open 2007

Only a few days to go for the last grand slam of the year. Baghdatis has never progressed far in this tournament despite this being his favourite surface (judging by past performances). He’s never gone past round 2, however he was younger and he was knocked out by Federer, Tursunov and Agassi in succession.

This year he hasn’t been dealt such a bad draw. He is in the top half along Federer, but wont be meeting him unless he progresses to the semi-finals. His first game is against Grosjean

2-0 vs Grosjean

Yes, and that is for encounters, not sets. Straight sets this time, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Very impressive, despite this not being Marcos' favourite surface.

Next up is either the Dane Kristian Pless or Yen-Hsun Lu from Chinese Taipei. Should be an easy ride onto facing Dominik Hrbaty (or another unseeded player). A piece of good news is that Roddick is currently having a rough ride with the Russian Andreev. Down by 2 sets to 1 I get the impression the next we’ll be seeing of him will be at Wimbledon. That leaves no top 4 seeds to face Marcos till the semis. Fingers crossed.

Paris 2007

Roland Garros has started and Marcos is seeded 16th. First opponent is (the unseeded) Sebastian Grosjean, whom Marcos beat by 3 sets to 1 at Wimbledon last year; that was their only competitive encounter to date. Although on paper Marcos should not have much of a problem, Grosjean is always dangerous especially on home turf in front of home crowd on a centre court. IMO this is an unlucky draw for Marcos. Plus he hasn't been playing his best tennis of late...

We shall see.