Summer Hardcourt Preview: Road Warriors & ‘Vamos’ Canada!

After a brief respite from the glorious fortnight of Wimbledon, tennis fans are now once again prepping themselves for an almost two month long journey known as the summer hardcourt season. Yes there are a few clay court events, most notably Hamburg, sprinkled into the mix, but this part of the season is when tennis returns to North America as part of the pumped up marketing blitz known as the Olympus U.S. Open Series leading up to the final slam of the year, the U.S. Open. For some players, it’s a chance to redeem themselves after disappointing results while a select few have the chance to make the 2010 “their year”. And though while some will earn “road warrior” status this summer, most of the elite players on both tours will either be no-shows due to injury or make their statements prior to New York in that most American of cities, Toronto.

Let’s start with the women. First of all, the top 10 players should be commended for committing to as many events as they have. Even though big names such as Justine Henin and, just announced today, Serena Williams will miss the season due to injury, the rest of the tour will be in full action somewhere this summer. Most notably, Sam Stosur and Agnieska Radwanksa who are scheduled to play every event except New Haven (though that could still happen) leading up to New York. For Stosur, one can view this ambitious schedule in two ways. If Stosur does well, she could boost her ranking up a notch to be a top four seed in New York. However, her busy summer could leave her worn out ala Sam Querrey who cited playing too many events last summer leading up to a disappointing early round exit at the 2009 U.S. Open. Whichever way it turns out, this will definitely be Stosur’s chance to solidify her position among the elites of the tour.

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But as far as who to watch this summer, any player with the Russian flag next to her name could be any event’s darkhorse. From Elena Dementieva who’s returning from dealing with a calf injury that forced her out of Wimbledon to Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova who are both looking to stop their rankings slide along with Maria Sharapova who’s looking to get back into the top 10 again, this summer could be a bellweather of how well the Russian women will perform not only at the U.S. Open but for the rest of 2010 and 2011.

For the ATP tour, it’s definitely a tale of two summers. On the one hand, you’ve got the Tier 250 events, like Atlanta with the recent addition of Andy Roddick and the Farmers Classic in L.A. with Novak Djokovic, boasting healthy draws. On the other, you have three of the top four players (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray) only showing up for the extended two week stint between the “Masters” events at Cincinnati and Toronto. And there’s still no guarantee Nadal will show up for both depending on how his knees feel. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Nadal decided that Toronto will be his one and only warm-up event for New York considering how badly he wants to win the only Slam that has eluded him and how the prospect of facing the tour’s best two straight weeks in a row might not be the best thing for his tender knees to deal with.

And what about Federer? He’s actually got some points to defend, including his title run at Cincinnati, so this is not the time for anymore early round “shock” defeats. If he can do well, he should be able to pass Djokovic for the No. 2 ranking by U.S. Open time. But an early loss at Cincinnati could make a Federer/Nadal semi in New York almost a lock. As for Murray, he should excel again on the hardcourts but the two players to watch are Robin Soderling, who’s isn’t that far away from taking over the No. 4 ranking, and Andy Roddick who hopes he can channel another Miami title run at one of the big events. As far as darkhorses, keep your eyes on Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych and Latvian Ernests Gulbis who makes his return after a long injury layoff.

Finally, one must not forget that Juan Martin Del Potro, who received encouraging news on his wrist this week, expressed that he might return in time for New York. Del Potro, who won events in D.C. and Montreal last year, will certainly be missed and his absence casts a long shadow over this summer’s events. And I’m sure that Nadal, whom Del Potro crushed in their U.S. Open semifinal, knows that Del Potro’s return could spell trouble for him down the road, especially if Nadal ever hopes to win his first U.S. Open title. That’s why this summer could be the most important for the new No. 1, not only to build momentum for his efforts this year in New York, but to lay the foundation for this new moment in the sport simply known as the “Nadal Era”.

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