Wild cards announced

John Isner
Donald Young
Alex Kuznetsov
Jesse Levine
Wayne Odesnik
Ryan Sweeting
Michael Mcclune
Alun Jones

So Alun Jones receives a place as part of the deal between USTA and Tennis Australia. Really begs the question why we don't have something like this set up. Surely we could sacrifice one of our wildcards for Brits to give a yank one and then Alex could get in main draw of US. I'd rather see Alex in the US and miss seeing Goodall or Marray bashed in the first round of Wimbers.

Or even better, someone like Kuznetsov or Young could have had Cilic's wild card! If we're going to give a WC to a foreign player, we might as well get something in return.

It seems The Times is a source of nowt but doom & gloom for Brit tennis fans today :

Murray doubtful for US Open after flying home to girlfriend

Simon Cambers

With only seven days to go until the US Open begins, Andy Murray is still a far from certain starter. Having chosen to return to London last week instead of practising in New York, Murray will have less time than he would have liked for what he says is his favourite grand-slam event. Murray has been spending some time with his girlfriend, Kim Sears, having suffered disappointing defeats in his first two events back after a 12-week absence because of an injury to his right wrist. The official line from Team Murray is that he plans to play at the US Open and he has been practising at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, southwest London. "He's hoping he's ready and we're hoping he's ready," Patricio Apey, his agent, said. "There's always a chance he might not be, of course, but he's planning to be there.

In losing to Fabio Fognini, an Italian ranked outside the top 100 in Montreal, and to Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, in Cincinnati, Murray was a long way from his best. He did not hit his forehand at full pace and though his wrist appears to be on the mend, his mental state appeared fragile. Having asked for a wildcard into the warm-up event in New Haven, Connecticut, this week, Murray withdrew and if he does play in New York, he will be short of match practice.

mjd wrote:

---

Stircrazy wrote:

---

It seems The Times is a source of nowt but doom & gloom for Brit tennis fans today :

Murray doubtful for US Open after flying home to girlfriend

............................

---

Sky news also saying the same thing following the Henman retirement suggestions. (perhaps they read it in the Times!)

---

This story featured in The Mail on Sunday, perhaps they both snaffled it from there. Whatever, it doesn't make for happy reading and I'm keeping fingers crossed that at least there will be some interest for us next week in the singles.

3rd round will be the absolute furthest that I can see Murray going, but I wouldn't expect him to get that far really

If you are coming back from injury and not fully fit, the last thing you want is to have to play someone with confidence, which is exactly what he will get with a qualifier (although he could get someone who has a really easy draw and get past them)

Bjorkman could beat him, but if Murray is still struggling with the forehand, then he hasn't got a chance in hell of beating Canas, as he will just keep the ball in play, won't make any errors and just wear him down (even if he was fit, it would be a tough match as Canas is happy to run all day)