If there's ever a time for players to go through the motions on the tennis tour, this is it. Yep, all four majors are done, the Davis Cup and Fed Cup are down to the chosen few and most have no shot of competing at the year-end championships. Meanwhile, a bunch of the top men and women already have qualified.
Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing all excite (so we're told), but our guess is many of the U.S. and European-based pros aren't overly excited with the current Asian swing, given the extensive travel required with nine grueling months under their (seat)belts. Roger said no thanks to the series of events, while Serena bailed on Japan.
However, for a few big, and biggish, guns, the next two months hold importance:
Murray has lost a bit of his aura after another earlier-than-expected departure at a Grand Slam. He's now 15-4 with a sobering zero titles at 2009 majors and 43-5 elsewhere, accompanied by five titles.
He needs to put the hammer down and set things up for 2010, when Murray predicts he'll start playing his best stuff at age 23.
Unfortunately, things didn't begin well post-U.S. Open. Murray commendably showed up for a series against Poland in the outer reaches of the Davis Cup -- yes, Great Britain somehow lost that one, too -- but aggravated a left wrist injury. The good news is the setback is far less serious than the right wrist injury he sustained in 2007, even after Murray withdrew from the Japan Open on Thursday.
"His injury is improving on a daily basis and Andy is very close to resuming full training," his Web site reported. England expects Murray to do big things at the World Tour Finals in November in front of his home crowd, although the pressure will be minute compared to Wimbledon.
First and foremost, Nadal must stay away from those pesky injuries. That means protecting his knees and getting over the stomach injury that hampered him at the U.S. Open, rendering him a spectator for Spain's Davis Cup semi against Israel and forcing his withdrawal from the Thailand Open.
Nadal usually runs into a wall after his clay-court exertions, as evidenced by ill health three of the previous four falls. Last year, of course, he skipped the Masters Cup and Davis Cup final. Fatigue shouldn't be a factor in October and November this time. Performing well at the Shanghai and Paris Masters and World Tour Finals won't hurt his chances of regaining the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings.
After a memorable sojourn to the U.S. Open quarterfinals, American tennis's newest sweetheart mingled with Ellen DeGeneres and Regis and Kelly. The Georgia native threw out the first pitch at a Braves game and got special treatment by the Atlanta Falcons.
Just imagine the buzz if she'd gotten past the quarters.
Oudin, who turned 18 last week, will look to back up her performance at Flushing Meadows, and that figures to be tough. For one, she won't have a huge crowd behind her upon losing the first set. Second, peers know a thing or two about the gritty baseliner's game.
Oudin packs a punch from the baseline despite her diminutive stature, and possesses tremendous mental toughness. Will it be enough to overcome a lack of devastating power and shaky serve?
Nope, at least not in Tokyo. After withdrawing from Quebec City with a left thigh injury -- the thigh that was strapped in New York -- Oudin got thumped 6-2, 6-2 in qualifying by U.S. veteran Jill Craybas.
Safina probably yearns for the days when she was asked what it's like to be Marat Safin's sister. Now the questions continue to focus on holding the No. 1 ranking sans a Grand Slam title.
"If someone steals it from me, I will shake their hand and say, 'Well done,' but I won't give it up easily," Safina quipped last week on the eve of defending her Pan Pacific Open title in Tokyo.
Well, her display in Japan suggests otherwise.
Safina was in meltdown mode, losing her opener to 132nd-ranked Taiwanese qualifier Chang Kai-Chen in three sets and nearly three hours. That's five straight three-setters she's competed in against foes ranked 39th and below.
A prolonged slump would dampen a year highlighted by two Grand Slam finals and one semi.
Ivanovic would take a win anywhere, anyhow at the moment. Since Wimbledon, the 2008 French Open champion (can you say one-Slam wonder?) has gone 3-5, dropping three straight.
The latest blow was a straight-sets loss in Tokyo to unpredictable Czech Lucie Safarova, although the Serb's Web site partially blamed a sore throat.
Don't forget
Maria Sharapova. Like Nadal, Sharapova is trying to rediscover old form after an injury. So far, she survived the upset bug in Tokyo and provided this gem of an anecdote via her entertaining Web site:
Just took a run in the park and happened to pass by a group of 20 children, which were clearly fascinated by my height. I don't speak much Japanese (none at all as a matter of fact), but I thought I overheard them say "ooooh giant" Made me laugh.
Ravi Ubha is a London-based journalist. He holds a business degree from McGill University and a journalism diploma from Concordia University, both in Montreal, where he formerly covered baseball and hockey. Ubha is a tennis and soccer contributor to ESPN.com, also featuring in other publications, and does play-by-play in tennis.
Kamakshi Tandon is a freelance writer and tennis junkie who contributes regularly to ESPN. She has also written for Tennis magazine, Reuters and Dow Jones Newswires. Tandon is based in Toronto.
Sandra Harwitt, a graduate of New York University's School of Journalism, covers tennis for various media outlets. Harwitt has been accepted to pursue a part-time master of science in strategic communications at Columbia University. She is based in South Florida and New York.
Matt Wilansky is the tennis editor for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 1998 after graduating with a B.A. in communication from the University of Hartford.
