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Rising Sons? American quartet gives hope to another home grown Open winner
In the modern era of Roger Federer’s dominance, the US Open has been a somewhat exciting but often predictable affair.
Other than Juan Martin del Potro’s upset win of 2009, King Roger has claimed every crown in Queens since 2004.
Federer’s reign might be coming to an end, and Rafael Nadal has never reached the finals of the US Open. That means it might actually be “the field” that has a chance to claim the final Grand Slam of the year.
Four men playing as well as anyone in that field during the US Open Series are four candidates that a nation of 300 million would love to see bring home the crown next month – American sons Andy Roddick, John Isner, Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey.
Roddick is the most familiar of the faces, having won the Open in 2003 and lost to Federer in the final in 2006. Roddick has piled up a 34-8 record in 2010, and could turn the Open into a two-week long birthday party. He turns 28 on the first day of play (Aug. 30).
Isner will draw crowds wherever he goes, both for his recognizable frame (6 feet, 9 inches) and his place in history following his marathon win over Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon. Isner would love to immediately change his legacy from the 138-game fifth set at Wimbledon to his first Grand Slam title. The beanpole from Greensboro, North Carolina is 27-16 on the year and has steadily climbed the rankings to No. 19 after beginning 2010 ranked 34th.
A step behind Isner in the rankings, Querry is red-hot following his win over No. 4 Andy Murray in the finals at Los Angeles last weekend. The win was a major step forward considering Murray thrashed him in straight sets a month earlier in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Querrey has three wins plus two finals in his past 10 tournaments dating back to the beginning of April.
The wild card in the American quartet is the slimmed-down Mardy Fish, who has notched two titles and racked up a 28-11 record to date. A bottom-end Top 20 player during 2004, Fish has vanished off the radar time and again, including dropping out of the Top 100 as late as this March. After reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open, he fell in the second round at both Wimbledon and the French Open. Instead of disappearing again, he ran the table to win Newport and made it two in a row with a crown at Atlanta, defeating Roddick in the semifinals and Isner for the title. Querrey is in action Wednesday afternoon, while Roddick, Isner and Fish all won on Tuesday. Fish will take on Croatia’s Martin Cilic on Thursday, with Isner and Roddick also back in action.
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