Monday, August 13, 2012

291 weeks - Will it Continue?

Today Roger Federer continues to extend his record breaking weeks at #1 to 291.  What an amazing achievement!  Whether he continues to improve this in order to go into the U.S. Open as the #1 seed will depend on the results of the tournament this week in Cincinnati.

I'm sure everyone knows by now that Novak Djokovic defended his title in Toronto last week.  I didn't follow the tournament too closely due to previous commitments.  Plus, the lack of depth in the field competing last week and the frustration of rain delays made it even less riveting.  Regardless, Novak held onto all his ranking points from last year by winning the title and Roger lost 90 points from last year, since he didn't compete this year.  Thus that brings the spread in their current ranking points to only 75 once again.  

Roger needs to get to the final in order to ensure he will remain at #1.  If he loses in the quarterfinal or semi and Djokovic wins the title, Novak will become #1.  Roger has quite a comfortable draw this week, however, and it seems like it would be a challenge for Novak to win two tournaments right in a row.  It should be an interesting week to kind of see where the top guys are at (minus Rafa Nadal, who is still out with knee tendinitis this week).  How strong is Roger's desire to keep adding to 291?  How great is Novak's passion to grab #1 back before he tries to defend his U.S. Open title?  It all remains to be seen.  And if things go according to seeding, I think it will be very difficult for me that I am leaving Friday afternoon to be away from TVs and computers all weekend!  I will be very thankful for my DVR, that's for sure.

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