Serena and Novak reign in Canada

Both the tournaments this week witnessed shocks along the way but the winners were not great surprises. Serena Williams continued her superb run of form as she blasted her way to the title with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Sam Stosur. The most impressive performance along the way came against Victoria Azarenka in the Quarter-finals as she powered past the Belarusian, 6-3 6-3. Serena has already managed to dispatch some big names during this hard-court season but I feel she has yet to be properly tested. She's lost a couple of sets to the likes of Kirilenko, Zheng and Safarova but you never felt that she was going to lose these matches. I would like to see how she can cope when pushed to three sets by a top ten player. I have to admit she has playing some superb tennis and looks way ahead of the rest of the field at the moment.

Serena is now the 11/8 favourite to win the US Open

Serena is looking an ominous favourite for the US Open and I must say that i'm disappointed that no-one has really given her a challenge yet! I'm hoping in Cincinnati, she will be threatened along the way. Stosur had a superb week playing some of her best tennis of the year. She has been very up and down this year but I think coming from a set down to Ayumi Morita in round 1 was a big match for Stosur because I believe that earlier on in the year, this would have been a match she would have lost.


Sam Stosur will be heartened by her run to final this week in Toronto

In the mens tournament, Novak Djokovic waltzed to the title destroying most of the field. He did encounter some opposition from Mardy Fish in a three set final but eventually came through to continue his remarkable year. Both Nadal and Murray went out in the 2nd round; Murray was very disappointing against the attacking Anderson meanwhile Nadal wasted several key opportunities against Ivan Dodig. I would expect both to fare better in Cincinnati although at this moment in time, Djokovic (like Serena) appears quite a large distance ahead of the rest of the field.


Djokovic won his first tournament as the world number one

Federer also disappointed this week as he was bundled out in the 3rd round to Tsonga, who i'm pleased to say continued his excellent grass court form with a run to the semis before retiring hurt against Djokovic. On a disappointing note, Juan Martin Del Potro suffered another early exit to the hands of Marin Cilic. I expected JMDP to really challenge during the hard court season but he is yet to get going. I believe a 2nd round match-up with Federer in Cincinnati could be his chance to blow off the cobwebs and finally get his game going before the US Open...


Tsonga has carried on his form from Wimbledon and is once again looking a threat to the big four... fingers crossed he can stay injury free!