The Best Time of Year for Sports

Now that I am back in the States for a while, I can actually relax and watch some sports right in time for the best part of year sports year. September and October has the baseball final weeks and World Series. The US Open has just begun and college and pro football start within the next two weeks. Hockey is only a few weeks away and the European soccer season is in full swing. It’s like a sports heaven for me and by the time the World Series ends, college basketball is just around the corner. However, right now I am focused on the US Open and baseball.

I am not in New York and will miss the US Open for the second consecutive year so I am a little bummed about that but will be watching as always and hope that Roger Federer can win his sixth straight title. That would put him at 16 total grand slams and become the first man since the twenties to win 6 straight.

Everyone keeps talking about Andy Murray breaking through but I don’t quite think he’s ready for primetime. He faded in the semifinals at Wimbledon and although he reached the finals last year, he was easily handled by Federer who has never lost a grand slam final to anyone besides Rafael Nadal. Nadal is seeded third and opens today against Richard Gasquet in a very interesting match in the first round. I don’t think Nadal has it in him for the US Open as he isn’t quite back to his old self yet but he probably has enough to get to the semifinals where I imagine he’ll get knocked off by either Murray or Andy Roddick whose motivation level has to be sky high.

On the women’s side, everyone keeps saying the Elena Dementieva can break through but I digress. There is nobody who can beat Serena if she wants to play. I imagine after getting beat in recent warm up tournaments she is pretty motivated and besides she lives for the majors. She has already won Australia and Wimbledon this year and is the defending US Open champion. My money is on the great one. All the Ova’s and Eva’s have to show me they can beat her in a major first before I get all excited about any of them. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova are the only ones that have actually won a major and they along with Dementieva face a difficult road to the final. I am clearly not sold on the puppet number one, Dinara Safina who almost lost yesterday.

On a personal note, I hope to attend the 2010 Australian Open in January in Melbourne. I have previously been to the complex and Rod Laver Arena but in March so I really want to get to see my favorite tournament to watch in person.

-Anonymous (unless he wants me to give him credit for it)