THE OVERRULE

Here we are again for another instalment of The Overrule. The US Open is in full swing so let's not waste anytime and get right into it.

US OPEN - BITS & PIECES

The US Open is a slam I really look forward to, of course I look forward to all the slams for differing reasons, but I've probably seen more great matches at the US Open in recent years than any other slam. And being an insomniac also means that I've got some tennis viewing to occupy my time during those 4-6am moments when you start to wonder whether it's about time you went to sleep or were put to sleep. I have to say the first few days of this year's tournament didn't really get my juices flowing but that changed on Saturday when the men's event produced three dramatic matches in the form of Murray/Melzer, Del Potro/Simon and Ferrer/Nishikori.

---

The first few rounds didn't provide many shocks, at least not ones that couldn't have been earmarked as possible upsets beforehand, but Marat Safin was in his usual explosive mood. Marat has decided the rule book needs changing and he wants a warning before a foot fault is called against him, especially if it's on a big point. Safin is and always has been a great character on tour and he's never going to change his ways, not at this late stage of his career, but he doesn't half talk some rubbish sometimes. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the rules, he can't expect the umpires to ad-lib their way through matches and disregard how the rule book tells them to oversee a match.

---

Maybe I'm wrong because the umpire in the Juan Monaco/Kei Nishikori match decided to make his own rules up and force Monaco to win a game from advantage up, twice. Monaco had advantage on serve and won the next point, thus winning the game. Not according to the umpire who had decided it was in fact advantage Nishikori after a lineswoman had inexplicably called a previous Monaco shot ‘out' that was at least three feet in. The Argentine was rightly furious and after an exchange of words, Nishikori decided to rightfully award the game to Monaco . It was a nice touch from the Japanese starlet, but you have to wonder what the hell the umpire was thinking of and whether he was paying any attention at all to the match at hand?

---

Round of applause to Gilles Muller for coming back from two sets down in successive matches against Tommy Haas and Nicolas Almagro. Dreadful defeats for Haas and Almagro to suffer, especially Haas who ended up questioning whether he should soon call it a day in the post-match press conference, but for the lefty from Luxembourg all the plaudits are due for never giving up and well and truly earning victory. It's something David Nalbandian and Gael Monfils may want to bear in mind after both mailed it in during their US Open exits, Nalbandian to Monfils, and Monfils to Mardy Fish. Speaking of Fish, more of him later.

---

The women's draw lost Ana Ivanovic early and Boylesports were proven right to oppose her from the outset with their money back offer had Ivanovic won the US Open. Ever since winning the French Open the current but soon to be replaced world number one has had a hard time of dealing with the greater expectancy on her shoulders. She'll have to get used to it, because there is no going back now.

---

Svetlana Kuznetsova was another early casualty and the former US Open champion who went out of the Olympics at the first hurdle has been at a loss to explain her lack of form. It's just not happening for her at the moment and the confidence, understandably, is not there in her game at crucial times.

---

How have we been doing at the US Open? Well our three picks are still standing. That price on Jankovic each-way looks very big now as she stands just two wins away from giving us a return. Jankovic still has work to do and hasn't been impressive in the tournament, but anyone will tell you that it's never a bad thing to win ugly, and it's something Jankovic has been doing frequently in this year's US Open. In the other half of the draw our outright pick on Serena Williams will face the first big test during the upcoming quarter-final with sister Serena. On current form, you'd have to say the winner of that encounter will go on to win it all. We hope it will be Serena, but we'll have to see what happens. On the men's side Novak Djokovic looks on a collision course with Roger Federer in the last four as expected. Djokovic, like his compatriot Jankovic, has not been firing on all cylinders thus far, but as things start heating up now we'll start to see the best from the remaining players and I'd still expect Djokovic to at least make the final.

ET…GO HOME

Etienne de Villiers will soon be no more. The President of the ATP will not renew his contract beyond 2008 and tennis will be rid of the man who brought us the farcical Round Robin format to tennis and gave us stupid new names for Masters Series events. From next year we're supposed to call them “1000's”. Err…no thanks. We'll still be calling them Masters Series events on The Overrule and I'd urge you to do the same. I just can't see myself saying to anyone, “Looking forward to watching the 1000 this week?” The 1000 what? Yeah, exactly.

NICHE MARKETS

In this day and age where you can bet on almost anything you can think of, it's a shame none of the firms decided to come up with an over/under line on how many times combined Sky Sports duo Marcus Buckland and Leif Shiras will say “Murray is box office” and “real estate”, respectively. If the line had been set at 473.5, I'd have put five points on the over and be cashing that in right now with still the best part of a week to go. Marcus, Murray is box office, we understand. And Leif, you've got some sort of weird tennis fetish for real estate, we get it. Enough is enough. I like the banter between Annabel Croft and Greg Rusedski in the Sky Sports studio. Greg seems determined to contradict Annabel at each and every turn.

LUKE JENSEN LOVES TENNIS AND HE LURVES MARDY FISH

If you've been watching any US Open coverage on interactive you may have heard the commentary of ESPN's Luke Jensen. If you have, you will know what I'm about to say, if you haven't, then you have missed some of the most extraordinary commentary in the history of sports. During a particular encounter between Mardy Fish and Robert Smeets, I caught the end of the match and had the pleasure of hearing Jensen and Doug Adler come out with what I can only best describe as a tennis equivalent of Beavis & Butthead. For a full appreciation and some of the pearls of wisdom they came out with, I must credit Linda (a poster on Kings of Clay & MTF) who put together this highlighted package of what they were saying. Read and laugh. One thing you can't fault Jensen or Adler for, and that's enthusiasm for the game. Their slightly inflated opinion of Mardy Fish's talents may need a little toning down, though.

“And now Mardy's staying back on serve. Yeah, that's why he's an all court master, Doug. He has the weapons. He does. He must be licking his chops looking at this draw. Who we got in here? Monfils? Nalbandian? He's got to be looking at them thinking he can win some matches here. No doubt Luke, he has it all. The serve - The serve. The backhand. He has the backhand, Doug. And now if he wins this tiebreak ... if he wins this tiebreak that'll be a huge advantage. I can't tell you what an advantage it is to take the first set, Luke. Sometimes people don't realise what a big deal ... It's a big deal. HUGE. It's confidence. It's confidence, Doug and when your confidence is up then .. There's the set! Mardy Fish. He's got more game. You think we're looking at a Rafael Nadal body here? hahahahaha - Not like Rafa haha. You think Rafa just has that body, he works for it. Go watch this guy on the practise courts ... running ... jumping rope. He's working extra hard. He works, Doug. And there's Mardy sitting down, he'll be feeling good one set up. It's huge for his confidence. Check out other results on www.usopen.org. Who else is on there? On the website? Murphy Jensen. Hahaha, oh yeah, get the brother in! What? He's a rockstar now, he's everywhere hahaha. You'll see the difference between a player ranked what - 154? ONE FIFTY FOUR ON THE MONEY. Yeah, 154 and a guy who's a main draw player. Smeets has only won one match at this level, beat some guy ... Lukas Lacko? You know that guy? Oh sure. Good friend, he lives down the street from me hahahahahahaha. We've been courtside for ... how many? Six? Yeah six majors and have you ever seen Rafael Nadal - the bull - he's a bull, Luke, watch his match highlights on www.usopen.org - have you ever seen Rafa Nadal put his head down? Not once, Doug. Not once. Three Wimbledons, Three French opens. Never shows any negative emotion. This is the thing, that's the difference, Mardy Fish has beaten Federer. He has the firepower. He just needs to put it together now. There's a huge difference - HUGE - between being one set all and 2 up. There's a big difference, Luke. Yeah, it's huge. The Fishmeister just needs to play his game. How many matches has Smeets won at this level? Just one, Doug. Against my neighbour Lukas Lacko. hahahahaha Yeah, he lives down the street hahahaha that guy hahahaha. Come on Mardy. That's our guy. He's our guy. This is the US Open.”

MISSING MARIA

Fashion has always been a big thing in tennis especially amongst the female players and at the US Open, like at any slam; the players have been showing off the latest designs of their clothing companies. One outfit you won't have seen in the past week is that of Maria Sharapova, as the Russian is most likely out for the season, as we previously discussed on The Overrule. However, fear not, if you wanted to know what Maria would have been wearing had she been competing, here you go…

That's it from me for now. I'll see you again in two weeks and in the meantime don't be shy to let me know your views on anything tennis in the forum.