Believe it or not, the first week of the U.S. Open has come and gone fairly quickly with September now in full swing. So hard to fathom but the tennis season does come and go like that when you have the French and Wimbledon in a month span and the Open six weeks later here in NYC.

Some quick musings:

-I’m not too surprised that James Blake had a quick exit losing in a disappointing straight sets to close buddy and fellow American Mardy Fish. It was apparent from that first round five set epic struggle over Donald Young that the 28 year-old Yonkers native wasn’t in top form. He looked sluggish in his second round win too in which his opponent retired due to a balky back. Though Fish had been playing the best tennis of his career serving tremendously and moving very well banging that forehand, Blake appeared to be suffering from a Beijing hangover. No matter what he said not wanting to take away Fish’s biggest moment, he looked like a beaten man from all the travel. I actually picked Fish in the match based on what I’d seen but came away disappointed that Blake didn’t at least push him a fourth set cause who knows…

-Ana Ivanovic’s early ouster wasn’t surprising either. Especially considering she pulled out of the Olympics with a bad thumb and was lucky to even win her first round match. The good looking Serb with the nice game hasn’t had a strong finish to the season and definitely wasn’t worthy of her top ranking which will likely go to another confusing countrywoman Jelena Jankovic, who has needed three sets a couple of times already in what’s a routine draw. Without the injured Maria Sharapova, the women’s draw has been painfully lacking with both Williams sisters cruising through their first four rounds setting up an untimely quarterfinal match-up. What ashame! Perhaps our Open pick Russian Dinara Safina can push the winner.

-The one bright spot has been the steady play of Russian Elena Dementieva. The fifth seed and former runner-up is brimming with confidence off the highlight of her career taking Olympic gold in Beijing. She’s been playing extremely well and shouldn’t have too much trouble with Patty Schnyder later today reaching the semis. This could just be her breakthrough major.

-It wasn’t too surprising that young American Sam Querrey pushed top ranked Rafael Nadal four sets forcing the red hot Spaniard to really earn his second Open quarterfinal berth. Thing is the feisty Nadal came through coming up with the kind of big shots you expect from the strongest player on the ATP Tour. He can get to so many balls and when the chips are down when things get tight as they did in that one service game, his serve has improved to the point where he can step it up when he needs it most. As for the big serving Querrey, he’s a rising star who should make more noise in the future which is good for American tennis.

-Andy Murray sure looked spectacular taking apart No.10 seed Stanislav Wawrinka. So far, so good for the very talented rising Scot whose fitness is at an all-time best along with his tremendous belief. Now we’ll see how he fares against sizzling 19 year-old Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, who reeled off his 23rd straight eliminating Japanese wildcard Kei Nishikori. Murray will be the favorite in that one. The pressure’s on.

-Andy Roddick has to be thinking he has a good shot here if he takes care of business against dangerous slugger Fernando Gonzalez tonight. Especially given how much Novak Djokovic struggled with Marin Cilic. The Serb who we took to win this major looked very sluggish in that one and was fortunate his lesser experienced opponent tightened up late in the second set.

-Gilles Muller’s run has been a great story. The former 2005 upset specialist of Roddick had been playing satellite events just to get back in the mix overcoming so much. He’s had two great two set comebacks already and now takes on Russian Nikolay Davydenko for a spot in the quarters today. We’ll see if he’s got anything left in the tank against one of the most consistent and overlooked top players.

-Remember when Amelie Mauresmo won the Australian and Wimbledon a couple of years back rising to No.1? What the heck happened?!?!?!?!?!

-Where have you gone Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters when the women’s game is lacking and needs you? That Belgian tandem sure is missed.

-We’re going to find out a lot about how much game and where Roger Federer’s head is at this week. It should also give us a better indicator if the 27 year-old Swiss No.2 ranked player has what it takes to bounce back and win those two slams to match Pete Sampras. Assuming he gets by Igor Andreev today, he’ll probably have to go through Davydenko and either Roddick or Djokovic just to reach the final.

-As well as Fish is playing, it’s awfully hard to see him upsetting Nadal who should be able to hurt him with his return game. Fish will need to play the match of his life to pull it off.

-I’ve always enjoyed USA’s coverage which is in its 20th and final year covering the Open but do they have to stay so long bsing with every freaking Entourage star while the match is going on? Just saying.