US Open: The champions

With the US Open having kicked off over the weekend, pundits everywhere are making predictions about the outcome of the US Open and I’m making my own.

The defending singles champion is Roger Federer for the men and Serena Williams for the women. Federer has so far shown he is at home at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre where has dominated for the past 5 years. And he will be spurred on by his wins at Roland Garros (French Open), for the first time, and at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon), which he lost last year in an epic final with Rafael Nadal.

He also has major advantages. Nadal has just recovered from an injury; last year’s US Open runner-up Andy Murray hasn’t really shown his true potential and Andy Roddick has been blowing hot and cold. He won’t have a better chance than this to engrave his name further in history with grand slam number 16.

By winning back the Wimbledon crown, which he lost to Nadal last year, and also gaining the number-one ranking, which he held previously for 237 weeks (four years and six months), it looks like Federer has gained a new lease of life. Last year wasn’t his best but it looks like 2009 is going to be. He won the grand slam that looked like it would never be, the French Open, so I guess this gives him a chance to play with total freedom, total confidence and a lot of certainty in this new role as the greatest of all time.

No other player has shown Federer’s consistency.

Serena Williams is the women’s defending champion. She has played consistently this year winning two of the three major grand slams of the year. She is the reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion and also reached the quarter-finals of the French Open, which she lost to eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

It looks like she has returned to her former form, which catapulted her to the top of the WTA rankings in 2002-03. She has also won more grand slam titles that any active female player. Her biggest rival so far has been her elder sister, Venus Williams, and maybe she will be looking to go one better at the US Open. But then again the women’s championships have always yielded shock defeats and shown that form doesn’t count much.