The final months of the tennis season have not really heated up fully yet, but the American hard court series continues and now it is time for Los Angeles (for you clay court enthusiasts there is still action in Gstaad and Umag). The playing field in the Farmers Classic in LA is quite strong with players like Murray, Querrey, Baghdatis, Lopez, Gulbis, Tipsarevic, and Blake.

Murray will of course be the favorite with Querrey as the equally obvious number 2. It will be interesting to see if Gulbis can be back to the form he was before his injury and also if Blake can do something about his longtime slump, but the main news for today is that Murray has just decided to split with his coach Miles Maclagan. He announces the following on his website:

“I’ve had a great relationship with Miles over the past two-and-a-half years and I want to thank him for his positive contribution to my career. We have had a lot of success and fun working together.”

Murray hasn’t had a great time since the Australian Open and this change might be positive for him. He needs some kind of energy injection into his game to take it to heights that match his talent. He often gets too defensive in his matches and waits too much for his opponent’s mistake and then gets angry at himself for doing it.

I am mostly excited about Querrey’s warm-up before the US Open. He has already won three tournaments this year and is definitely in the form of his life. It will be interesting to see what kind of damage he can do in the Masters and I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to beat Murray in the final here.

What is in stock for Marcos Baghdatis? Who knows? They guy seems to have a lot of fun when he plays and has an infectious smile which makes him fun to watch, but besides beating Federer earlier in the year he hasn’t really done anything special. It would be great to see him stirring up the action during the American hard court season.

There many questions to answer as we travel one week closer to the Open.

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