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The US Open draw is out. And it is set up for a Nadal vs Federer final. Here is a look at the four quarters and our picks for the tournament.

Quarter 1

Top Players: Verdasco, Ferrer, Gulbis, Nalbandian, Kohlschreiber, and Nadal.

Nadal has won the last two slams but hasn’t played fantastic in the “warm-up tournaments”. I bet he will come prepared to the Open to try to reach further than a semi-final (his best result to date), but there are scary players like Gulbis and Nalbandian that can threaten him. The problem for them is that a Grand Slam match is played over five sets and they will likely not be able to fight for that long against Nadal’s impressive physique and will.

He will lose a few sets but Nadal will be the semifinalist of this quarter.

Quarter 2

Top players: Berdych, Murray, Wavrinka; Stepanek.

Murray is the one after Roger Federer who has shown the best form of late and will be very tough to beat in this quarter. The only one who can do it is Tomas Berdych and if they cross paths I think we can look forward to a tight match going 4 or 5 sets. But Murray will prevail in the end and reach another US Open semi-final.

Quarter 3

Top players:  Davydenko, Baghdatis, Roddick, Fish, Djokovic

We have Gasquet and Monfils in this draw as well, making it a very tough one, but I don’t see any kind of strong form in these two players. The hottest players in the draw is Baghdatis and Fish who is both playing great at the moment. Roddick will likely not last 5 tough sets with his recent mono and Djokovic’s breathing problems is a concern. Davydenko doesn’t look particularly impressive either right now. Despite not being his best for a while Djokovic always seem to reach the semi-final so I think he will do it again. If not Djoko, then Fish.

Quarter 4

Top players: Soderling, Melzer, De Bakker, Cilic, Federer

The only real threat for the mighty Fed in this draw is Soderling who is a potential quarter-final opponent. But Soderling won’t have the balls sit up as nice and high for him here as in the rain-heavy courts of Roland Garros earlier this year and if that match is on I think Federer will prevail in 4. Federer is the obvious semi-finalist of this quarter.

Semifinals:

Nadal vs Murray = Nadal
Djokovic vs Federer = Federer

Final:

Federer vs Nadal = Federer