Four Times In A Row

Reuters

That's how many times each Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick have now defeated their Cincinnati Masters quarterfinals opponents to face-off in the first all-American semifinal at this event since Andre Agassi defeated Andy in a third-set breaker six years ago.

You may recall the year before that Andy and Mardy met up in the finals and played one of the best matches of 2003. Mardy lost in a third-set breaker and fell to the eventual US Open champion without ever even dropping his serve.

Yesterday, he almost did the same. Andy Murray, one of the best returners in the game, so some say, wasn't able to breakthrough in three sets, so when he forced a third-set breaker, I wasn't sure if Mardy would be able to come through. But he fought like a pit bull and pulled out the victory.

Reuters

Novak Djokovic simply can't stand the heat and so, once again, Roddick had his way with him. It really wasn't a match at all.

If you listen to the propagandists and even some of the readers of this blog, you'd think Roddick has never been out of the top 10 for even a week since he first arrived there 8 years ago (he has) and that American men's tennis is totally in the toilet.

Consider this. Two Americans beat two European top-four players for the fourth time in the row to get to this place.

I'm going to say that again: Two Americans beat two European top-four players for the fourth time in the row to get to this place.

Carry on.