The US Open begins in a number of hours and I am going to preview the singles, firstly the men's draw.
For many years the winner has come from the top seeds, and I see no reason for that trend to cease. Perhaps Juan Martin del Potro, seeded 24, may cause some damage, but he is likely to run into Federer in a quarter final should they both make it that far.
Of the top 16 seeds (Sam Querrey is seeded 17 but effectively is the 16th seed thanks to the late withdrawal of Andy Murray (the original second seed)
The draw is a mess with the fifth seed, Marin Cilic, taking Murray's place in the draw instead of the now effective second seed Roger Federer.
It means that we have the 2 highest ranked players drawn to meet in a semi final instead of the final as should be the case.
And Querrey has been placed where Cilic was, giving him the advantages of a top eight player, ridiculous as well.
Still, the best player will win, despite dumb draw decisions.
In 2017, the Grand Slam titles have gone to Roger Federer (2) and Rafa Nadal, so it would be hard to go past those two in predicting the winner.
However at least one will be gone before the final as they can only meet in a semi final.
Of the other.14 top seeds, Zverev (4) has won five titles this year, including 2 Masters 1000 victories over Djokovic in Rome and Federer in Montreal. He is ready to step up to Grand Slam glory
Zverev is in the softest part of the draw with only three American seeds in his quarter who may play a role in their home Grand Slam tournament.
Jack Sock (13), John Isner (10) and Sam Querrey (17) will attract solid loud crowd support while they remain in contention.
Berdych, Goffin and Kyrgios are the only seeds among the top 16 yet to claim a title in 2017, but they can cause trouble, especially Kyrgios, who has been given a reasonable draw through to a possible fourth round clash with Federer.
Grigor Dimitrov is the other player to consider outside of Nadal and Federer. He clearly has hit top form at the right time, winning last start in Cincinnati.
Although drawn to meet Rafa in the quarters, Grigor is on hard court here, not clay, making things much more even.
Nadal won all 7 of the first matches between the two before Grigor broke through in October last year in China.
In this years Aus Open the pair played a classic five setter semi final won by Nadal 6-4 in the decider.
First round matches should be comfortable for the top 16 seeds with the Sam Querrey v Gilles Simon battle the most testing - Sam trails 2-4 in the head to head stats.
My pre tournament semi final picks are
Grigor Dimitrov (7) v Roger Federer (3)
Alexander Zverev (4) v Marin Cilic (5)
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