The draw for the 2010 US Open has just been made in New York. It sees world number 1 Rafael face Teymuraz Gabashvili and 2nd seed Roger Federer face world 94 Brian Dabul.

Defending Champion Juan Martin Del Potro will not defend his title sue to his on going wrist injury.

Andy Murray has been drawn in the same half as Rafael Nadal and will begin his 2010 campaign against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.

His route that he will likely need to navigate if he is to the reach the finals will see him face either  Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo or Dustin Brown in the second round. His third round opponent on seedings should be 25th seed Stanislas Wawrinka and in the fourth round a tough match against American Sam Querrey, the 20th seed, though Querrey would have to beat 14th seed Nicolas Almagro.

Most likely quarter final opponent for Murray would be this years Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, before a possible meeting with Nadal in the semis. Nadal’s route through to the semi’s doesnt show any major problems, 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, 15th seed Ivan Ljubicic are potential 3rd and 4th round matches and Fernando Verdasco and David Nalbandian most likely quarter final matches.

In the other half of the draw, Davydenko, Roddick, Baghdatis and Djokovic are all in the same quarter, whilst Federer could have some tough matches against Cilic and Soderling.

It was another below average performance for Andy Murray at the 2010 Cincinnati Masters. He needed to fight back from a set down to clinch a 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) victory over Ernests Gulbis in the third round.

A tired looking Murray seemed to struggle with the hot conditions and Gulbis broke twice in the opening 5 games  to power into a 4-1 lead, Murray would retrieve one of the breaks but the Latvian held on to claim the first set.

Murray improved slightly in the second set, but he was aided in part by a drop in performance from Gulbis. The Scot claimed the second set and went a break up immediately at the start of third and all look  to be back to normal for Murray. Gulbis had other ideas and broke back in the next game and the rest of the set would go on serve with Gulbis looking the more threatening.

Experience seemed to play a big part in the result as Murray stayed composed in the breaker to race into a 6-1 lead before eventually taking the match on his 4th match point.

The 23-year-old British struggled in the heat and after the match said,

It was very warm and I was struggling to get control, Gulbis was hitting huge. He was comfortable when he was dictating points. I then began to make some first serves and then made sure he would have to play some great tennis to win the tie-break.

Murray will now face American wildcard Mardy Fish in the quarter finals – Fish has already beaten Murray twice this year, albeit when Murray was playing poorly. Fish took out Richard Gasquet 7-5 6-2 in his third round match.

In the only other completed 3rd round match, Novak Djokovic beat David Nalbandian in straight sets.

Wednesday’s second round matches produced no major shocks and the third round still has the worlds top 5 players featuring. The biggest casualty of the second round was 8th seed Fernando Verdasco who has not been at his best recently he lost to American Mardy Fish.

The top hald of the third round draw sees world number 1 and 2, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer still on course for semi final meeting, with Nadal facing Julien Benneteau and Federer taking on Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The bottom half of the draw has perhaps the best match ups of the third round with 2ned seed Novak Djokovic taking on David Nalbandian and 5th seed Robin Soderling taking on home favourite Andy Roddick.

Britain’s Andy Murray will face Ernests Gulbis for a place in the quarter finals.

Andy Murray needed three sets to reach the third round of this years Cincinnati masters. He beat France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-3 6-7(3-7) 6-2 and sets up a match against Ernest Gulbis tomorrow.

It didn’t look like going to three sets tonight after Murray took the first set comfortably continuing his fine form of last week. He was up a break of serve in the second before the Scots serve began to misfire which allowed Chardy to hit back and take the secon set to a tie break which deservly won with some fine forehand winners.

Murray regained some of his serving form and he was in turn able to take the advantage in third set after securing the crucial break of serve in the 4th game. Murray went on to serve out the match and even had a final break of serve in the last game.

Murray extends his amazing winning streak against French players to 23 wins in a row.

Murray is looking to regain his Cincinnati Masters this year. He won the event in 2008 beating Novak Djokovic in the final to claim his first ever masters title, though lost in the semi finals last year to Roger Federer.

If he is to win this year, he will first need to beat Ernest Gulbis in the next round, Murray currently holds 4-0 winning record of the young Latvian, who is currently ranked at a career high 27 in the world.

The first round of matches are now complete and the line up for the 2nd round draw is now complete. The top 8 seeds enter to the draw after 1st round byes and should all be in action today with the exception of 7th seed Tomas Berdych who has already made it through to the thrd round with win over Paul-Henri Mathieu yesterday.

After overcoming both Rafael and Roger Federer last week to win in Toronto, Andy Murray takes on France’s Jeremy Chardy – Murray currently holds an amazing winning record against French players, since losing in the first round to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2008 US Open, Murray has won 22 straight matches against French players.

Federer kicks off the defence of his title with a match against Denis Istomin whilst his possible semi final opponent Rafael Nadal begins his campaign against big serving American Taylor Dent.

5th seed Robin Soderling will take on Lleyton Hewitt in what looks to be the best match up of the second round.

Andy Murray’s 4th spot in the world was under threat last week, with the Scot needing to reach the final to retain his ranking. He actually went onto win the event and will more than likely be the world number 4 when the US Open comes around.

The 2nd and 3rd placing though are not certain with Federer regaining 2nd in the world this week after reaching the Toronto final beating new world number 3 Djokovic along the way. The difference between these two is just 130 points and with Federer beating Djokovic in last years Cincinnati final both have a lot of points to defend this week. If Federer fails to reach the semi-final this week he will be passed by Djokovic regardless of what the Serb does.

Juan Martin Del Potro continues to fall down the rankings as he continues to struggle with injury. He has not added any points to his 12 month total since the Australian Open in January and will lose a further 2000 points if he does not compete at the US Open. He will likely drop out of the top 20 if he does not reach final at flushing meadows.

Andy Roddick also continues to drop in the rankings, though has just been diagnosed with a virus that may have been affecting his energy levels over the last three months.

The top players of the world will continue their preparations for the US Open in Cincinnati this week. The top 8 seeds have a bye in the first round and those first round matches will be completed today and tomorrow.

The top half of the draw looks the strongest with Nadal, Federer, Berdych and Davydenko all vying for a spot in the final, whilst last week’s Toronto winner looks favourite to reach the final with toughest match not coming to semi final likely against Dokovic or Soderling.