Cincinnati and Beyond

I am glad to see the best are back on the court. Federer, Safin and Hewitt are returning to the court for the Masters Series event in Cincinnati.
Federer's tenure at number 1 in the world reached 81 weeks today, landing him at number 7 in Open Era history. Nadal is starting to creep up on Federer. Federer will need a solid showing this week and at Flushing Meadows to maintain his ranking.
It was good to see Henman finally notch a victory today. Tim was winless since his 2nd round exit at Wimbledon in June. Hopefully this is a sign of good play to come at the coming Open.
Nadal won his 9th tournament this year, tieing Federer with the most on tour. The title was Nadal's first on hard, all of his previous were on clay. I was really impressed by Nadal play on Sunday. He really pushed Andre around. The match went to 3 sets but i never really felt like Andre had a chance. I have been extremely reluctant to jump on the Nadal-bandwagon. I was sick of Patrick McEnroe salivating all over his microphone, never daring to say anything remotely negative about the guy. But I must say this guy has got game and it appears that it is not just on the red stuff (which I had always assumed). So to you Rafael Nadal, I take off my hat... finally.