Top seeds alive and well as Open moves into later rounds

    As the second week of play kicks off for men's singles at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., the three favorites of this year's fourth and final major event show no signs of slowing down as they all look to add to their Grand Slam troves.
    World and tournament No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain continued on his quest for his third Grand Slam title of the year and sixth of his career with a four-set victory yesterday over unseeded American Sam Querrey. With the win, Nadal moves on to the quarterfinals, matching his career-best showing at the Open in 2006 when he lost in the quarters to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.
    This time around, the young Spaniard will face unseeded American Mardy Fish, who is making an unprecedented run at this year's Open after posting three straight upset wins over seeded players, including No. 32 Gael Monfils of France yesterday in straight sets. Fish also emerged victorious in straight sets over fellow American and ninth seed James Blake in the third round and knocked off No. 24 Paul-Henri Mathieu the round before.
    Nadal's stellar 2008 season ought to dictate a win tomorrow over the streaking Fish, who has advanced to a Grand Slam quarterfinal just once before in his career, but the world's best ought to be wary of the American, as the red-hot underdog could play David to Nadal's Goliath.
    Meanwhile,defending champion and No. 2 seed Roger Federer has looked true to form through three rounds of play, not dropping a set en route to his match today against Igor Andreev of Russia, seeded 23rd. While the Swiss, who is on the hunt for his fifth consecutive US Open crown and 13th major title of his career, has played mediocre hard court tennis thus far in 2008, his play at this point in Flushing Meadows appears to reflect a revamped desire to end the Grand Slam season on a winning note.
    To his credit, Andreev pulled off a dominating straight set upset of No. 13 Fernando Verdasco in the third round Sunday and has not dropped a set all tournament. That said, it would take a major mental collapse on the part of Federer as defending champion to slip up this early at the Open.
    As for Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who is seeded third and remains a legitimate contender along with the aforementioned Federer and Nadal, his tennis has remained relatively honed throughout three rounds of play as well to qualify for the Round of 16. After making short work of Frenchman Arnaud Clement and American qualifier Rob Kendrick in his first two rounds, the Serb surrendered the first set of his Sunday contest against Marin Cilic of Croatia before rebounding to win 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (0).
    Awaiting Djokovic today is No. 15 Tommy Robredo of Spain, whose tournament included wins over 2008 Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Sunday's third round and a four-set second round victory over 2000 US Open champion Marat Safin of Russia.
    Robredo has once again proven himself a strong early-round performer at Flushing Meadows, as demonstrated by four appearances in the Round of 16 over the last five years. Djokovic, however, boasts a Grand Slam hard court résumé that includes the 2008 Australian Open title and a run to last year's finals at the US Open. If the young Serb can keep his play disciplined, he ought to have little problem advancing to the quarterfinals.
    While the bulk of the attention from the media and tennis fans remains steadfastly on Nadal, Federer and Djokovic as the front-runners to capture this year's Open crown, there remain a few other highly seeded players in contention who could catch fire at just the right time and shake up the tournament's focus. Among them are No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who has made runs to the semis at the Open the last two years, and No. 8 Andy Roddick, who was champion at Flushing Meadows back in 2003 and a runner-up to Federer there in 2006.
    Davydenko faces off today against upstart Gilles Müller of Luxembourg, who while playing as a qualifier, has pulled off back-to-back five-set wins after dropping the first two sets in the second and third rounds of the tournament. Roddick's opponent is Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who is seeded 11th but remains a clay court player at heart and will have trouble overcoming the American on his favorite surface.