Five Matches to Watch on Day 6 of the US Open

1. Jelena Jankovic (SRB)[4] v. Kaia Kanepi (EST)[31] -- The song remains the same for Jankovic.  She's been playing terribly all month, so anyone can beat her.  Simona Halep and Mirjana Lucic each took a set off the #4 seed, and they're both ranked 60+ below Kanepi.  But Kanepi's closing skills are highly suspect.  Kanepi blew five match points against Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon this year, the last time she played on a show court at a grand slam.  That said, Kanepi's track record at grand slams is extremely impressive for a player as anonymous as she.  She's made the quarterfinals of both the French Open (2008) and Wimbledon (2010), so there's no reason to assume she shouldn't be able to make the second week of the US Open, as well. 

2. Beatrice Capra (USA) [WC] v. Maria Sharapova (RUS)[14] -- There are huge 2009 flashbacks to be had with this match, for certain.  At last year's US Open, Maria Sharapova took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium second on the first Saturday of the tournament, facing a spunky teenager from the east coast of the U.S. In 2009, Sharapova lost that third round match to Melanie Oudin.  In 2010, Sharapova faces a similar scenario against Beatrice Capra, an 18-year old from Maryland who was ranked #374 coming into this tournament (Capra has already improved her ranking to ~#208 with her two main draw wins this week).  Capra doesn't seem to be anywhere near as dangerous as Oudin was, and her upset of struggling #18 Aravane Rezai in the second round pales in comparison to the upset of in-form #4 Elena Dementieva that Oudin registered in her 2009 second round.  But there's a reason they play the matches, I suppose.  Sharapova hasn't made it past the third round of the US Open since winning the tournament in 2006, for what that's worth (not a ton).

3. James Blake (USA) [WC] v. Novak Djokovic (SRB)[3] -- This one really, really should be a beatdown.  But the crowd should be almost entirely behind Blake, and having the crowd firmly behind his opponent has been known to bother Djokovic more than it does most top players.  But, really, this one shouldn't be close.  Blake got extremely lucky with his draw to this point, and this match could be a harsh reality check.  But for a foregone conclusion, the stakes are pretty high.  I'd say the result of this match will predict if Blake plays into 2011 or not.  If he wins, he will.  If he loses, this could be his last time around the J-Block.

4. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)[11] v.Maria Kirilenko (RUS)[23] -- Filling out my brackets (which I've had trouble scanning still, my apologies for the delay), I had a tough time deciding who to pick in this one.  Kuznetsova has the better recent results on American hard courts, but Kirilenko has beaten Kuznetsova twice already this year at large tournaments, in Rome and at the French Open.  I expect the crowd to be fairly pro-Kirilenko, and I expect a long, tight match.  Should be good stuff.  But I am not at all in favor of putting women on after men in night sessions.  Just a dumb setup given how unpredictable the length of best-of-five matches is.

5. Gael Monfils (FRA)[17] v. Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) -- When Andy Roddick shook hands with Janko Tipsarevic after the bespectacled Serb pulled off the second round upset, Roddick told Tipsarevic not to squander the win by losing his next match or he would "freaking kill [him]."  With that threat in mind, Tipsarevic should be all the more motivated out against Gael Monfils, who barely scraped through his first round match against Robert Kendrick before cleaned his act up against Igor Andreev in the second round.  If you like big personalities and big shotmaking (and who doesn't?) this is the match for you.