Hot and Not: A pre-tournament analysis of the 2015 US Open

6.HOT – Kei Nishikori winning the Citi Open at Washington DC

Japan’s Kei Nishikori with his first Citi Open title

Nishikori has been playing consistently to stay in the top 5 for the past year. However, he has been struggling with his fitness levels, forcing him to retire quite frequently from important tournaments – including Wimbledon earlier this year.

He did see a breakthrough at the Citi Open this year, when he won the title and avenged his 2014 US Open loss to Marin Cilic, beating him in a three set battle. Nishikori also made a deep run at the Montreal Masters but looked depleted in his eventual straight-set loss to World No 3 Andy Murray. After a brief respite, fitness still remains Nishikori’s biggest foe. He pulled out of the Cincinnati Masters due to fatigue, and in order to preserve himself for the US Open 2015.

6.NOT – Garbine Muguruza yet cash in on her Wimbledon momentum

Garbine Muguruza was widely regarded as the next big star following her dream run in Wimbledon 2015 and a gutsy performance in the final against World No. 1 Serena Williams.

However, she failed to cash in on that momentum. After an early exit at the Rogers Cup, she could not find her form in Cincinnati either, losing to Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova.

Muguruza, the epitome of calm and confidence at Wimbledon, broke that image at Toronto when she mangled her racquet beyond recognition on losing a point. The obliteration of the racquet was Serena-like. Atleast, she has something in common with the Champion!

5.HOT – The Chan sisters triumph at Cincinnati

The Chan sisters with their biggest win in Women’s Doubles (Cincinnati 2015)

In their biggest triumph till date, the Chan sisters beat a slew of seeded players on their road to glory at the Cincinnati Masters.

After upsetting the No.3 seeded pair of Caroline Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik in the second round, they overcame Sara Errani and Flavia Penneta in an epic super tie-breaker in the quarter final and followed it up with another huge upset by defeating top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.

In the final, the pair defeated Casey DelAcqua and Yaroslava Shvedova to win their first title at a Premier Level 5 event. Their previous three WTA doubles titles came at Shenzhen in 2013, Eastbourne in 2013 and Pattaya City earlier this year. The Chan sisters now have the second highest number of WTA Doubles titles after the Williams sisters, who have 21 WTA Doubles titles as a pair.

5.NOT – Hingis-Mirza lose at Toronto and Cincinnati

Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza were far from their best at Toronto and Cincinnati

The golden duo of women’s tennis has been having a rough patch in the hard court season. After experiencing a purple patch of winning a hat-trick at Miami, Indian Wells and Charleston, the pair went on to win the Wimbledon – the icing on the cake.

However, the Indo-Swiss pair suffered losses in back-to-back premier WTA Events at Toronto and Cincinnati. In the Rogers Cup at Toronto, they lost to Caroline Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik in straight sets, and at Cincinnati to the Chan sisters.

Although Hingis-Mirza won 10 points more than the Chan sisters, they ended up on the losing side.