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The US Open began yesterday and the USA network has wall to wall coverage beginning at 11 a.m. each weekday. CBS will cover matches on the weekends.

The best chances for American players to make some noise are the Williams sisters on the women’s side and James Blake and Andy Roddick on the men’s side. Serena and Venus are by far the best hard court players on the WTA tour, but because of their explosively athletic and aggressive style of play they are always subject to injury and the hard courts can beat up the body pretty badly over the course of seven matches. They are probably my pick as the most fiercely competitive players ever to have walked on a tennis court and you can’t ever count them out.

Roddick despite the connection with Jimmy Connors seems to have reverted to his big serve and big forehand game and it appears his backhand is back to where it was two years ago. He looks like he is pulling across the ball latterly rather than driving through or brushing up the back of the ball and any margin of safety when he goes big on the backhand. He has evaporated into a fog of inconsistency.

His forays to the net don’t bear the conviction and commitment necessary to pressure the other top players at all and are basically against his nature although a tactically sound play from a pure positional point of view.

James Blake, on the other hand, appears to have finally learned how to play without making every point a tightrope walk.

I wrote a piece here a year or two ago that suggested Blake and not Nadal was the player nipping at Federer’s heels. Well it looks like I was wrong, but I still think Blake on the hard courts in Queens is the nearest thing to a threat to a healthy Federer.

Tune in to the USA network over the next two weeks — it’s the best ticket in town for the tennis junkie.

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Howie Burnett is a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association and tennis director at the Island Country Club on Marco Island. Burnett welcomes questions on strokes, tactics or etiquette. To reach him, call the tennis shop at 394-4464 or e-mail him at islandclubtennis@hotmail.com.