Mal's Picks
	Washington Former ATP Tour pro MaliVai Washington is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis during the U.S. Open. Washington, a tennis analyst for ESPN, reached the 1996 Wimbledon final.

The bottom half of the draw is the tougher half. When you have a top half like this one, players get excited because there's a higher potential that maybe a lower seed or an unseeded guy can come through and make the quarterfinals or semis, or maybe like we saw in Australia this year make the final like Frenchman Arnaud Clement. When one side of the draw is heavier the better chance there is of that happening.

Guys like Roger Federer or Andy Roddick need to have someone get upset. They need some good fortune in the draw, but players like Gustavo Kuerten, Patrick Rafter, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras have the potential to play tough tennis for seven straight rounds.

UNDER CONTENTION
Gustavo Kuerten

Player

Mal's Analysis

If he's healthy, he has the ability to beat anyone now on hard courts -- he's always been able to do it on clay. The tennis that he's shown this summer -- reaching the semifinals in Los Angeles, the final in Indianapolis, where he retired with a rib injury, and a win in Cincinnati -- he has shown the ability to alter his game a little bit for the hard courts. When he's serving well he has the ability to be almost as effective on hard courts as he is on clay.

Andy Roddick

Player

Mal's Analysis

Normally I wouldn't pick a guy as young as Roddick and say he has the potential to win a major at 18 going on 19. But he's already won three titles this year -- two on clay back-to-back and on hard court just last week in D.C. You've got to look at him this summer and say he's playing as good as anyone. Going into the U.S. Open, he's hot. Sometimes championships are won by the player who's hot, and this summer he's one of the hottest players.

Roger Federer

Player

Mal's Analysis

Since I'm going with Roddick, I'm going with Roger Federer again. He hasn't been playing that much over the summer because of a groin injury. But whatever tournament he enters he's a potential threat because he has an all-around game and can do anything with the tennis ball. If he comes in healthy, the draws sets up good for him. He has a great shot to do well even though he shouldn't win the championship.

Patrick Rafter

Player

Mal's Analysis

In Cincinnati, you could start to sense that he was getting on one of those roles reminiscent of the summers of 1997 and '98. He's always said that he likes to play a lot of matches going into a majors, which is different because people usually want to go into the two-week tournament fresh. He reached the semifinals in Montreal, the finals in Cincinnati and won the final in Indianapolis when Kuerten retired. He's had a lot of matches and in terms of record, he is right up there with Roddick and Kuerten. Unlike some of the younger players, he can play tough player after tough player and just keep beating them. This championship is setting up nicely for him because he has the match play he's wanted and he's playing the way he needs to have confidence coming into the Open.

Andre Agassi

Player

Mal's Analysis

Even though Agassi hasn't done a whole lot this summer, it's hard not to look at him as a player who, if he makes it into the second week, can be very dangerous. He has the ability to win matches simply because he's better than other players. Though he doesn't have as much confidence because of a couple of first-round losses, he has so much experience with Grand Slam tennis that once you get him on Center Court, he has the ability to rise to the occasion.

Tim Henman

Player

Mal's Analysis

He's another outside pick. Over the past couple of months in Wimbledon and watching him in Cincinnati, I have a lot of respect not only for his game but also his professional approach. If he's playing well and things set up well for him, he has an outside shot at winning the major. There are a lot of guys out there that can beat him, so he has to be playing at the top of his game against players he matches up well against. It helps that he's playing a qualifier in the first round to get his feet wet.

Juan Carlos Ferrero

Player

Mal's Analysis

Ferrero is kind of the new breed of "clay-court" players. He's the second-best clay-court player in the world only to Kuerten. He has a different kind of clay game that translates into a hard-court game. He's not standing at the baseline hitting looping groundstrokes. He stands at the baseline attempting to take the ball early -- attacking with his groundstrokes. Because he has the ability to attack like that from the baseline, he does well on the hard courts. His only downfall is that he can't follow that up at the net. He's an average volleyer and that hurts him. He's a guy who you shouldn't be surprised to see get through to the second week and into the quarters and semis.

OUT OF CONTENTION
Marat Safin

Player

Mal's Analysis

Even though he's the defending champion, he hasn't shown this year that he can handle the pressure coming off of his great finish last year as the No. 2 player. He has really struggled on the hard courts at the beginning of the year, and has had problems during the clay- and grass-court seasons. He's never had a point where he's back to the Safin of last year. The pressure is only going to increase at the U.S.Open because he's the defending champion. People will be asking him questions. "What happened?" "Why can't you defend your title this year?" Once this championship is over, and he sees that he didn't win it again, you might see a resurgence in his game because that pressure will be off him. If anyone can help him deal with the pressure, though, it's his coach Mats Wilander, who was as tough as anyone in this game.

Goran Ivanisevic

Player

Mal's Analysis

It was a great accomplishment what he was able to do at Wimbledon, but it was a one-time thing. He's had it in his mind since he was a child -- winning Wimbledon -- and he's accomplished it. We've seen his best results. He's not going to win the U.S. Open. I hope he stays on the tour for years to come because people like to watch the guy play because he wears his emotions on his sleeve. So I hope he stays for the fans, but in terms of winning major championships he's won his one.

Pete Sampras

Player

Mal's Analysis

For Sampras to be successful in the U.S. Open, he'll have to draw on every piece of talent and every bit of experience that he has. One of his biggest problems right now is that he continues to be beaten, and he's being beaten by guys he probably should beat. When he's winning matches he's having a tough time doing it. From week-to-week, guys are starting to believe more that they have a chance to beat him. Before they were thinking they have to play the match of their lives to beat him. Now Sampras has to play well because he's not winning as easily or as often. He doesn't seem as dominant in his serve as he used to be -- first serve percentage is down, he's throwing in a few more double faults. He doesn't have the accuracy. His serve has been his best shot, so the level of his game drops dramatically.