Rafael Nadal said today that he's not arriving in New York City in the best condition. Oddsmakers agree.

The six-time Grand Slam champion is going off as just a 7-1 favorite to win the U.S. Open. Those certainly aren't long odds, but they're steep enough to suggest that Vegas is just as worried about Nadal's knee as he is.

Nadal told the Associated Press:

"Well, I am No. 3 in the world. And the No. 3 in the world should have a chance to win, no? But I don't know if I arrive in best condition."

Even while healthy, Nadal has never fared too well at Flushing Meadow. Not only has the Spaniard never won the U.S. Open (the only Grand Slam title not on his resumé), but he's yet to even advance to a final. Nadal made it to the semifinals last year before losing to Andy Murray. And only once before that had he made it past the fourth round.

Roger Federer, the five-time defending Open champion, is unsurprisingly the favorite to win at 6-4, with No. 2 seed Andy Murray next at 7-2.

Nadal joined

Last week on tour was a pretty standard one for Serena Williams. She dominated the headlines, was the player everyone wanted to see, spoke of her excitement about the upcoming U.S. Open ... and failed to win again, this time falling to Elena Dementieva in the Rogers Cup semifinals.

Winning the Rogers Cup in Toronto was never going to be at the top of Williams' 2009 priority list, but her increasing struggles in events outside of the Grand Slams has become ever more noticeable.

Despite lifting the Australian Open and Wimbledon trophies, the world No. 2 has not won any other event all year and has a match record of 6-6 in her most recent non-Slam events.

Williams makes little pretense at caring greatly for tournaments apart from the "big four" each year. She often looks listless and unmotivated, and rarely seems bothered by such defeats.

Serena gives every impression of treating smaller tournaments as little more than an inconvenience, a nod to WTA rules which impose minimum-appearance

Next week, the world's best tennis palyers will step on the court at Flushing Meadows to compete in our nation's most prestigious tennis tournament equipped with a lone racquet gripped in one of their hands. Amateurs.

A few miles to the north, in Bronxville, NY, a professor at Concorida College is trying to popularize two-racquet tennis, a game that's name pretty much sums up it's guiding principle. As the New York Times detailed in its Sunday edition, Don Mueller took up two-racquet tennis three years ago while hitting against a wall and continually switching his racquet from hand to hand. Why not hold two, he thought?

Lest you think this is a joke, here's some video of Mueller hitting from a ball machine:

Watching the video, my main question was about how one's mobility is affected while playing with two racquets. In an email, he responded:

Actually, I simply think of the racquets as extensions of my arms and when I move (slowly or quickly) the racquets "move as arms" and their