Where to start? After bet-at-home Open I was concerned about two things:
1. Will I have a first round bye at Rogers Cup so that I can play within deadline my first match after coming back from vacations?
2. How quickly am I going to be in top form after not touching the game for 10 days?
Fortunately the right amount of players signed up so that I got a first round bye and the second question is better answered by looking at how the matches played out.
R32 against VAMOSRAFA (Gasquet) 6-1, 6-0
Less than 24 hours after I came back home a match against VAMOSRAFA was awaiting me. After a bit of practice offline I felt good and it showed on court, but there was still room for improvement. I was relying more on the longer rallies and that I was not satisfied with. He did well to hang in these long rallies, I was surprised to see that (rally length was at 8.5, the second highest I got in the whole tournament). I think he improved from our last encounter, which was on clay. Too bad I could not tell that directly to him, but he decided to leave immediately after the match point.
R16 against mar7xion (Dimitrov) 6-2, 6-2
I saw his progress in the recent weeks, regarding results. His best results were on clay, so I knew it would be a different matter on outdoor hardcourts. On serve I was in total control, losing only 1 point there throughout the whole match. He did well to win his service games, mixing it up, serving well and earning the games he won. There are things he can improve on, trying to play closer to the baseline for instance, which requires to improve (vertical) movement and positioning towards the ball. The rally length in this match was 4.9, which was nice to see!
QF against MaGav (Janowicz) 6-3, 6-4
The first thing I did before the match was to lower the volume of grunts. Fortunately there was an option in the TE Menu, so I did not have to dig deep! I felt comfortable in this match-up because I just had to distribute the shots, move Janowicz around and be more aggressive when the situation required it. I also returned well, creating many chances, but not converting many of them. I had break points in 7 of his service games, but only broke 3 times. This made life in 2nd set a bit more difficult, where I had chance for 5-2 when he served at 4-2. He was getting closer at this stage of the match, even had 0-30 when I was serving it out at 5-4. A couple of good points and serves later I won and was in the SF. My more conservative approach for this match-up showed up in the average rally length, 9.5 there.
SF against Robbin (Tipsarevic) 6-3, 6-4
I kind of expected Robbin in the SF because he is in really good form and Vramvrim had Ferrer. After I heard of the 14 aces Robbin took in that QF against Vramvrim, I thought I would be able to dictate on serve. And except for my first service game, where Robbin was very relaxed, I did not have to face break points. Luckily he made green errors on the break points, I held and did not look back.
I created several chances on return, having break points in multiple service games in a row, which eventually led to a break and then serving it out without problems. In the second set I secured an early break and brought it home. Average rally length of 7.7 was acceptable for this match-up. In this form Robbin can look positively at US Open, because he can still play better here and there.
F against Richie (Federer) 6-3, 6-2
This was a very straightforward match, favourable match-up, not much Richie could do I think. I started very well, leading 3-0 and 30-0 on serve, but then I played a couple of bad points and got broken, 3-2 it was after Richie held. I stayed focused and aggressive from the baseline, which gave chances for another break at 4-2, but he held and at 5-3 I was determined to not be in the situation of serving it out, double break for 6-3 it was then. Second set remained on serve until 2-2, when Richie had a break point, but I saved it and broke in the next game for 4-2. Holding for 5-2 I could play another relaxed return game and took my second match point (how I did not take the first one is still a miracle
). Average rally length of 6.8, fine for me. Funny to see that he won more of the long rallies. 
I could not have asked for a better start in the US Open Series, also good match-ups for me in this tournament, which helped. It was also good to see that I can allow myself a serious break and being able to get back on high level quickly. So, in the end just happy about this victory, felt a bit like Shanghai 2012, good old times for me.
Main thing now is to keep the level up for Cincinnati and try to do some things a bit better at US Open, because the field is very competitive these days, where almost anyone in Top 10 can beat another Top 10.
