There was a moment in his second round match against Latvian Ernests Gulbis when I said to a friend “This is the begininning of the end of Andy Roddick’s career”.

Perhaps a bit drastic, but the situation looked bleak, both in the match in and in the greater scope.

Gulbis’s was up a set and serving for the second, but his overall domination was symbolic of Roddick’s summer: Despite skipping the Olympics to stay in America and train for the US Open, he was upset in Toronto, DC, and LA, and too injured to play in Cincinnati. For the year, despite 33 wins and two titles, he’d won just three grand slam matches and no tournaments since the spring. His ranking had dropped to eight, and with an early Flushing Meadows exit, he’d drop out of the top ten.

Couple that with no Masters Series titles the last two seasons, no grand slam finals since 2006 (with that lone grand slam title, the 2003 US Open, fading further into the past), and the prevailing thought was Andy’s best days were quickly drifting into the past. More important, his lazer serve now seemed just a tad more pedestrian, making the rest of his game nothing more than ordinary. And his lone reason for skipping the Olympics? It was fading away fast.

Then, suddenly, everything changed: Roddick broke Gulbis’s serve. Then did it again and won the second set. Then he won the third, and the fourth, and Andy was alive, big time. Two days later he blew out Andreas Seppi, followed by an even more severe trouncing of Fernando Gonzalez.

Now, he’s playing his best while Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic all look sluggish and tired  (and very vulnerable) and I truly believe something I thought I’d never say:

This US Open is Andy Roddick’s to lose.

What’s become obvious is Andy made the right choice: Skipping the Olympics, even with his shoddy pre-US Open results, made him fresher. Yes, he got hot at the right time and his serve suddenly looks as crisp and dangerous. But his win over Gonzalez was the most dominant of the men’s tournament, and he’s the only round of 16 victor who looked as fresh as he did in round one (really, fresher).

Like the Gulbis match, the Gonzales win is also symbolic: Normally Fernando is a tough matchup for Andy (and anyone) - he’s the 11 seed (to Andy’s eighth), Olympic silver medalist, and his hard hitting always seemed to give Andy some problems. But he’s played a ton of tennis this summer, went from Cincinnati to China to New York, and by the end had nothing left. Guess who else made the here to there and back again trip? Djokovic, Nadal and Federer.

Enter Andy’s chance.

Look at Andy’s draw: He plays Djokovic next. The two have split a couple of matches, but Novak had each of his last two Open matches won then nearly blew them with lazy, loagy errors.

Win against Novak? Andy has Federer, who not only has looked super ordinary all summer, but was completely flat in a 5-set victory over Igor Andreev.

Past there? Likely Rafael Nadal for the title. While Rafa is clearlay the best player in the world, if he made the finals, he’d have played 28 matches the last ten weeks.That is a ton of tennis, and even the most durable athletes break down.

Which is why we say this: Andy’s time is now. Andy’s chance to become more than a 1-slam winner is present. This is Andy’s tournament to lose.

And we believe, yes, Andy will take the 2008 US Open.

And if loses tomorrow, we’ll delete the whole column.