This year, the US Open brought with it a lot of questions. Could Roger Federer win his 6th straight US Open and 16th Grand Slam title? Could Andy Roddick return from a good, but not great hard court season where he lost twice to del Potro and once to Querrey? Was Sam Querrey ready to take the next step up the rankings?
Could Andy Murray finally win his first Slam title despite being Slam-less at number 2 in the world? Could Rafa come back from rust to play well at the US Open with his awesome tennis raquet skills? Was Juan Martin del Potro ready to make an impact at the US Open?
On the women’s side, the biggest question was: could anyone stop Serena? The second biggest question was, is Kim Clijsters ready to win again? Although Clijsters did quite well in her hard court tuneups, no one thought she was ready to win so soon. Serena Williams was the heavy favorite despite winning no tournaments outside of the Slams. The Williams sisters, who seem rather injury prone, have decided to forgo playing well at smaller events and focus all effort on playing the Slams. Remember, once upon a time, when one Williams sister or another was not even playing a Slam? Despite their outsized physique (especially Serena), neither seem able to avoid the injury bug.
Other questions abounded. Could Maria Sharapova overcome her serving woes and return to the top of the game? Could Dinara Safina hold it together mentally and make a serious run at the US Open? Were there any up-and-coming stars?
With the US Open concluded, we can take a look back at this fortnight and see what happened. Let’s start on the women’s side. Early on, it was seed after seed falling. Melanie Oudin became the darling of the US Open when she beat Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, and Nadia Petrova before finally facing a non-Russian in the steady Hingis-like, Caroline Wozniacki. When you look at the rankings, there’s no one much after the Williams sisters that can contend for majors. There are maybe 4 or 5 Americans in the top 100. Compare that to the Russians where you need hands and feet to count how many are in the top 100.
Once Melanie Oudin exited, it became the Kim Clijsters story. Kim had retired more than 2 years ago due to injuries and the desire to have a baby. Having healed, had the baby, the itch to play tennis came back, and she trained for 7 months to get back into tennis shape. Much like Monica Seles, her return was shockingly good. In the process of winning the US Open, she did what few women had done: beat both Williams sisters. She’s the first mom to win a Slam since Evonne Goolagong did it in the 1970s. She also won as a wildcard. This story would be the feel-good story of the tournament, were it not for one thing.
Tennis has its hardcore fans. Folks that know the difference between Kuznetsova and Dementieva. They know Serena only wins at the Slams but cares little about the smaller tournaments. They know Agnieska Radwanska is and up-and-comer. They know that there are sisters other than the Williams sisters playing (the Bodarenko sisters also play).
However, sports fans that don’t follow tennis, only know Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal (maybe), Andy Roddick, and the Williams sisters. Maybe Maria Sharapova. The only time the non-tennis fan seems to care about what’s going on is when Federer plays Nadal again or the Williams sisters win again. Generally, the debates of greatness then digress back to basketball or baseball or whatever sports pundits feel more passionate about. Perhaps Tiger Woods. They want to pump tennis up, make it more visible, but they have a hard time because they can hardly discuss the actual games played.
So for such fans, the US Open can be summarized as “the Serena incident”. In a semifinal showdown, pushed past 9 PM on a Saturday due to rain that had shut down play on Friday, and nearly washed out Saturday, fans were fixated on whether Kim Clijsters, the former number 1 and now a mom, could challenge Serena Williams. Her record prior to her retirement was not good. Serena had a 7-1 record over Clijsters. But Clijsters’ 7 months of training had beefed up her forehand, and she was playing almost as good as ever, and in some respects better.
Late in the first set, with Serena serving to stay in the match, Serena netted a ball at set point. This mistake angered Serena who threw her racquet down, and then smashed it. This lead to a warning for racquet abuse. Then, at 5-6 down in the second set, Serena serving at 15-30, she faulted on first serve. She was then called on a second serve foot fault. Serena went over to the lineswoman and said she’d shove the tennis ball down her f**ing throat. This lead the chair umpire to call the lineswoman over and ask what had been said. The lineswoman claimed Serena was threatening to kill her, and while having a tennis ball shoved down one’s throat might be death-inducing, the two phrases are different. In any case, Serena’s histrionics were a breach of etiquette and she was given a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Since the score was 15-40, the match was over.
This incident was perhaps the indelible image that non-tennis fans saw, and Serena tried to do damage control, including holding a press conference shortly after her doubles win with Venus to apologize to everyone, lineswoman, USTA, and Kim Clijsters.
Tennis fans, at the very least, can remember Jada, Kim Clisters’ daughter, running around joyously, pointing out to mom, touching the trophy, soaking up her mom’s biggest moment, with nary a care in the world.
On the men’s side, things were pretty much going to form when two upsets occurred. Andy Murray looked completely listless after dropping the first set to Croat, Marin Cilic. Long accused of having a passive style that prevents him from pounding his opponent, Murray’s variety seemed to dry up, and attempts to use power were met with shots long or shots wide. Murray had pointed to the US Open as the tournament he was best fit to win, but his fourth round exit at the US Open tied a fourth round exit to Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open, and that match went five sets, and Murray was even sick.
The other Andy also lost early. Andy Roddick was hoping that his newfound success at Wimbledon and his new training regimen with coach Larry Stefanki would lead to US Open success. Stefanki had helped get Roddick leaner and meaner. Roddick had a reasonably successful hard court season, but had to skip some of the early events due to a hip injury. Roddick unfortunately had three losses in the summer that marred his return: two to del Potro, and one more to Sam Querrey. Roddick said tennis is sometimes this way. Last year, he said he played awful, but made the quarterfinals. This year, he was playing much better, but ran into a hard-serving and calm John Isner, losing in their 3rd round match.
Novak Djokovic had had a reasonably mediocre Slam season. He lost in the quarters of the Australian Open and Wimbledon and the third round of the French Open. Quite a far cry from when he was reaching the semifinals routinely. It seemed he had been coming back during the clay court season when he was the only guy stressing Rafael Nadal, despite no wins. Djokovic finally beat a recovering Nadal in the semifinals of Cincinnati. Djokovic made a good run to the semifinals but showed, against Roger Federer, that he wasn’t back to his dominating self.
Rafael Nadal played a bit rusty at the start of the US Open. If the warmup tournaments showed anything, it was Rafael Nadal could win against lesser players at less than 100%. For this reason, despite an abdominal strain, most felt Rafael Nadal could make a deep run. This was buoyed by the scintillating win over talented Gael Monfils. For a set and a half, the two traded body blows, with Monfils attacking and using his athleticism to keep up with Nadal. Nadal, for his part, looked brilliant. But the victory seemed to take its toll. Nadal would play a tight match against Fernando Gonzalez which concluded on Saturday with Gonzo falling apart completely.
His match with Juan Martin del Potro promised to be more of a challenge. Given del Potro’s play in the summer, and really, all year, plus Nadal’s injury, plus del Potro’s two victories over Nadal on hard courts this year, those in the know thought del Potro would be favored to win. No one expected the kind of beatdown he ushered to Nadal. del Potro has now got the most fearsome forehand in tennis. Unlike Gonzo, this forehand always seems to be in control. His height let him take Nadal’s high bouncers with ease, and his flat delivery left Nadal gasping for air.
Roger Federer, meanwhile, was being Roger Federer. That is, making his way to the semifinals as he always seems to do. He faced rival Novak Djokovic in a semifinal which was a bit humdrum with Federer making a few fantastic shots mixed with a bunch of errors. Djokovic didn’t seem to have his heart in the match despite trying valiantly to keep up with Roger. He had had a poor match win over Fernando Verdasco where he struggled to keep his forehand in before finally playing a good fourth set for the victory.
And that lead to the final. Delpo was clearly playing better tennis coming into the finals, but there was hope that Federer would turn it up and blow del Potro out of the water. And for a while, Federer started out great. He took an early break and won the first set. He was up a break, serving for the second set, 30-0 up, and then played two bad points and was passed twice to lose the break. Delpo seemed inspired and took the tiebreak.
Federer again had his chances. He won the third set and looked in control of the fourth set when again, Delpo came to win that set in a tiebreak. By the fifth set, the humming Federer machine had suddenly lost a wheel, and Fed was thump-thump-thumping along, mixing good shots, with inexplicable errors. Meanwhile, del Potro continued to play good tennis, got an early break, and broke once again to take the match, and with it, his first Slam title.
For now, Delpo becomes the first of the new guys (Murray, Tsonga, Cilic, etc) to get a Slam and is tied with Novak Djokovic with one career Slam. He seems to have the most upside of any player not named Federer or Nadal. He’s got the kind of game that can bother both of them.
With the rankings out, Murray goes back to number 3 in the world and Nadal back to 2 in the world. del Potro goes back to 5 and Roddick down to 6. Murray and Nadal are very close. One would expect Nadal to take another huge break to recover and Murray could, in that time, do well enough to regain number 2. Murray has lots of points to defend since he did well at the US Open and at tournaments afterwards, but Nadal’s zero at Wimbledon and 3rd round loss at the French makes him within range of Murray.
And, in the end, Federer who was almost within a breath away from having a monumental year, is now seen, once again, as someone that might be showing his age again. For the most part, it’s really Federer trying to gain consistency on his shots, but one factor that Federer should be concerned about is how many squash shots, half volleys, etc. he needed just to keep shots in play. Nadal used his speed to keep up with del Potro (which didn’t work this time) and Fed used his amazing hands to keep up.
This tournament may signal both the return of Kim Clijsters and the ascendancy of Juan Martin del Potro. Only time will tell what impact the winners will have.
Meanwhile, this is Charlzz signing off for US Open reporting duty. Enjoy the fall!
