US Open Blog

hen Novak Djokovic checked into the Barclay on 48th Street three weeks ago, he was a little-known tennis player from Serbia.

He’ll leave New York a star.

By the time Djokovic, 20, reached yesterday’s final, he had impressed a tennis world with his play and won crowds over with his emotive personality.

Off the court, the celebrity treatment started even earlier.  read more »

U.S. Open champion Roger Federer was asked tonight whether Novak Djokovic was ready to unseat Rafael Nadal as the second best player in tennis.

"I guess Nadal is still No. 2, but it's getting closer," he said. "It probably depends who finishes better at the end of the year."

"No. 2, No. 3, doesn't matter much," he continued. "It's No. 1 that matters."

And there's no one else close.

I tried it again, and nothing bad happened.

So here, for our third and final attempt at live-blogging the Open, I'll be presenting a running account of the men's final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic live from Arthur Ashe Stadium.

4:24: Liza Minnelli is seriously winded after performing "New York, New York" on a red carpet on center court. The crowd seemed entertained by her performance too.

4:46: Wow. Federer abandons his traditional Sunday blue in favor of the all-black "Darth Federer" look.

4:48: Maria Sharapova in Djokovic's box. Really?

For my live action click 'Read More'  read more »

Novak Djokovic's coach, Marian Vajda, said the game plan that led them to success in Montreal last month will be similar to the one they use against Roger Federer today.

"We know a couple things, a couple weaknesses that we talked about before the match in Montreal," he said. "It's not going to change a lot."

What kind of weaknesses?

"I don't tell you now," he said. "It's kind of secret before the match. Sorry about that."

Djokovic told me that he went after Federer's backhand in Montreal. Is that the weakness?

"Of course, everyone can see Roger is better on his forehand side and has a couple weaknesses on his backhand side, especially if he' s struggling," he said.

"[Some players] don't like the backhand slice," he continued. "We practiced that, he's ready for that, we're ready for that. If you beat him once you have confidence for the next match. Of course, this is a Final for the Grand slam. Wnning will be very diffucult emotionally, mentally."

Before the Carlos Moya quarterfinal, Vajda told me he needed special Slovakian aspirin to help him get through the match emotionally and mentally. How many aspirins will he need today?

"I take two, always," he said. "Today, I take five! I take one per set."

Later today, the 20-year-old Novak Djokovic will become the third youngest man to ever play in a U.S. Open Final. The only ones younger were Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg.

"I don't want to go out tomorrow and try to do my best or try to perform well," Djokovic said yesterday. "No, I'll go tomorrow to try to win."

His obstacle is Roger Federer, the 11-time Grand Slam Champion who is vying for his fourth consecutive U.S. Open Title -- a modern day record.

Djokovic has been waiting for this match for weeks.

On Aug. 21, I spoke to Djokovic on the phone while he was in his hotel room at the Barclay on Lexington Avenue. We were talking about the secret to defeating Roger Federer, who he beat in Montreal earlier this summer.

"With Roger, you just have to stay with him and keep it up, play every point and not lose your mind," he said. "You have to just stay right there. It's difficult. Again, we are talking about one of the best players in the history of the tennis. It's very hard to win against him on any surface, but you got to stay with him. If you're nervous, he'll use his biggest weapons and break you. You try to put some pressure on him.

"If you stay with him," he continued, "you get your chances."

Federer has no weaknesses, but if there's one opening, it's his backhand, and Djokovic assaulted it in their last meeting.

"You have to try to do something tactic-wise to try to break him," he said. "He has great spin, but you know the thing with his backhand is he can hurt you much more with his forehand, it's his big strength. But again, he can create a lot of good opportunities for the winner with the forehand from his backhand slice."

In his final against Federer, he won two tie-breaks by a shockingly lopsided score of 14-4.

"The top players, they all have good groundstrokes and volleys, it's just a matter of mental strength at a certain moment," Djokovic said. "I think I added a lot of confidence in the last couple months, winning in Miami. I got motivated and now it makes me even more comfortable on the court."

It's one thing to be comfortable against Federer for three sets in Montreal. Can he do it for five in New York?

On Friday night, Channel 2 news showed the highlights of the Venus Williams-Justine Henin match. Somehow, Foxy Brown got involved in the mix.

Justine Henin has been known as a great player with an unpredictable mind. If her nerves stayed in check she could beat anybody. But it's that 'if' that has prevented tennis pundits from calling her the unquestionable number one player in the world. If Serena or Venus are on their game, if Sharapova has her serve, then well ... Henin can't stand up to that.

Tonight, Justine Henin made those reservations seem a little silly. She won her seventh Grand Slam and second U.S. Open in the most dominating and convincing effort of her career.

"This one is maybe the most important one," she said afterwards. "The quality I played in the last few matches is amazing. It's just a great feeling because I had a tough draw and I had a lot of things to prove to myself."

On the way, she beat Serena for a third consecutive Grand Slam, this time in straight sets. She dismantled Wimbledon Champion Venus Williams, the player everyone said looked the best in this tournament.

Oh. And she didn't lose one set to anyone the whole way through. All on hard courts, too, which is not exactly the preferred surface of the four-time French Open Champ.

For two weeks, she was more aggressive than we've ever seen her. Before her match against Serena, her longtime coach Carlos Rodriguez told me: "I’d like Justine to go a little bit forward, to try to get to the net to put Serena out of rhythm and push her a little bit back.”

What that meant was he wanted his meek, 5'5 pupil to attack. In her 6-1, 6-3 Finals victory against Svetlana Kuznetsova tonight, she was 13 of 16 from the net. Against Serena she was 11 of 14.

Most importantly, she overcame her nerves. Before the tournament began she said the Williams sisters were still in her head. But last night, after she defeated Venus Williams, she said, "I didn't believe enough in myself, didn't trust myself enough in the last few years against [the Williams sisters]. And then this year a lot of things have changed. I trust myself much more."

Now, after her second Grand Slam this year, she's an undisputed champion.

After a divorce so messy that it caused her to withdraw from the Australian Open, Justine Henin-Hardenne returned to the 2007 tennis season with a new attitude and a new name: Justine Henin. Her triumph tonight was a coronation of her redemption and her personal struggle back to the top.

In a post-match ceremony on center court she was congratulated by Dick Enberg, the CBS announcer and stadium MC, who then introduced her as ... Justine Henin-Hardenne.

When he said it, the entire press room groaned let out a sustained groan. "Brutal!" "God! Did he say that!" "Just End Berg!" Meanwhile, Henin sat there with a plastic, awkward smile on her face until Enberg realized his mistake and reverted back to plain old Justine Henin.

“They’ve named it twice—New York, New York—but there can only be one winner at U.S.T.A.!” said U.S. Open veteran J.R. Reid, a “cool 36,” who was born and raised in Harlem.

“My favorite part is the finals. When we get down to the finals, when we get down to the bread and butter—who’s going to win, who’s going to go home,” Reid said. “It’s a beautiful match for two weeks, but this is New York, so there’s only one winner. That’s what I look forward to.”

Here are his predictions: “I don’t think anybody’s going to beat Roger. I like to call him Roger the Dodger, because he’s the best. He’s number one and he’s going to stay number one until they find somebody out there to beat him. Right now, I don’t think anybody can."

I asked him about some of the amusing things he's seen over his several years working at the Open. He thought for a moment, then erupted: “The only thing that gets me and makes me laugh is the change of shift from the day to the night. We have to run around and chase the people out of here, try to get them out of here so the night shift can come in.”

Anything else?

“The [lower-level access pass] yellow tickets at 10:30 [p.m]. People looking for the ushers so they can go down to the lower level and see it. They ask everybody with a red shirt. ‘Yellow ticket! Yellow ticket! Do you have one?’”

Before the U.S. Open started, Novak Djokovic's coach, Marian Vajda, was worried. He saw a challenging draw filled with potential landmines: Mario Ancic and Radek Stepanek—two former Top 10 players—in the first two rounds, Hewitt in the fourth, Moya in the quarters and Nadal in the semis.

"I have to tell you I had really bad feelings," Vajda said about an hour ago. "But Novak was really focusing and really pumped up and he never said he was worried. If he looked at my eyes, I didn't want to show him my emotion. I was hiding it inside of me."

Then the draw started to change. Ancic pulled out, Hewitt and Nadal were both eliminated before he had to play them.

And after today's straight-sets victory over the relentless Spaniard David Ferrer, Novak Djokovic is on his way to the Finals at the age of 20. The only other 20-year-olds to play in an Open Final: Sampras, Borg, Agassi.

"For me, it's an accomplishment unbelievable," said Vajda. "It's the first final in such a short period of time. Before I took him I had maybe [an] idea of what to do and how far he can go. But not this soon like now. Not that fast."

"If you have a chance you have to take it and he's proven he's one of the best players in the world. He took the chance. Everything that has happened here has been incredible. I give him credit all the way."