US Open

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 »

Two weeks of stunning tennis have transformed the Serbian phenom.  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."  read more »

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.  read more »

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.  read more »

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.  read more »

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."  read more »

I tried it once, and nothing terrible happened.

So here, for our second attempt at live-blogging the Open, I'll be presenting a running account of the women's semifinal between Venus Williams and Justine Henin at Arthur Ashe.

If you feel like taking part in the coverage, chime in in the comments section or get me on AIM at ‘Jets20012.’

4:14: If Venus and Justine have a rally that lasts more than 10 seconds this sellout crowd might freakout. They were dead silent in the first match

4:15: Three early errors from Venus and an early break. Might she be nervous?

4:20: Janet Jackson is sitting in the Williams' family box, again. She was here earlier in the tournament.

Click 'Read More' for more live action!  read more »

I don't know if it's the worst tennis match ever, but it's probably the worst I've ever seen.

Svetlana Kuznetsova held on long enough to not lose against Anna Chakvetadze, taking the third set 6-1. There were dunks into the net, sailing errors and swings and misses at floating volleys. There were 13 breaks of serve, and 81 (!) unforced errors (versus 31 winners).  read more »

Phew! What a first set.

Anna Chakvetadze just took it from Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, but this was easily the worst tennis I've seen in 12 days.

In the first set there were a total of 30 errors and 9 winners. Kuznetsova was so unnerved that she requested that the chair empire ask the crowd to quiet down in her final service game -- even though the stadium was entirely silent. (There's not much to cheer.)

Fittingly, the first set ended when Kuznetsova double-faulted.  read more »

Ex-Cabana boy Jonathan Hays was hard at work, spraying women down on a sultry Friday afternoon with a bottle of Evian water.

"Please," said one overheated woman who was pointing to her forehead. "Spray me right here."

Hays has been here during the entire tournament as part of a gig for Evian that lets him stand in the shade while throngs of U.S. Open attendees -- one out of five, he estimates -- throw themselves at him and close their eyes.  read more »

As Jelena Jankovic was picking up some final things at Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday after her loss to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, I asked her if Venus needed to pick up her level of play to beat Justine Henin later today, especially since she made 56 unforced errors in their match.  read more »

I asked tennis’ most consistent overachiever over the last 15 years, retired American Todd Martin, what he would do to beat Roger Federer.

His answer: "For me, as somewhat limited as my game was, there’s only one option: to be as aggressive as I can—to get him on the first hit as often as possible. In order to do that there has to be a variety of attacks or an attack that makes Roger as uncomfortable as humanly possible.”

What advice does he offer today’s players?

“You have to understand that the most unique thing about our sport is the way we score. You don’t have to win more points than him. You don’t have to win more games than him. You have to just win them at the right time. If you want to break serve against a better player—and he’s better than everyone else—you have to accept losing games where you don’t make him play. Then hope you’ll win four out of six points, or five out of eight points and so forth. All you have to do is do that one time a set if you serve well.

“Sometimes you’re gonna look silly cause he’s more athletic than you and he’s more skilled than you. But you have to defend your serve and figure out a way—string a couple of points together here and there.”

If Venus Williams goes on to win tomorrow night and then in the final, it will give the Williams sisters three of this year’s four Grand Slams -- an enormous comeback for them.

Yet, if we return to Mary Carillo’s point from two weeks ago -- that the Williams sisters haven’t lived to their potential -- here’s something that underscores it.

Serena Williams has finished only one year at number one; Venus Williams never has.  read more »

If you missed Novak Djokovic entertaining the Arthur Ashe crowd last night with his post-match impressions, here's a taste, and here's another, and here's yet another, of what the fans saw.

For a 20-year-old, Djokovic seems remarkably savvy about the way stars are made. Here's what he said after the match:  read more »

Finally. A much-needed, quick, straight-sets victory for Novak Djokovic, over a battle-hardened Carlos Moya. Next, Djokovic will take on the speedy, relentless David Ferrer on Super Saturday.

The '98 French Open champ and former world number one Moya had kind things to say about his younger opponent.

"I think if there's one player who can be compared to Rafa and Roger it's him," said Moya after the match.  read more »

“I’m going to take two or three aspirins before the match,” said Novak Djokovic’s coach Marián Vajda. “I’m going to need it. It’s going to be a real challenge.”

Like Tylenol?

“No, special Slovak kind. I need it to work.”

Tonight, Novak Djokovic will take on the determined 31-year-old veteran Carlos Moya in the U.S. Open quarterfinal. Djokovic's entire trip through the Open has been an exhausting one (see here and here) and tonight could be another headache.  read more »

A week ago today, Anna Chakvetadze won in straight sets in a little-noticed second-round match. She won a little bit after 12pm on a backcourt at a time when the majority of the gallery crowd was still in transit.

Afterwards, there was such little interest in the media in talking to her that her post-match press conference was conducted in a player’s lounge area—not an interview room—with two bloggers.

“There were more interesting matches to put on the show courts,” she said in her straightforward manner.  read more »

Think Serena was a little ticked off a couple nights ago? This is in the third game of the second set that was soon about to get away from her. Read Serena's lips and you be the judge.

This gem comes from The New Yorker's U.S. Open blog.

[via The Sporting Scene]

A belabored storyline during the first week of the Open was that American men's tennis is back, thanks to unheralded youngsters like John Isner and Donald Young. By the second week, that narrative had kind of fallen apart.

From Jon Wertheim's column this week:  read more »

The other day I took a picture from Section 335, Row Z, Seat 1. Which seems to illustrate what the writer Peter Dizikes wrote in Slate five years ago about Arthur Ashe Stadium:

"While the best tennis venues provide a sense of intimacy, Ashe's double-decker stack of luxury boxes, located immediately above the courtside seats, pushes everyone else higher, making fans in the upper deck feel as if they're watching tennis through the wrong end of a telescope."

Roger Federer once again proved himself unstoppable, but Andy Roddick played incredibly well.

Start with these total stats for both players:

Winners: 90

Unforced: 42

Doubles: 0

"It was great tennis," said Federer.

"I didn't make mistakes," said Roddick. "If he hits a 140, hits the back of the line, you know, whatever."  read more »

It wasn't a work of art from Venus in her match against Jelena Jankovic. She hit 56 unforced errors and had 8 double-faults. But when it came to a deciding third-set tiebreaker, she played her best tennis of the night.

"I felt really strong in the tiebreak, I felt fairly fresh," she said, "and I stopped missing, so that helped."

By contrast, Jankovic made errors at the key point and said she was so nervous that when she spoke to the crowd afterwards her voice was shaking.   read more »

Last night, Serena Williams spoke bitterly, and somewhat gracelessly, to the media after a devastating quarterfinals loss to Justine Henin. Tonight, Jelena Jankovic lost in the quarterfinals, and her public reaction couldn't have been more different. Here are some highlights:  read more »

Jelena Jankovic took advantage of a sluggish Venus Williams early in the first set and propelled herself to a 6-4 first set win. Venus Willimas was spraying balls and hitting sloppy errors. Venus found energy by the end of the set, but the wayward shots were still there. In the first set, Williams had 18 unforced errors and 3 double faults.

We've got a match.

UPDATE: The sleeping giant is up. Venus Williams just took the second set in less than 30 minutes, 6-1.

UPDATE 2: Venus prevails in tiebreak, 7-6 (4) in the third set.  

This is 20-year-old Anna Chakvetadze at lunch after her easy victory today. She was eating roasted turkey breast, hard boiled eggs, mozzarella and tomato with pesto sauce and a side of pita bread. Her opponent in the women's semifinals on Friday, Svetlana Kuznetsova, was running through the dining room with a fruit and yogurt parfait with granola, blueberries and strawberries.

Tonight, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer will square off in what is perhaps the most uneven rivalry in tennis.(Federer leads the head-to-head, 13-1). Roddick said that he knows expectations are low.

But Roddick is looking good—he hasn’t dropped a set in the Open—and Federer has lost two first sets (wow!) in this tournament.

I asked one my favorite experts, Jon Wertheim, for his take on the match.  read more »

While everyone buzzes about the Venus Williams-Jelena Jankovic match later tonight, the semifinal on the bottom half is now set. It's the battle of Russians, if not exactly notable (or pronouncable) names. 2004 U.S. Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova will take on Anna Chakvetadze.

Both won easily today: Chakvetadze beat Shahar Peer 6-4, 6-1; Kuznetsova beat Agnes Szavay 6-1, 6-4.

One good thing for the USTA to make up for the lack of star power: They're both playing their best tennis.

While most of the 23,000 fans who came to Arthur Ashe earlier Wednesday night were home and in bed by the time Rafael Nadal finally lost, these four men were among the small handful that remained.

“How about that 8am meeting!” said Steve, a 25-year-old accountant (second from left) from Murray Hill. Moments earlier he was jumping out of his seat doing the YMCA. It was 1:15 in the morning and he was not leaving. In fact, the topic was never raised.

“Maybe at 1:45 we’ll have that discussion,” said Steve.  read more »

Rafael Nadal lost in the fourth round (very late) last night after a 3-hour, 28 minute four-set match with David Ferrer. Nadal wouldn't blame injuries afterwards, but he looked worn down on the court, especially toward the end. Give Ferrer credit. He's having a breakout tournament.

On Monday evening, these two young ladies were outside Arthur Ashe Stadium drinking white wine and surveying the crowd. After spending some time at the Red Star Café, they figured there were more potential dates out here.

They’re roommates and live in the West Village. Molly (right) is 26 and works in advertising. Julia (left)is 25 and works in finance.

But even on the grounds, still nothing. No viable men. The Open wasn’t turning out to be a very good singles scene.

“We were hoping for it,” said Molly. “Two drinks in and still no luck.”

This afternoon, the Israeli Shahar Peer will take on Anna Chakvetadze in the quarterfinals. Here’s what Peer had to say about fans in Flushing:

"I go on the court and I feel like I'm playing in Israel or something. It's so much fun. It's really nice to play when you have so much support."

My friend Goldburn took issue with me calling last night’s loss one of Serena’s worst.

Goldburn: I don't think it was one of the worst losses of her career
me: if you consider henin is (1) a rival and (2) serena unraveled against that rival and lost to her for a 3rd time in a GS this year and (3) you don't put up a fight -- that’s pretty devastating.

(More, if you can bear it, after the jump.)  read more »

Before the last night's match, Justine Henin's coach Carlos Rodriguez said he wanted Henin pressuring Serena.

She did, and it worked: In the match, Henin converted 11 for 14 net chances.

“If I'm too far from my baseline, if I don't move forward, I have no chance to win this kind of match,” said Henin last night.  read more »

Moments after one of the worst losses of her career, Serena Williams walked into the women’s locker room sobbing.

When she met with the press 20 minutes later she was still teary-eyed. And she did not want to talk about her match.

“I really don't feel like talking about it, to be honest,” she said. “It's like I don't want to get fined. That's the only reason I came. I can't afford to pay the fines because I keep losing.”  read more »

In anticipation of tonight’s fantastically wonderful match-up of Serena Williams and Justine Henin, I’m trying something new: live-blogging from Arthur Ashe Stadium. Instant analysis!

If you feel like being a part of this bold venture, chime in in the comments section or get me on AIM at ‘Jets20012.’

8:16: One minute from the first serve and the seats here are barely filled since it took so long to kick people from the day session out. Why do they schedule these matches so poorly?

8:23: Early break! Notoriously slow starter Serena loses the first game on her serve. Think Henin is invested? Pumps her first pretty theatrically in front of Serean's face.

8:30: Monica Seles is here, sitting next to David Dinkins (?!). Also Tony Bennett is here. My friend James' take: "it really is pathetic what passes for celebrity at the open. how long before they cut to rosanna scotto"

Click 'Read More' to follow the live action!  read more »

Justine Henin came off the practice court at 5, some two hours before her much-awaited rematch against Serena Williams tonight.

I caught up with Carlos Rodriguez, her coach, and asked him about the match.

“We come here to play these type of matches,” he said. “It’s exciting and it’s difficult. It's my job to help Justine to do her best in these type of situations.”

How’d she look in practice? “She looked good but practice and the match -- there is no relation. I hope she hits the ball tonight like she hit now.”  read more »

The three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten had been sitting in the player’s dining room over the last 90 minutes eating steak and watching TV.

“Muy mal!” a friend exclaimed to Kuerten.

Their friend, Carlos Moya, had just lost a third-set tiebreak in the 4th round of the U.S. Open.

But Moya would bounce back to win, rejoicing after hitting a falling-down backhand down the line to seal the match.  read more »

If Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Justine Henin or Rafael Nadal decide on some lunch before their big matches later today, here's what's on the players' menu: grilled flank steak, string beans with sliced onions and rice pilaf.

Parker Sutton is a Princeton grad and lives at 14th and B. He came with his family Saturday night to see his favorite player, James Blake, whose match was to start at about 10.

Here he is on his Open outfit, a blue-and-white striped oxford shirt: “I can wear it untucked because it doesn’t fall too long,” he said. “I’m a pretty skinny guy so it would look pretty goofy otherwise.”

And here he is on the perils of attending sporting events with relatives: "I'm here with my family. I hope they don't wanna leave now."

Before the Open began, Serena Williams discussed how eager she was to take on Justine Henin, who she’s lost to at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year:  read more »

On Sunday at around noon, there was one free table at the food court. Two groups approached it. One group was made up of a dad and his daughters; the other included three ladies and their male companion, Adam Bordner.

The dad put his stuff beside the table, thinking he’d reserve it while his daughters grabbed some food. Bordner wasn't having it.

“I came up and said, ‘Just sit down girls! We’re sitting down."  read more »

Is Serena Williams secretly injured?

After her match against Marion Bartoli, she was asked if anything was affecting her physically: “I would be the last person to tell you just in case Justine or Safina reads it, and they're like, ‘Oh, I know what to do.’”

Then her father, Richard, had this to say to me two days ago: “I think Serena can beat anyone when she’s well. Serena’s really not well. I know she’s not well. I won’t let you find out what’s wrong with her, but she’s not well.”

Let's see if Henin can figure it out.

I caught up with Eliot Spitzer outside Arthur Ashe Stadium before last night's Roger Federer match and asked him about the best part of his tennis game.

“I used to volley well,” he said. “I’d come up to the net a lot. But now I’m 48 years old. My hamstring hurts, my back hurts, and this and that.”

He said he wasn't much of a Federer fan, but loved Americans Andy Roddick and James Blake. He asked me who was playing in the women's match at the time but I froze and couldn't remember.  read more »

It's time to start talking about tonight's match between Serena Williams and Justine Henin, the latest installment in what some of my favorite tennis experts consider to be the greatest rivalry going on the women's side.

“Serena-Henin is the best,” said Jon Wertheim, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. “There’s some history there. They played three times already this year -- Serena won one and saved a match point, Justine won at the majors.”  read more »

No doubt freaked out that Svetlana Kuznetsova or Anna Chakvetadze would be the marquee players for a quarterfinals match on primetime on Wednesday night, the USTA just announced it has bumped the Venus Williams-Jelena Jankovic match from Tuesday to Wednesday.  read more »

James Blake is playing? Why, it must be a five-set match!

This time, he lost. Tommy Haas overcame three match points and an absolutely nutso pro-Blake crowd to move to the quarters. Blake played valiantly but this caps off a largely disappointing Grand Slam year for Blake.

Nikolay Davydenko is up two sets in his match and will likely play Haas in the quarters.