RealClearSports.com: Serena Should Have Said She Was Sorry

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- What's the problem with saying you're sorry, with admitting you were wrong? To err is human, we've been told. So you make your mistake and tell everyone it was a mistake. Unless you're an athlete.

You've seen those phony statements, concocted by agents, where the individual deftly steps around the issue, never point-blank says, "I screwed up, and I'd like to say I'm sorry.''

Which is what Serena Williams should have said.

She's one of two or three best tennis female players in the world, arguably the best. But Serena embarrassed herself, embarrassed her sport during a U.S. Open semifinal.

Lost control. Lost the match. Was mad at herself and, in a expletive-filled tirade, took it out on a lineswoman who even Serena later conceded only was doing what she is paid to do.

A foot fault is a rare call in tennis. It occurs when a server touches the baseline with either foot. Despite denials that she never foot-faults, and seemingly is only guilty in New York, Serena has been called many times in her career.

When she was called in the U.S. Open semi was a problem, down a set to Kim Clijsters, losing 5-4 in the second set and 15-30 in the game. Foot fault. Suddenly it was 15-40, suddenly it was match point.

Suddenly Serena Williams, defending champion, 11-time Grand Slam winner, turned into an immature, foul-mouthed tennis brat.

She held a ball in her left hand, a racquet in her right and extending the left arm told the lineswoman, "I'm going to stuff this (bleeping) ball down your (bleeping) throat.''

In the NFL or the NBA or baseball, that threat would result in instant ejection. What it got Serena was a code warning, which, added to the warning she received for bashing her racket to the court in the first set, cost her a point. And at 15-40, that point meant game, set and match to Clijsters.

Whether a foot fault should be called at that juncture is a legitimate question, the same as whether a foul should be called in basketball in a tie game and a man driving to the basket and a second on the clock. But whether Serena disgraced herself is not a question. She did.

What she didn't do was apologize. In the post-match interview, a rather insincere Serena Williams, insisted, "I didn't threaten. I didn't say . . . I don't remember anymore. I was in the moment . . . I don't think it's necessary for me to speak about it. I've let it go. I'm trying to move on.''

So someone wondered if the lineswoman deserved an apology, and Serena, in her haughtiest voice, answered, "An apology for? From me? How many people yell at linespeople? . . .Players, athletes get frustrated. I don't know how many times I've seen that happen.''

That's no justification. Serena confided she has a temper, which is not an indictable offense. Serena confided one of her heroes was John McEnroe, notorious for his language when berating officials.

But Serena is almost 28 years old, supposedly a role model, as well as a fashion model. She's always placing a bottle of Gatorade next to the microphone during interviews to promote one of her endorsements. You think the company likes one of its stars swearing like a street punk?

Tennis is personality-driven. It is Serena Williams and Roger Federer who bring the attention. This isn't exactly inmates-running-the-asylum material, but the players have control. Even when they're out of control.
They are the lifeblood of their sport. They can get away with virtually anything.

Serena was fined $10,000, but she wasn't suspended. Having her beaten before the final of the Open was bad enough. She was the last American standing in American's championship. Not that she would have been standing even if she didn't go into her diatribe.

Clijsters, three months out of retirement, was outplaying Serena. Serena knew it. Serena was angry at herself. She took out it out on the lineswoman, of whom later Williams said, "If she called a foot fault, she must have seen a foot fault. I'm not going to knock her for doing her job.''

She didn't knock her, she trashed her. It was shameful. Then Serena had second thoughts. Then Serena was contrite. But she wouldn't apologize.

"It was a tough day,'' Williams justified. "I didn't play my best.''

Asked if she regretted losing her head, if briefly, Serena said, "I haven't really thought about it to have any regrets. I try not to live my life saying, ‘I wish, I wish.' I was out there and fought and I tried and I did my best.''

Her best was not very good. What we wish is a woman of Serena Williams' talent and reputation could say simply, "I apologize.'' We'd let it go at that.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/13/serena_should_have_said_she_was_sorry_96481.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: Serena's shocking outburst continues bizarre Open

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- The ending was bizarre. The result was stunning. Serena Williams was bounced from the U.S. Open, as earlier she had bounced her racquet in disgust, on a code violation for cursing a lineswoman.

It was a sorry ending to what had been a competitive match, with Kim Clijsters basically outplaying Serena and then standing in disbelief as Williams was told the point she was penalized was the point that gave Clijsters the semifinal victory, 6-4, 7-5.

Williams, the defending champion, was serving at 15-30 in the 12th game of the second set Saturday night when she was called by lineswoman for a foot fault, meaning Williams' foot was judged to be over the baseline.

Serena screamed at the woman, "I'm going to shove this [deleted] ball down your [deleted] throat."

The lineswoman reported Williams' comments to chair umpire Louis Engzell, who then called a second code violation, which -- added to the one assessed to Williams when she bashed her racquet in the first set -- resulted in a loss of a point.

That point gave Clijsters the game and thus the match.

"I don't remember what I said," was Serena's comment when asked how she addressed the lineswoman. "You didn't hear? I said something; I guess they gave me a point penalty. Unfortunately, it was on match point.

"I've never been foot-faulted, and then suddenly in this tournament they keep calling foot faults. I don't know why [the lineswoman] said she felt threatened. I've never been in a fight in my life. I didn't think I would get a point penalty."

And nobody thought Clijsters would become the first unseeded player in the women's final since Serena's older sister, Venus, in 1997. Clijsters, back from a two-year retirement in which she married and had a daughter, will face Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday night's final. Wozniacki beat Yanina Wickmayer, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

The way things had been going during this Open, anything was possible. Play had been rained out completely Friday, and then more rain Saturday forced postponement or rescheduling of numerous matches, including the two women's semis.

Normally held on Friday afternoon on the main court, Ashe Stadium, the women's semis were pushed back and back and back. Finally, the Wozniacki-Wickmayer match was shifted to the smaller Armstrong Court, and, after a lot of drying with hot air blowers, the two matches began simultaneously around 9:20 p.m. ET.

Serena, the No. 2 seed, never seemed in the match. She was broken three times. Then she lost her temper.

"That was a tough day," Williams said. "I didn't play my best."

But she also gave credit to the 26-year-old Clijsters, whose speed and strength were the equal of Serena, if not superior.

"Kim played well," Williams said. "I wasn't surprised. I saw her play in Cincinnati, and she played incredible. I thought, 'Wow, this is someone to watch out for.' I think it's really good to have her back on tour."

Clijsters, from Belgium, was champion in 2005. She was unable to defend in 2006 because of an injury, then in '07 dropped out to get married and start a family. But when asked earlier this year to play an exhibition with England's Tin Henman against Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, Clijsters got into shape in earnest. Now, in her third women's tour event after the return, she has surprised everyone.

Including herself.

"I'm in shock, really," was Clijsters' response when asked about reaching the final.

For Williams, a few days from her 28th birthday, the word is shocking. One moment she walks up to serve, the next she's being informed she's no longer playing.

"After she was called for the foot fault," tournament referee Brian Earley said, "she said something to the line umpire, who reported to the chair umpire. That resulted in a point penalty. It just so happens, that was match point."

Clijsters was as bewildered as Serena. Then again, while play went on, she was bewildering Serena.

"I came out of the blocks really well," Clijsters said. "I kept her on her back foot a little bit."

It was the front foot, when Serena was serving from the ad court, that did her in.

"If she called a foot fault," a contrite Williams said later, "she must have seen a foot fault. I mean, she was doing her job. I'm not going to knock her for doing her job."

When asked if she should apologize to the lineswoman, Serena said rhetorically, "An apology? For what? How many people yell at linespeople? "Players, athletes get frustrated. I'm sorry, but a lot of people have said a lot worse."

But not on this evening, in a semifinal of the U.S. Open.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12196880
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Federer's already the best, and he keeps getting better

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Roger Federer's usual edge is his own game. Now he has another, time. The weather has been a curse for this final weekend of the U.S. Open, but as always, Federer ends up not cursed at all.

He and semifinal opponent Novak Djokovic were quarterfinal winners on Wednesday, long before the rains came, and now with the suspensions and rescheduling, they won't play again until Sunday. Three days of rest for Novak. More significantly, three days of rest for Roger.

Who doesn't need it. Who doesn't need anything. He has it all.

"I don't think," Djokovic allowed, "you can ever get your game to perfection. Only if you're Federer."

Only if you're Federer, so graceful, so uncanny, so remarkable, winner of a record 15 Grand Slams, trying for a sixth straight U.S. Open. And now as confident and, because of the extra days off, as prepared as possible.

A strange thing happened to Federer in May 2004. He was beaten in the third round of the French Open. He hasn't been thwarted in a Grand Slam tournament before the semis since then.

Twenty-two in succession playing in a semi. That's Joe DiMaggio stuff, 56-game hitting streak stuff. That's consistency.

Federer is the best ever. Or so everyone says. At age 28, the only thing missing is the actual Grand Slam, wins in all four majors in a calendar year. And yet, with all the obstacles, the possibility of injury, the class of opponents, the streak is perhaps more impressive.

Five years, and Federer is a guaranteed semifinalist. And this time for his semi, three days rest.

"It's a wonderful record," affirmed Federer of all those semis in a row. "Not important, but nice to have. It's something I never aimed for, that's clear, but it's probably one of the greatest records I've created in my own personal career."

A year ago, showing up for the 2008 Open, which also had a Monday finish, which also had a Federer victory, there were questions about Federer.

He had been beaten at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal, had been crushed by Nadal at the French. The skeptics were saying Federer's time had past.

Federer's outward calm belies a determination. His smooth play and the cliche definition of Swiss as unemotional and businesslike is misleading. The doubters had him on the defensive. Wait, he said in so many words, before you say I'm done.

Roger has a temper, and only as he matured did he learn to control the temper, learn to use the anger and fire to focus his play instead of merely bouncing a racquet.

Every once in a while, during a post-match interview, Federer, the new father of twins, permits access to the pride and intensity that are mostly hidden.

He enjoys praise, likes being called the greatest. There is no false humility. He knows how good he is. So does everyone else.

"What he's done in separating himself from the game," said the now retired Andre Agassi of Federer, "should be recognized."

Agassi is one of the few to win all four Slams at least once. When Federer finally took the French Open this year, he joined Agassi and others such as Rod Laver and Don Budge.

In this rain-tossed Open, Federer is attempting to join the late Bill Tilden, who did it in the early 1920s, with six straight wins in America's championship, an event that didn't become an Open until 1968.

The comparison with Tilden, who died 28 years before Federer was born in 1981, Roger calls "fantastic." But then, as all champion athletes, he turned the conversation to the here and now and away from the future.

"I think," said Federer of the various records, "this stuff you can talk about when my career is over. This is when you analyze."

Federer's beauty is that, as other winners in all sports, he gets himself out of problems when, indeed, he somehow is in trouble. He's Kobe when the Lakers need a basket, Mariano Rivera when the Yankees need a third out. Just when you think Federer's going down, when an opponent has a golden chance for a service break, Federer snaps back up.

In the quarters on Wednesday night against Robin Soderling, Federer easily won the first two sets but lost the third in a tiebreak and seemed ready to lose the fourth the same way. Sorry. A couple of aces, a beautiful cross-court forehand, and there was Federer into the semis, 6-0, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.

"I don't know what happened," said Federer, who in truth always knows what happens. "But it's one of those days where everything goes right for you."

Since then, he's had three more days to contemplate and rest. The better you are, the luckier you get.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12192344
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Get a roof: Time to protect U.S. Open from rain

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com 

NEW YORK -- It's the city that never sleeps. But it's not the city where it never rains. At least during a U.S. Open. Either of them.

In June, at Bethpage Black farther out on Long Island, the golfing version was flooded and had to be extended an extra day until Monday. Now the same thing might happen for the tennis Open.

They would have played through the night Thursday -- and Friday in the wee hours -- except it's impossible to hold a racquet in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

And also because when they get wet, the painted lines that mark the boundaries of a court get as slippery as ice.

At Wimbledon, where the bad weather is infamous, a $140 million roof was erected before the start of this summer's tournament. It basically was unneeded -- it was closed a couple of times more for show than out of necessity.

The show Thursday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was a soggy and unfinished one.

The quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalezreached only the second set. Not long after that, many spectators decided it was time to reach for their metro passes and head for the No. 7 train.

Nadal won the first set, 7-6, and then rain began to fall. After a 1-hour, 16-minute suspension, play resumed at 9:43 p.m. ET. But the rain also resumed, and a second suspension came at 10:19 with Nadel ahead in another tiebreak, 3 points to 2.

Several times, blowers and squeegees were brought out to dry the courts, but as quickly as the water was removed the rain began again. Finally, at 12:01 a.m., the announcement was made that play had been postponed. Midnight Madness.

Nadal's star power is the thing that gets him into the night matches, the U.S. Tennis Association needing someone the television audience will watch. The lesser players -- in attraction, not necessarily skill -- had the daytime start. That proved advantageous.

So, while there still was a bit of sunshine and plenty of daylight, Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina defeated Marin Cilic of Croatia in the other men's quarter, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. His opponent will be the winner of the Nadal-Gonzalez match.

When that will end, nobody will guess. A storm is forecast for the region today, when the women's semifinals also are scheduled.

The tournament appears headed for who knows what. Last year the men's final had to be played on Monday. A repeat is very possible.

They're seriously going to think about a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium, as large as it is, with a capacity of 24,000. The tournament is too big, drawing more than 700,000 spectators during the two weeks, and too important to have it be affected by weather.

Originally, when Ashe was built a dozen years ago, a roof was considered, but because of the stadium size -- the largest in tennis -- the cost proved prohibitive. However, rainouts create chaos.

Nadal and Gonzalez were on and off the court and the fans were in and out of their seats until they started heading for the exits -- the fans, not the athletes. If and when play resumes, the winner, should he beat Del Potro and go to the final, will have to play all or part of three matches over three days.

Tiebreaks have helped Nadal, who after the first set and before the rain fell called for the trainer, who checked Rafael for a recurrence of the stomach muscle problem that bothered him earlier in the Open.

Nadal, of course, missed a chance to defend his Wimbledon championship this year because of tendinitis in both knees. He was out a month and a half, returning for two events before this Open.

Assuming he gets past Gonzalez, the muscular guy from Chile against whom Nadal has a 6-3 record, and then the aggressive Del Potro, it would seem a Nadal-Roger Federer final is ahead. Except assuming anything about Rafa in the U.S. Open, where he's never gotten beyond the semis, is dangerous.

Equally dangerous is thinking the U.S. Open will go merrily along on cue. A couple of years ago, after a heavy rain, an army of young people were brought on to the court and on their hands and knees mopped up as might a swabbie in the Navy.

Very inelegant and not terribly effective. Get a roof.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12187468
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports.com: Oudin Learns the Downside of Fame

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Stephen Sondheim wrote it. Melanie Oudin is living it. "I was taught,'' Sondheim's lyrics go, "when the prince and dragon fought, the dragon was always caught. Now I don't even wince when he eats the prince.''

Chomp. Chomp. He just took a hunk out of Melanie Oudin.

Pumpkins into coaches, little Miss Nobodies into celebrities, stuff we can only wish for. But fame can bite you when you're not looking.

Which is what happened to Melanie. The result of her last match at the U.S. Open isn't the reason.

But after that final match, the quarterfinal loss to the more accomplished Caroline Wozniacki, Oudin was asked about changes in what she contends was the life of a basic teenager.

"I've gone from being just a normal tennis player,'' said Melanie, "to almost everyone in the United States knowing who I am now.''

Knowing she's a 17-year-old with a lot of heart and talent.

Knowing her parents are in the middle of a divorce, about which "everyone in the United States'' would have been unsuspecting. Until Melanie became the lady of them all.

There was the dragon gnawing away. There was Sports Illustrated digging away.

That apparently Melanie's mom and Melanie's tennis coach, who, ironically she referred to as a second father, have played a bit of doubles after dark, was the content posted on the SI.com web site. Just about the time Oudin was walking off the court against Wozniacki.

It's old news, seemingly. John Oudin, Melanie's father, filed for divorce from Leslie Oudin on July 24, 2008, citing adultery as grounds, and Leslie Oudin a few weeks later, Aug. 12, 2008, denied the charges.

But it was an issue only for friends and family until Melanie took over the Open and New York tabloids.

Leslie Oudin, who had been sharing a hotel room with her daughter, not John, realized whatever happened at the Oudins', down in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Cobb County, no longer stayed at the Oudins'. Leslie, however, was just a little bit late.

Sensing the divorce records might go public, Leslie Oudin filed a motion with the Cobb County Superior Court a couple of days ago asking all documents be sealed from public view, citing "embarrassment.'' Sports Illustrated already had viewed them.

Somebody had talked. Whether it's at the White House or the house around the corner, somebody always talks.

In a sworn statement made last month, Aug. 10, John Oudin specifically alleged that his wife had been unfaithful with Melanie's coach of the past eight years, Brian de Villiers. He also stated that Melanie suspected the alleged affair.

"Both (Melanie and fraternal twin sister Katherine) asked me point blank,'' John Oudin said in a sworn statement, "if I thought mom was having an affair with Brian . . . Melanie told of one occasion she woke up at 1 a.m. and Leslie was not there. She called Brian's cell phone and connected with her.''

A Hollywood ending. That's what this is, if not the type where people live happily ever after. Doesn't everyone in Hollywood split?

Melanie Oudin, wise beyond her years, has dealt with the divorce as capably as possible. She played well at Wimbledon this summer. She played better at the U.S. Open this summer. Yet, if it's all true, if her mom and coach indeed were having an affair, what eventually will happen to the relationship between coach and player?

The shame is that the story had to surface when it did. These surely have been the best 10 days in Melanie's blossoming career, if not her life, and now they are diminished. What was a relative secret is being shouted across the country.

Attention is at once both wonderful and awful. Melanie has gained new endorsements, one a data mining firm BackOffice Associates for a six-figure sum according to Sports Business Daily. Melanie, as the report of the divorce proves so painfully, has lost her privacy.

Melanie Oudin doesn't deserve this, having her parents' woes detract from an enchanting few days of success. Tennis doesn't deserve this. The 2009 U.S. Open, because of Oudin and Serena Williams and the great Roger Federer reaching a 22nd straight semifinal in a Grand Slam, had been wonderfully upbeat.

Oudin's experience in the tournament, going through four rounds to the quarters, will prepare her for a future that might carry her to high rankings and championships. Her experience away from the courts, dealing with the discomfort, the hassle, will be no less beneficial.

"I don't think of myself as a celebrity,'' said Melanie Oudin. "I don't see myself as being that kind of, like, star.''

She is that kind of, like, star. The joy and the pain of stardom has arrived.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/10/oudin_learns_the_downside_of_fame.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: Despite loss, Oudin captures hearts of American tennis fans

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Skill triumphed over dreams, experience over enthusiasm. Melanie Oudin's magic simply couldn't compare to Caroline Wozniacki's game.

It was great while it lasted, a Munchkin of an athlete, coming back from deficits again and again in her national tennis tournament, winning when she was expected to lose, thrilling a country that loves an underdog, especially an American underdog.

But Wozniacki, the great Dane, ruined the fairytale, defeating Oudin 6-2, 6-2 Wednesday night in their U.S. Open quarterfinal, and other than advancing to the semis seemed to feel as bad as the majority of the 23,000 fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"I'm sorry I won against Melanie," said Wozniacki, who well understood how New York in particular and the United States in general had taken to the 5-6 teenager.

"I know you guys wanted her to win," Wozniacki, a teenager herself who at 19 is two years older than Oudin, told the crowd. "Hopefully I won your guys' hearts."

Oudin, in her four previous matches, definitely did win those hearts. That's because she also won the matches, all of which were over Russians, including in the second round against the No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva.

Each of Melanie's opponents got rattled by the way the kid from the Atlanta suburbs kept ripping shots at them.

Wozniacki, the first Scandinavian woman to get to the quarters -- and now to the semifinals -- of a Grand Slam tournament, did not.

She is the daughter of a father who was a soccer star in Poland, then Denmark, and a mother who was an excellent volleyball player. Caroline has an athlete's mentality, not to mention wonderful hand-eye coordination. She is the only Western European among the top 20 in the women's rankings.

And she never gave Oudin a chance.

"Caroline played a really good match," Oudin said. "I started off slow. I wasn't able to come back. She's such a strong player. She doesn't give you anything for free."

Wozniacki forced Oudin to play as Oudin had forced Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova to play, getting the ball back until the person across the net could not.

"She plays incredible defense," Oudin said of Wozniacki. "Makes me hit a thousand balls. I don't know what else I could have done. I could have been more consistent and been more patient, but she really made me think out there and made me have to hit a winner to win the point."

But Oudin didn't hit winners. She whacked balls into the net. Or wide. Or long. Suddenly, broken in the second game of the first set, Oudin was down 3-0. And the first of the plaintive cries from fans still settling into their seats, "Come on, Melanie," pierced the haunting silence.

Because Melanie couldn't get going, the fans, who had made her their darling, America's sweetheart, couldn't get cheering. They gasped. And murmured. But not until Oudin had a chance to break in the third game of the second set, a chance she squandered, was there an explosion of the noise that had been her companion.

Oudin's performance to get as far as she did was headline stuff in the tabloids, where she was sharing the back pages with Derek Jeter as he chased Lou Gehrig's Yankees hits record. But the result of the match against Wozniacki temporarily dimmed the amazing march for someone 55th in the world.

"I'm a perfectionist," Oudin said. "So losing today was a disappointment. I mean, I wanted to win. Losing isn't good enough for me."

Her defeat left only one American, man or woman, in America's 129-year-old tennis championships: Serena Williams is to meet Kim Clijsters in a women's semifinal. Wozniacki will play surprising Yanina Wickmayer, who like Clijsters is from Belgium, in the other semi.

Oudin showed up at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center each round with "Believe" imprinted on her pink-and-purple sneakers and a remarkable ability to track down shots at the far corners of a court. Until the quarterfinal.

"I've always been strong mentally," Oudin said. "Today I was a little bit fragile. But Caroline made me like that. She made me frustrated [so] that I had to hit a winner on her. I got some free points from the other girls because they went [at the ball] more. Caroline was extremely consistent."

Wozniacki, a 5-9 beauty who has taken as much advantage of her looks as her shots, models for Stella McCartney's line of tennis clothes from adidas. Her play has been spectacular the last few months -- she has won three tournaments.

Yet she knew how Oudin had captured the hearts and minds.

"Normally I don't like to think about the match, the person I'm playing," Wozniacki said, "but every time I turned on the TV today, there she was, Melanie. I was a little nervous."

But only a little. "I went into my own bubble," Wozniacki said.

For Oudin the bubble burst.

"These past two weeks have been a lot different for me," Oudin said. "I've gone from being just a normal tennis player to everyone in the United States knowing who I am."

Someone who, despite being outplayed by Caroline Wozniacki, they won't forget.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12181192
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Niners attempting to return to greatness

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — They were the originals, the first major sports team in Northern California, created here, staying here, at times bumbling, at other times triumphant but at all times special.

The 49ers, who open another season Sunday, their 64th, are as much a regional treasure as a football team, as finally John York and son Jed figured out.

It never really mattered who owned them — the Morabitos, the DeBartolos, the Yorks. In effect, the 49ers belonged to the town, to the area, to the people.

The Giants came later. The Raiders came later. The Warriors came later. The A’s came later. The Sharks came much later. The Bay Area is chock-a-block with big-time pro franchises these days.

But from 1946 until the Giants arrived in 1958, there was just one franchise: the Niners.

Just one major pro team crossing the country in propeller planes.

Just one pro team playing the Cleveland Browns or Los Angeles Dons, and when the old All-America Football Conference merged into the NFL in 1950, the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants.

Major League Baseball was a weekly television show. We sent Bill Russell and K.C. Jones to the NBA, but we didn’t see them in person for another five years. The 49ers were our link to the rest of America.

The sports world is different than it was 50 years ago. Now it’s all about sales and commercialization, about getting out a message, about persuading people to show up at the stadium or to watch telecasts.

So the Niners, the marketing department in particular, have leased that billboard along the Bayshore Freeway, at the entrance road to Candlestick, with huge photo of Mike Singletary with the words “I want winners.” As if that’s a unique concept.

Frankie Albert wanted winners. Jack Christiansen wanted winners. Dick Nolan wanted winners. But not until Bill Walsh became coach was the wish fulfilled and did the frustration end.

You had to be here on that Sunday in January 1982 when the Niners, the losers, at last became winners. When the silence was over. When The City blew its top.

By then the Raiders had won two championships, the A’s three championships, the Warriors an NBA title. And yet there was nothing like the day the Niners escaped their penance.

The group that labeled itself “The Faithful,” the fans who never believed it could happen, were as much dumbfounded as ecstatic. Finally, out of the wilderness.

Singletary is a football man. He’s also a Chicago man. He’s a three yards and a cloud of Walter Payton man. That’s never been San Francisco football.

The Niners, from Frankie Albert back in ’46, have thrown the ball. They did have Hugh McElhenny and Joe Perry, both of whom could run like mad. Yet the team’s fame, or infamy, was on the arms of Y.A. Tittle, John Brodie and eventually Joe Montana and Steve Young.

Get the ball to R.C. Owens, to Gene Washington, to Dwight Clark, to Jerry Rice.

Now the Niners, after six straight losing seasons, more than anything need to get wins, no matter who gets the ball.

History. It’s great, but a new generation of fans would trade it all for a place in the playoffs.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Niners-attempting-to-return-to-greatness-57952527.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company 

RealClearSports.com: Captain and the Queen Capture NY

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- There are 18 million people here, 18 million different stories. But only two matter. Two people, Melanie Oudin and Derek Jeter. Two stories, how one does on a tennis court, how the other does in the batter's box.

Front page, back page. It's Jeter, the Yankees' captain, and Oudin, the U.S. Open's queen. He's chasing the immortal Lou Gehrig. She's trying to go farther into a Grand Slam tournament than anybody could have imagined.

"SWEEP & SOUR'' was the headline in the Post. The Yanks had taken two from Tampa Bay, but Jeter had taken the collar, gone hitless. And above that was "'OU' GO GIRL! Magical Melanie reaches quarters."

A 17-year-old from Georgia. A 35-year-old from the Bronx Bombers. Tale after tale in the Big Town, and if you can make it here, we've been told, you can make it anywhere.

After 15 years and more than 2,700 hits, Jeter has made it. After 10 days and four straight wins over Russians, three of whom were heavily favored, Melanie has made it.

It's been steady progress for Jeter. That's the way career records work in baseball. Derek went hitless his first game in a Yankee uniform, in 1995, but after this Labor Day, even after going 0-for-8 in the doubleheader, he had 2,718 hits. That was four less than Gehrig's Yankee mark.

"It's not like I'm trying to do anything different," said Jeter. He's being watched, being scrutinized. There's not much else of interest in New York at the moment.

The Yanks are safely in front of the American League East. The Mets are dreadful. The football Giants and Jets don't begin until Sunday. Nothing else.

Except Melanie, the 5-foot-6 blend of hustle and heart.

"I just try to focus on what I do that day and not look back," said Jeter. His philosophy, if not his words, is exactly that of Melanie Oudin.

Even as pro for only two years, even ranked 70th in the world, she has figured out what all great athletes understand. You live in the moment.

For Jeter, that's the next pitch. For Oudin, that's the next ball over the net. His last at bat is irrelevant. Her last set is the same. He won't be thinking of 0-for-8. She said she wasn't thinking of losing the first set to Nadia Petrova, 6-1, on Monday. Melanie won the next two sets, 7-6, 6-3.

Jeter's been through this before, if not specifically in the quest for a record held by a man as famous and revered as Gehrig. Jeter has played in World Series, All-Star Games. He's dealt with the New York media more than a third of his life. The attention, the questions, they are part of the job, especially in a city with four dailies, three of them tabloids.

It's new for Oudin. In a way, it's frightening for Oudin. On Sunday, an off day, she went to Times Square for a photo shoot. The girl who used to gawk at celebrities, who found idols in Justine Henin (who's an inch shorter) or Serena or Venus Williams (who are the best in America), was now herself a celebrity. Photos and fans pushed closer, resulting in a free-for-all.

"Melanie is not used to that,'' said John Oudin, her father. "She said to me, ‘This is going to take some getting used to.' She's not used to being recognized all over."

Jeter is. It comes with the territory. The Daily News gave Jeter five inside pages, including page two, and also the back cover on Tuesday. Then again, it gave Melanie two pages. "COMEBACK KID DOES IT AGAIN'' was a headline spread across those pages.

Oudin made it to the quarterfinals. In the second round, she lost the first set to No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva but won the match. In the third round, she lost the first set to 2007 champion Maria Sharapova but won the match. In the third round, she lost the first set to Petrova but won the match.

"I don't actually mean to lose the first set," said Oudin. Her innocence is part of the charm. "Maybe I'm a little nervous and all this stuff."

But when the pressure is on, there are no nerves, just nerve.

"She gets pretty much in her own zone," said John Oudin. "Nothing breaks her focus. I don't know where she gets it from."

Wherever, mental toughness is perhaps an athlete's most important asset. Hang in there, coaches tell players. Don't quit. It's obvious Oudin never quits.

"It's just mentally, I'm staying in there with them the whole time and not giving up at all," Oudin said. "So they're going to have to beat me, because I'm not going anywhere."

Except to join Derek Jeter as one of the two brightest stars in New York City.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/08/captain_and_the_queen_capture_ny_96476.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: American men nowhere to be found deep in 2009 U.S. Open

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Maybe John McEnroe can save the U.S. Open. Sure, he's 50 years old. But he still has a forehand. And a name. And he's American, a triple that at this point in the last Grand Slam tennis event of the year makes him the one and only man in all three categories.

John's a broadcaster now, as you're aware. He no longer shouts at chair umpires. He comments into a microphone, telling the way it is and, especially when somebody misplays a shot, the way it should be.

In a way, this is his tournament. He grew up in Queens, not far from the tennis center, and after spending a year irritating people at Stanford, returned. He won the Open three times. He was emotional, occasionally irrational and supremely talented.

If he's not the most famous male on the grounds -- let's give the honor to Roger Federer -- Mac the Mouth sure is well known and respected. And cooperative. He'll do anything to help his sport.

Novak Djokovic, the No. 4 men's seed, waved Mac out of the booth Monday evening after Djokovic blitzed Radek Stepanek in straight sets. The night was young. Midnight still was 13 minutes away. Let's get it on.

First, McEnroe had to get it off, meaning his coat and tie. Then he slipped into his tennis shoes and rallied briefly. The fans loved it, of course.

They haven't loved a great deal else the way the men's draw has gone, from a parochial view. Six Americans made it to the third round, and one of them, James Blake, overly optimistic, contended, "All these guys are hungry. We're all getting better, feeding off each other."

But of those six, only one, John Isner, went to the fourth round. And when he was eliminated, for the first time in the 129 years of the event, whether the U.S. National Championships or starting in 1968 the U.S. Open, no American male reached the quarterfinals.

McEnroe's younger brother Patrick, who also played for Stanford, who also announces and who happens to be the U.S. Davis Cup captain, conceded, "The reality is the reality. The world has caught up at the same time I believe we can do a better job."

Great Britain didn't do a very good job, either. Andy Murray, the Scot, is No. 2 in the world and was a finalist here last year. But Tuesday he was ripped by a 20-year-old Croatian, Marin Cilic, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.

Cilic's next opponent is five days older and 10 seeds higher, No. 6 Juan Martin Del Potro, who Tuesday was a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 winner over Juan Carlos Ferrero. Del Potro is American -- South American, having grown up in the cattle town of Tandil, Argentina.

He's the sort of kid -- Del Potro will be 21 on Sept. 23 -- the United States only wished it had. He beat Andy Roddick in a final in August at Washington, D.C., and seven days later lost to Murray in the final at Montreal.

"I have the confidence," Del Potro said. "I beat many good players in Washington and Montreal, and now I beat good players on this surface." Meaning cement, very unlike the clay courts upon which he learned the game in Argentina.

"I have everything to do a good tournament," said Del Potro, not as adept in English as other players on Tour. "But I would like to be in the semis or my first final.

"It's a big difference past the quarters to the semis. I was so close in French Open to get to the final."

Close? Never mind close. If John McEnroe were 30 years younger, the U.S. would be close to having a man who could play tennis like people from the rest of the world.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12176032
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Believe it: Oudin dispatches another Russian to extend surprising run

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK --- This is Hollywood stuff. A young woman with "Believe" on her sneakers and fearlessness in her constitution shows up at the biggest tennis tournament in America and proves irresistible and at this point unbeatable.

Melanie Oudin is a human backboard, a dyed-blonde Energizer Bunny.

She's a teen queen who acts as if she doesn't take herself seriously but talks as if she someday is going to take over her whole sport, which is not beyond the realm of possibility.

What she lacks on serve -- she's only 5-6 -- she makes up in nerve, never giving up in a match when falling behind, as she invariably seems to do, or on a point, even on balls seemingly hit beyond her limited reach.

Oudin knocked out yet another Russian on Monday in this U.S. Open, the fourth in four matches, outhustling, outracing and eventually outplaying befuddled Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 and at age 17 becoming the youngest quarterfinalist since Serena Williams in 1999.

It was great theater at Arthur Ashe Court for a sellout crowd of 24,000, which provincially, and not undeservedly, proved loudly biased for Oudin.

At match point, fans stood and hollered the way they do in the top of the ninth when Yankees need only one more out and Mariano Rivera needs only one more strike.

What Oudin, the kid from Marietta, Ga., in the Atlanta suburbs, needs is nothing. She's got it all -- enthusiasm, dyed blonde hair and just enough naivete to endear her to anyone -- except her opponents.

Oudin lost the first set to No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva in the second round, lost the first set to former champion Maria Sharapova in the third round and then lost the first set to Petrova, the No. 13 seed.

"I actually don't mean to lose the first set," she told a group of media, drawing a large laugh. But such innocence is perfectly acceptable, especially with U.S tennis in great need for some heroines beyond Serena and Venus Williams.

Asked to describe what she has done, Oudin, who came to the tournament No. 70 in the rankings, said, "It's kind of hard. Like today there are no tears because I believed I could do it. And it's now like I belong here."

She belongs, all right. You don't drop the first set in 31 minutes, fall behind 4-3 in the second and then flail and rip your way to a victory if you don't belong.

"It was tough," Oudin said. "She was all over me. But I kept fighting."

That's a virtue long prized, the never-say-die spirit, the against-all-odds victory. You keep thinking Oudin has no chance against those taller, harder-serving women. It's they who have no chance, and they continue to offer repetitive explanations that make it appear Oudin is doing it with smoke, mirrors and crowd noise.

"She's done very well," Petrova conceded. "I mean, she won quite a few very good matches, and it's a lot of pressure and a big stadium. The first time you feel so excited and everything is so new and kind of like you have absolutely nothing to lose and you go and do it."

She's done it. Petrova implied she allowed Oudin to do it.

"I have a feeling I didn't finish the job," Petrova said. "At 4-3, having 40-15 in the game, I went for my shot down the line. That didn't go in. Then the next point was a long rally, and she came up with an unbelievable winner down the line.

"Winning that game kind of gave her a second breath. She realized, 'OK, I'm back in the game.' And probably after winning previous matches, she thought, 'I can do it again.'"

She always thinks that way.

"She gets pretty much in her own zone," said her father, John Oudin. "Nothing breaks her focus. I don't know where she gets it from."

Wherever, mental toughness is perhaps an athlete's most important asset. Hang in there, coaches tell players. Don't quit. It's obvious Oudin never quits.

"Mentally, I'm staying in there with them the whole time and not giving up at all," Oudin said. "So they're going to have to beat me, because I'm not going anywhere."

Literally, she did go someplace, to Times Square on her day off, Sunday, for a photo shoot. It turned into a near free-for-all, photogs and fans battling each other for a picture or an autograph.

"Melanie is not used to that," John Oudin said. "She said to me, 'This is going to take some getting used to.' She's not used to being recognized all over."

Nor is she used to becoming a quarterfinalist in a Grand Slam, but she likes the feeling.

"This is my dream forever," Melanie said. "I've worked so hard for this, and it's finally happening. It's amazing."

It's Hollywood. Except it's real. As Oudin has on the sides of her shoes, "Believe."

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12171877
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports.com: Changes at the Top of US Tennis

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- It's a sport built on names as much as talent. Tennis is different, except for golf. Most loyalties are with uniforms, no matter who's wearing them. If you're a Yankees fan, you're a Yankees fan whether the guy at short is Phil Rizzuto or Derek Jeter, and that lasts forever.

Tennis players come and go all too quickly. The window closes before you know it. What happened to Andre Agassi? To Pete Sampras? To Jennifer Capriati? To Martina Navratilova?

Careers are short. Players start young and retire young. You lose a step. Or some racquet speed. And coming up quickly from behind is some 19-year-old with great skills who virtually no one's ever heard of, especially if she or he comes from Serbia or Slovania.

To make tennis go in America particularly -- and that's where the television money comes from, where the yearly U.S. Open now underway draws 700,000 people during the two weeks -- tennis needs Americans near the top or at the top, Americans who are known throughout America, if not the world.

Andy Roddick and Venus Williams fit well into that category. They and Venus' younger sister, Serena, were about the only U.S. players who could make a showing in a Grand Slam event, about the only U.S. players who were celebrities as well as athletes.

But in a space of 24 hours, both were chased from the 2009 U.S. Open, Roddick on Saturday night by the man who might someday replace him, John Isner, and Venus on Sunday afternoon by a 26-year-old Belgian who had quit the game for two years to marry and have a baby, Kim Clijsters.

Roddick will be back. You can't be sure of Venus. She is 29, and despite the best intentions, most tennis stars start to slip around 30, especially because their bodies begin to fail.

Venus is having left knee trouble, wearing heavy taping. One of her great assets, the ability to fly around the court, has been restricted.

Serena still is capable. She again is the favorite to repeat last year's victory. Crushed her fourth-round opponent, Daniela Hantuchova, on Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Straight sets, a little more than an hour. The lady they call the Drama Queen, for all the incidents, was undramatic in a match that lacked any suspense.

So Serena is still here and one hopes will stay. But who's next, who to step in for Venus and eventually, if not now, Roddick?

Maybe Melanie Oudin, the Munchkin from the suburbs of Atlanta, who beat Elena Dementieva and then the glamour lady and former champ, Maria Sharapova.

Maybe John Isner. He had 39 service aces against Roddick, who himself holds the record for all-time fastest serve, 156 mph. Pow, smash, whap.

By all rights, Isner should have been the next Tyler Hansbrough. He's 6-foot-9 and from North Carolina. But he worked on his drop shot, not his jump shot. Then, unlike most tennis stars these days, he went to college, the University of Georgia, where he not only helped win an NCAA team title, he graduated. How about that, Dawg?

And how about the 5-foot-6 Oudin, also from Georgia? That's not a state people think about when it comes to a new Roger Federer or Chris Evert. But that's our problem, not Georgia's.

Oudin was to face yet another Russian, her third in a row, Nadia Petrova, in Monday's fourth round. Melanie doesn't figure to keep winning.

She's too young (17). Too inexperienced. But if she does keep winning, she has a chance to become the star America needs, after Serena and, depending on what happens, replacing Venus. If indeed Venus can be replaced.

An interesting phenomenon Sunday at Ashe Stadium. The crowd was supporting Clijsters more than it was supporting Venus Williams. Was that because Clijsters had been away and the fans were welcoming her return? Or because the Williams sisters, even as heroines, had stayed too long at the fair?

Isner said he had to play the match of his life to beat Roddick, who until the defeat had been playing the best of all the men. But if Isner is to make it to the top, as a player, as a personality, he has to have a lot of repeat performances, especially in Grand Slams. He has to rouse the curiosity of sports fans who don't know a volley from a rally.

Is he prepared and capable? How about Melanie Oudin? So often kids make an impression, and about the time the headlines arrive, they flame and burn out.

Oudin acts humble enough, something that will endear her to the masses, but how long does that last? And how long does she last?

You'd think in a country of 300 million, more than one or two could become a tennis star.

Serena, Venus and Andy were able to do it. Is there anybody else?

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/07/changes_at_the_top_of_us_tennis_96474.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: Venus' age starting to show with latest U.S. Open loss

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com 
 
NEW YORK -- This time it wasn't Venus rising. This time it was Venus Williams, left knee strapped, forehand erratic, serve uncontrolled, losing and making us wonder whether this indeed might be the beginning of the end.

Kim Clijsters, out of tennis for more than two years, knocked Venus, the No. 3 seed, from the 2009 U.S. Open in a fourth-round match Sunday as bizarre as it was perplexing, Clijsters winning 6-0, 0-6, 6-4.

Clijsters, who won the Open in 2005, incurred an injury that kept her from defending in 2006 and then stepped away in 2007, answered the question about whether she still has game.

Venus, on the other hand, left us with more questions. She is 29, the knee is certainly a factor and she is without a victory in a Grand Slam event this year, although she did lose in the Wimbledon final to sister Serena.

It isn't merely the first set that can be used as evidence -- she lost 6-0, 6-4 to Agnes Szavay in the third round of the French this year. It is the cumulative work of the past few months.

Venus has reached that age when, with rare exception, tennis players start to decline. And while it would be foolish to underestimate Williams anytime she's across the net with a racquet, knee problems invariably get worse, not better.

Knee problems or not, Venus joined her sister for a winning doubles match after her singles loss even though their father, Richard, had been saying Venus should take it easy and play only singles.

As usual after a defeat, Venus was tight-lipped, offering platitudes but no explanation as to what happened, especially in the first set when, as they say in tennis, she got bageled.

"I think she played really well," Venus said of Clijsters, "and hit a lot of great shots. I wish her the best of luck. I would have liked to play better to win the match. I would have liked to have capitalized on some more shots."

Asked if she was surprised how well Clijsters, in only her third tournament back, played, Venus said, "Yeah, she played well. She always played well through her career. I'm sure she'll continue to do that."

What will Venus, winner of seven Grand Slam tournaments, do? In the past, she has talked about competing into her 30s, playing in the 2012 Olympics, but who knows?

Venus almost didn't get out of the first round of this Open, needing three sets to beat 47th-ranked Vera Dushevina. "It's going to be a lot of prayer and everything else I can throw into it," Venus said of her knee after that struggle. "But I'm tough."

No one doubts that, but she also is not as mobile as she once was, not able to use her superior athletic ability, which often has compensated for a lack of tennis fundamentals.

With the departure of Venus, the No. 1 (Dinara Safina), 3 (Venus Williams), 4 (Elena Dementieva) and 5 (Jelena Jankovic) seeds have been eliminated from this Open before the quarterfinals. And 26-year-old Clijsters, who quit to marry and have a child, is still in the draw.

"You're not really worried about results," said Clijsters, who is accompanied by her husband Brian Lynch, a basketball player from the U.S., and their daughter, Jared. "You're just trying to fight through the match."

She fought. Venus fought. Then she broke Williams in the third game of the third set, and that was the difference.

The first two sets? "Very weird," Clijsters said. "I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I can't speak for [Venus]. On my side, I felt like we never were really playing our best tennis at the same time until the third set.

"In the first set, I really felt like I was dominating a lot of points. I was serving well. I think that's where I kept her under pressure, kept her from what she's good at, stepping into the court, playing aggressive tennis. She also made a lot of mistakes, missed a lot of first serves. ... Then I felt like in the second set, she was kind of doing that to me for a little bit."

Clijsters' comeback began early this year when she accepted a challenge to play an exhibition at Wimbledon with Tim Henman against Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. She had too much pride to go out and embarrass herself, so she started training as in the old days -- meaning before 2007.

"I've been working hard the last seven, eight months and enjoying it," Clijsters said. "It's something that's really important to me, as long as I can focus on tennis and have fun on the outside as well."

Tears rolled down her cheeks after the win over Venus, but surely they were joyful tears.

Venus smiled during the post-match handshake but understandably was grim in leaving the court, where a boisterous sellout crowd seemed to be supporting Clijsters as much as Venus.

A few hours earlier, Serena, the defending champion, was an easy winner. Serena looks as if she'll be in the finals again this year. But will Venus ever get back?

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12167294
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Oudin, Isner turn in memorable day, bright future for American tennis

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- It was the day that wouldn't end. It was an afternoon that became evening and offered American tennis a future as bright as the moon that eventually rose over Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Youth will be served -- and volleyed and backhanded.

First, Melanie Oudin, the wunderkind, and then John Isner tossed caution to what little wind there was on this historic day at Flushing Meadows and tossed the schedule of the U.S. Open upside down and inside out.

The 17-year-old Oudin, who's becoming adept at this sort of thing, upset Maria Sharapova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, in 2 hours, 58 minutes on Saturday.

Then the 24-year-old Isner upset No. 5 seed Andy Roddick 7-6 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5) in 3 hours, 51 minutes.

They came back-to-back, the matches, nearly seven hours of tension, and for a sellout crowd of more than 24,000, there was such excitement that the spectators didn't want to leave.

Except two more matches, the evening program, were still to be played. And the fans who held tickets for those matches, which wouldn't begin until 10 p.m., not the announced 7 p.m., were waiting to get their seats. They had been watching the big TV screen in the plaza for more than three hours.

What they saw was the 6-foot-9 Isner smashing 39 aces and keep Roddick, who has the record for the fastest serve ever, 156 mph, off balance and out of sorts.

This after Oudin, who for comparison's sake is more than a foot shorter than Isner -- she's listed at 5-foot-6 -- kept coming at Sharapova with the aggression of a UFC fighter.

Two days earlier, Oudin had knocked off the No. 4 seed, Elena Dementieva, a Russian. Then she discombobulated Sharapova, the 2007 champ, the No. 29 seed, a Russian. Maria had 21 double faults. Next, in the fourth round Oudin will play Nadia Petrova, a Russian.

It sounds like Napoleon's campaign against the Czars in the 19th Century.

"I had every emotion possible," said Oudin. "I mean, I was crying. I was so happy and excited. I'm pretty sure I screamed after that last shot."

Which was a cross-court winner.

Isner's last shot was, of course, a monster serve in the fifth-set tiebreaker. Roddick hit it out.

"I had to play the match of my life to beat him," said Isner, referring to Roddick, who won this tournament in 2003 and two months ago took Roger Federer to a fifth set at Wimbledon, where there are no fifth-set tiebreakers, and lost 16-14.

"On this stage, this setting, I proved I can play with anybody."

We're only maybe eight miles from Broadway, 42nd Street, the Great White Way. You know the cliche, "You're going out there a kid, but you're coming back a star." Oudin and Isner have filled that role.

She's from Marietta, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, home-schooled so she could become the champion Melanie seems destined to be. He's from North Carolina but was a star at the University of Georgia. Must be something in the water down there.

Tobacco Road? How about Topspin Highway?

"There's a lot out of your hands, the way he plays," Roddick said of Isner, whom he had beaten twice in two previous matches, including a few weeks ago in the semifinal of the Washington, D.C., tournament.

"You can't teach 6-9," Roddick said of the angle and power of Isner's serve. "Sometimes you try to fight it off. But it's not like the majority of matches we play, where if you play well you win. He doesn't allow you to get into the match."

Isner contracted mononucleosis in the late spring and couldn't enter either the French Open or Wimbledon.

"I remember how ticked off I was at home," said Isner, "but it may have been a blessing in disguise. I took a month off, then started working hard and smart."

Oudin, who has "BELIEVE" embossed on the ankle of her multicolored tennis shoes, also credits her practice routines for success.

If you recall, after Melanie stunned Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon, Jankovic contended Oudin didn't have "the weapons," primarily a serve. What would anyone expect from a Munchkin? But she has staying power and courage.

"I think my biggest weapon can be mental toughness," said Oudin. "I developed it. I wasn't born with it."

Someone wondered if she'd been labeled a giant killer, although to her every opponent is rather enormous. "Yeah," she said, "a couple of people have called me that."

What you could have called Saturday's play in the Open was confused. The afternoon matches went so long and so deep into the evening that the women's competition between top seed Dinara Safina and Petra Kvitova was shifted from Ashe Court to Armstrong Court so the James Blake-Tommy Robredo match wouldn't be starting around midnight.

That's one of the unpredictable parts of tennis. You never know how long a match might run. The ones involving Oudin and Isner seemed to run forever, but they didn't mind. Neither did the fans on this wonderful long day's journey into night.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12162826
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: For Serena, a win isn't a win without dramatics

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- The threats went unfulfilled. There was no brawl. There were no angry words. Serena Williams did get irritated, but only with herself.

"Because," she explained, "I wasn't very happy with my performance."

As compared to the previous time when she wasn't very happy with Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, accusing her of cheating when they faced each other the end of May in the French Open.

That's when Serena growled at Martinez Sanchez across the net, "I'm going to get you in the locker room for that."

That day Serena whipped Martinez Sanchez, on the clay court, not off it, winning in three sets. On Friday, an ocean away, Williams shook herself out of lethargy and won 6-3, 7-5 in the third round of the U.S. Open.

This one closed with a handshake, followed later by a denial from Martinez Sanchez she even heard Serena's boast three months earlier in Paris.

In the first set that day, Serena ripped a ball that virtually everybody contended hit Martinez Sanchez, meaning Williams would have won the point. But after the ball plopped back in front of Serena, Martinez Sanchez said it hit her racquet, not her body.

Serena then complained to the chair umpire, who attempted to avoid any decision.

"I said, 'Did you ask her?'" Serena said that afternoon. "He said, 'Well, she's saying it didn't happen.' I looked her dead in the eye. 'Why? Just be honest, if the ball hit you or not.' I mean, hello, it totally hit her.

"She just looked down, and I just have no respect for anybody who can't play a professional game and be just be really professional out here."

Then, having lost the argument and shortly later the set in a match she would take 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, Serena told the umpire, "She better not come to the net again."

Strong words? "Well," Williams answered, "I am from Compton, you do know ..."

We do, although Serena now is based in Florida with older sister Venus. Martinez Sanchez, 27, is from Spain.

Asked if there were a repercussion from the French incident, if that's the proper description, Martinez Sanchez said, "No. I never think about it."

You can be certain Serena hasn't stopped thinking about it. When confronted Thursday after a doubles match, she said, "The ball hit her."

On Friday, wearing a post-match T-shirt upon which was printed, "You Can't Spell Dynasty Without Nasty," Williams was less direct.

When asked if she lost respect for players whom she considered cheaters, Serena was more politician than critic. "I can only speak for me," she said. "I try to be very professional, extremely professional in my job. That's what I'm here to do, and win, I hope."

Read between the lines, or specifically interpret between the quotes. At the French, Serena sneered at Martinez Sanchez's refusal to admit guilt. "I would never do that," Williams said. "I've never done that. I've never sunk so low ... because that's all I've ever been was extremely professional to anyone I've ever played."

Implying, what, Martinez Sanchez was not? "She's a tough player," was the Williams observation on Friday. "I was just trying to go out there and do my best. And I knew I had to be serious today."

Serena's the Drama Queen. With her it's usually something. In 2003 at the French, it was the "C" word again, cheating, when eventual champion Justine Henin raised her hand while Williams was serving and later denied it. At the 2004 U.S. Open. Serena got some awful line calls while losing to Jennifer Capriati. That led to acceptance of the Hawk-Eye electronic replay system.

On Friday, Serena, defending champion in the Open, offered some histrionics when she was down 3-1 in the second set.

"I got nasty today, but to myself," was the way Serena framed it. "I was screaming to myself because I wasn't very happy with my performance ... I have my own mental issues, and everyone has to battle themselves sometimes."

Serena's autobiography, On the Line, reached bookstores a few days ago. She discusses her insecurities, the depression after sister Yetunde Price was murdered and her dealing with a muscular body she finally has come to accept and appreciate.

When someone wondered about early reviews, Serena reminded, "I've been playing this [tournament], so I've been working. I haven't had the chance to see the reviews yet. I've been doing the job that I've been doing."

Which Friday included a victory in which she got mad at herself, not the opponent.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12158741
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports.com: Arnie: Long Live the King

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

He went after a course the way Muhammad Ali went after an opponent. Arnold Palmer didn't "play'' golf, he worked golf, attacked golf. He was fearless but not flawless. He was human.

He was The King. He'll always be The King.

A great nickname, a descriptive nickname, bestowed on so very few, upon Richard Petty, upon a long-ago San Francisco 49er running back, Hugh McElhenny; upon Elvis Presley, of course; and upon Arnold Daniel Palmer.

You didn't have to like golf to like Arnie, but if you did like golf it was so much the better. The man made the game what it is, a multi-billion-dollar operation, show business with bogeys, a television show that runs from one end of the calendar to the other.

Arnie reaches 80 next week -- strokes, not years. America will celebrate. The world will celebrate. He's the hero who stayed humble. As Curtis Strange, a great golfer himself, was to observe, "Arnold Palmer makes everybody feel like he's their best friend.''

Tiger Woods may be in control of the Tour these days, but he's merely leasing it. Arnie always will be the owner.

Ben Hogan was the grinder. "It's in the dirt,'' he told those who wanted to be champions, implying one had to hit shot after shot in practice. Sam Snead was the graceful one, the "Sweet Swinger.'' Jack Nicklaus, who followed Arnie, was the perfectionist, the pragmatist.

One year at Pebble Beach, the tournament now called the AT&T Pro-Am but then called the Bing Crosby, Jack hit his tee shot on the famous par-five 18 into Carmel Bay. The next year, leading, Nicklaus teed off with an iron, not a wood. The late, great sports columnist Jim Murray, almost insulted, wrote, "Arnold Palmer wouldn't use an iron to press his pants.''

Arnie never played it safe. If there's a lot of Nicklaus in Tiger Woods, there's a great deal of Palmer in Phil Mickelson. They want to do it their way, the challenging way, the exciting way.

Arnie tried to make a two on every hole. He spent three rounds attempting to drive the short par-4 first hole at Cherry Hills in Denver in the 1960 U.S. Open, failing each time. But the fourth time he succeeded, made birdie and won his only Open.

He lost in a playoff to Nicklaus in 1962 at Oakmont. It was my wedding day. The ceremony was delayed until the final putt, which produced Jack's first pro win. Arnie sensed what was about to happen. "Now that the big kid's out of the cage,'' Palmer said about the 22-year-old Nicklaus, "look out.''

Arnie was beaten the next year, 1963, in another playoff, at The Country Club. And then came the most aggravating, and the most symbolic, at San Francisco's Olympic Club in 1966.

I was a rookie golf writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and properly awed by Palmer. He had a 7-shot lead over playing partner Billy Casper with nine holes to play, a 6-shot lead with six holes to play. But Arnie was chasing the Open record, and the next thing we knew he had to make a 4-footer on the 72 hole just to tie Casper, who won the playoff the next day.

More than 40 years I've watched and interviewed and followed Arnie as he grimaced after missing yet another putt, as he wandered over to the edge of the fairway and smiled at every woman in the gallery, as he reached out to tap a child on the head and then willingly signed an autograph for everyone who asked.

Arnie loved golf. We loved Arnie. The course was his stage, his existence.

Nicklaus was never more than a golfer, if a brilliant one. Arnie was an actor. Jack couldn't stay when he no longer was competitive. Arnie maybe stayed too long. Or did he?

Three years ago, Arnie, struggling, announced it was time to stop playing competitively.

"I've been doing this for a long time,'' he said, "and first of all, to stand out there and not be able to make something happen is very traumatic in my mind. The people want to see a good shot, and you know it and you can't give it to them. That's when it's time.''

He left competitive golf, and we were left only with visions of the way it used to be.

There he stands, the young man out of the west Pennsylvania coal country, with the blacksmith arms and the blue-collar background. Arnold Palmer is young again. And so are we.

Long live The King.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/03/arnie_long_live_the_king_96473.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: Diminutive Oudin making noise as next great American hope

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- She's a sporting cliche, the All-American girl, small but daring, confident but humble. She's an Irving Berlin song, a Norman Rockwell painting. Most of all, Melanie Oudin is the hope that the United States will have a part in the future of women's tennis.

Two months ago, Oudin stunned the world's No. 6 player, Jelena Jankovic, in the third round at Wimbledon, drawing attention and more than a few disparaging remarks from a skeptical Jankovic, who contended sourly of Oudin, "She doesn't have any weapons."

Whatever she has, courage, desire, the quickest feet this side of Usain Bolt -- all right, that's an exaggeration -- the 17-year-old Oudin used it to upset Elena Dementieva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, Thursday in the second round of the U.S. Open.

And Dementieva, No. 4 in the rankings and in the seeds, the 2008 Beijing Olympic champion, was gracious, as opposed to being bitter.

"I think," Dementieva said about Oudin, "is very talented. She is not afraid to play. She was very positive, going for shots, for winners. This is just the beginning."

America can only wish. In women's tennis of late, there's been Serena Williams and sister Venus Williams and, well, the days of Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati seem about as far away as the Andromeda galaxy.

For years we've been wondering who's next, if anybody's next, since virtually every top young female player is from Russia or Serbia. It's too early yet to say, "Stop wondering," because even if Oudin is the third-best player from the United States, she's only the 70th best player in the world.

Or was before Thursday, when she picked up a lot of points in addition to picking up the spirits of people in the U.S. Tennis Association.

Oudin, from Marietta, Ga., the suburbs of Atlanta, is a mere 5-foot-6, but as the saying goes, the tennis ball doesn't know or care how big you are.

She's a hustler, in the positive sense of the word. If she were a baseball player, she'd always be taking the extra base, ramming into the catcher on close plays at the plate.

"I had to win the match," Oudin said. "[Dementieva] didn't give it to me. I played with no fear. She's expected to win. I went out and played my game."

Which is one of attacking. None of this wussy, tentative stuff. At 5-foot-11, Dementieva is half a head taller than Oudin. Yet Oudin didn't play defensively.

Asked whether she lost the match, Dementieva responded, "No, she won it."

And Oudin won the hearts of the home-country fans at her first appearance in the big house, 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. First appearance as a player. Oudin had been there before, but only watching. Now she's the one being watched.

With "Believe" stamped on the outside ankle of both shoes, a suggestion of boyfriend Austin Smith, Oudin was making believers of a great many.

She did have physical problems with an aching iliotibial (IT) band on the outside of her left leg, bringing tears and a trainer who applied treatment and then a heavy wrap. But Oudin kept going.

"I had strained my IT band a little bit," she said, "and it had been getting better. I think today, kind of with everything going on, first time on Ashe, I was beating No. 4 in the world, about to beat her -- I think it just started cramping a little bit ... but I'll be fine for the next match."

Oudin said she's idolized Serena and Venus since Oudin was 7 or 8. Another she looks up to, well down to, is 5-foot-5 Justine Henin, who retired a year ago after reaching the top of the rankings.

"She proved you don't have to be 6-foot something," Oudin said of Henin, "to be No. 1 in the world."

That's a place Oudin has talked of going. It doesn't hurt to have a dream. Especially when you're a teenager. Oudin has a fraternal twin, Katherine, who, although a tennis player of sorts, is "totally opposite; she's going to college, wants to be an obstetrician."

Melanie was home-schooled, which is the way of Americans, girls or boys, who want to be a factor in tennis. The Europeans turn pro young, so if you don't want to fall behind, you've got to learn geometry by finding angles for the forehand.

"I think it's cool to be called the third-best American behind the Williams sisters," Oudin said.

Mary Joe Fernandez, the TV commentator and U.S. Fed Cup captain, sent Oudin out in a match in February and was delighted.

"She knows how to win," Fernandez said. "Once she gets hold of a point, she pretty much knows what to do."

And that's never let it go. As Jankovic and Dementieva have learned.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12153974
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Gasquet falls to Nadal, happy to be back from suspension

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- One had been in suspended animation, unable to play because of an injury. The other had been merely suspended, banned from tennis because he failed a drug test.

Tennis wasn't the only focus Wednesday as Rafael Nadal, who didn't play from early June to August because of sore knees, defeated Richard Gasquet, coming off his suspension, in straight sets.

The Gasquet case is a strange one. An independent anti-doping tribunal concluded that Gasquet had ingested 1.46 micrograms of cocaine, "no more than a grain of salt," by kissing a woman he had just met in a Miami night club in March.

A bit preposterous, perhaps, but it saved Gasquet's unfulfilled career.

His two-year suspension, imposed in May, was reduced to 2½ months, and so Wednesday, there was Gasquet in his element and a short while later out of the U.S. Open. But like one of Liz Taylor's marriages, it was nice while it lasted.

Lacking preparation and facing a man he had never beaten in six previous attempts, Gasquet was beaten 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 by Nadal.

"I don't have any pain," said a happy Nadal, who because of his absence slipped from second to third in the rankings. For a while in 2008, he had been No. 1.

If Gasquet has pain, it is mental.

"It was impossible for me," Gasquet said. "If at the beginning of the year some will [ask whether] you will win four Grand Slams or you will be tested for cocaine, for sure I will tell them I will win four Grand Slams."

Gasquet said he even stopped working on his game during his time off. "Try practicing," he said quietly. "If you have this kind of thing, you won't."

That made Wednesday's result entirely predictable. The judgments against him and later in favor of him definitely were not.

Gasquet tested positive in a urine sample in March after withdrawing from the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla., because of a shoulder injury.

Unable to play, the 23-year-old Frenchman went with friends to a club in Miami to see a French DJ perform at a dance music festival. The tribunal pointed out that the club "was notoriously associated with use of illegal recreational drugs, including cocaine."

Gasquet told the tribunal hearing, held in London in June, that he kissed a woman known only as Pamela, and the tribunal determined it was likely she had consumed cocaine that night, although there was no direct evidence.

Also, the tribunal wrote this in its report: "We have found the player to be a person who is shy and reserved, honest and truthful, and a man of integrity and good character."

The guy went to a place notoriously associated with drug use, met a woman, started kissing her and then was judged shy and reserved?

Is it actually possible to ingest cocaine by kissing someone? One official with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said it was "highly unlikely." He did not say impossible.

As did Gasquet when asked what it was like when he was told of the suspension by the International Tennis Association. He also used "incredible."

The tribunal, apparently watching too many Alfred Hitchcock movies, said Gasquet was "on the balance of probability, contaminated with cocaine by Pamela" and therefore not significantly at fault for the doping offense.

"We take into account that the amount of cocaine in the player's body was so small that if he had been tested only a few hours later, his test result would be likely to have been negative," the tribunal ruled.

Wait until all those accused steroid users -- Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro -- find out about that.

Gasquet also argued at the hearing that his positive test came after he withdrew from Key Biscayne. Cocaine is a banned drug for athletes in competition. Of course, five-time Grand Slam winner Martina Hingis tested positive for cocaine after losing at Wimbledon and was suspended until Sept. 30, her 29th birthday.

She's finished. Gasquet is not. "I'm a tennis player," he contended. "That's my life -- to be on tour."

A Wimbledon semifinalist in 2007, crushing Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals and then, of course, losing to Roger Federer in the semis, Gasquet has a wicked one-handed backhand, rare in modern tennis if not unique.

With only one event since April, he was overmatched against Nadal on Wednesday, explaining, "It's hard to play well, to be fit, to be ready, especially when you have to play against a guy like Nadal."

The discussion of suspension and absence continued until a U.S. Tennis Association official ordered, "Only questions about the tennis."

What questions? Gasquet was down 3-0 like that, lost the first set in 35 minutes and lost the match in 1 hour, 41 minutes.

The ITF and World Anti-Doping Association want his penalty reinstated. Despite the specious evidence in his favor, that's doubtful.

"In my mind, I'm happy," Gasquet said. "I can play on center court. I saw the last two Grand Slams [French Open and Wimbledon] on TV. Even though I lost here, I'm happy to get to play."

You might say he hasn't kissed off the season.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12148571
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Things going right for Giants as they aim for playoffs

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — They blow one in 14 innings, they lose one 11-0, they are frustrating. They make too many errors, they don’t get enough hits and they may get into the playoffs.

Randy Johnson might have another start, Eugenio Velez lacks baseball instincts, Aaron Rowand has done less than expected and they may get into the playoffs.

It’s a year too early for the Giants. It’s five years too late. This is next season’s team. It’s also for the moment, a team that is doing it with pitching and mirrors, heart and hustle. A team that for the first time in a long while has made September baseball relevant.

Brad Penny joins the ranks. The Red Sox didn’t want him. The hated Dodgers didn’t want him before that. But now the Giants want him. Maybe he has a month of fastballs left. Maybe he can be the difference, and if he isn’t, it was worth the try.

Something has gone right at AT&T Park. For all the criticism of Brian Sabean, for all the knocks on Bruce Bochy, for all the agony caused by Edgar Rentaria — who, naturally, beats the Rockies with a slam in Sunday’s version of the biggest game of the year — something has gone right.

Baseball’s a strange sport, not so much a team game as a linking of individual performances. There are no passes to an open man, no trap blocking. Each man does his thing, but if he does it correctly and if there’s harmony in a clubhouse, baseball becomes a collective group effort. That’s what the Giants are giving.

They aren’t as good as the Dodgers, not as good as the Cardinals, probably not as good as the Phillies, but the Giants are better than they were supposed to be. That’s no small virtue after the losing seasons, after finishing 18 games below .500 in 2008. They won 72 games last year. Total.

They had won 72 games this year before the end of August. Progress, more progress than a Giants fan, or Bill Neukom or Larry Baer could have dreamed.

Out of the shadows, into the sunlight, into the pennant race. To borrow a Duane Kuiper quote used frequently of late: “unbelievable.”

In April, before the first pitch, Baer was touting the garlic fries’ green booth at the park, in effect selling the clean sizzle rather than the spuds, trying to persuade us there were reasons to buy tickets other than to suffer with the ball club.

Now that’s small potatoes. Now it’s the ball that counts. Being there, that’s the whole idea, being there when the final month arrives and every pitch is a reason to gasp or grimace, a reason to hope or agonize.

“Here we are approaching September,” Bochy said last weekend, “and we’re playing some very important games.” Now September has arrived, and because of the unforeseen sweep of Colorado, the games are no less important, no less suspenseful.

Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are on the cover of Sports Illustrated, if only the upper corner. The country has been alerted. Baseball again matters by the Golden Gate.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Things-going-right-for-Giants-as-they-aim-for-playoffs-56685642.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: They're Having a Ball in New York

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Last week it was Tiger. This week it's Serena, Venus and Roger. It's always Alex. This is the place where the ball's always bouncing, along fairways, on hard courts, down the third base line.

This is place where the fans don't miss a thing, especially if Andy Roddick misses a forehand or Jerry Hairston misses a grounder.

This the place where the headlines call teams the Bombers or the Amazin's, the Jints or Gang Green. This is the place where you can buy a fake Rolex on the street or buy the real Brooklyn Bridge in a tourist trap.

Everything goes in New York. Anything goes in New York.

The front page in the Daily News was more of a declaration: "When Khadafy comes to New York this month, we should throw him straight into prison.'' The back page head, over a picture of Hairston fumbling the grounder that ended Andy Pettitte's perfect game, was "BAD HAIR DAY."

Baseball matters here. Fifteen years ago, 1994, the sport had gone into suspended animation. The players called a strike in August, the owners cancelled the World Series in September. We were told symbolically, if not directly, that everything we believed in was a mirage.

If they could wipe out the Series after 90-something years, then why care?

But the game survived, even flourished. We're told the McGwire-Sosa home run chase of '98 was what brought back the fans, re-established the interest, and while that's not untrue, New York also played its part.

This is where the Babe and the Iron Horse played. Where Jackie Robinson joined the majors. Where the term "Subway Series'' became part of the lexicon.

New York, with its ethnic diversity, where the kids grew up playing stickball, always was baseball country. Still is. If not at the expense of any other sport.

The Barclays golf tournament was played last weekend across New York Harbor, with the State of Liberty visible from the course. The big guns --  Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington -- showed up, although Heath Slocum won.

Twenty-four hours later, across the bay, a U.S. Open began. The second one in the region in two and half months. That one was the golf Open, out on Long Island. This is the tennis Open, a rollicking two weeks of day and night competition.

Sellout after sellout, matches that begin at 11 a.m., matches -- such as Andy Roddick's win over Bjorn Phau, Monday night to Tuesday morning -- that end at 12:45 a.m. New Yorkers love it. If not quite as much as they love their baseball.

Roger Federer and Serena Williams, the defending champions, opened the Open on Monday afternoon, but the tabloids went with the Yankees, who were down in Baltimore.

"CLOSE BUT NO PERFECTO!'' said the Post on its back page ‘"Awesome Andy,'' proclaimed Newsday, alluding to Pettitte's performance. And, course, the Daily News went after Hairston, who made the error that for a time will exist in infamy.

The Yanks, the Bronx Bombers, own this region during spring and summer. If it's not Alex Rodriguez who's being featured, it's Derek Jeter. The Mets, the Other Team, attract attention only for their foibles, and there have been plenty.

Omar Minaya is the Mets' general manager, and now he's been trashed as much for his failure to make a point clearly in interviews as for the failure of his team.

Minaya's language didn't matter when the Mets were winning, wrote Bob Raissman in the News, but now he must communicate how to correct the problems and he is incapable. A bit unfair, but this is New York, where imperfection of any sort is almost sinful.

Whether you're allowing a ground ball to dribble under your glove or fumbling syntax before a microphone.

In New York, virtually or actually, there's no place to hide. From the Battery to the Bronx, the Hudson River to Queens, you're always in somebody's headlights. Or, as Roddick was in the wee small hours, somebody's stadium lights.

The other night, Venus Williams was down 5-4 in the second set against Vera Dushevina after having lost the first set and was serving to stay in the match. The crowd was roaring.

"One of those great New York moments,'' said Venus, who went on to a three-set victory.

One of those New York moments of which a full explanation might be available from A-Rod or Omar Minaya, if with opposing viewpoints.

"It must be love'' is the promotional double-entendre slogan of the Open. Love or hate, with the attention, it must be New York, where you can hit a forehand, a home run and the jackpot at any time.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/01/theyre_having_a_ball_in_new_york_96468.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: New York version of Grand Slam all about fun, entertainment

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- They've made it here. It doesn't matter if they can make it anywhere else.

The United States Tennis Association found the formula to mine gold, to make history, to have a tournament that's an event, noisy, boisterous and, as Andy Roddick verified at 12:45 a.m. ET Tuesday, virtually never-ending.

Truly, there's nothing like it. Other than the corner of 42nd and Broadway. Or 57th and Lexington. Or other intersections in Manhattan.

Wimbledon is quiet lawns and British reserve. The French Open, Roland Garros, is clay courts and long rallies. The U.S. Open is a crowded, rollicking 14 days of celebrity watching, T-shirt selling, latte sipping, beer guzzling, pastrami chewing and great shot-making.

Night and day it goes. Day and night. Seemingly no sooner had Roddick departed in the wee hours than Julia Goerges and 2004 women's singles champion Svetlana Kuznetsova were arriving for their 11 a.m. start. Less than an hour and a half later, Kuznetsova was a 6-3, 6-2 winner.

On to Arthur Ashe Court came the No. 1 women's seed, Dinara Safina, and an Australian named Olivia Rogowska, ranked 167th in the world. And on to the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center came thousands of fans, great gobs of them standing in the bright sunshine outside the stadium, in front of the fountain and watching on the big TV screen as Rogowska took a 3-0 lead in the third set.

Screams and gasps. How could this be happening, the top seed getting beat in the first round? By the time anyone else figured it out, Safina had figured it out, slipping by Rogowska, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.

"I try to do something good," said Safina, the Russian, who, despite never having won a Grand Slam event is atop the women's rankings, "but when it doesn't go good, then I go like too much into myself, what I'm doing right, wrong, instead of thinking what I have to do with the ball."

Which, of course, is hit it over the net to places where Rogowska can't hit back over the net.

Then, echoing Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, Safina mused that she had made it to the next round "and tomorrow is another day."

Sometimes at the Open, it's difficult to separate yesterday, today and tomorrow. You know the line, about waking up in the city that never sleeps. What about not going to bed at all?

For years they've been writing songs about late hours in New York, "... When a Broadway baby says good night it's early in the morning ..." It's hard to say if the milkman was on his way when Roddick said good night -- do they still have people who deliver milk? -- but presumably some people were on their way to work.

There were some opening-night ceremonies with famous types, including the former basketball player David Robinson, and by the time Venus Williams and Vera Dushevina began, it was almost 8 o'clock.

When they finished, Venus staggering through in three sets, it was almost 11. And Roddick and his opponent, Bjorn Phau, still were waiting.

"The later the better," Roddick would say. "You know what it is. It's just something that's always been there in New York. It's tough sometimes. It's all part of it, kind of the crazies who stay 'til 1 in the morning. There's something fun about that."

Fun is an appropriate word for the Open. And lunacy. Tennis often is thought as a dispassionate activity for the elite. But here they've turned it into around-the-clock entertainment.

James Blake has a cheering section, the "J Block." Sam Querrey, the kid from Southern California who Tuesday beat Michael Yani, is shouted on by his "Samurai."

The famous Carnegie Deli has a booth here, and the lineup for one of those monster corned beef sandwiches is almost as long as it is to get on to Court 13, where Tuesday the lineup included Fernando Verdasco, the No. 10 seed, who defeated B. Becker -- Benjamin, not Boris.

Ralph Lauren Polo is the official clothing outfitter for the Open, but Nike and LaCoste, which Roddick wears, are well represented. If unofficially.

Nike is not allowed to use the phrase U.S. Open on its attire, so the stuff has subtle references such as "New York 2009." A T-shirt with those words costs $22, while a Nike model with "RF" (for Roger Federer) runs $40.

The New York Post had its fashion reporter, one Anahita Moussavian, critique the clothing and jewelry on display by the competitors. The observations were hardly positive.

Moussavian called Serena Williams' choice of basic black for night matches "misguided" and described Roddick's shirts and shorts as "a double fault ... it's boring."

She's entitled to her opinion, but if there's any description that never should be applied to the U.S. Open, it's "boring." On the contrary. For two weeks, the Open might be the most exciting place in the country.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12143436
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.