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Late summer has descended upon
New York. Uncollected trash rots on city streets and urban
air pulls thick into the lungs while salty sweat maps the
furrowed brows of its inhabitants, magnifying the already
difficult task of everyday survival in a city that thrives
on diversity.
Yes, New York is an equal opportunity burden;
residents and tourists from across the globe are expected to
manage and maneuver the knotted swell of human and vehicular
traffic that pumps beneath towering, garish neon and above
arduously snaking subway trains. This stiflingly seductive
metropolis calls like a siren to the greatest of
entertainers and politicians, as well as world-class
athletes, and undeniably serves as a fitting home for the
final major event of the professional tennis season: the
United States Open.
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| Andre Agassi |
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| Tommy Haas |
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James Blake
Photos by
Brent Mullins
Click
image for larger view |
Like its host city, the U.S. Open
does not discriminate in its demands. The hardcourt surface
on which it is contested holds no favor for baseliners or
net-rushers, women or men, veterans or phenoms. All summer
long, the professional tennis elite have battled heat,
humidity, injuries, and one another as temperatures and
their games soared during a connected chain of warm-up
tournaments known as the U.S. Open Series. Players compete
for titles and standings in a succession of events that
culminates with the crown at the USTA National Tennis Center
in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Should the players atop the
standings emerge victorious at America’s Grand Slam, their
prize money will be doubled to a whopping $2.2 million.
The Men
Defending champion Roger
Federer missed the majority of the summer hardcourt
season celebrating his Wimbledon victory and nursing a minor
injury; however, he won the only event in which he competed
– the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters in
Cincinnati – and has compiled an intimidating 38-1 record on
hardcourts in 2005. The world’s top ranked player has now
won 22 consecutive finals and remains the odds-on favorite
at the US Open. Federer’s aura of dominance is diminishing
amongst his peers, however, and he needs to repeat as US
Open champion to solidify the stranglehold he placed on the
men’s game in 2004.
The player who most challenges
Federer’s supremacy is French Open champion and
second-ranked Rafael Nadal, who has proven that he is
capable of transcendent tennis off of the red clay surface
that fostered his Grand Slam breakthrough. The young
Spaniard pushed Federer to the brink of defeat in a five-set
loss at the Nasdaq-100 Open earlier this year before
breezing through the field at this summer’s Rogers Masters
in Montreal to win his first career hardcourt tournament.
Rafael Nadal is not afraid of Roger Federer and his
unmistakable bravado seems to be contagious. The top men in
tennis no longer go into matches with Federer like losers.
The players’ self-confidence is still tempered by respect
for his talent, but belief flickers in their eyes once
again.
Unlike the Australian, French,
and All England Championships, the U.S. Open does not want for
recent native champions. Americans flourish on their home
turf. This year’s leader in the U.S. Open Series point
standings is American Andy Roddick, champion at the
Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington DC and runner-up to
Roger Federer in Cincinnati. Although he sustained a mild
foot injury at the end of his latest match with Federer,
Andy Roddick has played himself into nice form this summer
on the strength of his massive serve and blistering
forehand. Roddick is clearly hungry to win a second major
title and there is no better place for him to do it than at
the site of his only Slam victory to date.
Andre Agassi, who as an
unseeded player powered his way to the title eleven years
ago and again won the Open in 1999, is primed to make
another big impact at this year’s tournament. Agassi won
the Mercedes Benz Cup in Los Angeles and finished runner-up
to Nadal in Montreal. The sentimental favorite on the men’s
side, Agassi will be competing in his 20th
consecutive U.S. Open. There is speculation that this could
be his last appearance in Queens. If Andre Agassi is to
make one last run at a Grand Slam title, he’ll need help
from both the draw and from his peers, but Andre is a master
of the game and a master entertainer. Win or lose, he will
undoubtedly use the crowd and the home court to his
advantage.
Two more former U.S. Open
champions may also be in the hunt for the title come the
second weekend in New York. Lleyton Hewitt was
humbled in last year’s final by Federer, but the
Australian’s tennis is most often derailed by off-court
events. Now a newlywed and father-to-be, Lleyton’s
motivation is somewhat questionable. He was
uncharacteristically subdued during his run to the
semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters, where he lost meekly
to Andy Roddick, a player he has owned in the past. The
unequaled speed and passion that brought Hewitt the 2001 US
Open title now lies squarely with Rafael Nadal. Meanwhile,
2000 US Open champion Marat Safin is the reigning
Australian Open titleholder and the man responsible for the
only blemish on Federer’s otherwise perfect hardcourt
campaign this year. Safin is still searching for his form
after returning from knee surgery, but should he play into
the second week and rekindle his best tennis in the process,
the powerful Russian is capable of winning any event he
enters.
Georgia native Robby Ginepri
also looks to be a factor in New York. Ginepri kicked off
the US Open Series with a championship run at the RCA event
in Indianapolis and has notched victories over Roddick and
Safin this season. He also challenged Federer to three sets
of enthralling tennis in the Cincinnati semifinals. Robby
most likely will not win the entire event, but his
confidence is high and top players will all be watching to
see where he lands in the draw. Ginepri leads a solid pack
of potential troublemakers that includes Britain’s Greg
Rusedski, Argentina’s David Nalbandian, American
James Blake, Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer and
Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The Women
Kim Clijsters, the U.S.
Open Series points leader on the women’s side, has dominated
the hardcourt season. She returned from a
career-threatening wrist injury that sidelined her for the
majority of 2004 to lead the tour in victories this year,
with five of her six tournament wins coming on hardcourts.
Clijsters is both match-tough and healthy, a rare
combination in women’s tennis that should lead to an overdue
Grand Slam breakthrough in Flushing Meadows; however, her
history of failing in the most crucial moments of major
competition could combine with a tendency to lapse into an
overly defensive style of play and pose as much of an
obstacle for Kim of any of the other 127 women in the main
draw.
If Kim Clijsters does succumb to
the demons that have haunted her quest for a Grand Slam
title, Wimbledon champion Venus Williams may very
well be the woman to take advantage. Venus has only played
one event since winning Wimbledon – the Bank of the West
Classic – where she lost in the final to Clijsters. It
remains to be seen if her victory in London was a permanent
return to the top of the game or if she will continue to
struggle with consistency, but Venus has never failed to
follow up a Wimbledon victory with a U.S. Open title. She
claimed the two tournaments back-to-back in both 2000 and
2001. Assuming Venus has overcome a case of the flu that
forced her out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Williams is a
very real threat to bookend her Grand Slam win on the grass
with the title in New York.
The current generation of female
players has been beset by injuries and their collective
health is a factor in every major event contested.
Resurgent French veteran Mary Pierce annihilated the Acura Classic field in San Diego, briefly
dethroning Clijsters in the U.S. Open Series standings in the
process. Unfortunately, Pierce strained a thigh muscle
immediately after taking that title and the severity of her
injury will greatly impact her success in Flushing Meadows.
No woman in the draw is safe if Mary Pierce is able to bring
her summer form to New York.
In fact, far more contenders for
the title are questionable due to injury than are healthy.
Lindsay Davenport hurt her back in the Wimbledon
final and has been sidelined since; Maria Sharapova
is happily spending her first week as the number one ranked
woman in the world, but she struggled mightily through two
rounds of the JP Morgan Chase event before defaulting in the
quarterfinals and pulling out of Toronto due to a pectoral
injury; defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was in
the midst of a mediocre season before injuring her back and
making a U.S. Open repeat all but impossible; French Open
queen Justine Henin-Hardenne is nursing a sore
hamstring and made a rather unremarkable run to the Rogers
Cup final on shaky form and fighting heart alone before
falling to Clijsters; and Serena Williams continues
to suffer the effects of knee and ankle problems that sent
her hobbling out of Wimbledon in the third round. The
walking wounded of women’s tennis can beat many players at
less than peak physical form, but they enter the year’s
final major unsure of themselves and ripe for upset.
While the upper echelon of
women’s tennis has by-and-large suffered this summer,
several second-tier players and up-and-coming young stars
have displayed nice form and will be dangerous in New York.
Veterans Daniela Hantuchova and Patty Schnyder
have both been ranked inside the top ten and are capable of
beating anyone when they are in command of their
considerable talents. Meanwhile, a new generation’s summer
charge has been led by China’s Shuai Peng,
Czech Nicole Vaidisova, India’s Sania Mirza,
and the powerful but also recently injured Serbian teen
sensation, Ana Ivanovic.
Outside of Clijsters, the only
top woman who is completely healthy is ironically the
oft-injured and mentally shaky French talent, Amelie
Mauresmo. Mauresmo, however, did not appear match tough
as she gutted her way through to the semifinals of the
Toronto event before losing a tight match to Henin-Hardenne.
Like Clijsters, Mauresmo suffers from a tendency to play too
defensively that prevents her from seizing her biggest
opportunities. If Mauresmo commits to moving inside the
court and attacking the net, she is capable of a deep run at
the title in New York. She is also overdue for a Grand Slam
breakthrough, but comes into the U.S. Open on far more
uncertain form than Clijsters.
If You Can Make It There ...
The competition for the final
Grand Slam of the tennis season is a microcosm of the city
in which it is held; a rat race between the powers-that-be
and the potential-to-be where nothing is certain and only
the strongest survive. Such is the heartbeat and lifeblood
of New York. Such is the heartbeat and lifeblood of
champions. One man and one woman will claim the 2005 U.S.
Open titles by withstanding New York’s unbridled ambitions
and unchecked attitudes. Only then will they be able relish
that sweetest of juices known as victory, an intoxicating
elixir served exclusively to those who are bold enough to
bite the Big Apple back.
Predictions:
WOMEN'S SEMIS: Clijsters
d. Vaidisova, Mauresmo d. Dechy
WOMEN'S FINAL: Clijsters d. Mauresmo
MEN'S SEMIS: Federer d. Safin, Roddick d. Agassi
MEN'S FINAL: Federer d. Roddick
Wyman Meers is a writer living
in New York. He is
Gaga4Gaby on the Outsports Discussion Board.
Aug. 24, 2005 |
