HOW HOT WAS IT?: So hot was it at the Legg Mason Classic that the Washington Post’s Tracee Hamilton lamented, “The gently nodding flags atop the stadium were the only hints that there was a breeze, or a God. I don’t want to say it was hot, but I had to change my shirt so many times ESPN lost its G rating. As one of my, ah, television colleagues put it, we were all schvitzing like Airedales.” Added Hamilton, “During one of the changeovers the stadium speakers blared ‘Disco Inferno,’ which would have chafed the sweat-soaked fans if any of them had been conscious.”
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING: Marat Safin came to his sister Dinara’s rescue in Montreal, telling Tom Tebbutt, “Nobody believed that she was going to be No. 1 in the world. Nobody believed that she was going to be top 10 even two, three years ago. So look where she is right now. A lot of people they giving her trouble, okay, she’s No. 1 in the world but she never won a Grand Slam. So it’s a little bit tough on her. But she’s there. She’s fighting. She’s trying. I’m really proud of her, and I tell everybody to f— off basically in every press conference. I would do it this way [myself], but unfortunately she’s very polite to you guys.”
THE NUMBERS
4,000,000: People who played tennis in Canada last year (Does that mean we should keep an eye out for the next Rusedski, Wozniak or Nestor?)
17: Age of American phenom Ryan Harrison, who took out No. 2 seed and No. 109-ranked Michael Berrer of Germany in the first round of the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open. Harrison, a wildcard entry who won the Shingle Springs, California Futures in June, eventually fell to Taylor Dent 6-3, 6-3.
10: Days Roger Federer‘s twin daughters — Myla and Charlene — were kept in the hospital following their earlier-than-expected arrival
2003: The last time Roger Federer lost in Flushing Meadows
HEADLINES
Don’t Overlook Federer
QUOTEBOOK
“I was rolling the dice and he hit Yahtzee a bunch of times.” — Andy Roddick after his loss to Juan Martin Del Potro in D.C.
“Almost impossible.” — Rafael Nadal on the likelihood that he’ll win the Rogers Cup, his first event back since Roland Garros
“I was born in the wrong era.” — Novak Djokovic on playing in the shadows of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
“It feels like I’m starting all over, and I have that hunger of when I was 15, 16 again. And it’s a good feeling to have.” — Kim Clijsters
