1. MELANIE MAGIC: Little Mo — that would be little Melanie Oudin, not Ms. Connolly — continues her sweep through Euro wonders, astounding the tennis nation as she downs a tournament favorite, No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva, and the feared Maria Sharapova. Just 17 and 5-foot-6, this Georgia Peach with a great forehand and return of serve can play and is already being viewed as the America’s Great Hope.
2. MAMA MIA: New ma Kim Clijsters cooks up one heck of a Belgian waffle to the opposition as she sweeps through to the quarters. Her Jersey hubby Brian Lynch rhetorically asked The New York Times, “How many woman in the world have a child and try to make it work with their career?”
3. SERENA, ‘TIS YOURS TO LOSE: Okay, going in, the younger Williams sister was a strong fave to win. Now the gal who’s won three of the last four majors is the prohibitive leader. No pressure SW, but the Open is on your considerable strings.
4. NO CANDY FOR ANDY: Trim and re-vitalized Andy Roddick, Wimbledon’s beloved loser, never felt more confident going into a Slam. But the Austin acer was far less than imposing as he fell in five tight sets to John Isner. Dare we ask if time is running out for America’s Davis Cup warrior and near-heroic one-Slam wonder?
5. BIG JOHN: When you think of the phrase “Big John” and the U.S. Open, John McEnroe comes to mind. Well think again. John Isner — walloping serve and brave volleys in place — took down Roddick and is now the last American man standing in the draw. But how long can he last in this year’s Open and how far can the giant killer take his career?
6. SORRY, SAFINA: Poor Dinara Safina. She’s quite likeable. She works hard and is a real pro. It’s not her fault that she’s No. 1, but she continually gets harshed. Never mind that she had a splendid spring, winning Rome and Spain. In Paris, Serena joked that everyone knows who the real No. 1 is and Safina then lost miserably in the French final (as she had done at the Aussie), in the Wimby semi and in the third round here in the Big Apple. With the press on her heels and her serve an errant mess, young Dinara was one of the unhappiest No. 1s in memory. It was hard not to sympathize with the well intentioned, but faltering kid. Sure it can be brutal at the top, but we can’t think of a No. 1 who has felt more sustained pain at the top than Dinara.
7. THE MAN WHO REFUSES TO LOSE: It might have seemed that new dad Roger Federer could have been sleeping in his kids’ rooms, as (shock of shocks) he revealed some distinctly non-Federerian flaws. Still, the guy is on track and no one wants to be across the net from this still sublime Swiss piece of excellence who is chasing the considerable ghost of Bill Tilden as he tries to collect his sixth straight Open title.
8. HELTER SKELTER: The woman’s draw opened wider than the Red Sea, as after one week 9 of the top 16 seeds drop away.
9. TAYLOR MAKES A DENT: It seemed that Taylor Dent, suffering from severe back problems, was all but out of the game. He was in a body cast and confined to his bed for 23 hours a day. For the bulky Southern Californian, real estate sales, teaching tennis or TV commentary seemed like more reasonable career alternatives. But Dent’s two wins at the Open gave us a feel-good story that tennis lovers will not soon forget. (Plus, Dent’s celebratory victory lap was undeniably the best at the Open since Todd Martin. Somewhere baseball icon Cal Ripken is smiling.)
10. CAREER SLAM? Nadal struggles some, but survives. Observers wonder, can his abdomen and knees sustain as he tries to win his first Open to become the second player in three majors to secure a career Slam. (Rival Roger did so at the French Open in June.)
11. SCOTT FREE?: Last year’s finalist, Scot Andy Murray, still glides across the court and through the draw and remains a hip pick for victory.
12. HEY, TENNIS, SWITCH YOUR CHANNEL: ESPN, featuring the brothers McEnroe, and the Tennis Channel, featuring Jimmy Connors, replaced the USA Network as the TV broadcasters (along, of course, with CBS) for the Open. Too bad The Tennis Channel had such problems getting on air in New York. Ouch!
13. RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION?: The Open sets impressive marks in attendance, TV ratings and merchandising.
14. ANDRE’S IN THE HOUSE: In his first big-stage appearance in years, Andre Agassi — as gleaming and bald as ever — lights up Ashe Stadium with inspiring talk of hope and giving back. There’s only one Andre, tennis’ most inspirational player since Arthur Ashe.
15. BAD DIPLOMACY: Vera Zvonareva is one smart cookie who wants big time to get into diplomacy. But more than anyone at the Open, the Russian gave us a fierce display of McEnroean temper, when she screamed and yelled and ripped her bandages off en route to losing six match points and dropping a tear match to Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round. (BTW: Speaking of lack of diplomacy, anxious photographers almost had an elbow-throwing riot during a photo shoot with Melanie Oudin in Time Square.)
16. MEN FIRST?: For the first time, men began a U.S. Open night session, when Roger Federer kicked off the evening and was followed by Serena Williams.
17. THE LONE WOLF: Pancho “The Lone Wolf” Gonzalez was a chip-on-his-shoulder outsider who did not cozy up to foes or the establishment (and visa versa). But so what? Time heals. And the USTA honored the Great American and Latino tennis in general in a stirring ceremony filled with remembrance of a brave (“I’ll do it my way”) trailblazing career from yesteryear.
18. OUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY: Donald Young, who is still struggling after all these years, reveals that the USTA would be open to helping him, but only if he distances himself from his controversial parents. Still, young Young decided to stick with the folks and subsequently didn’t get an Open wildcard. But he does get through the qualifying, before losing in the first round to Tommy Robredo.
19. BAGEL-MANIA: There were 21 6-0 scores in the woman’s draw and a like number in the men’s after Sunday.
20. VENUS SETTING: Remember when skinny and rather adorable young Venus Williams was making her jaw-dropping debut in ’94. She lost her beads long ago en route to corralling seven Slams. Now has she lost a quarter step prompting some to ask whether the tennis sun is at last beginning to set on planet Venus.
21. THE DOSTOYEVSKIAN CODA AND THE MAGICIAN: S.L. Price said this year’s Open was just a Dostoyevskian coda for the hulking and now retiring Marat Safin, 29, who again lost early and seems to be mailing it in. Fabrice Santoro — the beloved, double-fisted, old-school Frenchman who Sampras dubbed “the Magician” — lost his first-round about an hour after Safin lost his and will also be stepping away.
22. HOT TALK: Problematic women’s serves and a mini-flurry of wins by young Americans prompts many critiques of serving and more-than-hopeful chatter about an American “bounce back.”
23. SORRY SATURDAY: September 5, the Open’s first Saturday, was less then a Super Saturday for favorites and icons. Roddick, Safina, Sharapova and Blake all went down.
24. AMERICAN WOES: If John Isner loses to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round, it will be the first time in the Open era that no American reached the quarters.
25. RECORD RUN: This year marks the first time the top 16 men’s seeds reached the third round at a Grand Slam. (And 14 of the top 16 reached the fourth round for the first time in U.S. Open history.)
