STRETCHING THE TRUTH: After Mary Carillo noted that Serena Williams said she wasn’t the favorite going into her match against Sloane Stephens, John McEnroe called it “the lie of all time.”
NO SHAME IN HER GAME, FOR NOW: Discussing her chances of reaching the top 10 by the end of the year, Sloane Stephens said, “If I don’t make it, then shame on me.”
SERENA ON THE GREATEST—IT’S A NUMBERS GAME: On the subject of the greatest male and female tennis players of all time, Serena opts for Roger Federer and Steffi Graf, because of Slam count. “I don’t think I’m the greatest, because Steffi has way more Grand Slams than me,” she says. (BTW: When Serena was asked whether her kids would play tennis if she has children, she replied, “I hope not.”)
AMERICAN WOMEN: “Chris Evert,” said Mary Carillo, “compares the Serena–Sloane pairing to when she had to play the young Tracy Austin.”
LEVEL BEST: After defeating Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-1, Serena Williams was asked what Stephens needs to do to reach the next level. “I don’t think she has to do anything,” Serena said. “She’s at the next level.”
TIME TO GROW UP—NAH, FORGET IT, IT’S ADORABLE: Rising American Allison Riske still carries around a fragment of her baby blanket.
THE SMEE GENERATION?: Who’d have guessed that the last American man left standing at the US Open was Tim Smyczek? But now he’s lost too.
COULD PICASSO PAINT WITH A WIDER BRUSH?: Our favorite part of a recent New Yorker article on Roger Federer and his short-lived experiment with a bigger racket, went like this: “Federer’s game was so polished that his acolytes often described him as an artist; now they feared this bigger, less precise racquet as an aesthetic threat. (Could Picasso still paint with a wider brush? Could Baryshnikov dance in hiking boots?) Federer acknowledged that his game is visually appealing—he prefers ‘showman’ to ‘artist’—but insisted that this is incidental. ‘I don’t purposely try to make it look graceful or classy,’ he said. ‘But because I have that—can you say vintage style? Old-school tennis, with the one-handed backhand. I like to use my slice. The way I move, people really like it. I’m happy that it pleases the people’s eye—let’s put it that way.’”
MAC ATTACK: Asked about impressive wins over Steve Johnson and Nicholas Mahut to qualify for the Masters event in Cincinnati this summer, eighteen-year-old US hopeful doesn’t shift his focus. “When you go out there,” he says, “you’re just playing the ball.”
BEST CHEST BUMP IN THE WEST: As the Bryan brothers approach a potential calendar-year Grand Slam, Inside Tennis asked them about the keys to the most important ingredient in their success—their celebratory chest bump. “You have to see the twinkle in the other twin’s eyes,” said Mike, while Bob admitted that the “twin thing” helps them synchronize, adding that it’s important to do it on “a great point or at the end of a match,” in order to avoid the sound of “crickets.”
Asked about the ugliest chest bumps of their career, Mike points to a Tennis magazine cover image: “It looks pretty cool … but Bob is flying in and he just crushes me in the head.” According to both brothers, a poorly-executed chest bump can be dangerous: Bob ended up on crutches with a sprained ankle after one, while Mike says Bob once broke his sternum after a collegiate chest bump. No such worries today—having to perform 50 or chest bumps at a time for photo and TV shoots, the Bryans have honed and perfected their chest-bumping skill.
HEADLINES: “A Display of Exuberance, Not Treason” “A Smash on Ashe” “Riske Business” “Letting US Down” “Giorgi Rules” “Sloane Serves Notice As Next American Star” “Just Hewitt! Del Potro Ousted” “Telling Djokes” “At Open, Upsets Are Scarce, Scares Are Not”
THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: Against David Ferrer, Mikhail Kukushkin failed in his first two line-call challenges. When he got the third one right, a CBS reporter remarked, “You don’t fool Mikhail Kukushkin three times.”
THE PERILS OF NIGHT TENNIS: After a marathon five-set win in the second round, America’s last man standing, Tim Smyczyk, was asked about his post-match plans.“I’ll go see the trainers, probably get some take-out,” he said. “If I’m able to stay awake until the take out gets to my room, then I’ll eat some.”
COMEBACKS AREN’T EASY: New Hall of Famer Martina Hingis, returning to doubles action at the US Open, was typically blunt about the physical impact of her decision: “My body is screaming, ‘What are you doing to me?’”
FIRE STARTERS: When 2001 US Open champ Lleyton Hewitt was asked who among all the former No. 1s he’d most like to play, he replied, “Johnnie Mac … We would have a fiery match.”
HE’S A SCRAPPER: John McEnroe voiced worry about Lleyton Hewitt after he took a tough tumble in the fifth set of his match against Juan Martin del Potro. But Australian fellow commentator Darren Cahill said of his countryman, “He’s got that Aussie Rules background. He’s tough enough for this.”
CURIOUS QUESTION: After his third-round master class, Federer was asked, “Is it disappointing to only have a match last 82 minutes?”
PSYCH OUT: Asked to share what comes up in discussions with her sports psychologist, Jamie Hampton said, “You don’t want to hear my issues, believe me. Everybody has their own issues. The girls differ from the guys. Girls are a little bit more emotional. We’ll just leave it at that.”
CANDID COMMENT: “I think I’ve had tendencies to play really bad in big moments,” Jamie Hampton said after her third-loss to Sloane Stephens, adding that it “kinda sucks.”
BUZZKILL AD OF THE TOURNAMENT: One racket company’s T-shirt insists “Please string responsibly.”
THE CYCLE OF TRIUMPH: “It’s a never ending cycle of achievement,” Mark Woodforde, on the Bryan brothers’ current Slam run.
NO KIDDING: According to one blogger, “Victoria Duval is an absolutely charming young woman.”
UN-FOUR-TUNATE: The Bryan brothers broke doubles vet Daniel Nestor’s serve four times in their US Open match against Nestor and Vasek Pospisil.
GO FIGURE: After a definitive straight-set win over Julien Benneteau, Tomas Berdych was asked only one question in the press room.
BODY DOUBLE:
Red adidas outfit—check.
Purple trim—check.
Purple visor—check
White sneakers—check.
Brown hair—check.
Dangling pony tail—check.
Welcome to the third round Christina McHale–Ana Ivanovic match, where the two women wore the exact same outfits.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ANA: Ana Ivanovic’s Twitter profile contains a quote from Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu—”Only he who knows the destination knows the way.” After her third-round win, IT asked her about it. “Many times we judge people without actually knowing what’s going on behind the scenes,” she said. “You see us when we are competing and you don’t know the efforts we put in. It’s easy for everyone to sit back and judge and talk about what one should or shouldn’t do. But only the person who is involved knows their goals, [and] for every person it’s different.”
