BAGMAN OUT IN FIRST ROUND:
Of his somewhat shocking 6-3, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 loss to 32-year-old French vet Arnaud Clement, Marcos Baghdatis could only offer, “What can I say? I was really heavy on court. I wasn’t feeling very fit.” You mean it came down to fitness? Really? Wasn’t it the Cypriot who surged through the summer, reaching the D.C. final, the Cincy semis and the New Haven quarters? If he’s not fit now, when will he ever be? His remark about feeling “heavy” on the court might be more telling. Baghdatis is listed at 181 pounds in the ATP Guide, but that number looks a bit conservative, to say the least. The No. 18 could take a tip from the resurgent Mardy Fish, who shed 30 pounds and is playing the best tennis of his career. But he doesn’t appear open to the suggestion. “If the guys want to lose weight, they can lose weight if they want to. That’s their problem,” said Baghdatis. Clement didn’t expect much coming into the match, saying that he gave himself about “one percent chance to win.” But win he did.
SERB AND (ALMOST) FOLLY: In a near blockbuster upset, No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic appeared to wilt in the dog-days-of-summer Queens heat but managed to pull out a 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over fellow Serb and Davis Cup teammate Viktor Troicki. “I’ve been in those situations before, played a lot of long matches in very difficult conditions, feeling very exhausted,” said Djokovic. “You kind of start panicking a little bit when you don’t feel great physically. Then your opponent takes the advantage. And it’s not easy. Definitely those moments are very challenging for an athlete. But I overcame it once again and this is what matters most to me.” Had Djokovic retired from the match (his hangdog body language often suggested that he might), he would have completed one of the most dubious achievements in tennis — a career Grand Slam. Off pullouts, that is. Nole defaulted matches at the ’05 French Open with breathing problems, ’07 Wimbledon with a blister on his toe, and the ’09 Australian Open due to heat illness. On Tuesday, the heat nearly got the best of him again. So hot was the afternoon that, moments after the match, a clearly exhausted Djokovic told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert that when he stepped into the shade “it was a sleeping-with-my-girlfriend kind of feeling.”
FISH THROUGH IN FIVE SETS: How’s this for an oddball score? Mardy Fish outlasted Czech Jan Hajek in five sets 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 in a two-hour, 36-minute first-round match on the Grandstand Court. Fish credited his slimmed-down physique, saying he’s reinvented himself from both physical and career standpoints. “Maybe a little bit of both,” said Fish, who totaled 24 aces against Hajek. “I mean, career is more important to me than how I look on the court. I feel like a completely different person, playing like a completely different player, and able to do things that I’ve never been able to do before. Hopefully, it’s a career thing.” Fish — 30 pounds lighter and playing perhaps the most inspired tennis of his career — said he was recently tested when he saw a Domino’s Pizza commercial on TV. “That looked really good,” he said. But he’s committed to his new level of fitness. The Floridian says it was his former chunkier weight that forced him to undergo knee surgery, and that it was his marriage that really helped him put things in perspective. “You’re just not out there for yourself anymore. You can be pretty selfish as tennis players, being an individual sport. Stacey [Gardner] travels a lot with me, and she’s part of it. You want to do your best. You want to make as much money as you can while you can and do some — try to do some cool things while you can, because it’s not going to last too long.”
SHOT OF THE TOURNAMENT?: Like last year (against Novak Djokovic in the USO semis), Roger Federer once again pulled off an all but impossible between-the-legs winner in his first-round matchup with Argentine Brian Dabul, a back-to-the-net ball that landed in the corner. Said the Swiss, “Maybe this one was harder, because I had the feeling I had to run a longer distance and I was further back somehow, I felt. I had to really give the last big push at the end. I didn’t have time to set it up. So I felt like this one was incredible again. I turned around and couldn’t believe the shot landed in the corner.” Asked if he’s seen a replay of Federer’s shot from Monday night, Djokovic shot back, “No, I’ve seen it live last year.” Added the Serb, “I am not as good as he is in that. I’d like to be very careful with my racket. You know what I mean?”
A BEAUTIFUL MARRIAGE: Asked is she could envision herself playing tennis after getting married (a la Kim Clijsters, Lindsay Davenport, etc.), Venus Williams, 30, said, “I have a commitment problem. I can’t commit…I’ll grow up one day, but not yet. I’m literally married to tennis.”
EXPERT PICK?: Imprisoned rapper Lil Wayne (serving an eight-month prison term stemming from a 2007 weapons charge) told Sports Illustrated that he’s picking Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters to win the U.S. Open.
INJURY TIMEOUT: John McEnroe said the long debated tour calendar likely won’t not change until “the entire top 10 doesn’t play the Open because they’ve all got injuries.”
LIVING THE DREAM: Asked what she knows now that she wishes she knew when she was still playing, Billie Jean King said, “I wish I had all the information about nutrition, working out. I wish I had these rackets. I would love to be playing on the pro tour right now. I would be in hog heaven. I’d get these fans so riled up. I’d get them totally rocking. The players today are living my generation’s dream, the vision we had for the sport.”
THE NEITHER HAIR NOR THERE EXCHANGE OF THE MONTH:
REPORTER: You seem to be a liberal user of hair gel. I remember [Nicolas] Mahut at Wimbledon, he played 11 hours…
ARNAUD CLEMENT: I don’t have hair gel.
REPORTER: You don’t?
AC: It’s wax. Totally different. I can move my hair.
REPORTER: I remember Mahut’s [hair] at Wimbledon didn’t move the whole time.
AC: What’s the question?
REPORTER: Are certain players, is there a station in the locker room, the wax station, for your hair?
AC: No, no.
REPORTER: Why do some guys use it and some guys not?
AC: I don’t know. Why, [are] you going to a hairdresser or are you going to take a shower? It’s not really a question, so — no, like when I’m like this and Mahut like want to put his hair, everybody — you like your haircut?
REPORTER: So-so right now.
AC: So-so, yeah. You’re right.
REPORTER: Maybe I can borrow your wax.
THE NUMBERS
16-0: Roger Federer‘s record in night matches at the U.S. Open.
QUOTEBOOK
“There’s always people throwing darts at you.” — John McEnroe
“I look at Stacey sometimes and say, ‘What was your problem? Why didn’t somebody tell me that I looked like that?'” — Mardy Fish on comparing photos of himself before and after his diet
