Let’s hope the record-setting crowds at this year’s U.S. Open aren’t buying everything that’s being sold at the Billie Jean King U.S. National Tennis Center:
Kim Clijsters’ Wimbledon inspiration
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The 26-year-old Belgian said she didn’t harbor visions of ending her two-year retirement — during which she got married and gave birth to a daughter — until she started practicing for an exhibition match in May to unveil the new roof at Wimbledon.
And less than four months later, she’s in a Grand Slam quarterfinal? Combined with Serena Williams as one of only two top-10 seeds remaining, the 2005 U.S. Open champion now is no less than a tournament favorite.
Either that invitation from the All England Club came way earlier than we’re being led to believe, or Clijsters’ racket was secretly stuffed into the diaper bag all along.
Andy Roddick’s feel-good momentum
A historic Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer changed Roddick’s public perception and popularity.
But although he still ultimately might prove that 2009 has brought about a real change in his game, in his third-round loss to John Isner, Roddick looked like the one-trick pony of old. Fitness and determination pushed the match to five sets, but the loss was cemented in Roddick’s lackluster start over the first two sets and his stubborn adherence to a strategy dictated by baseline brawn, not brains.
Dinara Safina’s No. 1 seeding
It wasn’t if Safina was going to fail to live up to her WTA ranking entering the U.S. Open, it was when.
After all, which criteria better projected her New York showing: Three middling tournament wins (two in May, one in July) or her three Grand Slam losses in 2009 (0-6, 3-6 in Australian Open final; 4-6, 2-6 in French Open final; 1-6, 0-6 in Wimbledon semifinal)?
The 23-year-old Russian was rightly defended by her brother, Marat Safin. But even he couldn’t prevent her from surrendering the opening set in each of her three U.S. Open matches, including the third-round loss to Petra Kvitova.
