THE 2010 U.S.OPEN--FINAL THOUGHTS

By Bill Breakstone, September 16, 2010

What a great three weeks of tennis! And almost perfect weather, though the heat and wind were really something for both the players and spectators to deal with at times. It was really a shame that rain had to interfere with the men’s and women’s doubles championship matches those last two days.

The crowds during the first week of the tournament proper were huge, and the waiting lines interminable. I’d love to see the outside court layouts expanded to include baseline bleacher seating on those courts that lack them now.

The Heineken Lounge was a welcome respite during the terribly hot weather of the first week. It was wonderfully air conditioned, offered eight large flat TV screens with live coverage of matches, and also offered food and drink.

Prior to the Tournament, several articles appeared in local papers bemoaning the state of U.S. tennis. Gone were the days of Sampras, Agassi, Courrier, Martin, Chang, Evert, Navratilova, Austin, Capriatti, Davenport, and along with them, the dominance of American players.

Examining Tournament results, however, the Americans did not fare so badly. The major disappointment was Andy Roddick’s loss to Janko Tipseravic in the second round. Otherwise, U.S. players had a most respectable tournament. On the men’s side, Sam Querry made it to the fourth round; Mardy Fish lost to the eventual finalist, Novak Djokovic, also in the fourth round; young Ryan Harrison turned many heads with his excellent play, barely losing in a fifth set tie-breaker 8-6 to Sergiy Stakovsky in the second round, and Mike and Bob Bryan won the men’s doubles.

Their opponents in the finals presented an interesting sidelight throughout the tournament, one which was picked up by all the papers and the TV channels. Rohan Bopana and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi were ranked 16th in the mens' doubles. Bopana is from India; Qureshi from Pakistan. These two countries have been at each other's throads since the Partition, over 60 years. Yet here were two citizens of each country, friends for years, competing together as a team. They called themselves the "Indo-Pak Express," and stressed the diplomatic meaning behind their pairing. Addressing the animosity between the two nations, Bopana said "If we can both get along, why can't they, as well." Their motto is "Stop War, Start Tennis." Picking up on their cue, Hardeeep Singh Puri, the U.N. Ambassador from India, and Abdullah Hussain, his counterpart from Pakistan, attended both the semifinals and championship matches, and were full of praise for the tennis duo and their efforts at political reconcilliation.

On the women’s side, Venus Williams made it to the semifinals, where she lost in three sets to eventual champion Kim Clijster; young American wildcard Bea Capra was a first week hit with excellent play that took her past a far more experienced and 18th ranked Arvane Rezai of France before falling to Maria Sharapova love and love in the third round; and Vania King, teaming with Yaroslva Shedova, won the women’s doubles, defeating fellow American Lisa Huber and Russian Nadia Petrova in a third set tiebreaker.

In the Junior Tournament, American boys Andrea Collarni, Denis Kudla, Daniel Kosakowski, Jack Sock and Dennis Novikov all advanced to the round of 16 or better, with Sock defeating Kudla in the championship match in three sets. On the girl’s side, Robin Anderson made it to the quarterfinals, and Sloane Stephens lost in the semis to eventual champion Daria Gavrilova of Russia, the number one seed. Sloane then teamed with Timea Babos of Hungary to win the girls doubles championship. Thus it looks like we have some bright young American prospects in tennis’ future.

As for our two main champions, both Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters were crowd favorites and gracious champions. Nadal’s play throughout the Tournament was astounding; no better player exists today. Roger Federer is still a great, but his serve finally let him down in his semifinal against Djokovic, and his ratio of unforced errors to winners was abominable. No better example of sportsmen, in the true sense of the word, could be found than these three superb athletes and gentlemen. They are true ambassadors of the Sport.

Clijsters carried off the champion’s trophy for the third time, winning her 21st consecutive match in the process, and proving again she is the consummate professional. The other disappointments were Andy Murray and Thomas Berdych. Everyone was looking at the fourth ranked Brit to make it to the final eight, thus his third round loss to Stan Warinka came as a shock. Even more surprising was Berdych’s first round loss to Frenchman Michael Llodra, in three straight sets.

For the fourth straight year, attendance topped 700,000. In all, 712,976 fans visited the competition, not including the five days of qualifying matches, and new records were set in both merchandise and food and beverage sales. All in all, it was a great event, perhaps the premiere tennis venue in the world. One would not find too many New Yorkers or Americans that would refute that statement.