CBSSports.com: For Serena, a win isn't a win without dramatics

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- The threats went unfulfilled. There was no brawl. There were no angry words. Serena Williams did get irritated, but only with herself.

"Because," she explained, "I wasn't very happy with my performance."

As compared to the previous time when she wasn't very happy with Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, accusing her of cheating when they faced each other the end of May in the French Open.

That's when Serena growled at Martinez Sanchez across the net, "I'm going to get you in the locker room for that."

That day Serena whipped Martinez Sanchez, on the clay court, not off it, winning in three sets. On Friday, an ocean away, Williams shook herself out of lethargy and won 6-3, 7-5 in the third round of the U.S. Open.

This one closed with a handshake, followed later by a denial from Martinez Sanchez she even heard Serena's boast three months earlier in Paris.

In the first set that day, Serena ripped a ball that virtually everybody contended hit Martinez Sanchez, meaning Williams would have won the point. But after the ball plopped back in front of Serena, Martinez Sanchez said it hit her racquet, not her body.

Serena then complained to the chair umpire, who attempted to avoid any decision.

"I said, 'Did you ask her?'" Serena said that afternoon. "He said, 'Well, she's saying it didn't happen.' I looked her dead in the eye. 'Why? Just be honest, if the ball hit you or not.' I mean, hello, it totally hit her.

"She just looked down, and I just have no respect for anybody who can't play a professional game and be just be really professional out here."

Then, having lost the argument and shortly later the set in a match she would take 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, Serena told the umpire, "She better not come to the net again."

Strong words? "Well," Williams answered, "I am from Compton, you do know ..."

We do, although Serena now is based in Florida with older sister Venus. Martinez Sanchez, 27, is from Spain.

Asked if there were a repercussion from the French incident, if that's the proper description, Martinez Sanchez said, "No. I never think about it."

You can be certain Serena hasn't stopped thinking about it. When confronted Thursday after a doubles match, she said, "The ball hit her."

On Friday, wearing a post-match T-shirt upon which was printed, "You Can't Spell Dynasty Without Nasty," Williams was less direct.

When asked if she lost respect for players whom she considered cheaters, Serena was more politician than critic. "I can only speak for me," she said. "I try to be very professional, extremely professional in my job. That's what I'm here to do, and win, I hope."

Read between the lines, or specifically interpret between the quotes. At the French, Serena sneered at Martinez Sanchez's refusal to admit guilt. "I would never do that," Williams said. "I've never done that. I've never sunk so low ... because that's all I've ever been was extremely professional to anyone I've ever played."

Implying, what, Martinez Sanchez was not? "She's a tough player," was the Williams observation on Friday. "I was just trying to go out there and do my best. And I knew I had to be serious today."

Serena's the Drama Queen. With her it's usually something. In 2003 at the French, it was the "C" word again, cheating, when eventual champion Justine Henin raised her hand while Williams was serving and later denied it. At the 2004 U.S. Open. Serena got some awful line calls while losing to Jennifer Capriati. That led to acceptance of the Hawk-Eye electronic replay system.

On Friday, Serena, defending champion in the Open, offered some histrionics when she was down 3-1 in the second set.

"I got nasty today, but to myself," was the way Serena framed it. "I was screaming to myself because I wasn't very happy with my performance ... I have my own mental issues, and everyone has to battle themselves sometimes."

Serena's autobiography, On the Line, reached bookstores a few days ago. She discusses her insecurities, the depression after sister Yetunde Price was murdered and her dealing with a muscular body she finally has come to accept and appreciate.

When someone wondered about early reviews, Serena reminded, "I've been playing this [tournament], so I've been working. I haven't had the chance to see the reviews yet. I've been doing the job that I've been doing."

Which Friday included a victory in which she got mad at herself, not the opponent.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12158741
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Diminutive Oudin making noise as next great American hope

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- She's a sporting cliche, the All-American girl, small but daring, confident but humble. She's an Irving Berlin song, a Norman Rockwell painting. Most of all, Melanie Oudin is the hope that the United States will have a part in the future of women's tennis.

Two months ago, Oudin stunned the world's No. 6 player, Jelena Jankovic, in the third round at Wimbledon, drawing attention and more than a few disparaging remarks from a skeptical Jankovic, who contended sourly of Oudin, "She doesn't have any weapons."

Whatever she has, courage, desire, the quickest feet this side of Usain Bolt -- all right, that's an exaggeration -- the 17-year-old Oudin used it to upset Elena Dementieva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, Thursday in the second round of the U.S. Open.

And Dementieva, No. 4 in the rankings and in the seeds, the 2008 Beijing Olympic champion, was gracious, as opposed to being bitter.

"I think," Dementieva said about Oudin, "is very talented. She is not afraid to play. She was very positive, going for shots, for winners. This is just the beginning."

America can only wish. In women's tennis of late, there's been Serena Williams and sister Venus Williams and, well, the days of Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati seem about as far away as the Andromeda galaxy.

For years we've been wondering who's next, if anybody's next, since virtually every top young female player is from Russia or Serbia. It's too early yet to say, "Stop wondering," because even if Oudin is the third-best player from the United States, she's only the 70th best player in the world.

Or was before Thursday, when she picked up a lot of points in addition to picking up the spirits of people in the U.S. Tennis Association.

Oudin, from Marietta, Ga., the suburbs of Atlanta, is a mere 5-foot-6, but as the saying goes, the tennis ball doesn't know or care how big you are.

She's a hustler, in the positive sense of the word. If she were a baseball player, she'd always be taking the extra base, ramming into the catcher on close plays at the plate.

"I had to win the match," Oudin said. "[Dementieva] didn't give it to me. I played with no fear. She's expected to win. I went out and played my game."

Which is one of attacking. None of this wussy, tentative stuff. At 5-foot-11, Dementieva is half a head taller than Oudin. Yet Oudin didn't play defensively.

Asked whether she lost the match, Dementieva responded, "No, she won it."

And Oudin won the hearts of the home-country fans at her first appearance in the big house, 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. First appearance as a player. Oudin had been there before, but only watching. Now she's the one being watched.

With "Believe" stamped on the outside ankle of both shoes, a suggestion of boyfriend Austin Smith, Oudin was making believers of a great many.

She did have physical problems with an aching iliotibial (IT) band on the outside of her left leg, bringing tears and a trainer who applied treatment and then a heavy wrap. But Oudin kept going.

"I had strained my IT band a little bit," she said, "and it had been getting better. I think today, kind of with everything going on, first time on Ashe, I was beating No. 4 in the world, about to beat her -- I think it just started cramping a little bit ... but I'll be fine for the next match."

Oudin said she's idolized Serena and Venus since Oudin was 7 or 8. Another she looks up to, well down to, is 5-foot-5 Justine Henin, who retired a year ago after reaching the top of the rankings.

"She proved you don't have to be 6-foot something," Oudin said of Henin, "to be No. 1 in the world."

That's a place Oudin has talked of going. It doesn't hurt to have a dream. Especially when you're a teenager. Oudin has a fraternal twin, Katherine, who, although a tennis player of sorts, is "totally opposite; she's going to college, wants to be an obstetrician."

Melanie was home-schooled, which is the way of Americans, girls or boys, who want to be a factor in tennis. The Europeans turn pro young, so if you don't want to fall behind, you've got to learn geometry by finding angles for the forehand.

"I think it's cool to be called the third-best American behind the Williams sisters," Oudin said.

Mary Joe Fernandez, the TV commentator and U.S. Fed Cup captain, sent Oudin out in a match in February and was delighted.

"She knows how to win," Fernandez said. "Once she gets hold of a point, she pretty much knows what to do."

And that's never let it go. As Jankovic and Dementieva have learned.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12153974
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Gasquet falls to Nadal, happy to be back from suspension

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- One had been in suspended animation, unable to play because of an injury. The other had been merely suspended, banned from tennis because he failed a drug test.

Tennis wasn't the only focus Wednesday as Rafael Nadal, who didn't play from early June to August because of sore knees, defeated Richard Gasquet, coming off his suspension, in straight sets.

The Gasquet case is a strange one. An independent anti-doping tribunal concluded that Gasquet had ingested 1.46 micrograms of cocaine, "no more than a grain of salt," by kissing a woman he had just met in a Miami night club in March.

A bit preposterous, perhaps, but it saved Gasquet's unfulfilled career.

His two-year suspension, imposed in May, was reduced to 2½ months, and so Wednesday, there was Gasquet in his element and a short while later out of the U.S. Open. But like one of Liz Taylor's marriages, it was nice while it lasted.

Lacking preparation and facing a man he had never beaten in six previous attempts, Gasquet was beaten 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 by Nadal.

"I don't have any pain," said a happy Nadal, who because of his absence slipped from second to third in the rankings. For a while in 2008, he had been No. 1.

If Gasquet has pain, it is mental.

"It was impossible for me," Gasquet said. "If at the beginning of the year some will [ask whether] you will win four Grand Slams or you will be tested for cocaine, for sure I will tell them I will win four Grand Slams."

Gasquet said he even stopped working on his game during his time off. "Try practicing," he said quietly. "If you have this kind of thing, you won't."

That made Wednesday's result entirely predictable. The judgments against him and later in favor of him definitely were not.

Gasquet tested positive in a urine sample in March after withdrawing from the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla., because of a shoulder injury.

Unable to play, the 23-year-old Frenchman went with friends to a club in Miami to see a French DJ perform at a dance music festival. The tribunal pointed out that the club "was notoriously associated with use of illegal recreational drugs, including cocaine."

Gasquet told the tribunal hearing, held in London in June, that he kissed a woman known only as Pamela, and the tribunal determined it was likely she had consumed cocaine that night, although there was no direct evidence.

Also, the tribunal wrote this in its report: "We have found the player to be a person who is shy and reserved, honest and truthful, and a man of integrity and good character."

The guy went to a place notoriously associated with drug use, met a woman, started kissing her and then was judged shy and reserved?

Is it actually possible to ingest cocaine by kissing someone? One official with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said it was "highly unlikely." He did not say impossible.

As did Gasquet when asked what it was like when he was told of the suspension by the International Tennis Association. He also used "incredible."

The tribunal, apparently watching too many Alfred Hitchcock movies, said Gasquet was "on the balance of probability, contaminated with cocaine by Pamela" and therefore not significantly at fault for the doping offense.

"We take into account that the amount of cocaine in the player's body was so small that if he had been tested only a few hours later, his test result would be likely to have been negative," the tribunal ruled.

Wait until all those accused steroid users -- Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro -- find out about that.

Gasquet also argued at the hearing that his positive test came after he withdrew from Key Biscayne. Cocaine is a banned drug for athletes in competition. Of course, five-time Grand Slam winner Martina Hingis tested positive for cocaine after losing at Wimbledon and was suspended until Sept. 30, her 29th birthday.

She's finished. Gasquet is not. "I'm a tennis player," he contended. "That's my life -- to be on tour."

A Wimbledon semifinalist in 2007, crushing Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals and then, of course, losing to Roger Federer in the semis, Gasquet has a wicked one-handed backhand, rare in modern tennis if not unique.

With only one event since April, he was overmatched against Nadal on Wednesday, explaining, "It's hard to play well, to be fit, to be ready, especially when you have to play against a guy like Nadal."

The discussion of suspension and absence continued until a U.S. Tennis Association official ordered, "Only questions about the tennis."

What questions? Gasquet was down 3-0 like that, lost the first set in 35 minutes and lost the match in 1 hour, 41 minutes.

The ITF and World Anti-Doping Association want his penalty reinstated. Despite the specious evidence in his favor, that's doubtful.

"In my mind, I'm happy," Gasquet said. "I can play on center court. I saw the last two Grand Slams [French Open and Wimbledon] on TV. Even though I lost here, I'm happy to get to play."

You might say he hasn't kissed off the season.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12148571
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: They're Having a Ball in New York

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Last week it was Tiger. This week it's Serena, Venus and Roger. It's always Alex. This is the place where the ball's always bouncing, along fairways, on hard courts, down the third base line.

This is place where the fans don't miss a thing, especially if Andy Roddick misses a forehand or Jerry Hairston misses a grounder.

This the place where the headlines call teams the Bombers or the Amazin's, the Jints or Gang Green. This is the place where you can buy a fake Rolex on the street or buy the real Brooklyn Bridge in a tourist trap.

Everything goes in New York. Anything goes in New York.

The front page in the Daily News was more of a declaration: "When Khadafy comes to New York this month, we should throw him straight into prison.'' The back page head, over a picture of Hairston fumbling the grounder that ended Andy Pettitte's perfect game, was "BAD HAIR DAY."

Baseball matters here. Fifteen years ago, 1994, the sport had gone into suspended animation. The players called a strike in August, the owners cancelled the World Series in September. We were told symbolically, if not directly, that everything we believed in was a mirage.

If they could wipe out the Series after 90-something years, then why care?

But the game survived, even flourished. We're told the McGwire-Sosa home run chase of '98 was what brought back the fans, re-established the interest, and while that's not untrue, New York also played its part.

This is where the Babe and the Iron Horse played. Where Jackie Robinson joined the majors. Where the term "Subway Series'' became part of the lexicon.

New York, with its ethnic diversity, where the kids grew up playing stickball, always was baseball country. Still is. If not at the expense of any other sport.

The Barclays golf tournament was played last weekend across New York Harbor, with the State of Liberty visible from the course. The big guns --  Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington -- showed up, although Heath Slocum won.

Twenty-four hours later, across the bay, a U.S. Open began. The second one in the region in two and half months. That one was the golf Open, out on Long Island. This is the tennis Open, a rollicking two weeks of day and night competition.

Sellout after sellout, matches that begin at 11 a.m., matches -- such as Andy Roddick's win over Bjorn Phau, Monday night to Tuesday morning -- that end at 12:45 a.m. New Yorkers love it. If not quite as much as they love their baseball.

Roger Federer and Serena Williams, the defending champions, opened the Open on Monday afternoon, but the tabloids went with the Yankees, who were down in Baltimore.

"CLOSE BUT NO PERFECTO!'' said the Post on its back page ‘"Awesome Andy,'' proclaimed Newsday, alluding to Pettitte's performance. And, course, the Daily News went after Hairston, who made the error that for a time will exist in infamy.

The Yanks, the Bronx Bombers, own this region during spring and summer. If it's not Alex Rodriguez who's being featured, it's Derek Jeter. The Mets, the Other Team, attract attention only for their foibles, and there have been plenty.

Omar Minaya is the Mets' general manager, and now he's been trashed as much for his failure to make a point clearly in interviews as for the failure of his team.

Minaya's language didn't matter when the Mets were winning, wrote Bob Raissman in the News, but now he must communicate how to correct the problems and he is incapable. A bit unfair, but this is New York, where imperfection of any sort is almost sinful.

Whether you're allowing a ground ball to dribble under your glove or fumbling syntax before a microphone.

In New York, virtually or actually, there's no place to hide. From the Battery to the Bronx, the Hudson River to Queens, you're always in somebody's headlights. Or, as Roddick was in the wee small hours, somebody's stadium lights.

The other night, Venus Williams was down 5-4 in the second set against Vera Dushevina after having lost the first set and was serving to stay in the match. The crowd was roaring.

"One of those great New York moments,'' said Venus, who went on to a three-set victory.

One of those New York moments of which a full explanation might be available from A-Rod or Omar Minaya, if with opposing viewpoints.

"It must be love'' is the promotional double-entendre slogan of the Open. Love or hate, with the attention, it must be New York, where you can hit a forehand, a home run and the jackpot at any time.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/01/theyre_having_a_ball_in_new_york_96468.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: New York version of Grand Slam all about fun, entertainment

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- They've made it here. It doesn't matter if they can make it anywhere else.

The United States Tennis Association found the formula to mine gold, to make history, to have a tournament that's an event, noisy, boisterous and, as Andy Roddick verified at 12:45 a.m. ET Tuesday, virtually never-ending.

Truly, there's nothing like it. Other than the corner of 42nd and Broadway. Or 57th and Lexington. Or other intersections in Manhattan.

Wimbledon is quiet lawns and British reserve. The French Open, Roland Garros, is clay courts and long rallies. The U.S. Open is a crowded, rollicking 14 days of celebrity watching, T-shirt selling, latte sipping, beer guzzling, pastrami chewing and great shot-making.

Night and day it goes. Day and night. Seemingly no sooner had Roddick departed in the wee hours than Julia Goerges and 2004 women's singles champion Svetlana Kuznetsova were arriving for their 11 a.m. start. Less than an hour and a half later, Kuznetsova was a 6-3, 6-2 winner.

On to Arthur Ashe Court came the No. 1 women's seed, Dinara Safina, and an Australian named Olivia Rogowska, ranked 167th in the world. And on to the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center came thousands of fans, great gobs of them standing in the bright sunshine outside the stadium, in front of the fountain and watching on the big TV screen as Rogowska took a 3-0 lead in the third set.

Screams and gasps. How could this be happening, the top seed getting beat in the first round? By the time anyone else figured it out, Safina had figured it out, slipping by Rogowska, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.

"I try to do something good," said Safina, the Russian, who, despite never having won a Grand Slam event is atop the women's rankings, "but when it doesn't go good, then I go like too much into myself, what I'm doing right, wrong, instead of thinking what I have to do with the ball."

Which, of course, is hit it over the net to places where Rogowska can't hit back over the net.

Then, echoing Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, Safina mused that she had made it to the next round "and tomorrow is another day."

Sometimes at the Open, it's difficult to separate yesterday, today and tomorrow. You know the line, about waking up in the city that never sleeps. What about not going to bed at all?

For years they've been writing songs about late hours in New York, "... When a Broadway baby says good night it's early in the morning ..." It's hard to say if the milkman was on his way when Roddick said good night -- do they still have people who deliver milk? -- but presumably some people were on their way to work.

There were some opening-night ceremonies with famous types, including the former basketball player David Robinson, and by the time Venus Williams and Vera Dushevina began, it was almost 8 o'clock.

When they finished, Venus staggering through in three sets, it was almost 11. And Roddick and his opponent, Bjorn Phau, still were waiting.

"The later the better," Roddick would say. "You know what it is. It's just something that's always been there in New York. It's tough sometimes. It's all part of it, kind of the crazies who stay 'til 1 in the morning. There's something fun about that."

Fun is an appropriate word for the Open. And lunacy. Tennis often is thought as a dispassionate activity for the elite. But here they've turned it into around-the-clock entertainment.

James Blake has a cheering section, the "J Block." Sam Querrey, the kid from Southern California who Tuesday beat Michael Yani, is shouted on by his "Samurai."

The famous Carnegie Deli has a booth here, and the lineup for one of those monster corned beef sandwiches is almost as long as it is to get on to Court 13, where Tuesday the lineup included Fernando Verdasco, the No. 10 seed, who defeated B. Becker -- Benjamin, not Boris.

Ralph Lauren Polo is the official clothing outfitter for the Open, but Nike and LaCoste, which Roddick wears, are well represented. If unofficially.

Nike is not allowed to use the phrase U.S. Open on its attire, so the stuff has subtle references such as "New York 2009." A T-shirt with those words costs $22, while a Nike model with "RF" (for Roger Federer) runs $40.

The New York Post had its fashion reporter, one Anahita Moussavian, critique the clothing and jewelry on display by the competitors. The observations were hardly positive.

Moussavian called Serena Williams' choice of basic black for night matches "misguided" and described Roddick's shirts and shorts as "a double fault ... it's boring."

She's entitled to her opinion, but if there's any description that never should be applied to the U.S. Open, it's "boring." On the contrary. For two weeks, the Open might be the most exciting place in the country.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12143436
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.