CBSSports.com: Federer's already the best, and he keeps getting better

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Roger Federer's usual edge is his own game. Now he has another, time. The weather has been a curse for this final weekend of the U.S. Open, but as always, Federer ends up not cursed at all.

He and semifinal opponent Novak Djokovic were quarterfinal winners on Wednesday, long before the rains came, and now with the suspensions and rescheduling, they won't play again until Sunday. Three days of rest for Novak. More significantly, three days of rest for Roger.

Who doesn't need it. Who doesn't need anything. He has it all.

"I don't think," Djokovic allowed, "you can ever get your game to perfection. Only if you're Federer."

Only if you're Federer, so graceful, so uncanny, so remarkable, winner of a record 15 Grand Slams, trying for a sixth straight U.S. Open. And now as confident and, because of the extra days off, as prepared as possible.

A strange thing happened to Federer in May 2004. He was beaten in the third round of the French Open. He hasn't been thwarted in a Grand Slam tournament before the semis since then.

Twenty-two in succession playing in a semi. That's Joe DiMaggio stuff, 56-game hitting streak stuff. That's consistency.

Federer is the best ever. Or so everyone says. At age 28, the only thing missing is the actual Grand Slam, wins in all four majors in a calendar year. And yet, with all the obstacles, the possibility of injury, the class of opponents, the streak is perhaps more impressive.

Five years, and Federer is a guaranteed semifinalist. And this time for his semi, three days rest.

"It's a wonderful record," affirmed Federer of all those semis in a row. "Not important, but nice to have. It's something I never aimed for, that's clear, but it's probably one of the greatest records I've created in my own personal career."

A year ago, showing up for the 2008 Open, which also had a Monday finish, which also had a Federer victory, there were questions about Federer.

He had been beaten at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal, had been crushed by Nadal at the French. The skeptics were saying Federer's time had past.

Federer's outward calm belies a determination. His smooth play and the cliche definition of Swiss as unemotional and businesslike is misleading. The doubters had him on the defensive. Wait, he said in so many words, before you say I'm done.

Roger has a temper, and only as he matured did he learn to control the temper, learn to use the anger and fire to focus his play instead of merely bouncing a racquet.

Every once in a while, during a post-match interview, Federer, the new father of twins, permits access to the pride and intensity that are mostly hidden.

He enjoys praise, likes being called the greatest. There is no false humility. He knows how good he is. So does everyone else.

"What he's done in separating himself from the game," said the now retired Andre Agassi of Federer, "should be recognized."

Agassi is one of the few to win all four Slams at least once. When Federer finally took the French Open this year, he joined Agassi and others such as Rod Laver and Don Budge.

In this rain-tossed Open, Federer is attempting to join the late Bill Tilden, who did it in the early 1920s, with six straight wins in America's championship, an event that didn't become an Open until 1968.

The comparison with Tilden, who died 28 years before Federer was born in 1981, Roger calls "fantastic." But then, as all champion athletes, he turned the conversation to the here and now and away from the future.

"I think," said Federer of the various records, "this stuff you can talk about when my career is over. This is when you analyze."

Federer's beauty is that, as other winners in all sports, he gets himself out of problems when, indeed, he somehow is in trouble. He's Kobe when the Lakers need a basket, Mariano Rivera when the Yankees need a third out. Just when you think Federer's going down, when an opponent has a golden chance for a service break, Federer snaps back up.

In the quarters on Wednesday night against Robin Soderling, Federer easily won the first two sets but lost the third in a tiebreak and seemed ready to lose the fourth the same way. Sorry. A couple of aces, a beautiful cross-court forehand, and there was Federer into the semis, 6-0, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.

"I don't know what happened," said Federer, who in truth always knows what happens. "But it's one of those days where everything goes right for you."

Since then, he's had three more days to contemplate and rest. The better you are, the luckier you get.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12192344
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Get a roof: Time to protect U.S. Open from rain

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com 

NEW YORK -- It's the city that never sleeps. But it's not the city where it never rains. At least during a U.S. Open. Either of them.

In June, at Bethpage Black farther out on Long Island, the golfing version was flooded and had to be extended an extra day until Monday. Now the same thing might happen for the tennis Open.

They would have played through the night Thursday -- and Friday in the wee hours -- except it's impossible to hold a racquet in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

And also because when they get wet, the painted lines that mark the boundaries of a court get as slippery as ice.

At Wimbledon, where the bad weather is infamous, a $140 million roof was erected before the start of this summer's tournament. It basically was unneeded -- it was closed a couple of times more for show than out of necessity.

The show Thursday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was a soggy and unfinished one.

The quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalezreached only the second set. Not long after that, many spectators decided it was time to reach for their metro passes and head for the No. 7 train.

Nadal won the first set, 7-6, and then rain began to fall. After a 1-hour, 16-minute suspension, play resumed at 9:43 p.m. ET. But the rain also resumed, and a second suspension came at 10:19 with Nadel ahead in another tiebreak, 3 points to 2.

Several times, blowers and squeegees were brought out to dry the courts, but as quickly as the water was removed the rain began again. Finally, at 12:01 a.m., the announcement was made that play had been postponed. Midnight Madness.

Nadal's star power is the thing that gets him into the night matches, the U.S. Tennis Association needing someone the television audience will watch. The lesser players -- in attraction, not necessarily skill -- had the daytime start. That proved advantageous.

So, while there still was a bit of sunshine and plenty of daylight, Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina defeated Marin Cilic of Croatia in the other men's quarter, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. His opponent will be the winner of the Nadal-Gonzalez match.

When that will end, nobody will guess. A storm is forecast for the region today, when the women's semifinals also are scheduled.

The tournament appears headed for who knows what. Last year the men's final had to be played on Monday. A repeat is very possible.

They're seriously going to think about a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium, as large as it is, with a capacity of 24,000. The tournament is too big, drawing more than 700,000 spectators during the two weeks, and too important to have it be affected by weather.

Originally, when Ashe was built a dozen years ago, a roof was considered, but because of the stadium size -- the largest in tennis -- the cost proved prohibitive. However, rainouts create chaos.

Nadal and Gonzalez were on and off the court and the fans were in and out of their seats until they started heading for the exits -- the fans, not the athletes. If and when play resumes, the winner, should he beat Del Potro and go to the final, will have to play all or part of three matches over three days.

Tiebreaks have helped Nadal, who after the first set and before the rain fell called for the trainer, who checked Rafael for a recurrence of the stomach muscle problem that bothered him earlier in the Open.

Nadal, of course, missed a chance to defend his Wimbledon championship this year because of tendinitis in both knees. He was out a month and a half, returning for two events before this Open.

Assuming he gets past Gonzalez, the muscular guy from Chile against whom Nadal has a 6-3 record, and then the aggressive Del Potro, it would seem a Nadal-Roger Federer final is ahead. Except assuming anything about Rafa in the U.S. Open, where he's never gotten beyond the semis, is dangerous.

Equally dangerous is thinking the U.S. Open will go merrily along on cue. A couple of years ago, after a heavy rain, an army of young people were brought on to the court and on their hands and knees mopped up as might a swabbie in the Navy.

Very inelegant and not terribly effective. Get a roof.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12187468
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports.com: Oudin Learns the Downside of Fame

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Stephen Sondheim wrote it. Melanie Oudin is living it. "I was taught,'' Sondheim's lyrics go, "when the prince and dragon fought, the dragon was always caught. Now I don't even wince when he eats the prince.''

Chomp. Chomp. He just took a hunk out of Melanie Oudin.

Pumpkins into coaches, little Miss Nobodies into celebrities, stuff we can only wish for. But fame can bite you when you're not looking.

Which is what happened to Melanie. The result of her last match at the U.S. Open isn't the reason.

But after that final match, the quarterfinal loss to the more accomplished Caroline Wozniacki, Oudin was asked about changes in what she contends was the life of a basic teenager.

"I've gone from being just a normal tennis player,'' said Melanie, "to almost everyone in the United States knowing who I am now.''

Knowing she's a 17-year-old with a lot of heart and talent.

Knowing her parents are in the middle of a divorce, about which "everyone in the United States'' would have been unsuspecting. Until Melanie became the lady of them all.

There was the dragon gnawing away. There was Sports Illustrated digging away.

That apparently Melanie's mom and Melanie's tennis coach, who, ironically she referred to as a second father, have played a bit of doubles after dark, was the content posted on the SI.com web site. Just about the time Oudin was walking off the court against Wozniacki.

It's old news, seemingly. John Oudin, Melanie's father, filed for divorce from Leslie Oudin on July 24, 2008, citing adultery as grounds, and Leslie Oudin a few weeks later, Aug. 12, 2008, denied the charges.

But it was an issue only for friends and family until Melanie took over the Open and New York tabloids.

Leslie Oudin, who had been sharing a hotel room with her daughter, not John, realized whatever happened at the Oudins', down in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Cobb County, no longer stayed at the Oudins'. Leslie, however, was just a little bit late.

Sensing the divorce records might go public, Leslie Oudin filed a motion with the Cobb County Superior Court a couple of days ago asking all documents be sealed from public view, citing "embarrassment.'' Sports Illustrated already had viewed them.

Somebody had talked. Whether it's at the White House or the house around the corner, somebody always talks.

In a sworn statement made last month, Aug. 10, John Oudin specifically alleged that his wife had been unfaithful with Melanie's coach of the past eight years, Brian de Villiers. He also stated that Melanie suspected the alleged affair.

"Both (Melanie and fraternal twin sister Katherine) asked me point blank,'' John Oudin said in a sworn statement, "if I thought mom was having an affair with Brian . . . Melanie told of one occasion she woke up at 1 a.m. and Leslie was not there. She called Brian's cell phone and connected with her.''

A Hollywood ending. That's what this is, if not the type where people live happily ever after. Doesn't everyone in Hollywood split?

Melanie Oudin, wise beyond her years, has dealt with the divorce as capably as possible. She played well at Wimbledon this summer. She played better at the U.S. Open this summer. Yet, if it's all true, if her mom and coach indeed were having an affair, what eventually will happen to the relationship between coach and player?

The shame is that the story had to surface when it did. These surely have been the best 10 days in Melanie's blossoming career, if not her life, and now they are diminished. What was a relative secret is being shouted across the country.

Attention is at once both wonderful and awful. Melanie has gained new endorsements, one a data mining firm BackOffice Associates for a six-figure sum according to Sports Business Daily. Melanie, as the report of the divorce proves so painfully, has lost her privacy.

Melanie Oudin doesn't deserve this, having her parents' woes detract from an enchanting few days of success. Tennis doesn't deserve this. The 2009 U.S. Open, because of Oudin and Serena Williams and the great Roger Federer reaching a 22nd straight semifinal in a Grand Slam, had been wonderfully upbeat.

Oudin's experience in the tournament, going through four rounds to the quarters, will prepare her for a future that might carry her to high rankings and championships. Her experience away from the courts, dealing with the discomfort, the hassle, will be no less beneficial.

"I don't think of myself as a celebrity,'' said Melanie Oudin. "I don't see myself as being that kind of, like, star.''

She is that kind of, like, star. The joy and the pain of stardom has arrived.

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/2009/09/10/oudin_learns_the_downside_of_fame.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: Despite loss, Oudin captures hearts of American tennis fans

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Skill triumphed over dreams, experience over enthusiasm. Melanie Oudin's magic simply couldn't compare to Caroline Wozniacki's game.

It was great while it lasted, a Munchkin of an athlete, coming back from deficits again and again in her national tennis tournament, winning when she was expected to lose, thrilling a country that loves an underdog, especially an American underdog.

But Wozniacki, the great Dane, ruined the fairytale, defeating Oudin 6-2, 6-2 Wednesday night in their U.S. Open quarterfinal, and other than advancing to the semis seemed to feel as bad as the majority of the 23,000 fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"I'm sorry I won against Melanie," said Wozniacki, who well understood how New York in particular and the United States in general had taken to the 5-6 teenager.

"I know you guys wanted her to win," Wozniacki, a teenager herself who at 19 is two years older than Oudin, told the crowd. "Hopefully I won your guys' hearts."

Oudin, in her four previous matches, definitely did win those hearts. That's because she also won the matches, all of which were over Russians, including in the second round against the No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva.

Each of Melanie's opponents got rattled by the way the kid from the Atlanta suburbs kept ripping shots at them.

Wozniacki, the first Scandinavian woman to get to the quarters -- and now to the semifinals -- of a Grand Slam tournament, did not.

She is the daughter of a father who was a soccer star in Poland, then Denmark, and a mother who was an excellent volleyball player. Caroline has an athlete's mentality, not to mention wonderful hand-eye coordination. She is the only Western European among the top 20 in the women's rankings.

And she never gave Oudin a chance.

"Caroline played a really good match," Oudin said. "I started off slow. I wasn't able to come back. She's such a strong player. She doesn't give you anything for free."

Wozniacki forced Oudin to play as Oudin had forced Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova to play, getting the ball back until the person across the net could not.

"She plays incredible defense," Oudin said of Wozniacki. "Makes me hit a thousand balls. I don't know what else I could have done. I could have been more consistent and been more patient, but she really made me think out there and made me have to hit a winner to win the point."

But Oudin didn't hit winners. She whacked balls into the net. Or wide. Or long. Suddenly, broken in the second game of the first set, Oudin was down 3-0. And the first of the plaintive cries from fans still settling into their seats, "Come on, Melanie," pierced the haunting silence.

Because Melanie couldn't get going, the fans, who had made her their darling, America's sweetheart, couldn't get cheering. They gasped. And murmured. But not until Oudin had a chance to break in the third game of the second set, a chance she squandered, was there an explosion of the noise that had been her companion.

Oudin's performance to get as far as she did was headline stuff in the tabloids, where she was sharing the back pages with Derek Jeter as he chased Lou Gehrig's Yankees hits record. But the result of the match against Wozniacki temporarily dimmed the amazing march for someone 55th in the world.

"I'm a perfectionist," Oudin said. "So losing today was a disappointment. I mean, I wanted to win. Losing isn't good enough for me."

Her defeat left only one American, man or woman, in America's 129-year-old tennis championships: Serena Williams is to meet Kim Clijsters in a women's semifinal. Wozniacki will play surprising Yanina Wickmayer, who like Clijsters is from Belgium, in the other semi.

Oudin showed up at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center each round with "Believe" imprinted on her pink-and-purple sneakers and a remarkable ability to track down shots at the far corners of a court. Until the quarterfinal.

"I've always been strong mentally," Oudin said. "Today I was a little bit fragile. But Caroline made me like that. She made me frustrated [so] that I had to hit a winner on her. I got some free points from the other girls because they went [at the ball] more. Caroline was extremely consistent."

Wozniacki, a 5-9 beauty who has taken as much advantage of her looks as her shots, models for Stella McCartney's line of tennis clothes from adidas. Her play has been spectacular the last few months -- she has won three tournaments.

Yet she knew how Oudin had captured the hearts and minds.

"Normally I don't like to think about the match, the person I'm playing," Wozniacki said, "but every time I turned on the TV today, there she was, Melanie. I was a little nervous."

But only a little. "I went into my own bubble," Wozniacki said.

For Oudin the bubble burst.

"These past two weeks have been a lot different for me," Oudin said. "I've gone from being just a normal tennis player to everyone in the United States knowing who I am."

Someone who, despite being outplayed by Caroline Wozniacki, they won't forget.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12181192
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Niners attempting to return to greatness

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — They were the originals, the first major sports team in Northern California, created here, staying here, at times bumbling, at other times triumphant but at all times special.

The 49ers, who open another season Sunday, their 64th, are as much a regional treasure as a football team, as finally John York and son Jed figured out.

It never really mattered who owned them — the Morabitos, the DeBartolos, the Yorks. In effect, the 49ers belonged to the town, to the area, to the people.

The Giants came later. The Raiders came later. The Warriors came later. The A’s came later. The Sharks came much later. The Bay Area is chock-a-block with big-time pro franchises these days.

But from 1946 until the Giants arrived in 1958, there was just one franchise: the Niners.

Just one major pro team crossing the country in propeller planes.

Just one pro team playing the Cleveland Browns or Los Angeles Dons, and when the old All-America Football Conference merged into the NFL in 1950, the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants.

Major League Baseball was a weekly television show. We sent Bill Russell and K.C. Jones to the NBA, but we didn’t see them in person for another five years. The 49ers were our link to the rest of America.

The sports world is different than it was 50 years ago. Now it’s all about sales and commercialization, about getting out a message, about persuading people to show up at the stadium or to watch telecasts.

So the Niners, the marketing department in particular, have leased that billboard along the Bayshore Freeway, at the entrance road to Candlestick, with huge photo of Mike Singletary with the words “I want winners.” As if that’s a unique concept.

Frankie Albert wanted winners. Jack Christiansen wanted winners. Dick Nolan wanted winners. But not until Bill Walsh became coach was the wish fulfilled and did the frustration end.

You had to be here on that Sunday in January 1982 when the Niners, the losers, at last became winners. When the silence was over. When The City blew its top.

By then the Raiders had won two championships, the A’s three championships, the Warriors an NBA title. And yet there was nothing like the day the Niners escaped their penance.

The group that labeled itself “The Faithful,” the fans who never believed it could happen, were as much dumbfounded as ecstatic. Finally, out of the wilderness.

Singletary is a football man. He’s also a Chicago man. He’s a three yards and a cloud of Walter Payton man. That’s never been San Francisco football.

The Niners, from Frankie Albert back in ’46, have thrown the ball. They did have Hugh McElhenny and Joe Perry, both of whom could run like mad. Yet the team’s fame, or infamy, was on the arms of Y.A. Tittle, John Brodie and eventually Joe Montana and Steve Young.

Get the ball to R.C. Owens, to Gene Washington, to Dwight Clark, to Jerry Rice.

Now the Niners, after six straight losing seasons, more than anything need to get wins, no matter who gets the ball.

History. It’s great, but a new generation of fans would trade it all for a place in the playoffs.

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Niners-attempting-to-return-to-greatness-57952527.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company