RealClearSports.com: Captain and the Queen Capture NY

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- There are 18 million people here, 18 million different stories. But only two matter. Two people, Melanie Oudin and Derek Jeter. Two stories, how one does on a tennis court, how the other does in the batter's box.

Front page, back page. It's Jeter, the Yankees' captain, and Oudin, the U.S. Open's queen. He's chasing the immortal Lou Gehrig. She's trying to go farther into a Grand Slam tournament than anybody could have imagined.

"SWEEP & SOUR'' was the headline in the Post. The Yanks had taken two from Tampa Bay, but Jeter had taken the collar, gone hitless. And above that was "'OU' GO GIRL! Magical Melanie reaches quarters."

A 17-year-old from Georgia. A 35-year-old from the Bronx Bombers. Tale after tale in the Big Town, and if you can make it here, we've been told, you can make it anywhere.

After 15 years and more than 2,700 hits, Jeter has made it. After 10 days and four straight wins over Russians, three of whom were heavily favored, Melanie has made it.

It's been steady progress for Jeter. That's the way career records work in baseball. Derek went hitless his first game in a Yankee uniform, in 1995, but after this Labor Day, even after going 0-for-8 in the doubleheader, he had 2,718 hits. That was four less than Gehrig's Yankee mark.

"It's not like I'm trying to do anything different," said Jeter. He's being watched, being scrutinized. There's not much else of interest in New York at the moment.

The Yanks are safely in front of the American League East. The Mets are dreadful. The football Giants and Jets don't begin until Sunday. Nothing else.

Except Melanie, the 5-foot-6 blend of hustle and heart.

"I just try to focus on what I do that day and not look back," said Jeter. His philosophy, if not his words, is exactly that of Melanie Oudin.

Even as pro for only two years, even ranked 70th in the world, she has figured out what all great athletes understand. You live in the moment.

For Jeter, that's the next pitch. For Oudin, that's the next ball over the net. His last at bat is irrelevant. Her last set is the same. He won't be thinking of 0-for-8. She said she wasn't thinking of losing the first set to Nadia Petrova, 6-1, on Monday. Melanie won the next two sets, 7-6, 6-3.

Jeter's been through this before, if not specifically in the quest for a record held by a man as famous and revered as Gehrig. Jeter has played in World Series, All-Star Games. He's dealt with the New York media more than a third of his life. The attention, the questions, they are part of the job, especially in a city with four dailies, three of them tabloids.

It's new for Oudin. In a way, it's frightening for Oudin. On Sunday, an off day, she went to Times Square for a photo shoot. The girl who used to gawk at celebrities, who found idols in Justine Henin (who's an inch shorter) or Serena or Venus Williams (who are the best in America), was now herself a celebrity. Photos and fans pushed closer, resulting in a free-for-all.

"Melanie is not used to that,'' said John Oudin, her father. "She said to me, ‘This is going to take some getting used to.' She's not used to being recognized all over."

Jeter is. It comes with the territory. The Daily News gave Jeter five inside pages, including page two, and also the back cover on Tuesday. Then again, it gave Melanie two pages. "COMEBACK KID DOES IT AGAIN'' was a headline spread across those pages.

Oudin made it to the quarterfinals. In the second round, she lost the first set to No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva but won the match. In the third round, she lost the first set to 2007 champion Maria Sharapova but won the match. In the third round, she lost the first set to Petrova but won the match.

"I don't actually mean to lose the first set," said Oudin. Her innocence is part of the charm. "Maybe I'm a little nervous and all this stuff."

But when the pressure is on, there are no nerves, just nerve.

"She gets pretty much in her own zone," said John Oudin. "Nothing breaks her focus. I don't know where she gets it from."

Wherever, mental toughness is perhaps an athlete's most important asset. Hang in there, coaches tell players. Don't quit. It's obvious Oudin never quits.

"It's just mentally, I'm staying in there with them the whole time and not giving up at all," Oudin said. "So they're going to have to beat me, because I'm not going anywhere."

Except to join Derek Jeter as one of the two brightest stars in New York City.

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/2009/09/08/captain_and_the_queen_capture_ny_96476.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: American men nowhere to be found deep in 2009 U.S. Open

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Maybe John McEnroe can save the U.S. Open. Sure, he's 50 years old. But he still has a forehand. And a name. And he's American, a triple that at this point in the last Grand Slam tennis event of the year makes him the one and only man in all three categories.

John's a broadcaster now, as you're aware. He no longer shouts at chair umpires. He comments into a microphone, telling the way it is and, especially when somebody misplays a shot, the way it should be.

In a way, this is his tournament. He grew up in Queens, not far from the tennis center, and after spending a year irritating people at Stanford, returned. He won the Open three times. He was emotional, occasionally irrational and supremely talented.

If he's not the most famous male on the grounds -- let's give the honor to Roger Federer -- Mac the Mouth sure is well known and respected. And cooperative. He'll do anything to help his sport.

Novak Djokovic, the No. 4 men's seed, waved Mac out of the booth Monday evening after Djokovic blitzed Radek Stepanek in straight sets. The night was young. Midnight still was 13 minutes away. Let's get it on.

First, McEnroe had to get it off, meaning his coat and tie. Then he slipped into his tennis shoes and rallied briefly. The fans loved it, of course.

They haven't loved a great deal else the way the men's draw has gone, from a parochial view. Six Americans made it to the third round, and one of them, James Blake, overly optimistic, contended, "All these guys are hungry. We're all getting better, feeding off each other."

But of those six, only one, John Isner, went to the fourth round. And when he was eliminated, for the first time in the 129 years of the event, whether the U.S. National Championships or starting in 1968 the U.S. Open, no American male reached the quarterfinals.

McEnroe's younger brother Patrick, who also played for Stanford, who also announces and who happens to be the U.S. Davis Cup captain, conceded, "The reality is the reality. The world has caught up at the same time I believe we can do a better job."

Great Britain didn't do a very good job, either. Andy Murray, the Scot, is No. 2 in the world and was a finalist here last year. But Tuesday he was ripped by a 20-year-old Croatian, Marin Cilic, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.

Cilic's next opponent is five days older and 10 seeds higher, No. 6 Juan Martin Del Potro, who Tuesday was a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 winner over Juan Carlos Ferrero. Del Potro is American -- South American, having grown up in the cattle town of Tandil, Argentina.

He's the sort of kid -- Del Potro will be 21 on Sept. 23 -- the United States only wished it had. He beat Andy Roddick in a final in August at Washington, D.C., and seven days later lost to Murray in the final at Montreal.

"I have the confidence," Del Potro said. "I beat many good players in Washington and Montreal, and now I beat good players on this surface." Meaning cement, very unlike the clay courts upon which he learned the game in Argentina.

"I have everything to do a good tournament," said Del Potro, not as adept in English as other players on Tour. "But I would like to be in the semis or my first final.

"It's a big difference past the quarters to the semis. I was so close in French Open to get to the final."

Close? Never mind close. If John McEnroe were 30 years younger, the U.S. would be close to having a man who could play tennis like people from the rest of the world.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12176032
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Believe it: Oudin dispatches another Russian to extend surprising run

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK --- This is Hollywood stuff. A young woman with "Believe" on her sneakers and fearlessness in her constitution shows up at the biggest tennis tournament in America and proves irresistible and at this point unbeatable.

Melanie Oudin is a human backboard, a dyed-blonde Energizer Bunny.

She's a teen queen who acts as if she doesn't take herself seriously but talks as if she someday is going to take over her whole sport, which is not beyond the realm of possibility.

What she lacks on serve -- she's only 5-6 -- she makes up in nerve, never giving up in a match when falling behind, as she invariably seems to do, or on a point, even on balls seemingly hit beyond her limited reach.

Oudin knocked out yet another Russian on Monday in this U.S. Open, the fourth in four matches, outhustling, outracing and eventually outplaying befuddled Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 and at age 17 becoming the youngest quarterfinalist since Serena Williams in 1999.

It was great theater at Arthur Ashe Court for a sellout crowd of 24,000, which provincially, and not undeservedly, proved loudly biased for Oudin.

At match point, fans stood and hollered the way they do in the top of the ninth when Yankees need only one more out and Mariano Rivera needs only one more strike.

What Oudin, the kid from Marietta, Ga., in the Atlanta suburbs, needs is nothing. She's got it all -- enthusiasm, dyed blonde hair and just enough naivete to endear her to anyone -- except her opponents.

Oudin lost the first set to No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva in the second round, lost the first set to former champion Maria Sharapova in the third round and then lost the first set to Petrova, the No. 13 seed.

"I actually don't mean to lose the first set," she told a group of media, drawing a large laugh. But such innocence is perfectly acceptable, especially with U.S tennis in great need for some heroines beyond Serena and Venus Williams.

Asked to describe what she has done, Oudin, who came to the tournament No. 70 in the rankings, said, "It's kind of hard. Like today there are no tears because I believed I could do it. And it's now like I belong here."

She belongs, all right. You don't drop the first set in 31 minutes, fall behind 4-3 in the second and then flail and rip your way to a victory if you don't belong.

"It was tough," Oudin said. "She was all over me. But I kept fighting."

That's a virtue long prized, the never-say-die spirit, the against-all-odds victory. You keep thinking Oudin has no chance against those taller, harder-serving women. It's they who have no chance, and they continue to offer repetitive explanations that make it appear Oudin is doing it with smoke, mirrors and crowd noise.

"She's done very well," Petrova conceded. "I mean, she won quite a few very good matches, and it's a lot of pressure and a big stadium. The first time you feel so excited and everything is so new and kind of like you have absolutely nothing to lose and you go and do it."

She's done it. Petrova implied she allowed Oudin to do it.

"I have a feeling I didn't finish the job," Petrova said. "At 4-3, having 40-15 in the game, I went for my shot down the line. That didn't go in. Then the next point was a long rally, and she came up with an unbelievable winner down the line.

"Winning that game kind of gave her a second breath. She realized, 'OK, I'm back in the game.' And probably after winning previous matches, she thought, 'I can do it again.'"

She always thinks that way.

"She gets pretty much in her own zone," said her father, John Oudin. "Nothing breaks her focus. I don't know where she gets it from."

Wherever, mental toughness is perhaps an athlete's most important asset. Hang in there, coaches tell players. Don't quit. It's obvious Oudin never quits.

"Mentally, I'm staying in there with them the whole time and not giving up at all," Oudin said. "So they're going to have to beat me, because I'm not going anywhere."

Literally, she did go someplace, to Times Square on her day off, Sunday, for a photo shoot. It turned into a near free-for-all, photogs and fans battling each other for a picture or an autograph.

"Melanie is not used to that," John Oudin said. "She said to me, 'This is going to take some getting used to.' She's not used to being recognized all over."

Nor is she used to becoming a quarterfinalist in a Grand Slam, but she likes the feeling.

"This is my dream forever," Melanie said. "I've worked so hard for this, and it's finally happening. It's amazing."

It's Hollywood. Except it's real. As Oudin has on the sides of her shoes, "Believe."

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12171877
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports.com: Changes at the Top of US Tennis

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- It's a sport built on names as much as talent. Tennis is different, except for golf. Most loyalties are with uniforms, no matter who's wearing them. If you're a Yankees fan, you're a Yankees fan whether the guy at short is Phil Rizzuto or Derek Jeter, and that lasts forever.

Tennis players come and go all too quickly. The window closes before you know it. What happened to Andre Agassi? To Pete Sampras? To Jennifer Capriati? To Martina Navratilova?

Careers are short. Players start young and retire young. You lose a step. Or some racquet speed. And coming up quickly from behind is some 19-year-old with great skills who virtually no one's ever heard of, especially if she or he comes from Serbia or Slovania.

To make tennis go in America particularly -- and that's where the television money comes from, where the yearly U.S. Open now underway draws 700,000 people during the two weeks -- tennis needs Americans near the top or at the top, Americans who are known throughout America, if not the world.

Andy Roddick and Venus Williams fit well into that category. They and Venus' younger sister, Serena, were about the only U.S. players who could make a showing in a Grand Slam event, about the only U.S. players who were celebrities as well as athletes.

But in a space of 24 hours, both were chased from the 2009 U.S. Open, Roddick on Saturday night by the man who might someday replace him, John Isner, and Venus on Sunday afternoon by a 26-year-old Belgian who had quit the game for two years to marry and have a baby, Kim Clijsters.

Roddick will be back. You can't be sure of Venus. She is 29, and despite the best intentions, most tennis stars start to slip around 30, especially because their bodies begin to fail.

Venus is having left knee trouble, wearing heavy taping. One of her great assets, the ability to fly around the court, has been restricted.

Serena still is capable. She again is the favorite to repeat last year's victory. Crushed her fourth-round opponent, Daniela Hantuchova, on Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Straight sets, a little more than an hour. The lady they call the Drama Queen, for all the incidents, was undramatic in a match that lacked any suspense.

So Serena is still here and one hopes will stay. But who's next, who to step in for Venus and eventually, if not now, Roddick?

Maybe Melanie Oudin, the Munchkin from the suburbs of Atlanta, who beat Elena Dementieva and then the glamour lady and former champ, Maria Sharapova.

Maybe John Isner. He had 39 service aces against Roddick, who himself holds the record for all-time fastest serve, 156 mph. Pow, smash, whap.

By all rights, Isner should have been the next Tyler Hansbrough. He's 6-foot-9 and from North Carolina. But he worked on his drop shot, not his jump shot. Then, unlike most tennis stars these days, he went to college, the University of Georgia, where he not only helped win an NCAA team title, he graduated. How about that, Dawg?

And how about the 5-foot-6 Oudin, also from Georgia? That's not a state people think about when it comes to a new Roger Federer or Chris Evert. But that's our problem, not Georgia's.

Oudin was to face yet another Russian, her third in a row, Nadia Petrova, in Monday's fourth round. Melanie doesn't figure to keep winning.

She's too young (17). Too inexperienced. But if she does keep winning, she has a chance to become the star America needs, after Serena and, depending on what happens, replacing Venus. If indeed Venus can be replaced.

An interesting phenomenon Sunday at Ashe Stadium. The crowd was supporting Clijsters more than it was supporting Venus Williams. Was that because Clijsters had been away and the fans were welcoming her return? Or because the Williams sisters, even as heroines, had stayed too long at the fair?

Isner said he had to play the match of his life to beat Roddick, who until the defeat had been playing the best of all the men. But if Isner is to make it to the top, as a player, as a personality, he has to have a lot of repeat performances, especially in Grand Slams. He has to rouse the curiosity of sports fans who don't know a volley from a rally.

Is he prepared and capable? How about Melanie Oudin? So often kids make an impression, and about the time the headlines arrive, they flame and burn out.

Oudin acts humble enough, something that will endear her to the masses, but how long does that last? And how long does she last?

You'd think in a country of 300 million, more than one or two could become a tennis star.

Serena, Venus and Andy were able to do it. Is there anybody else?

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/2009/09/07/changes_at_the_top_of_us_tennis_96474.html
© RealClearSports 2009

CBSSports.com: Venus' age starting to show with latest U.S. Open loss

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com 
 
NEW YORK -- This time it wasn't Venus rising. This time it was Venus Williams, left knee strapped, forehand erratic, serve uncontrolled, losing and making us wonder whether this indeed might be the beginning of the end.

Kim Clijsters, out of tennis for more than two years, knocked Venus, the No. 3 seed, from the 2009 U.S. Open in a fourth-round match Sunday as bizarre as it was perplexing, Clijsters winning 6-0, 0-6, 6-4.

Clijsters, who won the Open in 2005, incurred an injury that kept her from defending in 2006 and then stepped away in 2007, answered the question about whether she still has game.

Venus, on the other hand, left us with more questions. She is 29, the knee is certainly a factor and she is without a victory in a Grand Slam event this year, although she did lose in the Wimbledon final to sister Serena.

It isn't merely the first set that can be used as evidence -- she lost 6-0, 6-4 to Agnes Szavay in the third round of the French this year. It is the cumulative work of the past few months.

Venus has reached that age when, with rare exception, tennis players start to decline. And while it would be foolish to underestimate Williams anytime she's across the net with a racquet, knee problems invariably get worse, not better.

Knee problems or not, Venus joined her sister for a winning doubles match after her singles loss even though their father, Richard, had been saying Venus should take it easy and play only singles.

As usual after a defeat, Venus was tight-lipped, offering platitudes but no explanation as to what happened, especially in the first set when, as they say in tennis, she got bageled.

"I think she played really well," Venus said of Clijsters, "and hit a lot of great shots. I wish her the best of luck. I would have liked to play better to win the match. I would have liked to have capitalized on some more shots."

Asked if she was surprised how well Clijsters, in only her third tournament back, played, Venus said, "Yeah, she played well. She always played well through her career. I'm sure she'll continue to do that."

What will Venus, winner of seven Grand Slam tournaments, do? In the past, she has talked about competing into her 30s, playing in the 2012 Olympics, but who knows?

Venus almost didn't get out of the first round of this Open, needing three sets to beat 47th-ranked Vera Dushevina. "It's going to be a lot of prayer and everything else I can throw into it," Venus said of her knee after that struggle. "But I'm tough."

No one doubts that, but she also is not as mobile as she once was, not able to use her superior athletic ability, which often has compensated for a lack of tennis fundamentals.

With the departure of Venus, the No. 1 (Dinara Safina), 3 (Venus Williams), 4 (Elena Dementieva) and 5 (Jelena Jankovic) seeds have been eliminated from this Open before the quarterfinals. And 26-year-old Clijsters, who quit to marry and have a child, is still in the draw.

"You're not really worried about results," said Clijsters, who is accompanied by her husband Brian Lynch, a basketball player from the U.S., and their daughter, Jared. "You're just trying to fight through the match."

She fought. Venus fought. Then she broke Williams in the third game of the third set, and that was the difference.

The first two sets? "Very weird," Clijsters said. "I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I can't speak for [Venus]. On my side, I felt like we never were really playing our best tennis at the same time until the third set.

"In the first set, I really felt like I was dominating a lot of points. I was serving well. I think that's where I kept her under pressure, kept her from what she's good at, stepping into the court, playing aggressive tennis. She also made a lot of mistakes, missed a lot of first serves. ... Then I felt like in the second set, she was kind of doing that to me for a little bit."

Clijsters' comeback began early this year when she accepted a challenge to play an exhibition at Wimbledon with Tim Henman against Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. She had too much pride to go out and embarrass herself, so she started training as in the old days -- meaning before 2007.

"I've been working hard the last seven, eight months and enjoying it," Clijsters said. "It's something that's really important to me, as long as I can focus on tennis and have fun on the outside as well."

Tears rolled down her cheeks after the win over Venus, but surely they were joyful tears.

Venus smiled during the post-match handshake but understandably was grim in leaving the court, where a boisterous sellout crowd seemed to be supporting Clijsters as much as Venus.

A few hours earlier, Serena, the defending champion, was an easy winner. Serena looks as if she'll be in the finals again this year. But will Venus ever get back?

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12167294
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.