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.

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: Oudin, Isner turn in memorable day, bright future for American tennis

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- It was the day that wouldn't end. It was an afternoon that became evening and offered American tennis a future as bright as the moon that eventually rose over Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Youth will be served -- and volleyed and backhanded.

First, Melanie Oudin, the wunderkind, and then John Isner tossed caution to what little wind there was on this historic day at Flushing Meadows and tossed the schedule of the U.S. Open upside down and inside out.

The 17-year-old Oudin, who's becoming adept at this sort of thing, upset Maria Sharapova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, in 2 hours, 58 minutes on Saturday.

Then the 24-year-old Isner upset No. 5 seed Andy Roddick 7-6 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5) in 3 hours, 51 minutes.

They came back-to-back, the matches, nearly seven hours of tension, and for a sellout crowd of more than 24,000, there was such excitement that the spectators didn't want to leave.

Except two more matches, the evening program, were still to be played. And the fans who held tickets for those matches, which wouldn't begin until 10 p.m., not the announced 7 p.m., were waiting to get their seats. They had been watching the big TV screen in the plaza for more than three hours.

What they saw was the 6-foot-9 Isner smashing 39 aces and keep Roddick, who has the record for the fastest serve ever, 156 mph, off balance and out of sorts.

This after Oudin, who for comparison's sake is more than a foot shorter than Isner -- she's listed at 5-foot-6 -- kept coming at Sharapova with the aggression of a UFC fighter.

Two days earlier, Oudin had knocked off the No. 4 seed, Elena Dementieva, a Russian. Then she discombobulated Sharapova, the 2007 champ, the No. 29 seed, a Russian. Maria had 21 double faults. Next, in the fourth round Oudin will play Nadia Petrova, a Russian.

It sounds like Napoleon's campaign against the Czars in the 19th Century.

"I had every emotion possible," said Oudin. "I mean, I was crying. I was so happy and excited. I'm pretty sure I screamed after that last shot."

Which was a cross-court winner.

Isner's last shot was, of course, a monster serve in the fifth-set tiebreaker. Roddick hit it out.

"I had to play the match of my life to beat him," said Isner, referring to Roddick, who won this tournament in 2003 and two months ago took Roger Federer to a fifth set at Wimbledon, where there are no fifth-set tiebreakers, and lost 16-14.

"On this stage, this setting, I proved I can play with anybody."

We're only maybe eight miles from Broadway, 42nd Street, the Great White Way. You know the cliche, "You're going out there a kid, but you're coming back a star." Oudin and Isner have filled that role.

She's from Marietta, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, home-schooled so she could become the champion Melanie seems destined to be. He's from North Carolina but was a star at the University of Georgia. Must be something in the water down there.

Tobacco Road? How about Topspin Highway?

"There's a lot out of your hands, the way he plays," Roddick said of Isner, whom he had beaten twice in two previous matches, including a few weeks ago in the semifinal of the Washington, D.C., tournament.

"You can't teach 6-9," Roddick said of the angle and power of Isner's serve. "Sometimes you try to fight it off. But it's not like the majority of matches we play, where if you play well you win. He doesn't allow you to get into the match."

Isner contracted mononucleosis in the late spring and couldn't enter either the French Open or Wimbledon.

"I remember how ticked off I was at home," said Isner, "but it may have been a blessing in disguise. I took a month off, then started working hard and smart."

Oudin, who has "BELIEVE" embossed on the ankle of her multicolored tennis shoes, also credits her practice routines for success.

If you recall, after Melanie stunned Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon, Jankovic contended Oudin didn't have "the weapons," primarily a serve. What would anyone expect from a Munchkin? But she has staying power and courage.

"I think my biggest weapon can be mental toughness," said Oudin. "I developed it. I wasn't born with it."

Someone wondered if she'd been labeled a giant killer, although to her every opponent is rather enormous. "Yeah," she said, "a couple of people have called me that."

What you could have called Saturday's play in the Open was confused. The afternoon matches went so long and so deep into the evening that the women's competition between top seed Dinara Safina and Petra Kvitova was shifted from Ashe Court to Armstrong Court so the James Blake-Tommy Robredo match wouldn't be starting around midnight.

That's one of the unpredictable parts of tennis. You never know how long a match might run. The ones involving Oudin and Isner seemed to run forever, but they didn't mind. Neither did the fans on this wonderful long day's journey into night.

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http://www.cbssports.com/tennis/story/12162826
© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.