US Open Final Impressions

by Savannah

US Open 2009 Champions

Travis Parrot and Carly Gullickson Mixed Doubles Champions

Girls Champion Heather Watson (left) and runner up Yana Buchina

Boy's Champion Bernard Tomic (right) and runner up Chase Buchanan

Men's Doubles Champions Dlouhy and Paes (right) with runner ups Bhupathi and Knowles

Women's Singles Champion Kim Clijsters

Women's Doubles Champions Venus Williams and Serena Williams

Mens Singles Champion Juan Martin DelPotro

I have said it before and I'll say it again. A soft draw does not a champion make. The USTA did everything it could to give Roger Federer a "bye" to the Final while making sure the guys on the other side of the draw would have to fight it out for the chance to take the court against him.

There's an old saying that goes when you dig a grave for someone dig two holes. There were rain delays but this time the Monogram didn't get five days off while everyone else played. The rain mess - starting the second men's quarterfinal knowing that bad weather was coming didn't work out either.

In the end it was injury that prevented the marquee matchup in men's tennis from taking place and an unlikely, gangly twenty year old stood across the net from the man the talking heads were already handing his sixth straight US Open title.

At one point early in the match Mary Carillo made the statement that Del Potro was good "at being tall". When asked to clarify what she meant she said it again. I guess Juan Martin proved he's good at more than being tall.

Congratulations to all the winners. I've listed them in winning order. Many complained that this Open was just "meh" because it seemed as if the ending was preordained. We tennisheads should know better. They play the matches for a reason.

Miscellany

The Wall Street Journal" reports the following:

Look for foot-faults to be included among the calls in tennis that will be reviewable by the Hawk-Eye system at next year's U.S. Open.

Serena Williams was called for a foot-fault just two points from losing her semifinal match with Kim Clijsters on Saturday, and after the call she cursed at the lineswoman, resulting in a point penalty that ended the match. The play is not reviewable under USTA rules, but officials discussed changing that at a meeting Sunday morning, and they plan to revisit the issue in the coming months, said USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier.

Paul Hawkins, head of Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd., the United Kingdom firm behind the computerized line-calling system, said its digital cameras only track and make animated images of the ball for close line calls. They aren't set up to rule on foot-faults, though he said adding that would be fairly simple. As of Sunday, CBS said it had not found a better angle to show the call than an inconclusive shot from behind the baseline. However, Steve Gorsuch, director of broadcast operations for the USTA, said there is a camera positioned along the baseline of the north side of the court for most prominent matches. Unfortunately, Ms. Clijsters was standing on that side during Ms. Williams's service game.

—Matthew Futterman and Carl Bialik

Everyone is all in Serena's shit but the entire situation arose from a bad call. There is even a post on YouTube with subtitles alleging Serena used an anti Asian racial slur which did not happen.
John McEnroe, who's been threatening and cursing out lines people for about twenty years by the way, said when it happened and repeated on Sunday that you do not make that call at that point of the match. We'd seen Serena come back from being down already in that match so the call, on a match point, was bush league to say the least. Guess that lines person will be doing Futures and satellites although Mariana Alves, the most incompetent chair on the planet is still working majors so one never knows.

With all this carrying on let's look back to earlier this year when Victoria Azarenka had a stunning meltdown at Brisbane. She cursed and carried on something fierce at the chair umpire demanding that the chair agree with her. The chair refused. And let's not forget Yanina Wickmayer's ball toss during a fit of pique that sent a lines person to the hospital. I don't remember anyone screaming "off with their heads".

And just now the Monogram cursed out chair umpire Jake Garner. Dick Enberg says that the Monogram wasn't being "venomous". Mary Carillo reminded him that he still cursed the chair. CBS cut off the diatribe mid way so we really won't know what really got said.

It always amazes me that angry African Americans seem to scare the crap out of people and that the "fullest extent of the law" is always brought against them.

The brothers McEnroe mentioned that the kind folks who run the US Open are now seriously thinking about doing what all the other Slams do and put a day between the semi finals and final so that everyone gets the same treatment. The mentioned that this has been under discussion for thirty years. Guess the roof thing is simply a gleam in their collective eyes...

End Note

Why did Dick Enberg try so hard to stop Juan Martin from speaking in Spanish to his family and supporters?