I've tipped Venus as the winner of this event, and I have to admit I'm pulling for her. She dictated play from the beginning against Jankovic and by the third set the match was entirely on her racquet, her free swinging from the forehand side producing winners and errors in large amounts. Jankovic moves very well, hits with good depth, and understands how to move her opponents, but she couldn't hit it by Venus and ultimately settled into a counter-punching strategy that some people might call high class pushing.
Jankovic, to her credit, played the big points quite well, but in the end Venus, serving second, withstood her own erratic play and delivered a very professional win under difficult circumstances. She plays Henin on Friday and will be keen to avenge her little sister's loss. I think the level of athleticism on the women's tour is such that fatigue really is not an issue in best of three set matches amongst the top players so that match will come down to Venus' ability to limit errors and serve well.
Now to the men in black.... First of all Andre Agassi and Johnny Mac in the booth together is my idea of total joy. The Dre is one of the smartest tennis players ever and happened to also be one of the best ball-strikers in history. He is so aware of the mechanics of the game and, as he admits, watches the sport he played obsessively. Listening to him talk about Federer was great. Agassi said that he, the Dre, could hit from ankle to shoulder as well as anyone ever, but that R Fed, on top of that, can shift his hitting zone forward and backward in a way no one ever has. He can hold shots and hit them slightly late, adding twenty or thirty degrees of angle to his panorama of the opponent's court.
Andre also tipped us off that
Boris Becker had a telling tic in his game that helped him as a returner, leaving his tongue in the middle of his mouth when serving down the middle and shifting it to the side when going out wide. Boris was in the crowd last night with his wife. So were Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, next to one another, and a handful of other NYC luminaries.
About the match... it was clear what had to happen going in. Roddick needed to hit 30 aces and take his chances in the tiebreakers, hacking away at his forehand whenever possible. Andre's rule was that any point that went past six shots was Roger's, and that proved true. McEnroe spent most of the time kissing Andre's ass and lobbing him layup comments. Dre, for his part, was in his glory talking game. The guy could talk tennis forever and certain people, me, would still be there listening when he stopped.
Roddick played great, served great, hit great, chased great, and got beat like a freaking drum. It's so sad and so wonderful at the same time, to see a guy like Roddick at the top of his sport play as well as he can and just get dismantled by a superior player. Federer in black on the hard stuff may be less vulnerable than Federer in white on the green grass of England. The ball bounces perfectly, moves through the court fast, and Roger hits every shot perfectly. One of the best things Dre mentioned was that Federer almost always out-aces his opponents, even big servers like Roddick, because his return game is so utterly superior. Roddick was hitting his serve at 145 mph and Federer, while he didn't break him, looked totally happy to ease his way into the tiebreaks and choke Andy to death. In the end Roger had 15 aces to A Rod's 14.
In the post-match inquest Federer was gracious and elegant as usual, giving a shout out to Dre in the box. He is soooo cooooool! Poor old Andy Roddick. He is now 1-14 against Federer, and having won the US Open in 2003, can't find a way back to the winner's circle, mainly cause the road there goes through Federer. What must it feel like to be stuck like that in your sportcraft? What does A Rod have to do to get on Roger's airplane like Rafa did?
Speaking of the Spanish hero, Andre reiterated the importance of Rafa's team changing the way he plays, saying it would be a great shame for the game should his body fail for lack of good advice. I saw Andre Agassi for the first time hitting with Jimmy Arias at Bolletieri's Academy when he was 17 and ranked around 50 in the world. He was skinny, with his long glam-rock mane, shirtless, wearing jean tennis shorts. I hated him for the next couple of years, because I loved Becker and Edberg so much. But when he came back, head shaved, totally dedicated to his art, I loved him immediately. He more than any other player was Federer's precursor in the contemporary game, striving to hit every ball totally cleanly with intent and sting.
Wednesday night at the US Open was billed as the prime time heavyweight feature attraction and it lived up to the hype. Venus survived a loose first set and a really tough third set to beat third-seeded Jelena Jankovic in a third-set tiebreaker. The match lasted over two hours and both players maintained an extreme level of intensity. The real humdinger was yet to come. Federer and Roddick emerged from the tunnel, both clad in all black, and lo and behold who shows up in the announcer's booth with Ted Robinson and Johnny Mac but 