New York Danced to a Different Tune
A Changing of the Guard at Flushing Meadows
By Ivan Speck

While ignorance can be bliss, it can also deny knowledge of life itself. So it was that the fans who flocked to the National Tennis Center witnessed champions who answer to the names of “Roger” and “Svetlana,” and fell hopelessly entranced by their charm.

The past decade of the US Open had been largely a patriotic march to the tune of the “Star Spangled Banner.” This year, however, the American theme suddenly metamorphosed into a glorious vision of world tennis.

For only the second time in the last 12 years, there was no American winner of at least one of the US Open singles titles. A new pattern emerged, and with it, a new tennis world order—one that marches to the beat of Roger Federer the Swisstador and to Svetlana Kuznetsova and the rest of the Russian women now vying for tennis’s major titles.

With Andre Agassi already well beyond veteran status—if he keeps playing much longer, New Yorkers will soon be giving up their subway seats for him—and Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati battling opponents little more than half their ages, the chances of home-court US Open champions may well rest on younger, perhaps less sturdy, shoulders in the years to come.

Andy Roddick found himself engulfed by a Swedish storm named Joachim Johansson, which was every bit as tenacious as the remnants of Hurricane Frances that dropped more than five inches of rain on Queens as it traveled up the eastern seaboard.

What made Roddick’s demise all the more surprising was that his greatest weapon failed him. The serve that earlier in the tournament sent a ball slamming into Arthur Ashe Stadium’s backboards at 152 mph was suddenly affected by a glitch. At 4–5, 0–30, in the final set of his quarterfinal against Johansson, the defending US Open champion plopped a second serve into the net. A Roddick double-fault at such a crucial moment seemed impossible, but it was true and so was a Swedish night-time victory.

Meanwhile, Venus and Serena fell to Davenport and Capriati, respectively—proof that though they bestrode the world of women’s tennis not so very long ago, now they are not even the best in the United States. Watch out for the whirlwind they bring back with them if they rediscover their thirst for success on the tennis court.

And keep watching Serena’s outfits. The All England Club would not allow her to wear knee-length boots onto its Centre Court at Wimbledon, but the New York crowd positively purred when a black-studded number followed the denim skirt onto Arthur Ashe Stadium and national television. And you thought her infamous catsuit could not be upstaged?

Martina Navratilova bowed out quietly without a 59th Grand Slam title to her name. Still, quarterfinals of the women’s doubles, semis of the mixed is still an astonishing achievement for any 48-year-old, but somehow it still didn’t feel enough for Martina’s final playing appearance. Fittingly, though, she was on court and took much of the television exposure during the women’s singles final as she followed the fortunes of her one-time protégée Kuznetsova.

The 19-year-old from St. Petersburg was part of a 15-strong battalion force from the Cold War enemy. In fact, there were so many Russian women in the draw that they often ended up eliminating each other. So it was that French Open champion Anastasia Myskina departed in the second round, beaten in two sorry sets by 175-ranked qualifier Anna Chakvetadze.

Myskina’s early exit set the tone as potential champion after potential champion prematurely slipped out of the President’s Gate at the National Tennis Center. In the third round it was 17-year-old Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and her blonde mane; in the fourth, Venus and defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, who still was not fully recovered from the debilitating illness that has halted her march towards invincibility in 2004.

The quarterfinals saw the exit of Serena, victim of Portuguese umpire Mariana Alvez and the most appalling line call over-rule of many an Open. Amelie Mauresmo went, too. The French woman, who is throttled by nerves on big occasions, found the prospect of becoming World No. 1 by beating Elena Dementieva far too much for her oversensitive disposition.

And then there were four: two Americans and two Russians. Surprisingly, it was the visitors who prevailed. Capriati lost an all-time classic final set on a tiebreak to Dementieva-the third time in four US Open semifinals such a cruel fate has befallen her. Meanwhile, Davenport, who had won the US Open Series and was on a winning streak of 22 straight matches, fell victim to a strained left hip flexor that could not cope with Kuznetsova’s relentless groundstrokes.

If the final itself was an anti-climax—Kuznetsova overcoming a weary Dem-entieva, 6–3, 7–5—her success following that of Myskina at the French Open and Sharapova at Wimbledon suggests that former president and die-hard tennis fan Boris Yeltsin will be uncorking the celebratory champagne for a few more Grand Slams to come.

In men’s tennis, popping champagne corks is becoming a ritual with Federer and will continue to be so for long as the 23-year-old can maintain his desire to take home all the trophies. When all other ingredients are equal—desire, fitness, technique, confidence—it is talent pure and simple that will prevail. And Federer possesses the most natural talent that the game has perhaps ever seen. Since his victory at the 2003 Wimbledon broke down the barriers within his own mind that he could win the tournaments that matter most, he has unleashed that talent at will.

Everyone at Flushing Meadows fell under Federer’s spell, as they did at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year—to name but two of the eight titles that he had won prior to the US Open. Romania’s Andrei Pavel was so overwrought by the prospect of playing Federer in the fourth round that he defaulted with a back injury hours before their scheduled match.

Others tried to halt the Swiss juggernaut, but failed. They did not include the three Olympic medalists from Athens—Nicolas Massu, Mardy Fish and Fernando Gonzalez—who all discovered they had nothing left to give in New York and lost before the third round.

Nor was Tommy Haas one of Federer’s victims, although the German’s resurgence following rotator cuff surgery on his right shoulder was one of the stories of the tournament. In the end, Haas, formerly No. 2 in the world, found a howling gale on Arthur Ashe Stadium as difficult to tame as Lleyton Hewitt.

Instead, it was left to Agassi, king of the early rising ball and baseline manipulation, to attempt to drive Federer from the court in the quarterfinals. Federer stood his ground and Agassi went home.

Next came Britain’s Tim Henman, confirming his French Open semifinal appearance this spring was no fluke, who brought with him the volleys that even Federer admires. Not too much, though, because Federer won the race to the net.

In the final, the genius in the Nike headband faced the terrier-like Hewitt, who moves so swiftly and sweetly around a tennis court that he seems to be wearing rollerblades. No matter, Federer sent the ball with impossibly-angled deftness to parts of the court that even Hewitt could not reach. In just 18 minutes, the best player on the planet led by a set and went on to win, 6–0, 7–6, 6–0. Arthur Ashe Stadium erupted, and a new tennis icon was embraced by the crowd. It seems that Roger Federer, as with the Russian women, will be admired for years to come.