2006 U.S. Open Recap

The Open Closes with a Bang
One hundred twenty-five years, and it hasn’t gotten old yet—the 2006 edition of the U.S. Open ended with Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova’s names written on the honor roll, but a whole lot more etched into our memories.

It was all about Andre during the first week of the Open, as Agassi won two dramatic night battles before bidding farewell against Benjamin “No Relation” Becker with an emotional speech and standing ovations from the crowd, players, and press.

Another champion saying so long was Martina Navratilova, who exited in style by winning the mixed doubles with Bob Bryan—her 59th Grand Slam title, coming at 49 years old. No one else will ever win a Grand Slam event at that age again, perennial rival and friend Chris Evert declared as Navratilova was inducted into the court of champions at the U.S. Open.

Was it also goodbye to Lindsay Davenport? Not even she knows. Davenport wasn’t prepared to say whether she’ll be back again next year, meaning that Flushing Meadows may have seen the last of the 1998 champ when she lost in the quarterfinals to Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Henin-Hardenne reached her fourth Grand Slam final of 2006, but fell to Sharapova at the final hurdle. Sharapova, who dominated New York’s advertising billboards all month, also dominated the field, dropping only one set in her run to the title.

Black dresses, bananas, and boyfriends were the other themes of Sharapova’s U.S. Open—Andy Roddick being the rumored subject on the latter front. But that wasn’t the reason people were talking about Roddick at the Open. Armed with new coach Jimmy Connors, Roddick went all the way to the finals and reclaimed his spot as the top-ranked American before falling to Federer in four sets.

Federer made history with his victory, becoming the first player to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in three consecutive years. The only thing which made him nervous on Sunday? Tiger Woods sitting in his box cheering him on.

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Coming Up

The players go from chasing individual glory to flying their flags for the rest of September, with the Fed Cup final and Davis Cup semifinals on the schedule. Fed Cup is first up—Belgium takes on Italy at home September 16–17. Kim Clijsters is missing the tie because of a wrist injury, but Belgium will still be the favorite with U.S. Open finalist Henin-Hardenne spearheading their effort on an indoor hard court in Charleroi. Italy, though, has a deeper team and won’t be counting itself out.

In Davis Cup the following week, the American team will go on the road to take on the Russians, who are fielding a strong team composed of Marat Safin, Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny, and Dmitry Tursunov. The Americans aren’t slouches either, with Andy Roddick, James Blake, and the Bryan brothers on the roster. The biggest challenge for this close-knit group might be not the opposition but the court—the slow red clay that the Russians are planning to lay down in Moscow.

In the other semifinal, more slow red clay is expected to help the Argentines get past Australia in Buenos Aires. There’s one piece of good news for the Aussies, though: Their top player, Lleyton Hewitt, is planning to play after months of dithering.

From there, it’s on to the indoor season, where Rafael Nadal and Roddick will battle to be Federer’s nearest challenger. Nadal won Madrid last year but aggravated an injury that forced him to sit out the rest of the season. He’ll be intent on making a more consistent impact this time around. Roddick won a smaller tournament in Lyon last October and will have his eyes set on bigger prizes after a good hard-court run this summer. Can a rising star like Tomas Berdych, Andy Murray, or Richard Gasquet make an impact? And will Federer continue to be nearly invincible as the tours head indoors?

The women’s game has been wide open the whole year, thanks in part to injuries. No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, Henin-Hardenne, and Sharapova have already qualified for the year-ending championships in November—the battle is on for the remaining five spots, and they’ll be decided over the next few weeks in places like Beijing, Stuttgart, Moscow, Zurich, and Linz.

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