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By Pete Bodo
It's the same after every Grand Slam event; I vow to take all the bits and pieces in my notebook and shape them into a wrap-up post, to bring a close to my coverage of the event. And every year, by the time the men's final is over, I'm so fried and ready to take care of everything I've neglected for up to three weeks thatI fail to do it.
This year was particularly tough, because we were living at my sister's place, waiting to take possession of our new apartment, and on top of that my messenger bag, containing (among other things, like two checkbooks) my tape recorder and a notebook was pilfered from the media center on the day of the men's final. I know, excuses, excuses. . .
The biggest bummer of that bizarre ending to my Open was losing the tape recorder before I had the chance to download some interviews, including a fairly lengthy one with Marsel Ilhan, the first man playing under the Turkish flag to compete in a Grand Slam qualifying tournament. Ilhan went one better than that - he qualified and won two rounds before he lost in the third-round to John Isner.
Ilhan was born in Uzbekistan and quickly smitten by the game. He lost his father to cancer at a young age but, bent on developing his game, he emigrated to Turkey with his mother, who's done everything in her power to advance his budding career. In Turkey, he was able to train with relatively advanced players and teaching pros, and he's also received help from the Turkish national tennis federation. One thing I remember clearly from the interview: Roger Federer was in the locker room, watching the scoreboard, and he noticed Ilhan's name. Discovering that he was the first player from Turkey ever in a major, Federer introduced himself and wished Ilhan good luck. Ilhan told me it was a highlight of his tournament experience.
Anyway, I had the idea this morning that it might be fun to wrap up the US Open, as well as the Grand Slam year, with a kind of game: Sum up the tournament experience, or deliver an overall 2009 Grand Slam diagnosis, for one or more players in an epigrammatic, 25-wordsor-less kind of way.
I'm not about to attempt doing this for 256 players, so I'm going to cherry-pick the draws and come up with 10 or a dozen for the men and women each. Besides, I want to hear what y'all come up with, and feel free to make your Tweet-like comment about anyone, including players already singled out. So let's start with the men:
!86184096 1 - Juan Martin del Potro: Somewhere deep in the River Plata country, David Nalbandian is wearing a rubber sweat-suit and huffing and puffing up and down a mountainside.
2 -*Roger Federer*: When you have twins (Roland Garros and Wimbledon), what are the chances that you're sitting around wishing they'd have been triplets?
3 - Novak Djokovic - He'd better take care, or he's going to end up playing the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters of the ATP Tour.
4 - Fernando Verdasco: Cool hair? Check. Fitted shirt? Check. Swooning ladies in the courtside boxes? Check. Grand Slam contender? To be Determined.
5 - Robin Soderling: His punishment for making fun of Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon a couple of years ago was drawing Roger Federer in three Grand Slams in '09. Talk about harsh justice.
6 - Rafael Nadal: First, he bags the piratas and covers off the sweat-sheened guns, then he cuts his hair. The kid is really pushing his luck.
!90099647 7 - Andy Roddick**: And they say lightning never strikes the same place twice. But they didn't say anything about the same person. . .
8 - James Blake: Hello, James? Uh, you there? Hello? Is anyone there?
9 - Fernando Gonzalez: Larry Stefanki used to be my coach before he hooked up with Andy Roddick. Maybe I should have listened when he was talking. . . nah.
10 - Andy Murray: Is he the next Tim Henman? I don't think the Brits could take it.
11 - Nicolas Lapentti: His fellow Ecuadorian Andres Gomez won the French Open at age 30, Lapentti went a round in the US Open and emerged a Davis Cup hero at 33. Ponce de Leon must not have had GPS.
12 - Jesse Levine: Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
The women:
1 - Kim Clijsters: She may not have been "match tough", but then she's had plenty of experience in the last year taking candy from a baby.
2 -*Serena Williams*: What? I'm going to take this ranking system and shove it down your effin' throat!
3 - Flavia Pennetta: In case any of you ladies were wondering, there is life after Carlos Moya, even though you get stuck playing doubles with Jennifer Aniston as your partner.