Sports Then and Now

All eyes will be on Serena Williams and her attempt at the calendar year grand slam.

One of the great locations to watch Grand Slam tennis is Flushing Meadows, especially when the match is close and the atmosphere becomes electric in a distinctly New York kind of way. The best seat in the house is in the elevated bleachers high above the baseline inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, as you get up-close and personal with some of the best players in the world.

Tennis is a sport with a long season full of ups and downs for players. Studying for an online masters in coaching shows how professional athletes like these must survive the mentally and physically grueling pace of the games. The U.S. Open begins August 31^st and is scheduled through September 13^th of this year. A lot is expected from the players, and here are a few determined to do well.

Serena Is the Talk of Broadway
One of the themes that has emerged on the WTA Tour this year is that Serena Williams is capable of blasting the competition off the tennis court. Her play has become increasingly aggressive with each passing Grand Slam, and it is pretty clear that a triumphant win at the U.S. Open would be a great achievement for Williams. She has made a career of surpassing expectations and frustrating opponents and is capable of doing it again in Flushing Meadows. The tennis world is longing for this type of a compelling story, and there’s no one more qualified to pull this off than Williams herself.
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At 30, Roger is still at the top of the tennis world.

Autumn: The season of warm sunshine and cool evenings, of golden mornings and burnished afternoons, of dewy lawns and slanting shadows.

It’s a season of transition and reflection, of rest before making ready for the year’s push towards its wintery climax.

September sees some sports kick their way into a fresh season and others bat they way towards a conclusion. But for tennis, this is merely the lull after months of globe-scattered tournaments, after countless cities and adjustments from clay to grass to the hot and hard blue of the last Grand Slam of the year. New York feels like a climax, but then feels like an anti-climax, a thrilling conclusion on tennis’s biggest stage that is not a conclusion—just a temporary reprieve.

This autumn dip finds expression in the players themselves. They talk of tiredness and the need for rest, and this year more than most, the schedule has taken a heavy toll. Read the rest of this entry →

Mardy Fish will be looking for big results at the 2011 U.S. Open.

Mardy Fish knows he will be under the spotlight more than ever when the US Open begins on August 29.

The Americans in the crowd always root with fervour for their own, and Fish’s new status as the top-ranked male player from the US guarantees he will carry their hopes and expectations.

While Andy Roddick will still be among the crowd favorites in New York, Fish has the better form and the US Open tennis betting reflects this.

The 29-year-old, though, is trying to deflect some of the attention by talking up his friend’s status.

Going into the tournament, Roddick has the Grand Slam pedigree – he won the title back in 2003.

Fish, who has reached the quarter-finals of three Grand Slams, is keen that nobody overlooks Roddick. Read the rest of this entry →

David Ferrer will look to break the hold of the "big three" in men's tennis.

Ignoring Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal in the build-up to the US Open might seem like tennis heresy, but it’s a worthy gambit, if only to turn the spotlight on the other players in the top ten of the ATP World Singles Rankings.

Spain’s David Ferrer, for example, is ranked sixth in the world, but is 80/1 in the US Open 2011 tennis odds, making him a rank outsider.

However, Ferrer reached the semi-final at the Australian Open, earlier this year and recently guided Spain to victory against the USA in the Davis Cup, where he beat world number nine Mardy Fish in the longest four-set match in the tournament’s history.

Ferrer has a supporter in Roger Federer, who referred to the Spaniard as “the best returner in the game […], together with Nadal”. Read the rest of this entry →

Serena Williams will look for a return to glory at the U.S. Open.

Despite many writing off her chances of getting to the top of women’s tennis once again, Serena Williams has spoken about her positive preparations for the US Open next month.

The younger Williams sister has fallen to number 175 in the world after an early exit from Wimbledon coming on the back of a year or so of constant injury problems.

Her target is clear now though. She wants to get herself fit and ready for the US Open. She was perhaps running on adrenaline and determination at Wimbledon, at Flushing Meadows she wants to be in a better state to win the tournament.

Speaking about her preparations, she said: “It was really awful to miss the Open last year. My goal is to make sure I’m really fit. It’s the longest I’ve taken ever taken off from tennis, so it’s a challenge.” Read the rest of this entry →