CBSSports.com: Nadal's Grand U.S. Open win puts him in great talks

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- The best player in the world. Novak Djokovic shouted it to a packed stadium. He was talking about Rafael Nadal. He was saying something we already know.

What we don't know is whether Rafa might become the best player in history.

"Right now," insisted Djokovic, "he has the capabilities to become the best player ever."

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: The Joker prevents possibly 'biggest match of all time' at Open

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Mats Wilander said it would have been "the biggest match of all time," but it won't happen this year -- and maybe never.

Rafael Nadal made it to the U.S. Open final; Roger Federer didn't.

It was the man they call the Joker, Novak Djokovic, who ruined the plot, tore up the script, defeating Federer, 5-7, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, Saturday in a semifinal of brilliance and surprise.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Clijsters unchallenged for title by overmatched Vera Z

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- It wasn't a match, it was an embarrassment. Poor Vera Zvonareva. She makes it to a Grand Slam final, barely has time to break a racket, much less a sweat, and the thing is over.

Two months ago at Wimbledon, she lasted only 1 hour and 7 minutes, getting whipped by Serena Williams, 6-3, 6-2. But compared to Saturday night at the U.S. Open, that seems like forever.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Error-prone Venus comes up short in winning yet another Slam

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Too many errors. Venus Williams made that concession, but isn't that always the way it is for the loser, whatever the sport?

Too many errors and something she wouldn't concede -- too many years.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Federer determined to show he still has what it takes to be best

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- Success became a burden. Roger Federer couldn't accept defeat. "I got spoiled," he conceded.

So did everyone. As the wins became losses, the praise became doubt. And criticism.

He had aged, we were reminded. He had slipped. He was finished.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Venus: Last Hope in Non-U.S. Open

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- The title of her new book is a terse summation of the woman. "Come to Win'' is Venus Williams' approach to life and tennis. And through a career remarkably long, she has won. But not lately.

So much is linked to Venus in the "How come they call it the U.S. Open when nobody in the U.S. can play anymore?'' Other than Serena Williams, who's out with an injury. And other than older sister Venus, who's battling the years along with her opponents.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Giants thriving in September baseball

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Is this splendid torture or what? Three and a half weeks to go, and Tim Lincecum has found it once more. Three and a half weeks to go, and the San Diego Padres no longer seem invincible. Three and half weeks to go, and the Giants are very much in the race.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

CBSSports.com: The Joker is no joke on way to Open semifinals ... maybe more?

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- There's a Joker in every deck. This one has a first name. And a slick game. Novak Djokovic isn't the villain out of Batman, although he's been treated that way.

More accurately, he's a Grand Slam champion, accused hypochondriac and, according to the ratings, the third-best tennis player in the world.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: This U.S. Open coming up short on Americans

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- One singular sensation. A song lyric from A Chorus Line. A fact of tennis from the not-so-U.S. Open. The last two Americans went back-to-back Tuesday on a court named for a historic American, Arthur Ashe, and only one managed to survive.

Out went Sam Querrey, if stubbornly, and after he disappeared from view, from the draw, on came Venus Williams, who wasn't going anywhere, except to the semifinals.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Now Tiger Must Prove He Belongs

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Those who believe in cause and effect will find a connection between the New York Stock Exchange serving as the site for the announcement of the U.S. Ryder Cup wild cards on Tuesday and the Dow Jones average subsequently falling 107 points.

Tiger Woods futures? Sell short.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

CBSSports.com: Wozniacki is an ascending star -- who keeps shining brighter

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- She's not there yet, not holding the winner's trophy. There still are three more matches. "I feel like everything is possible," said Caroline Wozniacki. She is in full flight, an athlete in ascendancy, for whom nothing seems impossible.

This time the opponent wasn't one of those wild cards like Chelsey Gullickson or one of those players from the depths like Kai-Chen Chang, No. 84 in the rankings, or Yung-Jan Chan, No. 77, that Wozniacki was certain to beat.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Venus had Peer's back in Dubai, and Peer never forgot

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- One is an African-American. The other is an Israeli. They've faced each other across a net more than once, including Sunday in the U.S. Open, but more than rivals they are friends, linked by the discrimination they've faced.

Venus Williams you know. She's a Grand Slam champion, and she took a step toward another Slam by beating Shahar Peer, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, in the third round of the U.S. Open.

Then again, maybe this is the Venus Williams you don't know.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Loving U.S. Open and New York City ... there's nothing like it

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- The hottest show in town? It isn't "A Little Night Music," as popular as that Sondheim hit may be. It's a little day and night tennis at the U.S. Open, off Broadway and off the charts.

This place, the Billie Jean King Center, is a swirl of forehands and backslapping, oversized tennis balls to get autographed and oversized Carnegie Deli sandwiches to get munched.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Marathon Man Isner keeps on chugging on last grand stage

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- For John Isner, the name and the event forever remain inextricably intertwined. As was Bobby Thomson with the "Shot heard 'round the world" ... as was Dwight Clark with "The Catch," which sent the San Francisco 49ers to their first Super Bowl ... as was Roger Bannister when he became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

John Isner always will be the Marathon Man, the one who went three days, went 11 hours, 5 minutes, went 138 games in the final set of a first-round match at Wimbledon against Nicolas Mahut.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

CBSSports.com: Wonderful Woz displays wizardry on and off the court

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com


NEW YORK -- She's the Wonderful Wizard of Woz, a beautiful blend of blonde hair and big backhands who has opponents running and paparazzi chasing.

Caroline Wozniacki has been taking no prisoners and very little time on what Thursday became her summer of love -- or double bagels, if you prefer.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports.com: Leinart, Roddick ... What Might Have Been

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK - Andy Roddick has departed, and apropos of nothing but pertinent to everything, Matt Leinart could be arriving, although the belief is he'll end up in another town.

Two young athletes, two different sports, two levels of frustration.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

CBSSports.com: Last year's darling Oudin out early -- can she fight back?

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- She seemed equal parts intensity and innocence, a teenager who was quintessentially American and, with a lot of hustle and enough of a forehand, worked her way into the quarterfinals and into our hearts.

Melanie Oudin was the shining star of last year's U.S. Open, the kid from next door -- actually, from the suburbs of Atlanta -- who wrote "BELIEVE" on her sneakers and wrote a new chapter in tennis, knocking off three seeded Russians before finally falling to the eventual runner-up, Caroline Wozniacki.

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: A's having a tough time in the Big Apple

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — ‘They crawl, they baffle, they bite,” was the headline in the New York Times. No, not the Yankees. Bed bugs, although to the A’s, it may be hard to distinguish.

New York has been hit by an infestation. The A’s merely are being eaten up by Yankee hitting.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

CBSSports.com: While heat rages, Day 2 at Flushing Meadows is about survival

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

NEW YORK -- The endless summer, tennis in the heat of the day and night, matches with athletes looking for shelter and service breaks, a U.S. Open that on the second day seemed destined never to close.

"Somebody in the stands over there kept saying, 'Hang on, hang in there,'" remembered Novak Djokovic. "So that's exactly what I did."

Read the full story here.

© 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Sweat and Panic Fill Big Apple Summer

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- Hot, baby. Maybe not enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, but plenty hot. Literally -- on-court temperature Tuesday afternoon during the U.S. Open was something like 110 degrees -- symbolically, as the headlines indicate.

This is always the best time of the year in, to modify that Snapple commercial a bit, the best sporting place on earth. There's sweat. And panic, the two staples of a New York sporting summer. There's variety.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010