New kids are major concern for Federer
The names rolled swiftly and smoothly off Roger Federer's tongue. Djokovic, Murray, Gasquet, Berdych, Baghdatis, Del Potro.
Each of these young men, the oldest of whom can barely drink legally in the United States, has, according to Federer, a very good chance to take a monumental leap over the next two weeks. The man who is seeking his fourth consecutive US Open title, trying to become the first man to win four straight US championships since Big Bill Tilden won his fourth en route to six straight in 1923, said the other day that tennis's members-in-waiting aren't just knocking at the door, they are wielding battering rams in addition to their rackets.
"The new generation now have announced themselves," said Federer, who will face another relative youngster in 20-year-old qualifier Scoville Jenkins, a former national boys' 18s champion from Atlanta, in the first round, which begins today at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows in New York City. "One year ago they were still very young, not just young. But they're all very good. You could definitely tell one of them was going to make the breakthrough soon . . . It's definitely now the young guys that are pushing through. Slowly but surely, they're getting ready to win maybe big tournaments."
And the 21-year-old Rafael Nadal? "He's already up there too long," joked Federer. "He's a veteran."
The quietest veteran on the women's tour, top-seeded Justine Henin, is looking to end her year on a more positive note than the way she began it. Opting to skip the Australian Open because of her divorce from Pierre-Yves Hardenne, Henin has hardly missed a beat since, winning six WTA Tour titles, including the French Open, where she beat Australian Open champ Serena Williams and the two hot Serbs, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. She also won the US Open warm-up in Toronto and would like nothing more than to capture her second US Open, her first since 2003. Last year, she fell in the final to Maria Sharapova.
The second-seeded Sharapova, who has been sidelined on and off throughout the season with a shoulder injury, is determined to put her best serve forward in order to defend the title she captured with such flair last year.
"It's a different feeling when you come into a tournament that you've never won before and you wonder what it's going to be like when you win it," said Sharapova, who was runner-up to Serena Williams at the Australian Open and has won only one title this year, an important confidence-booster at a US Open warm-up event in San Diego. "But coming in [this year] and seeing my name on the board when I walk into the room, knowing I already did it, knowing how sweet it was, you want to repeat it because you want to have that feeling again."
Obviously, Federer knows the sensation of repeating all too well and, as such, he insists he rarely sets goals beyond defending a given title. But for the 26-year-old, the stakes to win the Open this year are great. Having already captured the Australian Open and Wimbledon, a feat he also accomplished in 2004 and last year, Federer is bidding to become the first man in history to win three majors in a calendar year three times. Rod Laver is the only man to have won three majors in the same year more than once, but that was back in 1962 and 1969, the years Laver captured the Grand Slam.
Federer is also looking to become only the second man after Bjorn Borg to win four straight championships at two majors, having already equaled Borg's five straight Wimbledon titles last month. And it doesn't hurt that, should he win, Federer will cart home $2.4 million, including a $1 million bonus for winning the US Open Series and the US Open.
While Federer's record is daunting, neither Nadal nor third-seeded Novak Djokovic seems scared. Nadal has an 8-5 head-to-head record against Federer and has beaten him at the French Open the last three years. They have split their meetings this year, with Federer finally beating Nadal on clay in Hamburg in May and Nadal nearly toppling Federer on grass at Wimbledon, succumbing in five grueling sets. Between them, Federer and Nadal have won the last 10 majors, the longest time period two men have dominated since the four major championships were first contested in 1925.
Djokovic, who began the year ranked No. 16 in the world, won his first tournament of the year in Adelaide, Australia, in January, shocked the tennis world by reaching the final of the Masters Series event in Indian Wells in March (where he lost to Nadal), and defeated Nadal the next week en route to his first ATP Masters Series title in Miami. He topped that feat just three weeks ago when he ousted Andy Roddick, Nadal, and Federer, the tournament's top three seeds, to win the Masters Series event in Montreal. He could meet Nadal in the semifinals of the US Open.
"I know that a lot of people expect obviously for me to be one of the favorites to win the US Open this year, but I'm not trying to see myself already lifting the trophy," said Djokovic, who must first get past big-serving Mario Ancic in the first round. "I'm trying to go step by step and really take it easy. It's a long two weeks." 