Results tagged “usopen”

      

• Juan Marin del Potro, a 20-year-old Argentine ranked sixth in the world, unseated Roger Federer in Monday's final to take the U.S. Open crown away from the five-time defending champion. A day after del Potro demolished Rafael Nadal in straight sets, he rallied past Federer in five. He survived Federer's serving for the second set and a fourth-set tiebreaker before breaking the world No. 1 twice in the fifth set.

Serena Williams will return to Arthur Ashe Stadium this afternoon for the US Open Women's Doubles finals, less than 48 hours after the outburst that eliminated her from the singles draw and gave a whole new meaning to the Kanye West line "an ass like Serena." The USTA gave Williams a slap on the wrist yesterday—a $10,500 fine for misconduct—but said they are still reviewing tapes to see if a stiffer penalty will ensue. Some were calling for Williams to be kept out of today's match or at the very least stripped of her $350,000 singles prize money.

The US Open once again proved itself as one of the most theatrical stages in sports last night during the women's semifinals where Serena Williams saw her chances for repeating as champion ended after losing her cool and going off on a line judge. After Serena became upset at the judge's unexpected call for a foot fault, she pointed at the official and yelled, "I swear to God, I'm f*ckin' takin' this ball and shovin' it in(?) your f*ckin' throat… I swear to God." As if the outburst wasn't sensational enough, Williams then got docked for a penalty point (she had already received a warning after smashing her racket at the end of the first set) which couldn't have come at a worse time—match point. That meant that the confrontation would be the final point of the tournament for Williams, sent packing by Belgian Kim Clijsters. Here's the extended play of the whole string of events, that we imagine left Eli Manning doing a nervous gulp of his Oreo Double Stuff.

The gentlemen behind the blog Where Todd P Won't Be emailed us last night with the following urgent press release:

BREAKING (GIF Siren) -- Alec Baldwin picking teeth at US Open tonight during the female quarterfinal at the US Open earlier tonight. Developing....

The Parks Department has been letting a concessionaire charge drivers $18 per car to park on grassy playing fields in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and some people in Queens are mad. Well, one person, at least; a park advocate named Greg Godfrey. He's outraged that the parkland is being gobbled up by cars on days when the U.S. Open overlaps with Mets games, which will happen for the last time tonight when the Mets play the Marlins at Citifield, adjacent to the tennis center. So taxpayers who use the park for cricket and soccer have been relegated to dusty fields, and Godfrey gripes to the Daily News, "When you constantly compress open space and green space, you're reducing the oxygen in the fields and that's where you're losing grass growth." Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski calmly responds that, "You need to give and take, and we all make room for each other," and promises that the USTA reseeds the parking areas. But Godfrey won't be satisfied until somebody builds a multi-level parking deck for sports fans, which Lewandowski acknowledges as a nice idea, it's just that paying for it is "a stumbling block."

Last night out in Flushing Meadows, the US Open witnessed an event in sports that is relatively unheard of: Following Rafael Nadal's four set win in Arthur Ashe Stadium, a male fan rushed the court and planted a kiss on the Spanish superstar. What's more than that—Nadal seemed to have no problem with it whatsoever. The video below shows the modern day Morganno rushing the court as soon as Rafa went shirts-off time immediately after his match concluded.

Yesterday, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin continued her surprise run at the U.S. Open, defeating 13 seed Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 and advancing to the quarterfinals. The crowds at Arhur Ashe Stadium have been rallying around the 70th-ranked Georgia native (for instance, listen to the crowd at match point, right before beating Maria Sharapova), but the attention is also a bit overwhelming.

• Blue Jays 14, Yankees 8: Even a first-place team can look like last-place ones. All it has to do is start Sergio Mitre, play terrible defense and play backups for half the game because it has a day-night doubleheader the next day. The Yankees led this game, 5-4 at one point, but then Mitre and Mark Melancon had enough of that. Derek Jeter had three hits, leaving him three shy of Lou Gehrig's Yankees record. The Yankees start a long homestand with two against Tampa Bay on Monday.

• Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4: By avoiding a losing streak, the Yankees extended their American League East lead to 8 1/2 games. Andy Pettitte labored through six innings of four-run ball. That included four walks. Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira had homers for Yankees, who bounced back from being one-hit on Friday night. Derek Jeter's two hits move him seven away from breaking Lou Gehrig's all-time Yankees hit record. Sergio Mitre will start Sunday's finale.

• Mets 8 Rockies 3: Pat Misch earned his first career win thanks to seven strong innings of pitching. Mitsch allowed two homers, but settled down, avoiding becoming the first player in the Majors to lose his first 13 starts. Mets rookie catcher Josh Thole got his first career start and his first hit, eventually going 2-5 with a single and double. David Wright and Angel Pagan both had two RBI and Daniel Murphy cleaned up with a homer, double and two RBI's.

One of the understated highlights of watching the US Open each year is keeping an eye on the ball boys and girls at Arthur Ashe Stadium, watching as the horde of mostly teenagers frantically dart onto the court to rescue errant tennis balls without distracting the megastars they whiz by. On Tuesday night, one ball boy took center stage in his dramatic attempt to recover a ball during the match between Andy Murray and Ernests Gulbis. Let's go to the video tape:

                   

The 2009 U.S. Open tennis tournament kicked off yesterday in Flushing with fireworks, Heidi Klum, an unseasonable chill, and a hotly contested match between Venus Williams and Vera Dushevina, a 22-year-old Russian who, despite being ranked 47th, gave the number 3 ranked Williams a serious run for her money. After narrowly losing the first set to Dushevina, Williams came from behind to squeak out a second set win, then pounded the white Russian 6 games to 3 to win the match—a victory she credited to all the fans shouting "Go Venus!" throughout the long two-and-a-half hour contest.

• Andy Pettitte had a perfect game in Baltimore broken up when Jerry Hairston Jr. made an error with two outs in the seventh inning. Luckily for Hairston, Pettitte gave up a single to the next batter, but who knows what would have happened had the third baseman, playing to spell Alex Rodirguez, made the play? Pettitte finished by going eight innings, walking none and striking out eight and allowing a lone run. The Yankees won, 5-1, and lead the American League East by 6.5 games. Nick Swisher homered for the 19th time on the road -- he has 22 overall -- to start the scoring. He also had an RBI double.
• At the chilly US Open where sweatshirts were flying off shelves faster than a Roddick serve, all the big names advanced: Federer, Serena Williams, Venus Williams (actually close against Vera Dushevina), Roddick, Davydenko, Blake.

If not for a five-set loss in the Australian Open final, Roger Federer would be rolling into Flushing Meadows with a chance for a true Grand Slam. But that loss to Rafael Nadal means Federer, who won the French Open and Wimbledon, will be looking for "only" his third major championship of the year and his sixth straight title in Queens. Not bad for a player written off during the American hardcourt season in March. Nadal lost in Paris as the four-time defending champion in the fourth round and didn't even play Wimbledon because of patellar tendinitis in both knees. Since returning earlier this month, he hasn't looked sharp in two hardcourt events in Montreal and Cincinnati.

For four days Bethpage Black was the scene of some miserable weather, so-so golf and heckling fans, on Monday the rain stayed away and a fabulous final round was played. Six golfers were within two strokes or less of the lead with three holes to play in the tournament, but it was Lucas Glover, a player with one career win, who outplayed them all to win the U.S. Open.

Faced with a dreadful week of weather that has play a day behind schedule and on-and-off showers keeping some golfers on the greens for upwards of eleven hours yesterday, some local fans at Bethpage Black greeted US Open golfers in the fashion New Yorkers do best—by getting wasted and heckling them. Newsday reports that Tiger Woods may have gotten the worst of it. Among the "You suck!" and "This Bud's for you!" callouts, one fan got in, "Suck it up, you've got your own video game!" The paper says that Tiger "tried to quiet the crowd with a 'sshh' hand gesture." The fans' response: "We're on Long Island, baby, where men are men! Put that umbrella down!" Other fans, lacking in that level of chutzpah and cleverness, simply stuck to targeting golfer Fred Funk by "shouting his last name as an obscenity." The boo birds and delays didn't seem to faze leader Ricky Barnes, who set an Open record by going eight under after 36 holes. He said, "Nothing you can do. It's kind of like being stuck in an airport and they won't refund you." For more, check out Newsday's U.S. Open blog.

     

The U.S. Open tees off tomorrow morning at Bethpage State Park's Black Course and while the field is supremely talented, there is clearly one favorite — Tiger Woods. Besides being the best golfer in the World, Woods is the defending Open champion and won the tournament when it was last held at Bethpage in 2002.

   

• Jets 20, Dolphins 14: They didn't make it look easy, but the Jets took down the Dolphins to get the Brett Favre era off to a solid, if not resounding, start. Favre, came out of retirement and got traded to the Jets from Green Bay, threw two touchdown passes. The first, to Jerricho Cotchery, was a well-executed play on both ends. The second, to Chansi Stuckey, was not. On a fourth-down desperation play, Favre simply heaved the ball toward the end zone and was lucky that it was not picked off. Favre then had to watch from the sideline as Miami's Chad Pennington threw for more than 150 yards in the fourth quarter and almost led the game-winning drive throwing to stalwarts such as Anthony Fasano and Greg Camarillo. But then Darrelle Revis intercepted Pennington in the end zone, and the game was over. This week, the Jets play at home against the Patriots, who will be without Tom Brady, who is likely done for the year.
• Mets 6, Phillies 3: Averting the disaster of a three-game sweep, the Mets salvaged the nightcap of Sunday's doubleheader and the finale of a three-game series against the rival Phillies. Thanks in part to Johan Santana's 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball, the Mets now lead them by two games with 19 to play. Carlos Delgado had two homers -- again -- and also singled in two runs in the first. His resurgence has been noteworthy, but this rumblings of his earning consideration for the MVP award is a product over-excitement. How quickly Mets fans forget how much he stunk until June (and how much great Albert Pujols has been). The news was not all good; Billy Wagner could be done for the year.
• Across the way in Flushing, Serena Williams won her third U.S. Open title by defeating Jelena Jankovic in straight sets. She also took over the No. 1 ranking in the world with an impressive performance in a well-played match. That said, would it kill the women to play a deciding third set once in a while? It hasn't happened since 1995, when Steffi Graf was still roaming the courts.
• Mariners 5, Yankees 2: Fourth place? Get used to it. The Yankees fell to the lowly Mariners again Sunday, losing two of three in the Pacific Northwest. Mike Mussina stayed stuck on 17 wins after taking the loss. His bid for 20 is the only thing worth following these days.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Favre Wins Debut"

The Queens DA's office revealed a 19-year-old Queens resident hired as a contract employee at the U.S. Open was charged with falsely reporting an incident--actually three bomb threats. Apparently Mehmet Kadayifci, per WNBC, "pretended to be hearing impaired and used a special Web site to type three bogus claims between midnight and 1 a.m. about a bomb being inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium." (The website is to help deaf people make phone calls.) One note read, "There is a bomb in the fire command center. This is a final warning.". Not only that, Kadayifci had bragged to another worker about the prank. He could face up to 7 years in prison if convicted.

For those New Yorkers not fortunate enough to have snagged U.S. Open tickets (and to nibble on the fancy food options out in Flushing), American Express has set up an alternate viewing and eating spot -- no 7 train necessary.

Roger Federer has won the last four U.S. Open titles, but he won't be the favorite when the tournament starts tomorrow at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing. That honor will go to Rafael Nadal, the new world No. 1 and winner of the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympics this summer. Federer, 27, has looked mortal or worse this season, and Nadal, 22, has peaked while displaying an all-surface versatility that had eluded him in previous summers. For the first time since the 2004 Australian Open, Federer will not be the top seed at a Grand Slam event.

• Yankees 6 Royals 3: At this point, the YES Network should just play a “ch-ching” sound everytime A-Rod steps up to the plate. After hitting a home run for the 5th-consecutive game on Sunday, A-Rod has 52 for the season, the most for a Yankee since Mantle and Maris hit 54 and 61 in 1961. He also has 138 RBI’s with 19 games left, which puts him in line to have the most RBI’s as a Yankee since Joe DiMaggio had 155 in 1948.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: The Royals Are Flushed"

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a two alarm fire at 80 Washington St in Lower Manhattan; an aircraft emergency at JFK this morning; two pedestrians struck on E. 53rd St.; and a "possible A.I. job" (whatever that is) in Woodhaven.
• The NYCLU objected yesterday to the number of cases the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated. The board, which investigates police misconduct, only substantiated 5% of the cases, but that's actually higher than that of Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
• A 64-year-old Gambino capo was given a 15 year sentence for orchestrating the murders of a couple that robbed his social club. No news on whether Dominick "Skinny Dom" Pizzonia, who has 6 grandchildren, lectured the judge on how they did things in his day.
• Mom and pop may have it a little easier if the City Council gets its way. They are examining the idea of giving tax breaks to small businesses hoping to "preserve neighborhood character," something that Mayor Bloomberg may not sign if it gets to him.
• Judith Zuk, the former president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, passed away over the weekend due to breast cancer. She served as president from 1990 until her retirement in 2005.
• Red Hook vendors and area eaters have lucked out. The Dept. of Parks and Recreation are letting the food vendors remain through October 21st when they traditionally end their season. New rules are expected to be laid out in the Fall that may prevent the vendors from returning next year.
• The hottest ticket in town? Not Oprah, not the US Open, but J.K. Rowling. She's coming to New York to read at Carnegie Hall for 1,600 lucky kids from NYC's public schools. She'll also be signing books and answering questions about the series to the lucky students. No tickets are available to the public.
• And coming to your computer - MTV is building "music world" a virtual Brooklyn and Lower East Side that replicates "hip" clubs. Bonus: no need to dress up while sitting at home late at night in front of the computer.