Wozniacki Out, Critics Breathe Huge Sigh of Relief

Caroline Wozniacki: Just getting warmed up!

Caroline Wozniacki, squandered a match point against China's Na Li and finally succumbed to her critics, bowing out in the Aussie semis 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. But take notice, Wozniacki exits this grand slam as a stronger player with thicker skin.

"I believe if I keep working hard my time will come," Wozniacki said after the match and her critics should take note.

Tennis experts, sports journalists and the “haters” at the Australian Open spent the entire fortnight dogging the top seed and World’s #1 player, Caroline Wozniacki.

Dozens of analysts made it clear, that the 20-year-old Dane doesn’t pack the gear to win a major. She came very close to proving them wrong, but fell short by the slimmest of margins.

Martina Navratilova, Pam Shriver and several other “tennis television personalities” had a field day criticizing Wozniacki for her style of play. She isn’t making a statement, she’s never won a grand slam and she isn’t hitting enough winners. Blah, blah, blah.

Wozniacki is a tough kid with an iron will and she will win a major – Whether the critics like it or not.

At 20-years-old, Wozniacki will continue to improve and at some point in the near future – she will have her grand slam title. What will the critics complain about then? I’m sure they’ll find something.

Tears of Joy as the "Working Mom" Kim Clijsters, Claims her 2nd U.S. Open Title

Clijsters falls to her knees after claiming the 2009 U.S. Open

When this tournament started more than two weeks ago, Kim Clijsters, the 2005 U.S. Open Champion, had more than a few obstacles in front of her:

1) It was only her third tournament back.
2) She gave birth to a baby girl 18 months ago.
3) She had the toughest draw in the entire tournament.

That’s no exaggeration either, Kim Clijsters absolutely had the toughest draw in women’s tennis and won the title by beating 5 seeded players including the Williams sisters, Serena ranked #2 and Venus ranked #3. And let’s face it, the top seed, Dinara Safina was no threat - she was out by the 3rd round.

So what began as a possible experiment for Clijsters, slowly started to take the shape of an unlikely run to the championships. After taking out Venus in 3 of the strangest fourth round matches played in a long time at Flushing Meadows, the chance was there. The question was, could Clijsters seize it?

Clijsters ran over the the 18th seed, Na Li in the quarters, setting up a semifinal showdown against the most dominant woman in tennis during the past year, Serena Williams. Clijsters played a brilliant match and served possibly the best match of her life against Serena. Serena lost the match on a penalty point, but Clijsters had certainly earned the victory.

The “working mom” made it to the final where she faced her third top ten opponent in just four rounds, the 9th seeded player from Denmark, Caroline Wozniacki. The 19-year-old Wozniacki made a spirited contest of it in the first set. Both women combined to drop their serves seven times in the first set before Clijsters took it 7-5 and the next one 6-3.

She dropped to her knees as tears of joy ran down her face. Clijsters made the perilous climb into the family’s box and was treated to a standing ovation from the crowd. When Kim made her way back down, she posed for multiple pictures alongside of her 18-month-old baby girl and her husband. It was a touching end to a very strange tournament and Clijsters savored every moment of it.

Temper Tantrum Sends Seething Serena Packing

Serena blows a gasket and any chance to defend her title.

The rain cleared and all finally seemed right in the tennis universe when Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters took the court Saturday evening. But when it was over, Serena, Kim and a stunned national audience could only shake their heads and wonder how things went so wrong, so quickly.

Kim Clijsters won the contest 6-4, 7-5, despite the fact that she never got to play a match point. The problems began when Serena lost her temper after dropping the first set 6-4. She bounced her racquet once, took a look at it and then crushed it on the court.

At the point, the chair umpire issued a code violation (behavior warning) against Serena. Once a player is issued a warning, the next punishment is an actual loss of a point. That warning set the stage for an ugly and premature end to this match.

Clijsters was up 6-5 in the second set. The score was deuce and Serena had just struck a second serve when the linesperson inexplicably and mistakenly called a foot fault. This foolish call gave Clijsters a match point and that’s when Serena lost it.

She stalked over to the chair gesturing wildly and showering the offending linesperson with a searing stream of expletives. The linesperson went to the chair umpire and the tournament referee, Brian Earley, came to the court. Serena spoke to them and learned that her tirade and verbal abuse had earned her an un-sportsmanlike conduct point penalty. Since it was match point, game over, SERENA LOST.

Serena walked over to Clijsters, shook her hand and congratulated her. Poor Kim looked devastated. This was not the way she wanted to win and the pleasure of her victory was tainted.

All the credit to Clijsters who played a great match and served brilliantly. Despite the bizarre outcome, Clijsters earned her spot in the finals. She will go for her second U.S. Open title on Sunday against the 9th seeded Caroline Wozniacki.

Wozniacki breezed past unseeded Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-3 to reach her first U.S. Open Final.

Friday Washed Away – Tennis Schedule Revamped

Washout Friday: The more they rolled - the more it rained.

A day and night of the rain on Friday wreaked havoc with the schedule at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships that will now be extended until Monday.

Here’s the latest schedule which of course is still at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Rafael Nadal is slated to resume his match against Fernando Gonzalez at noon on Saturday at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The weather of course, is still in question, but Nadal is up a set and on serve in a second set tiebreaker, 7-6, 6-6(3-2).

Once Nadal in finished, the schedule calls for the first women’s semifinal featuring Wozniacki versus Wickmayer.

The premier women’s semi, Serena Williams versus Kim Clijsters is set for the night session on Saturday beginning at 8pm.

The men’s semifinal matches, will be played on Sunday and the women’s final has been shuffled to Sunday evening starting at 9pm.

The men’s final which was to be played Sunday, will now be played on Monday. There will be a quiz after reading this!

Fairy Tale Ends for Melanie Oudin – No Surprises for the Men’s Side

Clock Strikes Midnight for Cinderella - Out in Straight Sets

It was a magical week for Melanie Oudin, she made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open and beat some of the best players in the game on the way. But Oudin ran into mirror image of herself on Day 10, the 9th ranked player in the world, Caroline Wozniacki.

Oudin was able to fight back from a set down in each of her previous matches, but it was not to happen in the quarterfinals of the 2009 U.S. Open. Wozniacki was content to keep the ball in play and use a series of angles to beat Oudin in two easy sets, 6-2, 6-2.

On the men’s side, Fernando Verdasco had high hopes in his quarterfinal match against the fourth seed, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic appeared to be on his heels throughout the first set, but somehow managed to steal the first set tiebreaker by a score of 7-2.

Instead of going away, the loss in the tiebreaker seemed to pump Verdasco up. He tore into Djokovic, who seemed to wilt under the pressure losing the second set 6-1. After a rash of unforced errors and poor service games, the Serb did his best to hang in there and survive the 3rd set.

At 5-5 in third, Djokovic played his best game of the match and ended up running away with the whole thing by a final score of 7-6, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2. His reward for the big win is a semifinal clash with the man who’s won 39 straight matches and five straight titles here at the U.S. Open, none other than Roger Federer.

It took four sets for the top seed to put away Robin Soderling 6-0, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6. Federer advances to his 22nd straight Grand Slam semifinal. 22 straight semifinals?? That’s two short of six straight years - where his worst performance at a major was a semifinal appearance. I could write the same thing about six more times and it still wouldn't make sense.

U.S. Open Day 10 Preview: Melanie Oudin Making Life Miserable for Top Seeds

Melanie Oudin has her opponents literally talking to themselves on the court. What happened to them? They were up a set, seemingly in control and suddenly they were being escorted off the grounds. It’s as if they were having a bad daydream, "What, didn't I win?"

If I were coaching her 19-year-old opponent, 9th seeded Caroline Wozniacki, I would tell her to play the entire quarterfinal match as if she were down a set and a break. 

She'll have to if she wants to advance to her first grand slam semifinal, because the 17-year-old Oudin has "Braveheart Syndrome." She’d launch herself over a game of checkers to beat you. Oudin says of her opponents ‘they know that I’m not going away, they’ll have to beat me.’ She means it, too.

The edge goes to Oudin here. Throw out the rankings and look at the way the young American has won her matches. She’s willing to grind or go for broke, whatever it takes to win. Her confidence is sky-high and she will have the raucous support of an entire nation behind her.

The other quarterfinal match pits the 50th ranked Yanina Wickmayer against the 52nd ranked Kateryna Bondarenko. This is what happens when 8 of the top 10 seeds get knocked out on the women’s side too early.

On the men’s side, the Andys are long gone, but there is still a field full of challengers left for the world’s number one, Roger Federer. Fed takes on Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals, the Giant Swede he conquered at this year’s French Open to claim his career Grand Slam.

Soderling has been playing big tennis all week long, but this is Federer. He hasn’t lost a match in New York since the Dutch settled the colony back in 1609. I doubt Soderling will be able to take a set unless Roger gets very bored.

However, there is one guy on the top half of the draw who’s actually managed to beat Federer a few times. Novak Djokovic from Serbia boasts four wins in 12 meetings against Federer. Djokovic meets Fernando Verdasco in his quarterfinal match. 

Verdasco is a tough and capable opponent, but I don’t believe he has what it takes to win three sets off of Djokovic. The Serb should push through in three to four sets.