by Pete Bodo

NEW YORK—Well, it’s another rainy day in Flushing Meadows, but I sucked it up and made it here. So did our TENNIS magazine intern, Brad Kallet, who had to catch the proverbial trains, planes and automobiles to get here from his home home in New Jersey—all in the pouring rain, with little hope of seeing a single tennis ball hit in anger. Gotta hand it to the kid, he sure is persistent. And we actually found him a piece to write, which will appear either here or on the home page later. He’s going to check out the umpires and ballboys, all of whom are captives on site all day (unlike fans and players) and work something up on them.

One perk of tenure as a tennis journalist is that it earns you an exemption from having to write rainy-day ballboy or umpire pieces. That also leaves me high and dry, figuratively speaking, because another unspoken axiom of the trade is that you only get one rainy day story out of a particularly bad spell of weather, unless of course the tournament is in full swing and you can hunt down some coaches or players, or analyze the draw. This tournament is not only not in full swing, the draw won’t be made until Thursday, and the qualifying has barely started.

I had hoped to get together with Robert Kendrick today, but he stayed in the city. It won’t be a total write-off of a day for me, though, because I have a call booked later this afternoon with Larry Ellison, the hugely successful Internet entrepreneur and new owner of the Indian Wells tournament. I’ll have to return to the city to get that one done.

But let’s take a quick look at some recent news, just to keep our spirits up.

—Yesterday, James Blake was involved in the shortest match played on the tour so far this year—a 35-minute, 6-0, 6-1 affair. The good news for Blake is that he was on the winning end for a change. I just went to the ATP website and am delighted—and amazed—to see that play apparently is in progress in New Haven, despite the horrible weather here in New York. 

Today, Blake is meeting Alexandr Dolgopolov, about whom I’ve been hearing good things. We’ll keep our eyes on him in the coming days. I hope the quick-time win has boosted Blake’s confidence.

—Elena Dementieva presently is fighting cheek to jowl with Kateryna Bondarenko, 3-all in the third. Which begs the question, just how fit and match-ready will Dementieva be for the U.S. Open, where she’s often played so well in the past?

It’s funny, but when I think of Dementieva, the thing that comes to mind is all those tournaments, a dozen or so, where she played like a house on fire and looked like a can’t miss winner or finalist. . . yet always missed. Choking, injuries, inexplicably bad days (for someone who had been playing so well, and had learned the value of seizing opportunity) are the personal history she’s written at the majors.

Frankly, I’m shocked she hasn’t won one, and I’m rapidly losing the once airtight conviction that she would bag a major one day. For her sake, I’m glad she won that Olympic Games gold medal. Given the typical Russian’s reverence for Olympic athletes and events, I imagine that Dementieva sticks that gold medal under the sheets when she goes to sleep, to keep her warm and optimistic.

—Is Marcos Baghdatis resurgent (again) for real? It’s an interesting, open question, because Baghdatis has been showing signs of the one quality that regular Grand Slam contenders demonstrate. He’s been playing consistently. The headline at the ATP website blares, “Baghdatis Continues March to US Open,” which is a nice bit of hyperbolic writing, if nothing else.

Baggy has put up three wins over Top 10 players in the past month, and improved his record on the summer hard-court circuit to 10-4. Often, a talented free spirit like Baghdatis will play well for a tournament or two, then fade. But Baghdatis, who beat Tomas Berdych and Rafael Nadal en route to a semifinal loss to champion Roger Federer at the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, continues to play like he means it. He’s the top seed at the Pilot Pen Classic in New Haven this week, and while the conditions there have been tough, he’s declared his intentions: “It’s been a good summer for me, but I came to play here and I came to win the tournament,” he said, after knocking out Igor Andreev yesterday.

Oddly, this resurrection coincides with that of another player who has a game and form chart similar to that of Baghdatis: David Nalbandian. Both of them could be impact players at the Open. Just for the hail of it, I took a look at their head-to-head record, and it confirms the parallels. Baghdatis holds a narrow 3-2 edge, and won the last three matches running, until Nalbandian put up his second win over Baggy a few weeks ago at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington D.C.). Three of their five meetings have occurred at majors (2-1 for Baghdatis), and the Cypriot beat the Argentinian in the most critical meeting of them all—the Australian Open semifinals, 2006, thereby earning the privilege of getting spanked in the final by Roger Federer.

But mark your calendars, everyone. A U.S. Open meeting of these two talented shotmakers looms as must-see tennis.

—I don’t know who’s going to be in a tougher position, mentally and emotionally, when the U.S. Open gets underway: Melanie Oudin or Caroline Wozniacki. After Serena Williams, they were the top WTA newsmakers at the American championships last year—Oudin for that courageous, mesmerizing run to the quarters; Wozniacki for reaching the final. Oudin bowled over three high-quality Russians during her spree at Flushing Meadows: Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, and Nadia Petrova, before she was halted by Wozniacki.

This year, Oudin has won exactly one match at a major (a win over Anna Lena Gronefeld at Wimbledon), and I was somewhat surprised to see that she’s ranked no. 44—I expected it to be lower. Wozniacki is 10-3 in the majors (she reached at least the round of 16 at each Grand Slam event), but as a defending finalist, a lot will be expected of her—and her losses at the majors have been alarming, one-sided blowouts (Petra Kvitova bombarded her, 6-2, 6-0 in their fourth-round match at Wimbledon).

BTW, Oudin, Wozniacki, John Isner and Sam Querrey are part of a promotional package conceived by U.S. Open sponsor American Express. They’ve created a cheerfully optimistic space for the quartet, billing them as “Next Contenders.” Amex is planning to seed this dedicated website with exclusive material about and by those four players all the way until the end of the U.S. Open. So if you’re a fan one any of them, check it out.  And while we still don’t know Isner’s U.S. Open status (ankle), I have some exclusive material about John that I also plan to post in the coming days.

Wozniacki’s big win in Montreal the other day is sure to help her confidence, but I still think both she and Oudin have their work cut out for them if they hope to match their results of last year.

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP)—Australia’s Samantha Stosur needed three sets and a tiebreaker to beat Sara Errani of Italy 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (4) at the Pilot Pen tennis tournament.

The second-seeded woman cruised through the first set, but was broken twice in the second.

Errani was serving for the match, up 5-4 and 40-15 in the third, before Stosur rallied, saving four match points.

“I just tried to hang in there and eventually got through that game, and once I won that then I knew that I was in a good spot,” Stosur said.
 
Stosur, who didn’t play in Cincinnati or Montreal because of an injury to her right arm, said she was a little nervous about how it would hold up under match conditions.

“I actually hadn’t hit more than about 30 serves in any practice session yet, so it was a good test for it tonight, and it was all good,” she said.

In the men’s draw, top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis fought through strong winds and a half hour of rain delays for a 6-2, 6-4 win over Igor Andreev in his opening match.

The Cypriot, who made it to the semifinals last week in Cincinnati and the finals earlier this month in Washington said he’s playing some of his best tennis heading into next week’s U.S. Open.

“It’s been a good summer for me, but I came to play here and I came to win the tournament,” he said.

“I’m not looking to win a Grand Slam or play well in a Grand Slam,” he added. “I’m looking to improve my tennis.”

Baghdatis broke Andreev in the first game of each set and kept the pressure on, but said the weather made it hard to get into a rhythm.

“The balls are heavy with the wind, with the rain a bit, you don’t feel really good to grip the racket,” he said. “I cannot say I’m feeling perfect, but I’m happy I won. I’m happy I found a solution so I can get another match tomorrow.”

In the women’s draw, Russian Maria Kirilenko beat last year’s finalist Elena Vesnina 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round, a year after making it to the finals.

Despite her runner-up status, Vesnina had to go through qualifying to get into the tournament, arriving from Montreal on Saturday just 2 hours before her first match. She played and won three matches over the weekend to earn her way into this year’s main draw.

Kirilenko said she switched rackets after losing her feel for the ball in the second set.

“I started to make a lot of double faults, and my serve didn’t work at all,” she said. “In the third set, my serve started to feel better.”

On the grandstand court, Marion Bartoli of France needed three sets to get by Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3. Bartoli said wind gusts didn’t allow her to be as aggressive as she would have liked.

“I was aiming in the middle and my ball was ending up 10 centimeters from the baseline or from the right or left line,” she said.

Australia’s Samantha Stosur played Italy’s Sara Errani in the final women’s match Tuesday night.

In the men’s draw, third-seeded Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, back from a knee injury that has kept him out since the French Open, lost to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4 in a second-round match.

Stepanek is playing his fourth tournament after coming back from his own knee problems, and had lost in the first round of the other three.

“After such a long time off, you have to find your game,” he said.

American Donald Young fell in his second-round match to Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela, 5-7, 6-4 6-0.

James Blake, who grew up in nearby Fairfield was to play in the final match of the night.

Lleyton Hewitt and coach Nathan Healy parted ways after Washington, report Australian press.

“[Healy has] decided to spend more time with his family and therefore is not able to travel,” said Hewitt’s manager, David Drysdale.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)—Top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis fought through strong winds and a half hour of rain delays Tuesday for a 6-2, 6-4 win over Igor Andreev in his opening match at the Pilot Pen tennis tournament.

The Cypriot, who made it to the semifinals last week in Cincinnati and the finals earlier this month in Washington said he’s playing some of his best tennis heading into next week’s U.S. Open.

“It’s been a good summer for me, but I came to play here and I came to win the tournament,” he said.

“I’m not looking to win a Grand Slam or play well in a Grand Slam,” he added. “I’m looking to improve my tennis.”

Baghdatis broke Andreev in the first game of each set and kept the pressure on, but said the weather made it hard to get into a rhythm.

“The balls are heavy with the wind, with the rain a bit, you don’t feel really good to grip the racket,” he said. “I cannot say I’m feeling perfect, but I’m happy I won. I’m happy I found a solution so I can get another match tomorrow.”

In the women’s draw, Russian Elena Vesnina lost to countrywoman Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round, a year after making it to the finals.

Despite her runner-up status, Vesnina had to go through qualifying to get into the tournament, arriving from Montreal on Saturday just 2 hours before her first match. She played and won three matches over the weekend to earn her way into this year’s main draw.

Kirilenko said she switched rackets after losing her feel for the ball in the second set.

“I started to make a lot of double faults, and my serve didn’t work at all,” she said. “In the third set, my serve started to feel better.”

On the grandstand court, Marion Bartoli of France needed three sets to get by Alona Bondarenko 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3. Bartoli said wind gusts, which topped 20 mph, didn’t allow her to be as aggressive as she would have liked.

“I was aiming in the middle and my ball was ending up 10 centimeters from the baseline or from the right or left line,” she said.

Samantha Stosur was playing Sara Errani in the final women’s match Tuesday night.

In the men’s draw, third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, back from a knee injury that has kept him out since the French Open, lost to Radek Stepanek 6-2, 6-4 in a second-round match.

Stepanek is playing his fourth tournament after coming back from his own knee problems, and had lost in the first round of the other three.

“After such a long time off, you have to find your game,” he said.

American Donald Young fell in his second-round match to Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela, 5-7, 6-4 6-0.

James Blake, who grew up in nearby Fairfield, was to play in the final match of the night.

by Pete Bodo

NEW YORK—Say what you will about Patrick McEnroe, the USTA, Arlen Kantarian, Billie Jean King, Mardy Fish, or Serena Williams. I find it impressive and gratifying, personally as well as professionally, to approach Arthur Ashe Stadium from almost any direction and see those highway signs of various size and shape directing traffic toward the National Tennis Center. They’re the same kinds of signs that guide sports fans toward Citi Field (home of the New York Mets), or tourists and other travelers to JFK or LaGuardia airports. This makes me feel that tennis, or at least the U.S. Open, has gravitas as both an attraction and institution.

The National Tennis Center. That has heft. Like the Mayo Clinic, the George Washington Bridge, or Cape Canaveral.

Then I tried to find parking in order to secure my credentials, including my parking pass. Those of you who tried to get into certain labor unions, only to be told that you need X amount of experience, which of course you can’t get unless you’re in the union, will know what I mean.

But why focus on the negative? It worked out just fine.

Walking to the NTC from the Hall of Science employee’s lot (don’t tell a soul), I saw my first tennis player beyond the cyclone fence and hedges: Nikolay Davydenko. That’s not a bad start to the 2010 U.S. Open, right? I couldn’t identify his practice partner, though. And a moment later, I heard the deep bass voice of an umpire, amplified by a microphone, intone: “Two minutes, gentlemen. . .”

Qualifying was about to get underway.

Soon I had my credential all sorted out and hung around my neck like a cowbell. I walked through the gate and got shot in the chest by security. Being a U.S. Open gatekeeper isn’t all that bad a job if you have a sick sense of humor or a good measure of latent aggression. You stand there all day with a bar-code reader that looks like a stun gun, and every time some credential-toting schmo tries to go through the gate you point that sucker right at his or her sternum and pull the trigger. Zap! You may go.. . Burial at six.

The big change in our cube farm (the media center) is that the endless banks of televisions are gone (there’s always been one at every work station, perched on a shelf at eye level). Instead, There’s a Lenovo ThinkPad tablet computer on surface of my work area, with a slick swivel screen and plastic stylus that enables you to maneuver between channels. It’s also useful as a tablet to jot down notes. That will come in handy for tracking the action on any court once the tournament proper begins.

But I’m not sure I needed a second computer competing with my laptop for precious space on the small work surface, never mind the distraction of the tablet’s flashing screen right behind this one. Thankfully, I can turn it off, or just flip the screen around. I guess it will be okay.

Some of you may recall that on finals day last year, my Timbuk2 messenger bag was lost or stolen. It was a horrible day for me, not least because I had two check books, a big check (it’s all relative), some contracts and my tape recorder in the bag. Well, Jeanmarie Daly of the USTA informed me that my bag was found when the staff was cleaning out the lockers a few days ago, although not in the space I had last year. I was shocked to find all my personal possessions untouched. My tape recorder even has a little juice left in it, which means you will get that Marsel Ilhan interview I never did post last year. . .

Things have been so-so for Ilhan since his breakout performance here last summer. Ilhan, an Uzbek who immigrated to Turkey, reached the second round here in 2009 (he lost to Long John Isner, after winning three qualifying matches and one in the main draw). He was complimented on his good play by Roger Federer, who was not at all shy about walking up to Ilhan in the locker room to introduce himself. The gall of some people. . . 

Ilhan made his big jump in 2007 and has been pleasantly consistent since then, grinding it out in Challengers, qualifying, and occasional main-tour events. He also qualified and made the second round at Wimbledon a few months ago. Ilhan’s ambition is to finish within the Top 100 for 10 consecutive years (or win 16 majors, whichever comes first, I’m tempted to add), and you gotta love a fella who thinks long-term.

Ilhan is currently No. 108, five places off his career high (which he hit in July), so he’s got a shot. . .that first year is the toughest, Ilhan, godspeed!

The affable Uzbek is the top seed in the men’s qualifying. Some other persons of interest, for those of you who go for the sleuth work of the qualifying connoisseur (I had to flip back and forth from the dictionary 11 times to get the spelling right, so don’t give me a hard time today), are Nicolas Mahut, Simone Bolelli, Rajeev Ram, Karol Beck and Bernard Tomic.

It doesn’t seem quite right that Ilhan has to face Tomic in the first round. Why not Daniele Giorgini (you know how those Italian men are—soft as the chicas are hard). But then it also doesn’t seem quite fair that Ilhan has to play qualifying, not with a ranking of 108 for a tournament with 128 places in the draw.

But that’s what you get when you start fooling with ideas like the wild card and qualifying—which soak up a combined 24 slots, or roughly a fifth of the entire draw.

The cutoff for main draw entry at a major is usually 104—add the 16 qualifiers and eight wild cards and you’re in business. But here’s where it gets a little tricky. Say you’re Marsel Ilhan, ranked No. 108, and all 104 players eligible for direct entry are in the draw. You’re four places out, which means that if four players who had entered decide it would be foolish to play (usually for reasons related to injury), or need to withdraw for some other reason, you’re straight in.

However, once the qualifying begins, any slot suddenly vacated before main-draw play begins can only be filled from the qualifying draw. Hence the “lucky loser,” who fails to qualify but gets a main-draw place because of a withdrawal. So you can bet that highly-ranked qualifiers, like Ilhan, have spent the past few days hoping that Ivan Ljubicic decides he can’t wait another minute to get that hair transplant, or Marcos Baghdatis cuts his right shoulder while shaving.

Ilhan had no such luck. As of 11:06, it became law that if he were going to appear as a main-draw player, he’d have to do it the hard way—via qualifying. I was all geared up for watching his battle with Tomic, but when I left the cube farm I realized it was raining, and play had been suspended. And with the forecast calling for more rain for the rest of the day and tomorrow, it looks as if Ilhan’s life is getting more complicated by the moment. Having to get through qualifying in time to start main draw play on Monday means that the qualifiers will have to play a lot of tennis in very few days. It must be tough for Ilhan, after that good run in 2009, to have to deal with all this.

Here’s an idea: Why not fill the withdrawals in the main draw with the next highest-ranked player? Sure, it means that a guy could lose in qualifying and still get into the main draw, but that’s what happens with a lucky loser anyway. Why not throw a bone to the guy who’s put up the best results over the past 12 months, instead of a guy ranked 176 or below, who happened to get a good draw in qualifying and couldn’t even capitalize on that? I guess it could get tricky if a guy who qualified got bumped at the last minute by a higher-ranked player, but you could just slide the deadline for filling vacancies based on ranking up to when qualifying ends, instead of when it begins.

Anyway, I realized I’m not going to see a lot of tennis today, although they’re working feverishly to dry the courts as I write this. So I took a stroll to the player’s lounge, where nubile Slavic girls in skin-tight short-shorts were playing foosball (now there’s a truly dopey game), stringy-haired Spanish kids were Tweeting like they get paid for it, and players from all over the world were traveling with entourages, like packs of hungry young wolves.

It was so crowded that septuagenarian (that was just 8 times, I’m getting better) coaches had to adopt rather undignified poses, sitting on the floor with their backs to the blue-painted cinder block wall, because 18-year olds gabbing on cell phones were draped all over the couches. It was as good a place as any to watch as parade of leggy young pony-tailed young things prance by, clutching an iPod in one hand and a plastic bottle of Evian with a bright red cap in the other. I think they’re running a contest today: Which little turnip has the biggest and most fully stuffed racket bag strapped to her back?

I bumped into Antonio van Grinchen, who shepherded Victoria Azarenka to the best days of her still developing career, and also worked briefly with Vera Zvonareva. He’s helping out the Chinese federation, and that painful pinched nerve in his neck has been healed without surgery, through acupuncture. Which suggests some relation between those two facts.

But before I had no time to ask, I spotted Jay Berger, whom I was going to visit with, until Alex Corretja came my way. . .

The NTC was open for business, alright, although not many balls had yet been hit.

American qualifier Taylor Dent has upset Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-2 at Cincinnati. The 29-year-old Dent will face No. 1 Rafael Nadal, who had fallen to Lopez earlier this summer at Queens.

After pulling out of Toronto and revealing he had been suffering from a mild bout of mononucleosis, Andy Roddick returned to competition with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 win over Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Another American, Sam Querrey, beat Philipp Petzschner 6-,1 6-4 for his first win in two weeks. After winning the title in L.A., Querrey suffered early round defeats at Washington and Toronto. The 22-year-old, who has won four small titles this year, hasn’t reached the quarterfinals of a Masters Series or Grand Slam in 2010.—Matthew Cronin

MASON, Ohio (AP)—Andy Roddick finally knows what’s been getting him down the last few months—a mild case of mononucleosis.

Roddick said on Saturday that one of several blood tests came back positive for mononucleosis. Doctors told him he’s probably had it for the last couple of months and should be nearly over it.

“I’m just glad that we found out something that was causing it,” said Roddick, who is getting ready for next week’s Cincinnati Masters. “It’s weird, the fear of kind of the unknown and not knowing what’s going on. There were some days where it was good, and some days where it was real bad. So it was like you would have one of those two or three good days, and it was like, ‘OK, you’re just being kind of a wimp.’

“So it’s nice to have a little bit of clarity moving forward. It’s not something that’s going to affect me, anything super-serious.”

Roger Federer had mononucleosis in 2008, leading to a decline in his wins and his ranking. Roddick has slipped to No. 11 in the world while struggling through a summer of out-of-character losses, making him wonder what was wrong.

Seeded fifth at Wimbledon, he lost to 82nd-ranked Yen-hsu Lu of Taiwan in the fourth round. He lost to Gilles Simon in the third round at Washington on Aug. 6, saying afterward that he didn’t feel right. He got blood tests in Washington and more in Texas, and withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Toronto this week while awaiting results.

“I guess I’ve been dealing with a mild, mild case of mono for the last couple of months that I wasn’t really sure about,” he said. “So they think I’m fine now. They think I’m most of the way through it, if not all the way through it.”

Roddick said he tired more easily this summer, prompting him to cut back on his workout schedule.

“I enjoy training all day and running all day long and doing all that stuff,” Roddick said. “You know, I opted out of probably four or five workouts this summer—that I’ve never done before. So that wasn’t fun. It was just me wondering if I was out of shape or what was going on, why there was this lethargic feeling.”

He expects to be fine for the U.S. Open, where he lost to John Isner in the third round last year. Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open. He said his doctor was encouraging.

“He said, ‘You know, the good news is you’re probably ready to rock. Be a little careful, but you should be fine to go,”’ Roddick said. “That was a relief.”

by Pete Bodo

One thing I’ve already learned from doing News of the Day posts is that news travels fast, at least during tennis-dense periods of the kind currently underway on the hard courts of the U.S. and Canada. Having missed the better part of two days’ action, looking at the draws, parsing the news articles, checking the schedules leaves me feeling overwhelmed. Where to start? More to the point, where to stop and what to leave out? But let’s give it a try.

—You can accuse Andy Roddick of certain shortcomings, but “lack of energy” has never been one of them. So the news that he pulled out of the Rogers Cup (Toronto) because he wasn’t feeling quite right—he hadn’t been feeling quite right from back when he lost to Gilles Simon at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington)—is a little disturbing. I don’t want to start any rumors here, and Roddick has issued no update on his condition. But mononucleosis (glandular fever) has been so common on the tour that it can almost be called “tennis player disease,” or could be called that if it were not already a euphemism for choking away matches. Roger Federer and Long John Isner, among others, had recent bouts of mono.

A few months ago, Isner told me about how he received support and advice on his own recovery from mono from Federer. That happened in Cincinnati last year, when Isner was just returning to the tour. He was a little freaked out because he was beginning to feel the symptoms (loss of energy) that he experienced before he was diagnosed with mono back in the spring.

So Craig Boynton, Isner’s coach, approached Severin Luthi, Federer’s Davis Cup coach and adviser, seeking advice. The following day, Federer found Isner engaged in a golf video game in the Cincy player lounge. “He came up and talked to me about it,” Isner recalled. “He told me to listen to my body. If I felt spent, I should have no qualms about pulling out or a tournament, or even in the middle of a match. ‘Don’t be afraid or ashamed to do it,’ Roger told me. And for him to take the time, that was pretty cool.”

One secret to Federer’s success and longevity: He loves the locker room culture. It’s not like the guy got his 10 majors and now wants to write dark rock-and-roll anthems, or challenge Hugo Boss as a designer of men’s suits.

—Francesca Schiavone crafted what might well be the best WTA story of the passing year at the French Open, where she emerged as champion. Since then, though, she’s experienced some rough sledding while undoubtedly still riding the emotional high of her great win at Roland Garros.

Schiavone’s loss in the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open (Cincinnati) yesterday dropped her post-Roland Garros record to 1-5. Who cares? She’s a Grand Slam champion—perhaps the most unexpected female champ at a major since Iva Majoli beat Martina Hingis for the same title in 1997. That French title can’t ever be taken away, and these recent losses can’t possibly be remembered, at least not beyond, oh, next Wednesday. So it’s all good, right?

It will probably take something compelling to pull Schiavone out of the tailspin. It could be the U.S. Open, but it might also be—believe it or not—Fed Cup. You know what high morale that Italian squad has cultivated, and the fear of letting her teammates down may give Schiavone that extra bit of incentive she needs to shake her head and get it out of the clouds.

All this, of course, goes to show the emotional impact that a huge win can have. And Schiavone could not have had a bigger, less likely one. Now imagine being a Serena Williams, Roger Federer, or Rafael Nadal, routinely bringing home the bacon major after major, year after year, rarely suffering anything like a comparable letdown. It just increases your respect for the giants of the game.

—Things could be worse for Schiavone. She could be, oh, Elena Dementieva, the snakebit pro who’s established herself not just as the best player not to have won a Grand Slam title, but now also looks more and more like the best one destined to maybe never win one. You know that “jump the shark” theory, right? Well, you have to wonder if the semifinal Dementieva lost at Roland Garros isn’t her jumping-the-shark moment. Dementieva was in the midst of another teasing, tempting run at the French Open when she had to retire after losing the first-set tiebreaker to. .  . Schiavone.

The unexpected pass to the final paved the way for Schiavone’s moment of glory; you might even say it allowed Schiavone to snatch a title that seemed destined to go to Dementieva. Remember, the other finalist turned out to be Slammin’ Sam Stosur, a erratic, unpredictable competitor also seeking her first major. The long-expected alignment of the stars seemed to be in the offing for Dementieva.

But Dementieva’s luck transcended the merely bad and now looks almost like a nasty blow delivered by the fates. She appears recovered from that left-calf strain that led her to abandon the French semi, but she won only one singles match (over Kimiko Date Krumm) in the two tournaments she’s played thus far this summer, The Bank of the West Classic (Stanford) and Cincinnati.

—And just a few minutes ago, David Nalbandian pummeled Robin Soderling to make the quarterfinals in Toronto. That brings suddenly resurgent Nalbandian’s winning streak to 11 matches—the best run of his career. We know what this guy can do when he gets a hot hand, so we’ll say it again: Unless Nalbandian’s game goes over a cliff in the next two weeks, he’s positioned to be a force at the final major of the year.

David Nalbandian extended his winning streak to 11 matches in a row, defeating Robin Soderling 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals in Toronto.