US Open: The Finale

For the first time ever, Novak Djokovic and Samantha Stosur lifted the US Open trophy. For him, it's his 4th Grand Slam victory while for her, it's her maiden slam. They both had to endure hectic schedules, unpredictable weather conditions, and brutal opponents before ultimately prevailing. The finals for both were interestingly indicative of the entire year of both tours with Djokovic dominating the men's and Stosur becoming yet another surprise slam winner.


For Stosur, she was seen as the big underdog to Serena Williams in the finals even though their H2H was pretty close (4-3 in Williams' favor). Most of it had to do with Williams' wealth of experience in the big stage especially in Grand Slam finals. In comparison, Stosur had only reached one slam final prior to this one and she lost. All of that plus the pressure of facing off against the lone American playing in New York during the 10th anniversary of September 11th definitely made a lot of people underestimate her resolve. And yet from the very beginning she took charged as well as take advantage of a seemingly lost Williams who just couldn't control her emotions. After losing the first set easily, Williams went down an early break in the second after an altercation with the chair umpire who gave her a point penalty for hindrance when she shouted before the point was over. Williams used that anger to give her some life in the second set, but it was Stosur who kept her cool throughout with the crowds, the occasion, and with the controversy. In the end, she easily defeated Williams 6-2 6-3 for her first Grand Slam title, the first Australian to win one in 31 years.


In a rematch of last year's final (which also took place on a Monday), Djokovic faced defending champion Rafael Nadal. From the early games, one could tell it was going to be an absolutely grueling match between two incredible tennis players and that's exactly what happened. Though unfortunately for Nadal, he just couldn't win enough free points of his serve and he had lots of trouble breaking Djokovic which meant he easily lost the first two sets to the Serbian. With Nadal, however, giving up is not in his vocabulary as he went toe to toe with Djokovic in the third set eventually winning it by playing a brilliant tiebreak. Djokovic then got medical treatment for a presumed injured back before starting the fourth set. And yet Djokovic went on cruise control winning the set 6-1 claiming the championship after more than 4 hours of match time. Djokovic joins Nadal and Roger Federer as only the 6th man in the Open Era to win at least 3 slams in a year. He is also the first man to win double digit titles (10) since Federer won 12 in 2006. With a 64-2 record for the year to date, he is still on course to best John McEnroe's 82-3 record back in 1984.

Elsewhere, 9th seeds Jurgen Melzer/Philipp Petzschner won the Men's Doubles title over 6th seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg/Marcin Matkowski while Americans and 4th seeds Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond mounted a comeback against 3rd seed Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova to win the Women's Doubles title. Unexpectedly young Americans Melanie Oudin/Jack Sock won the Mixed Doubles title over 8th seeds Gisela Dulko/Eduardo Schwank. And that was all she wrote!