United States Open Tennis Tournament

NEW YORK -- The Jet Lag Open began Monday with the sluggishness you'd expect of a post-Beijing tennis major that ought to have an official Melatonin supplier. "I'm actually falling asleep right now," Jelena Jankovic said around 10 p.m. EDT, and the world's No. 2 player said that during her own news conference after beating 16-year-old San Diegan Coco Vandeweghe, 6-3, 6-1, a night match that kept Jankovic up well past her body's recent chosen bedtime of around 7 p.m.

NEW YORK -- After the winning clarity of Serena and Venus Williams carried the late afternoon and early evening, the globally famous enigma turned up at night. How would Roger Federer look Tuesday night near the end of his oft-tormented summer? Well, as it happened, he looked quite a bit like Roger Federer in a 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 win, partly because he benefited from a first-round draw of infinitely more mystery. "Never saw my opponent before," Federer said.

NEW YORK -- There's the usual talk at the U.S. Open about how women's tennis is in great hands, how it's better than ever because the players are stronger and hit the ball with speedier dispatch than ever before. Nonsense. All it takes is a clear head, a good memory -- and perhaps a few dusty tennis videotapes to pop in the VCR you've banished to the basement -- to see that the women's game is in trouble.

NEW YORK -- If you are big on the idea that America must always be top dog on the block, the U.S. Open will bring about nothing but heartburn. "We're finished," you'll tell yourself, walking the sprawling grounds here, rarely spotting a player who calls one of the 50 states home. "When it comes to tennis, we're a rare and dwindling breed, headed the way of the dodo bird and Britney Spears." There was a time when pro tennis players pretty much hailed from one of three global regions.

NEW YORK -- Choose your favorite preposterous factoid from one of the biggest upsets in tennis history. Maybe it's that when No. 188 Julie Coin played No. 1 Ana Ivanovic on Thursday in the second round of the U.S. Open, Coin played the second WTA Tour-level match of her 25-year lifetime. Maybe it's that two weeks ago at a second-tier tournament in the Bronx, Coin lost to 423rd-ranked Kelly Liggin of Ireland.

NEW YORK -- For the first 12 games, they played as equals. Novak Djokovic, Australian Open champion, third best male in tennis, stuck approach shots and pummeled backhands, winning every game he served. Robert Kendrick, journeyman, 113th in the rankings, matched his opponent, stroke for stroke, game for game. Now the score, suddenly, is six games all. It's tiebreaker time, crunch time, first to seven points, win by two.

NEW YORK -- Absurdly, after 947 tour matches, after 55 singles titles, after giving birth and coming back, after 18 long, competent years serving into that square on the other side of the net in tour events, Lindsay Davenport on Friday night ran across her first case of the serving yips. Arthur Ashe Stadium seemed to squirm, and pretty soon the woman departing her comeback U.S.

NEW YORK -- Opening on tennis Broadway, here's Sam Querrey, the Thousand Oaks skyscraper with the normal American childhood and a first Grand Slam second-week berth. He's 20, accruing wisdom, oozing confidence and booked to the fourth round of the U.S. Open after he wiped out fellow redwood and 14th-ranked Ivo Karlovic of Croatia on Saturday, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2, then showed a working knowledge of network television. "You know, I made the CBS weekend," he cracked.

NEW YORK -- Not to sound like too much of a caveman, but at the halfway mark of the U.S. Open a grand theme has emerged: Men good, women . . . bad? Well, to put it more nicely, replace "bad" with "sputtering." From the women, top to bottom, there have been few truly stirring performances. Gone is the No. 1-seeded player, Ana Ivanovic, and the No. 3, Svetlana Kuznetsova. The player seeded second, Jelena Jankovic, has clunked her way through three matches, nearly falling prey to an upset herself.

NEW YORK -- After an absurd 11 deuces in the last game of yet another melodramatic win the other day, the top woman left at the U.S. Open soon encountered her mother, a scene proverbial in the distressed annals of tennis. Only this mother practiced an art quite rare in a cold, cold sport: She kidded. "Do you like your mom?" Snezana Jankovic bellowed. "Of course," said Jelena Jankovic, catching on.