United States Open Tennis Tournament

NEW YORK -- The playground came to professional tennis Saturday. Each missed first serve brought the returner a step closer to the service line -- a psychological ploy to put more pressure on an already erratic server. Except this windswept playground happened to be the U.S. Open and the kids playing cat and mouse were second-seeded Maria Sharapova and unheralded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

NEW YORK -- It was great fun for a while in the U.S. Open tennis tournament here Saturday afternoon, with newcomer John Isner playing Roger Federer on center court before more than 23,000 people. Then Goliath slew David. The reality was that neither a 140-mph serve nor a lethal slingshot could change the outcome of this third-round match.

NEW YORK -- Call it Shahar Peer's home-court advantage. The 20-year-old became the first woman from Israel to reach the final eight at the U.S. Open with a poised performance, defeating Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, 6-4, 6-1, on Monday. "There are so many Jewish [people] here, so many Israelis, that I have huge support here," Peer said. "I go on the court and I feel like I'm playing in Israel or something. It's so much fun. It's really nice to play when you have so much support."

NEW YORK -- She slipped and fell in her first service game, framed a serve earlier -- leading to an ugly-looking double fault -- and faced three break points. Every game tells a story. In this case, it was wildly inaccurate. No. 12-seeded Venus Williams saved those three break points against No. 5 Ana Ivanovic and steamrollered the Serbian teenager in a 6-4, 6-2 victory Sunday in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. After that, she never faced another break point.

What was the aberration in Steffi Graf's comeback tour? A. Losing to Ai Sugiyama and Magui Serna. B. Defeating Lindsay Davenport and Jana Novotna. At times here Tuesday, the correct answer seemed to be both of the above in Graf's first-round match against American youngster Corina Morariu at the U.S. Open. Graf's play resembled the stock market, surging, then falling, then finally finishing on a high note.

It is early afternoon Wednesday at the U.S. Open, and the next hurdle in Andre Agassi's last race is out on Practice Court 2, relaxed and resplendent in purple shorts, dirty gray T-shirt and ponytail. Court 4 bleachers rise above the practice complex, and while Lisa Raymond plays Mara Santangelo, several dozen fans migrate to the highest spot, turn their backs on the women's match and watch the practice session. Agassi scouts, presumably.

No one quite knew how to treat the beginning of the end for Andre Agassi at the U.S. Open. This new, rather uncomfortable experience had New Yorkers almost unsettled at first. Agassi's camp looked concerned, and his wife, Steffi Graf, seemed as though she was waiting to exhale.

Lindsay Davenport may not have announced that this is her last U.S. Open, but the way the crowd has reacted to her run to the quarterfinals, it has become clear the supportive fans aren't taking any chances. They got behind the 30-year-old from Laguna Beach in the third round Sunday when she faced two match points on the Grandstand Court against Katarina Srebotnik, and cheered the winning result when it was posted on the Arthur Ashe Stadium scoreboard during Andre Agassi's final match.

It was April 19, 1987, and God was feeling pretty good. So He created Maria Sharapova. He knew about tennis, better than anybody else, of course. He knew about its needs and what its future would be by the time Andre Agassi had played himself out, Roger Federer was becoming so dominant he was boring the public, Lindsay Davenport had her mind on beginning a family and the Williams sisters started losing interest. He knew it would take something special to fill that superstar gap.

Other guests around the Grand Slam table linger only as long as the benevolent host allows. Eventually the time comes, you know it does, and Roger Federer almost always has to send them home without a title. A service break is like a tap on the shoulder. His version of thank you, good night came in the final game of the third set. Federer continued his relentless assault on American tennis Sunday, winning another U.S.