Flourishing serves and long rallies have ended, what left is the assesment of the US open’s impact in terms of sustaining interest in a sport which had suffered a mighty nosedive in general liking during the slog that was the 2009 season. But the whole tournament has turned out to be a blessing to the game.
Long gone were days when Maria Sharapova breathed fresh air into a sport being largely dominated by burly power hitters, or when Kim Clijsters and fellow retiree Justin Henin challenged the might of the black beauties head-on. It was either the Russian beauties or the William sisters who would turn up and win events whenever they chose. Dinara Safina who seemed destined to big-game capitulations never showed that spark of a world number one. But the US open saw the return of Clijsters, the third-round win by Czech teenager Petra Kvitova, the emergence of US prospect Melanie Oudin as well as another Belgian, teenager Yanina Wickmayer. All this ensured that women's tennis has nothing to worry about in the future.
It was pritty much the same with the men’s version of the game, as it was all amongst Federer and Nadal with others just lurking around.But the US open saw the rise of a new star, the way Del Potro demolished Nadal in the semis and then stun the world to lift his first maiden grand slam title, announced that here is somebody to look out for. He also showed that there’s no substitute for power and aggression and commitment which the likes of Murray, Roddick and Djokovic have been lacking for long.
But all is well, that ends well and it was the perfect ending for the season; Juan Martin Del Potro beat Roger Federer in a chaotic Arthur Ashe Stadium and sent the tournament out with a festive buzz. From an instantly momentous win for Clijsters to the best shot ever hit by the best player ever, to a spunky new American on the horizon, to a pair of appealingly humble champions, it was an Open that we’ll be seeing more of in future highlight reels.
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