NEW YORK -- Call it what you will, the Big Apple, Skyscraper National Park. Names beg the issue. Names are secondary to situation.
To what's happening at The Stadium in this farewell season. To what's happening at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. To what's happening on the tabloid back-page headlines.
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| Roddick: '(It's) not only a tournament. It's an event.' (AP) |
"Not only a tournament," he said of the U.S. Open, which he won in 2003. "It's an event."
Alex Rodriguez also knows the territory. Unfortunately.
This town is big enough for two A-Rods. For the one whom Wednesday night got past the old man, 35-year-old Fabrice Santoro, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, in their first-round match of this 2008 Open.
For the one in the Yankees uniform who can't get past the critics.
A beautiful time of the year. The unofficial last weekend of summer, a final fling, a trip to the Hamptons, a trip to The House that Ruth Built.
Tennis balls flying. Baseballs flying. Favorites, Roddick, Novak Djokovic, Jelena Jankovic advancing. Favorites, the Yankees and Mets regressing.
New Yorkers are painfully loyal. And irritatingly demanding. They embrace winners. They berate losers. Loudly. There's a reason that long ago booing was labeled a "Bronx Cheer."
Who knows how New Yorkers will take to Brett Favre? But on the courts they took to Jimmy Connors. And to Roger Federer. As Federer appreciably noted late Tuesday evening after he verified he still can play the game, winning in straight sets over Maximo Gonzalez, virtually his every point celebrated with cheers.
"We shouldn't forget they're supposed to scream for the Americans here," said Federer, the Swiss who has won the last four Opens. "I guess I'm very close to their hearts now."
So is A-Rod the tennis player. "If you're an American, this is the tournament you look forward to the most every year," Roddick said.
