U.S. Open Day 14 - Preview
NEW YORK – The first act Sunday at the U.S. Open set the tone, as the American Bryan brothers won title No. 100 together, Grand Slam title No. 16, in the men's doubles final. They defeated the Spanish team of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez with relatively little drama, 6-3, 6-4.
The Bryans' sponsor, an insurance company, already had a commercial ready, a pretty funny one in which various average people in different situations try to do the fabled Bryan chest pump without much success. It ran on ESPN2 immediately after the Bryans clinched No. 100.
Will Sunday offer an American double? Serena Williams will try to make that happen.
Who knew, back in the spring when Williams and Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki got together in Florida to bond and mend their broken hearts with a little girlfriend time, that those fancy NBA hats they posed in would turn out to be a harbinger of what would happen in Flushing Meadows in late summer?
Certainly at the time, it didn't seem likely. Williams had bowed out early from the first two Grand Slams of the season (and ended up making an early exit at Wimbledon, too). Wozniacki was dealing with a broken engagement, and an essential plateauing of her tennis results.
And yet, here they both are, the two last women standing on the second Sunday of the U.S. Open.
There's hope, in their recent meetings, that this could turn out to be a competitive final.
The two played each other at both of the big U.S. Open warmup events this summer, with Williams winning 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in Montreal, and 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in Cincinnati. Williams holds an 8-1 career head-to-head, and perhaps she wasn't playing at her peak in both those matches after winning in Stanford, and then playing those back-to-back Premier events.
But she ddn't play poorly by any means, and Wozniacki has had a resurgent summer.
