Justine Henin Wins the US Open

Justine Henin has just defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 in the women's singles final.

The surprise there is the seven double faults. How do you double-fault 7 times in 8 service games and win? I just don't get that.

This is Justine's second US Open Championship, and she won it without dropping a set.

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Aspelin and Knowle win the doubles championship

Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Julian Knowle of Austria came up big on their returns in the men's doubles final and won their first Grand Slam title over the Czech duo of Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner, 7-5, 6-4.

Dlouhy and Vizner played the I-Formation, targeting the strong service-retrun game of Aspelin and Knowle. The latter sensed which way the poach was going often enough, which meant they could pick on the net-rushing server with their strong returns.

Which goes to show how the I-Formation helps bring your server to net safely - provided that your opponents don't figure out how to tell which way you are going to poach.

None of the four players in this match qualified for the singles. Dlouhy is the highest ranked at 133 and lost out in the 2rd round of qualifying.

That's a controlling fact of a certain matter. And it means what it means, not whatever one can wish or twist into not exactly meaning. Of course the best singles players aren't always the best doubles players. But come on, not any in the top 100?

Far more tennis players play doubles than singles, so the disinterest isn't in the game itself.

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Tennis Rage at the US Open

What's your clue that this is a tennis player?

The wide-open-mouthed rage, right?

I am getting awfully sick of seeing this. It's such a cliche. And, psst, it isn't working, either.

Who'd'a thunk it?

Is this the way we picture heroes? Wouldn't we normally see a photo like that of someone and think they're crazy? Or bad? I thought anger was supposed to be sin nowadays. We're not supposed to get like that, are we? You look at that photo and you think, "Wow, what a grand person. I wanna be just like that. I wanna look just like that when I grow up."

Not. So, what makes anyone think this stupid cliche will sell tennis?

It sells newspapers and magazines, but not tennis.

Why put on a rage face? The players must have to practice it before a mirror to resemble murderous rage so well.

Of course champions are fiercely competitive in this quiet sport. THAT'S the mystique of tennis. But this depiction is off base. If you saw the picture not knowing what it was about, you'd think that guy had blown a gasket. This is supposed to make tennis "seem" exciting.

Well, I'm sorry, dudes, but it doesn't have to seem exciting, because it IS exciting. Everything that is exciting doesn't have to scream like a kid on a high-caffein and sugar drink.

And it does no good to try to make tennis out to be something it ain't.

You can see how the face was made to look red by tweaking the lighting level when you look at this version with the lighting adjusted...


Jeez, why not curve the lighting to get even more hype like this...


He did that for one second during the match. Of the hundreds of photos taken, this is the one that get put on the front page of the US Open website.

The players know this. That's why they're all doing it. Even the Fed.

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