Decade's Best: 2010 U.S. Open

One year after Kim Clijsters' comeback had kicked off with a U.S. Open title run, the Belgian returned to New York in 2010 and answered all questions about whether her second career stint was going to be as frustrating on the slam stage as her first had been. In truth, she was in the process of completely rewriting the opening paragraph of her career biography.





==NEWS & NOTES==Kim Clijsters successfully defended her singles title, becoming the first to win back-to-back U.S. Opens since Venus Williams in 2000-01, as she extended her Flushing Meadows winning streak to 21 matches dating back to her pre-retirement (and only KC 1.0) championship in 2005. From 2003 to 2010, the Belgian was a combined 27-1 in NYC, with three titles and four finals in four U.S. Open appearances.


After having dominated in the early rounds, dropping just fourteen games through her first four matches (including three each vs. Petra Kvitova and Ana Ivanovic), Clijsters won a pair of three-setters over Samantha Stosur and Venus Williams to reach the final. The primetime match against Vera Zvonareva turned out to be an anticlimactic, thoroughly uncompetitive affair, one of the worst finals in slam history, as the Russian barely put up any defense and won just three games. It was the fewest games won in a U.S. Open final since 1976. Oddly enough, Zvonareva had beaten Clijsters *twice* that summer, at Wimbledon and Montreal.

Clijsters would go on to claim her first Australian Open title in 2011, her third major win (in five slam appearances) since returning to the game in '09 after a nearly two-year retirement. In running her overall slam total to four, Clijsters recast the entire notion of what her tennis career had been, not to mention establishing something of a template for future players when it came to deciding to walk away from the sport, be it because of pregnancy, injuries or other pressures, and then returning healthy, refreshed and more prepared for success in another go-round.

Even while having not lost in NYC since 2003, the Belgian would win just one more match in New York, in 2012 after missing '11 due to injury. It would be the recurrence of a number of injuries that finally drove Clijsters from the tour for good, as she'd announced that the '12 Open would be her final tournament.
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Zvonareva was playing in her second straight slam singles final, and third final (w/ the Wimbledon WD) in the last two majors.

The Russian's 2010 Open run had come just one year after an appearance in '09 when Zvonareva has put on a now-infamous display of temper and frustration at Flushing Meadows during which she'd smashed her racket, pounded on her knee and angrily torn bandages off her leg. Crying between points, she was, quite simply, a mess in what turned out to be a Round of 16 love 3rd set loss to Flavia Pennetta.

In 2010, Zvonareva had managed to contain her emotions while advancing to the final without dropping a set, defeating #1-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the semis. Once things began to go bad in the final, however, some of her old demons resurfaced as she seemed on verge of tears, slammed her racket, fired a ball across court after dropping the 1st set, and (seemingly) cursed herself out in Russian.

This slam was the first in her career at which Wozniacki had been the #1 seed (she'd hold the top spot at the next five majors), having assumed to spot due to Wimbledon champ Serena Williams' withdrawal from the event. A year after having reached her maiden slam final in New York, Wozniacki would post her first of two straight semifinal finishes. Through her first five matches, Wozniacki lost just three total games and committed a total of 56 unforced errors as she ran her winning streak to thirteen matches. The Dane then ousted Maria Sharapova and Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.


In the semis vs. Zvonareva, though, Wozniacki had 31 UE's alone, losing 4 & 3. She'd reach her second U.S. Open final in '14, but it'd be in Australia (in 2018) where she'd finally win her first major title.
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Serena Williams' absence -- marking the first time in the 35-year history of the WTA that the world #1 didn't play at the U.S. Open -- came because of foot injuries (inch deep cuts) she suffered after stepping on broken glass at a Munich bar following Wimbledon (on the day that Germany was ousted from that year's World Cup). Though she played in an exhibition in Europe after the incident, then returned home, she'd torn a tendon in one and got stitches in both feet.

"My big toe was drooping, and I thought, 'My toe shouldn't be hanging like this,'" Williams said. "I saw a specialist in New York and had an MRI, and he said I had a tendon that was torn. He said I didn't necessarily have to fix it, but I'd have a droopy toe the rest of my life. I thought it over and decided it was better to have the surgical procedure, for my career and for my life."

Williams would ultimately be out 51 weeks, as complications from the injury led to blood clots in her lungs, and emergency surgery to remove an embolism.

Two-time U.S. Open champ Justine Henin had also pulled out of the event due to an elbow injury she'd suffered at Wimbledon. The Belgian would miss the rest of the season, then retire after losing in the Australian Open in 2011, citing the unhealed elbow as the reason. Henin never played in New York during her comeback, with her final appearance remaining her last title run in the event in 2007.
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One of the scariest moments in the tournament's history occurred in the 2nd Round, as Victoria Azarenka staggered and collapsed on the court while trailing Gisela Dulko 5-1 in the 1st set on a particularly hot and humid day.


Azarenka was hospitilized after the match, but it was learned that *this* collapse (she'd had a similar incident at the 2009 AO which had been blamed on food poisoning) had not been heat related, but rather she'd suffered a concussion during an earlier fall in the gym during a sprint drill. She'd come to court soon afterward, never informing trainers of the incident. Azarenka had seemed disoriented from the start of the match, whiffing on a serve at one point, and the headache, dizziness and blurry vision came not long into the 30-minute match.

[pay no mind to the commentary here, as it was before the true reason for Azarenka's collapse was known]
And here's the full incident...
Added to the mix was was that the day before hockey star Nikolai Khabibulin had been sentenced to 30 days in jail for a DUI conviction. The Russian had helped Azarenka settle in Arizona when she moved to the U.S. from Belarus. His wife was friends with Azarenka's mother, and the couple had decided to help her, becoming close friends.
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Even while Zvonareva was reaching the final, early evidence of the dismantling of the Russian tennis revolution was soon apparent.

Zvonareva's play in majors was sporadic after 2011, and she didn't appear in a U.S. Open MD from 2012-17 while dealing with injuries, surgeries, several hiatuses from the sport, and having a baby in 2016.


This turned out to be Elena Dementieva's final slam, as she'd dramatically retire on court after her final match at the WTA Championships. In New York, her last match had been a Round of 16 loss to Samantha Stosur, a battle in which she'd held four MP and that didn't finish until 1:37 a.m. (the latest-ending women's match in tournament history until 2016).

Meanwhile, former #1 Dinara Safina's final U.S. Open match was a 1st Round loss to Daniela Hantuchova, 6-3/6-4.


After a crazy good run of slam results from 2008-09 (RU-3r-SF-RU-RU-SF from the '08 RG to '09 WI), Safina never reached another major QF, and played in just four slam MD. In 2011 at 25, Safina's career ended (seemingly, as her brother Marat had stated it to be so, only to have Dinara quickly deny it) due to a chronic back injury. She played her last match in April '11, but didn't officially retire until 2014.
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In 2009, Melanie Oudin had been the (seemingly annual) first week new Bannerette star whose run (not as common) had been extended into week #2, as the 17-year old strung together wins over four Russians -- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, #4 Elena Dementieva, #29 Maria Sharapova and #13 Nadia Petrova, the last three in three-setters -- en route to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki. By 2010, Oudin was ranked as high as #31 in the spring.


After having "BELIEVE" embroidered on her shoes during her '09 run, Oudin's '10 footwear was emblazoned with "COURAGE." But after an easy 1st Round win over Olga Savchuk, Oudin's year-after trip to NYC ended with a 2nd Round loss to #29 Alona Bondarenko.

No matter, though, as the Cinderella home favorite role was filled by 18-year old Beatrice Capra, an Evert Academy alum who put on (come on, you *have* to say it) "Capraesque" run to the 3rd Round.

The #371-ranked wild card had won the USTA's summer playoff tournament to make her slam debut. Having never won a WTA MD match, Capra posted upset wins over Karolina Sprem and #18 Aravane Rezai. As she reached the 3rd Round, Capra was set to face in the next two rounds two of Oudin's 2009 opponents: Sharapova and Wozniacki. She never got to face both, losing to Sharapova love & love.


Of course, tennis (and life) can sometimes be cruel. Neither Oudin nor Capra ever won another match U.S. Open MD match.

Oudin managed to win the MX title (w/ Jack Sock) in Flushing Meadows in 2011, and picked up a WTA singles title in 2012, but health issues eventually wreaked havoc with her career. In her final years as a pro, Oudin suffered from a muscle condition that causes weakness and fatigue, as well as chest pains and a heavily beating heart that was originally diagnosed as panic attacks but was later determined to be a heart arrhythmia that required an operation that failed to fix the problem. She was also afflicted with a growth on her eye, as well as a torn muscle in her hand. She stuck it out for as long as she could, but eventually retired in 2017.

Capra, who held a career high rank of #201 immediately after the '10 Open, never played another match in a major. She did play #1 singles for Duke, and was named the national Freshman of the year and a three-time NCAA All-American. But her senior season was cut short when she was diagnosed with generalized epilepsy, and she was never able to pursue a pro tennis career. She tells her story here.

Capra graduated from Duke in 2016, and in 2018 joined the coaching staff of the Yale tennis team.
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Draw notes:

* - qualifier Mirjana Lucic's 1st Round win over Alicia Molik was her first at a major in eight years, and her first at the U.S. Open since 1999. The Croat, who'd experienced familial breakdown and abuse as a teenager, would post the third-best slam result of her career at Flushing Meadows in 2014 (4th Rd.), and would stick around long enough to reach the Australian Open semis in 2017 at age 34, eighteen seasons after she'd played in her only other slam SF at Wimbledon at age 17.


* - Simona Halep made her U.S. Open debut (her second major MD appearance) in a 1st Round match vs. #4-seed Jelena Jankovic. The Romanian served for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd set, and got within two points of the win. But '08 Open finalist Jankovic rallied from 30/love down to get the break, then held for 6-5 and broke Halep at love to win 6-4/4-6/7-5.


In the 3rd Round, Jankovic would lose to Kaia Kanepi in windy conditions during which the frustrated Serb complained to her player's box and pleaded with the weather to give her a break. After dropping the 1st set at 6-2, JJ had served for the 2nd set at 6-5, but was broken after leading 40/15. She then lost a 7-1 tie-break.

* - Jamie Hampton made her slam debut as a wild card, losing in the 1st Round to #22 Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez. The talented but oft-injured Bannerette would hit her stride during the 2013 season, reaching at least the 3rd Round at three majors (all career bests), only to suffer a hip injury in early 2014 that required six surgeries and never permitted her to return to the tour.


* - Swiss Patty Schnyder played in her last U.S. Open until her 2018 career farewell, losing in the 3rd Round to Yanina Wickmayer after having held a MP.

A former slam semifinalist and six-time quarterfinalist (including at the U.S. in '98 and '08), Schnyder never won another MD match at a major. After back-to-back 1st Round AO & RG exits in '11 she didn't play in another slam until the '17 Open qualifying rounds. She'd surprisingly retired in mid-2011, then returned to tennis in 2015 at age 36 after the birth of her daughter. Having qualified to finally work her way back into a slam MD (a 1st Rd. loss to Sharapova) at Flushing Meadows in '18, just months shy of her 40th birthday, Schnyder retired again that November. Soon after, she announced that she was pregnant with her second child.

* - meanwhile, 39-year old Kimiko Date-Krumm played in her first U.S. Open MD match since 1996, losing in the 1st Round to #11 Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Japanese vet would go 0-6 in qualifying and 1st Round matches at Flushing Meadows in the decade, making her final appearance in New York during qualifying in 2015 at age 44, twenty-six years after her Open debut in 1989. The reached the quarterfinals in 1993 and '94.

* - Canada's Rebecca Marino posted a 1st Round win over Ksenia Pervak in her slam debut, losing to Venus Williams (who was very complimentary of her game) a round later. Marino won four slam MD matches in '11, but lost in the 1st Round in her return to New York. She hasn't recorded a slam MD win since. She lost in the opening round in Australia in 2012-13, then was in retirement due to issues with depression from 2013-17. Marino returned to tennis in 2018, and has had success on the challenger level, but has yet to return to a slam MD (losing in '19 qualifying for the AO and RG).

* - 1st Round losers in 2010 included Li Na (who'd go on to win two major titles), Angelique Kerber (who'd reach the semis in '11 and win the Open title in '16), CoCo Vandeweghe ('17 SF) and Roberta Vinci (to Venus Williams to fall to 1-8 in her U.S. Open career, only to then go 22-7 there the rest of her career, reaching the final in '15).
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Vania King & Yaroslava Shvedova, after staving off MP in two different matches, claimed their second straight slam title.

In the 3rd Round, Iveta Benesova & Barbora Strycova had held a MP in a 3-hour, 7-6(9)/3-6/7-6(9) win by King/Shvedova, who then came back from MP down in the 3rd set of the final (played over two days due to rain) to defeat Liezel Huber & Nadia Petrova 2-6/6-4/7-6(4).


Huber also reached the Mixed final, teaming with Bob Bryan to defeat Kveta Peschke & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 4 & 4. It would be Huber's sixth of seven career slam titles (5 WD/2 MX), as she'd returned to NYC in 2011 (this time w/ Lisa Raymond by her side) and win a rematch against King/Shvedova in the Open women's doubles final.
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In what was the third all-Russian junior slam final ever -- after Krasnoroutskaya/Petrova at the '99 U.S. and Dushevina/Sharapova at Wimbledon in '02 -- #1-seed Dasha Gavrilova defeated unseeded Yulia Putintseva 6-2/6-2 in the final. In 2012, Putintseva would begin to represent Kazakhstan, while Gavrilova would begin to play under the Australian flag in 2015. No Hordette has reached the U.S. Open junior final since, while it'd be five years ('15 RG - Zhuk/Blinkova) before two Russians would again face off in a girls final in a major.

In the semifinals, Gavrilova had defeated Sloane Stephens, the only player in the girls singles draw who'd go on to win the women's title (2017) in New York during the decade (heading into '19). Stephens had posted previous wins over Elina Svitolina (3rd Rd.) and Karolina Pliskova (QF). She went on to team with Timea Babos in the doubles, with the duo taking their third straight GD major via a walkover in the final over An-Sophie Mestach & Silvia Njiric. The #3 seeds, Babos/Stephens, had knocked off #1 Gavrilova/Khromacheva in the semis. Babos also reached the Australian Open girls doubles final that season.

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Esther Vergeer's undefeated run at the U.S. Open continued, as the Dutch legend swept the singles and doubles titles in New York for a fifth straight time.


Vergeer had been tested by France's Florence Alix-Gravellier in the 1st Round, winning 7-5/7-5. She only lost one game combined in the semis and final, securing the title with a double-bagel win over Aussie Daniela Di Toro in the final.

Vergeer teamed with countrywoman Sharon Walaraven to win the doubles, defeating Di Toro & Aniek Van Koot in the final by a 3 & 3 score. Again, the closest match for Vergeer featured Alix-Gravellier. She and Jiske Griffioen had made their opening match-up tight(er) at 6-4/6-4. A former world #2 (in 2006), Alix-Gravellier was playing in her final career event in the '10 U.S. Open.
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CITY SIGHTS:

Venus Williams' many outfit changes...



Sister in the stands...



Sharapova's turqoise-and-black (I'd forgotten about this one, but, I must say that it's right up there with the green-and-white adidas outfits from the '17 RG -- the ones worn by *both* Ostapenko and Halep in the final, which for once didn't annoy me at all -- as maybe my favorite of the entire slam decade)...



And Maria's blue-and-black faux tuxedo look...



Nadia Petrova's rather busy outfit doesn't wear all too well (then or now)...



After having "BELIEVE" on her shoes during her magical '09 QF run, Melanie Oudin went with "COURAGE" in 2010...

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[from "Blahblahblah...Kim Wins...Blahblahblah" - September 11, 2010]
[2019 NOTE: Needless to say, I wasn't a big fan of this women's final at the time. Still, I actually had fun reading this for the first time in years, though. Ah, the "I (don't heart) Kim Clijsters" years really *were* special, you know? I mean, I still have a few players I don't particularly enjoy, but I don't believe it'd be possible to recapture the rapture and glee of being anti-Clijsters. It almost makes me sad that I "kissed and made up" with the Belgian years ago. ]
"Perfect blondes" aren't all they're cracked up to be. To paraphrase the opening line of every Kiss concert, "You asked for the best, well, too bad... this is what you got."

I can't say that I'm surprised.

Even in my blurry-eyed late-night post about Friday's semifinals, the forthcoming arrival of this non-competitive primer (otherwise known as the 2010 U.S. Open Women's Singles final) for all the WTA detractors who'll spend the next few months bemoaning the state of the WTA's lacking game was crystal clear.

I will send one good thought through the blogosphere for repeat Open champ Kim Clijsters, though. At least she had the sense to be merciful on Saturday night. Not to her so-called opponent Vera Zvonarera, who bore no resemblance to the woman who played her way into the final but a great deal like the queue of slam-less players who've spent the last few years throwing up all over themselves in grand slam finals (you know, the way Clijsters use to), but to everyone who had to watch this we-waited-two-weeks-for-THIS? "battle." At least we didn't have to spend multiple hours awaiting our collective execution like we did on Friday.

Oh, and here's where we give a special thanks to Zvonareva for her (cough, cough) "participation" in this primetime "event" (really, the USTA needs to chuck this nighttime women's final for a while... it's doing the sport more harm than good since it's never anything to write home about). The Russian seemed like she'd already prepared herself to be the runner-up before the match even began. (By the way, who knew you couldn't have a pre-match 9/11 tribute without Chaka Khan? You learn something new every day.) Anyway, apparently, it didn't really matter to her that much that she'd defeated the Belgian in the season's most recent slam in London, not to mention on hard court in Montreal right before the start of the Open, either.

I don't know what it is about Clijsters, but she just brings out the philanthropist in all her Open opponents these days. Serena implodes a year ago. Venus collapses yesterday. Vera decides she has something else more important to do on a Saturday night in the Big Apple (maybe tour the U.N.?). Maybe there's something to all that lovey-dovey gushing that goes on whenever Clijsters' name is brought up. Well, either that or she's a practitioner of black magic and has cast a rather powerful spell on her opponents on Ashe Stadium. I'm still on the fence on the one, I think.

Oh, I guess I HAVE to talk about the MATCH now, huh? All right, if I have to.

In short, Clijsters got a break to go up 4-2 in the 1st. With Zvonareva winning about 20% of her 2nd serve points (at least I think that's what the CBS on-screen stat said... I wasn't really watching all that closely), the Belgian won the set 6-2.

You'd think the 2nd set couldn't have been even WORSE... but if you did, you'd have been wrong. Clijsters got a break for a 2-0 lead. She finally faced her first break point of the match in Game #4, but held for 3-1 with an ace. The lead had been extended to 4-1, or maybe 5-1, when CBS put up a on-screen graphic showing the photos of recent grand slam-winning mothers and...

(click)
Honestly, I don't know what happened after that. I took that little moment as my clue to bail out of this disaster. The door opened and I made a bee-line through it. I hate re-runs (well, except for Backspin Time Capsules, of course... haha). I finally went online an hour later to see the final score, and I'm sure you're SHOCKED that I was SHOCKED to learn that Zvonareva never won another game. Clijsters won 6-2/6-1, defending her '09 crown, winning her third career Open title and running her Flushing Meadows winning streak to twenty-one matches.

I'm sure the trophy ceremony was just "brilliant," as well. Or, as Mary Carillo so finger-down-your-throatingly described Clijsters' play tonight -- "glistening." I'm sure Jada was especially cute. I'm sure Brian looked as bored as he did every other time he was shown in the friends box this week, too. I expect that Kim practically begged the crowd to applaud for her (probably by making some "ohh, isn't that special" reference to Jada's bedtime or overwhelming energy... since those sort of lines have been her specialty all tournament), and the multiple announcers then talked about how she is the most deserving human being on the face of the planet that we have the honor to watch grace the soil as she walks across the fruited plain without getting a nasty corn on her big toe and having to take off her shoe and rub her foot before wiping the sweet sweat from her brow produced by the sun above that has decided that she's so wonderful that it just had to take the time to attend to her personally.

But, as I said, I hate re-runs (well, except for "M*A*S*H" ones) and I had no interest in watching that episode again. The hilarious "Tuttle" episode, yes. "Kim Does NYC," no.

I will take some solace in the fact, though, that even if I HAD watched, I wouldn't have had to watch Cliff Drysdale literally dissolve into a pile of just-picked daisies at the thought of his "Kimmy Clijsters" winning another title, as he seemed to do at every opportunity this past week on ESPN2. For that, I thank the television no-network-crossovers-allowed (except for Carillo and J-Mac) overlords. While I'm at it, I may as well thank them for "Fringe," too, since I'll be looking forward to its season premiere... coming September 23rd to a local Fox affiliate near you... featuring Sharapova-clone Anna Torv's turn-the-screws role as Alternate Olivia.

Ah, sorry about that last one. I just wanted to be distracted by something that I actually enjoy, rather than dread, while writing this post. You know, like the foregone conclusion that was this shoot-me-now Women's final. You see, while some players can turn a thorough destruction into a tennis clinic that you can't pull your eyes away from -- like, say, people named Serena, Roger or Rafa -- there are others who don't have that particular skill set. Guess which category Kim's in. If you guessed the latter one, then congratulations -- you just had a better night than Vera did. Oh, and let's have a moment of silent regret for all those people who actually paid for a seat at Ashe Stadium tonight, too, thinking that they were going to be lucky enough to see something special. Suckers!

Hmmm, let's see, what else is there to say? Oh, I know...

Blahblahblah... Kim won... blahblahblah. The end.

=SATURDAY NOTES=
...so the Belgian defends her title, but will fall from #3 to #5 in the rankings on Monday? Ah, at least one of the Tennis Gods has a wonderful sense of humor.

==QUOTES==
* - "Every match I win now, it's like winning an entire tournament." - Mirjana Lucic, after getting her first slam MD win since 2002

* - "I just decided to put the word 'COURAGE' this year as something different, and I really think I need to play with courage this year after I had a great run last year." - Melanie Oudin, on having the word "COURAGE" on her shoes after wearing shoes that said "BELIEVE" during her '09 QF run

* - "One of the most devastating moments of my career." - Serena Williams, on missing the U.S. Open

* - "The doctor told me that she didn't think I was going to grow much more. It was a pretty sad day." - Melanie Oudin, on her lack of height

* - "It's definitely the best moment in my life." - Beatrice Capra, during her 3rd Round run in her slam debut

* - "I can't do anything!!" - Jelena Jankovic, to her box during her loss to Kaia Kanepi

* - "It seems like everybody is hitting their stride at thirty. It's the new twenty." - Venus Williams

* - "I can do serve-and-volley, I can play faster, I can play slow and back, it’s a mix. It's like capricciosa pizza. I don’t give you margherita, I give you capricciosa, different kind of ingredients." - Francesca Schiavone

* - "She's been playing some incredible tennis in these past two grand slams. It must be frustrating for her not to be able to play her best level when it was probably most needed." - Kim Clijsters, on final opponent Vera Zvonareva

* - "I don’t think to her it matters too much whether I win or lose still. She sees a trophy and she knows that a trophy is a part of winning. She kind of connects the dots like that but... I'm not going to go tell her, Mommy won the U.S. Open." - Kim Clijsters, on 2-year old daughter Jada's reaction to her winning major titles







2010-19 "DECADE'S BEST" POSTS
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All for now.