Top 10 US Open Moments of the 2000s

As we take a step into our US Open series for 2011, with such warmups as Los Angeles’ Farmer’s Classic underway, it might be worthwhile pondering what we might expect.

There has been some amazing tennis as always in New York, this time of year and often coupled with great moments, which have left us in awe, shock, disbelief or unbelievably sympathetic, euphoric, pleased.

A certain charm has always enveloped our great champions and added a lustre to their victories, which has often bordered on the tragic and magnificent.

We have had Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, the Williamses, Andre Agassi, Kim Clijsters, all with their unique stories to tell from this last decade.

Marat Safin Stuns Pete Sampras 2000

We started the decade on a bang and in a big way.

2000 was supposed to be the year of the Y2K bug, but, at the US Open at least, we only found tennis’ newest big thing: the power baseliner.

Pete Sampras had dominated the fast hard courts of America for years with his agile, aggressive net game, but met his match in Marat Safin, a 20-year-old Russian megatalent who dealt with the four-time champ’s serve like ice-licking off a cake.

It was a thoroughly dominant performance, and a rather disorienting way to start off the 21st century at New York. An old power game made way for a new.

Williams Sisters Deal Out Sibling Rivalry 2000-2001

There was in fact a time when the Williams sisters dominated tennis (just as recently as in the last few years), but one would have to look back to the earliest years of this decade to recount the years of stranglehold.

There was simply no one who could pose adequate resistance, and for two straight years, Americans were treated to all-American, all-sister finals. A most unique and wonderful gift.

It was sibling rivalry, and while it manifested itself in violent ways, with the Williams sisters possessing some of the most indomitable power games of the time, there was at the end always an element of sisterly love.

Venus took the first in 2000 but would have to wait for another eight years before she won another against Serena in a Grand Slam final.

The younger proved the stronger in 2001, paving the way for Serena to carve one of the more remarkable careers in tennis ever.

Sampras Claims 14th Slam Crown 2002

2002 was the year after the September 11 attacks, and Americans were certainly looking for some validation of their greatness after so hallowing a tragedy.

2001 had too proved miserable, as the ageing Pete Sampras limped to a straight sets beating by Lleyton Hewitt.

In 2002, Sampras set himself the goal of winning the tournament after two straight years as a losing finalist. He played his heart out and revived, for two magical weeks, that old sharpness and focus. That clutching serving, that determined net game. It was one final push, for the last time.

He made it to the final, which presented itself as a fairytale ending quite like any other. A match, once again, with his long-tmie nemesis Andre Agassi, with whom it had all started in 1990, at that very Flushing Meadows Stadium.

Pete triumphed, for his last slam title, in four sets, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. It was to be the last tournament he ever played, and it was most fitting that he should have won it.

Roddick Captures Sole Title 2003

If anything legitimized the revival of American hopes, however, it must have been Andy Roddick’s hard-fought and much awaited victory in 2003.

Sampras may have gone, Agassi may be getting on in years but the nation had a new star.

Roddick was notable for a giant serve, and power game, qualities which brought him to the semifinals, where he was very nearly bounced out by David Nalbandian, who led two sets to love and held match point.

The young American held, however and went on to the final, to defeat Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero to become the world’s No. 1 player.

Federer Deals Hewitt Two Bagels 2004

There have been few Grand Slam finals as lopsided as this one and perhaps, never ever again will be. Especially on so quick a surface as the US Open’s hard courts.

There is little else to say. Roger Federer’s maiden triumph in 2004 was simply a drubbing.

He faced an old foe, someone who had at one point accrued a 6-2 head-to-head record over him. It was the 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt and former world No. 1.

That mantle had now passed to Federer by the time they played that 2004 final, and it looked all the world like it.

Indeed, much more than that. Federer was simply light years ahead of Hewitt. He thumped forehands with the ease of a fly-swat and confounded Hewitt on the baseline and on the run, when he was traditionally at his best.

The final score: 6-0, 7-6, 6-0.

It was time for a new champion.

Andre Agassi Reaches Last Final at 35 2005

Andre Agassi’s final farewell to the US Open was in 2006, but it may be said that his swansong came in 2005.

Then, he reached the final for the last time in his career, in an amazing run that included a tough five-set battle against fellow American James Blake.

He faced the defending champion, Roger Federer. Many expected a simple walkover victory for the Swiss master, and it looked as much when he routinely claimed the first set, 6-3.

The second got really interesting as Agassi broke and continued to apply pressure with early returns and go-for-broke tennis. He was playing at 110 percent,and had to. There was no way he was going to win a drawn-out match against Federer.

Agassi stunned Federer by claiming the second set and going up a break in the third. But the Swiss regrouped and elevated his game.

Agassi would not reach him. It was all too easy in the end for the champion, as he claimed his second crown, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, 6-1.

He may have lost that match, but Agassi certainly emblazoned himself in the hearts of many for all time that day.  

Agassi Outlasts 20-Year-Old Marcos Baghdatis 2006

As he prepared for his final grand slam tournament of his career Agassi, he must surely have felt the pinch of youth. Not his own, but that of his challengers.

Early that year a 20-year-old Marcos Baghdatis had reached the Australian Open final, and it was this man, sixteen years Agassi’s junior, who faced him in the second round at the Open in 2006.

What many expected as a blowout victory for the young talent over fading champion turned out to be an Iron Man contest.

Agassi matched Baghdatis blow for blow, and in the final set, surprised everybody. He outlasted the Cypriot too, as Baghdatis called the trainer for cramps in his leg.

That was it, the final vindication of Agassi’s greatness and longevity as a players all these years. He was fitter than his young challenger, and that proved all the difference.

The final farewell had to be delayed just one more match. Agassi mustered the energy to beat him for his last victory ever at the US Open.

He would lose to Benjamin Becker, a comparatively less well known German, in the next round. But his victory against Baghdatis only affirmed for himself and for tennis the strangeness of reality, born out so much by his almost superhuman endurance.  

Roger Federer Wins a Fifth Straight Title 2008

The tennis decade was almost singlehandedly defined by Roger Federer, and 2008 proved a turning point in the formation of this immense tennis legacy.

Rafael Nadal, his arch-nemesis, played the part of party spoiler for almost half a year, tormenting the once great Swiss as he defeated him in four straight encounters, most heartrendingly at Wimbledon.

Was Flushing Meadows, Federer’s preserve for so many years, to witness the rise of a new champion, yet again?

Federer put up a mighty defense and mustered everything he could. He looked ordinary at times, against players he had routinely dispatched in the years before. He was ragged, he bore an untrimmed coiffure and looked every part the exiled king.

But he fought and fought, and getting past a feisty Igor Andreev revealed aspects of the four-time champion’s character some doubted he had, that burning desire.

It was most fully and vengefully unleashed against his tormentors of 2008, when he blazed past Novak Djokovic in the semis and then thumped Andy Murray in a one-sided final, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, for a fifth consecutive victory.

Perhaps few might tell the story of this decade better than Federer, for he won this last like he did his first: aggressively, and domineeringly.

Might it have been his last victory here, ever? Time will tell, but it certainly was not a disgraceful way to claim it, should it prove to be.

Kim Clijsters Claims Second Crown, First After Come Back, 2009

Nothing is more surprising than a comeback, but nothing more than a player on comeback winning the first slam back. More so, that it should have happened to Kim Clijsters.

The highly talented Belgian had been known for her brain-cramping in majors early on in her career, and she failed to capitalise on major opportunities, as she lost her first four major finals before a win in 2005.

Her return to the WTA tour shocked everbody, however, and she made strong progress, ultimately to face an old rival, Serena Williams.

There, for all the hullaballoo about Serena’s conduct at the end, it was Clijsters who proved the stronger. A temporary retirement had taken players’ radars off her, and everyone, Serena included, had forgotten just how great a forehand she in fact possessed.

In the final she played a new world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, who might have taken the opportunity to make a statement about her new reign.

Instead, she ended up on the losing side in a bad way, as a chance for Clijsters to pass on all the bad karma she had collected as a major loser all those years.

There was no doubting her dominance though and the fact that tennis, yet again, had surprised us all yet again.

Nadal Becomes Seventh Man to Win Career Grand Slam 2010

The US Open has been the seat of much history over the years but perhaps in no greater a way, for quite some time, than in 2010.

There, Rafael Nadal completed a career Grand Slam, as he hoisted his first US Open crown.

2010 was a stellar year for the Spaniard, that probably surpassed in his books even the groundbreaking season of 2008. By the time the US Open came around, he had already won the French and Wimbledon and was looking to complete his Grand Slam set with a much coveted title at New York.

He did well to lessen the hype, losing early at the Masters warmups but effected a minor switch of grip throughout the fortnight to beef up his serve and play with the looseness he had never found on the fast hard courts.

Nadal cruised to the final, not even losing a set to that point, but faced considerable opposition in Novak Djokovic, who had edged Roger Federer in a thriller in the semis.

He knew he had to play well, but alas, how well he did play indeed. Nadal was utterly impeccable, taking his chances and defending like no other has done.

His backhand was played to perfection, his forehand perfection, his serve, to perfection. It was a perfect day.

No wonder, then, that he won and was as thrilled about it as he should have been. There could hardly have been a more convincing way to claim a career Grand Slam.