Delays take their toll
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Anastasia Myskina is only 22 years old, but at 12:45 on Wednesday afternoon there were dark creases under her eyes.
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| For a third consecutive day, rain once again kept most of the matches from being played at the Open. |
"It's really difficult," Myskina told the USA Network in an interview from the player's lounge. "It seems like I never leave this building for the last couple of days. I just want to sleep. I'm really, really tired."
Six hours later, she got her wish. Without so much as a single point, they told her to go home.
Worst case, Thursday's busy schedule isn't completed, everything's pushed forward a day, and the men's final could be on Monday for the first time in 16 years.
Even in a best-case scenario -- which, given three straight days of rain and forecasts for more on Thursday -- Myskina's round-of-16 match with Mary Pierce will extend through four days. (Myskina closed out her victory Thursday, winning 7-6 (2), 6-2).
Myskina, the No. 7 seed, now may have the pleasure of meeting Justine Henin-Hardenne later in a Thursday night quarterfinal match.
Ai Sugiyama and Francesca Schiavone were in the same, uh, ark. Sugiyama was a single game away from closing out Schiavone 7-6 (5), 5-4 late Tuesday night when the rain descended.
All in all, there were 107 matches scheduled for Wednesday at the National Tennis Center. Total daytime tennis: Three games in a 10-minute drive-by rally by Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo. The No. 1-seeded Clijsters leads their quarterfinal match 3-0.
For the third straight day, the day session was canceled. With the two night matches completed Monday, and one more on Tuesday, the Wednesday edition -- Andy Roddick defeated Xavier Malisse 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (5) -- constituted the fourth completed match in three days.
While the USTA doesn't keep records of this kind, there is a general feeling in the organization that this is the wettest U.S. Open in memory. Certainly, more matches have been affected than in any Open in history.
The nightly weather update had the charged atmosphere of a U.S. Defense Department briefing. When things got a bit contentious at the end, Pierce O'Neil, the USTA's chief business officer, stood up and frantically flashed the throat-slash sign to David Newman, the managing director of marketing and communications who was trapped behind a microphone in the front of the room, along with Chief Executive Arlen Kantarian and Jim Curley, the tournament director.
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| Arlen Kantarian, the USTA's chief executive for professional tennis, discusses contingency plans due to the rain delays. |
"This is a tennis tournament," Kantarian said in response to a typically ominous question. "I would not categorize this as a crisis mode given what we've seen going on in the world the last couple of years -- absolutely not."
Here are the USTA's plans for the rest of the tournament -- weather permitting, of course:
If it comes off that way -- and the three weather services subscribed to by the USTA suggest it might be possible, especially with clearing anticipated in the afternoon -- the tournament would end on schedule, with the women's final Saturday night and the men's final late Sunday afternoon.
If Thursday is a complete washout, then all of the USTA's plans would be bumped back a day and the men's final would be played on Monday.
This is not a pleasant prospect for the USTA. The television folks bank (quite literally) on the fact that the major matches will be played on the weekend. A Monday final appeals to no one -- with the possible exception of the New York City tennis fans who will be playing hooky.
Thus, the coming days at the National Tennis Center will be frenetic, to say the least.
"What has become a tremendous challenge on the downside, weather permitting, we hope to have a tennis bonanza over the next four, five days," Kantarian said in a textbook example of positive spin.
Later, he answered a specific scheduling query by saying, "This is a rolling calendar at this point that is changing, to a large degree, by the hour ... I think to speculate would be difficult on every imaginable situation."
Despite numerous player complaints about scheduling and communication (or the lack of it), the USTA officials defended their actions this week.
At one point, Kantarian told the assembled media, "We may be asking you to bring your own towel to help us with the courts."
He was trying to be humorous, but levity is a rare commodity this week. There is much at stake for the USTA. For the second straight day, Kantarian declined to say how much money has been lost. The players, too, have a lot riding on this.
Myskina, for example, is attempting to reach the second Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career. She has spent days now trying to forget that the most important match of her career looms ahead -- that meeting with No. 2-seeded Henin-Hardenne.
On Tuesday she won $50 playing cards with her coach and boyfriend, Jens Gerlach, but that was little solace.
It has gotten so grim and the players are so claustrophobic in their facilities that the USTA deconstructed the Smash Zone area for kids and turned it into three indoor practice courts for players to work out their frustrations.
"I think that was really obvious," Andy Roddick said. "It needed to happen."
After three rain-soaked days, what's needed is sunshine.
Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
