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Henin deflects return questions
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Associated Press

BRUSSELS -- Justine Henin is now a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and says there are more important things to discuss than tennis.

Still, wherever she goes, the question persists: Is she coming back to the game she once ruled?

Henin had insisted she was done. Now she's not talking about the subject. And that seems to raise the tantalizing possibility of the return of another Belgian tennis star.

On Thursday, at UNICEF headquarters, she tried to keep her news conference focused on tetanus vaccinations for mothers and babies in developing nations. No matter. The question was sent her way again like a volley across the net.

"We are here to discuss child mortality in the world, a subject matter which is important enough to center on this today," she said.

Henin won seven majors, including the French Open four times. Last year, she jolted the tennis world by announcing her retirement while ranked No. 1. In May, she said the sport had left her with so much pain that a return was unthinkable.

Yet she was seen training recently, apparently for a small exhibition tournament in Charleroi, one she has played regularly during the December winter break.

Some wonder if the exhibition will send the 27-year-old player on the path followed by Kim Clijsters. After retiring two years ago, Clijsters played an exhibition at Wimbledon this spring to test the new retractable roof. It got her competitive fire burning again. Clijsters, now a mother, returned to the tour last month and will play in the U.S Open semifinals Friday.

Henin also pulled out of a theater commitment, fueling rumors she needed time for tennis practice.

On Thursday, she deflected such inquiries. Four months ago, she said competitive tennis is "truly a page that has been turned."

She was asked about Clijsters' surge and the surprising run of teen Yanina Wickmayer, landing two Belgians in the Open semifinals.

"It is magnificent, that is evident," Henin said. "But understand that I am here in my role as ambassador."

Over the past months, Henin has traveled to Congo, Cambodia and Denmark to learn more about child vaccinations and how it affects survival for hundreds of thousands of poor mothers and babies around the world. Her face will become the face of the UNICEF tetanus campaign this fall.

"I have been able to discover so many things in my life after tennis," she said. "You live in a bubble and in leaving it, you ask plenty of questions on plenty of issues."

And others keep asking questions of her. Certainly, it would not be too late for a comeback. As the 26-year-old Clijsters proved, returning to the top on short notice is indeed possible.

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When will they raise the roof at the Open?

It took 11 days for rain to spoil the perfect run of weather at this year's U.S. Open, when showers twice interrupted Thursday's quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez at Arthur Ashe Stadium before play was suspended around midnight.

It didn't take nearly as long for grumbling fans, press members and tweeters to question when -- if ever -- we'd see a retractable roof at the National Tennis Center.

Within five years, the U.S. Open could be the lone Grand Slam event without a retractable-roof stadium. The two main arenas at the Australian Open have them, mostly for protection from Melbourne's oppressive summer heat. Even the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, considered the sport's last bastion of tradition, caved to modernity and debuted a translucent $165 million roof over Centre Court at this year's Championships.

Tournament officials at the French Open -- perhaps inspired by La Caja Magica at Madrid's clay-court tournament -- have announced plans for a new show court with a retractable roof for 2013 or 2014.

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Djokovic bonds with children of 9/11 victims

U.S. Open semi-finalist Novak Djokovic amused fans at Flushing Meadows this week when he joked with former great John McEnroe but the Serb has also revealed a sensitive side as the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks looms. The Serbian world number four has been inviting children of victims of the shocking events of 2001 along to watch his matches, including on Wednesday when he beat Spain's Fernando Verdasco on Arthur Ashe Stadium. "I think the main thing is that they enjoy it," Djokovic told reporters when asked about his good deed. "I think that the guy I met today was his first time watching a live tennis match. "It was quarter-final of the U.S. Open, and certainly it was a fantastic feeling for him. "We had this idea before the tournament, and I didn't want to talk about it. I think it's a gesture that I hope it means (something) for them. I've been meeting four different guys in these two weeks. I have been giving them some presents after the matches."

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Rain washes out play on Friday
   

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rafael Nadal stepped out of the players' cafeteria at the U.S. Open a little before 3 p.m. Friday and pressed his face against a window, cupping his hands around his eyes as he scanned the soaked tournament grounds.

Yep, it was still pouring.

And he, like everyone else, was still waiting.

Rain threw the U.S. Open into disarray for the second consecutive year, meaning both singles finals will be pushed back again, and the tournament will end Monday at the earliest.

"There are some unknowns here," U.S. Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier said.

A mix of showers and mist forced postponement of all of Friday's three scheduled singles matches. That included six-time major champion Nadal's quarterfinal against No. 11-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, a match already suspended Thursday night because of showers after Nadal won the first set in a tiebreaker and led 3-2 in the second-set tiebreaker.

Also delayed: The two women's semifinals, one between defending champion Serena Williams and 2005 champion Kim Clijsters, the other between a pair of 19-year-olds never before this far at a Grand Slam tournament, Caroline Wozniacki and Yanina Wickmayer.

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Dubious distinction for U.S. men



No country had more players in the men's singles draw of the 2009 U.S. Open, fittingly, than the United States. Americans accounted for 19 of the 128 men in the field and four of the 32 seeds, with 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick, two-time quarterfinalis t James Blake and Sam Querrey expected to distinguish themselves. Instead, they achieved a dubious distinction Monday, as the last one standing in the draw, unseeded John Isner, fell to 10th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. That means for the first time in the sport's Open Era, there won't be an American man in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

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In so many ways, the sisters rocked the tennis world.  Agree, disagree?

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Murray questions Serena's commitment


Andy Murray has entered the debate over the value of the tennis world rankings by questioning the Williams sisters' interest in tournaments outside the grand slams. The rise of Russian Dinara Safina to No 1 has raised the question of whether it is justifiable for a player without a grand slam title to be on top. Serena Williams has won three of the last four grand slam women's singles titles, however she only stands at No. 2 in the WTA Tour standings. Men's world No. 2 Murray, who has also still yet to win one of the four top tournaments in tennis, believes there would be little merit in raising the points on offer at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open just to ensure the winners of those events have a better chance of topping the rankings. Murray understands why the issue is being discussed, and why there are varying views, but he is convinced the ranking systems as they stand have plenty of merit. The Scot said: "Do you not agree that it's important for the top players like Serena to turn up at the other big events? "Tennis (has) an 11-month calendar. If you have ranking points which are too small for Serena to turn up at some of the smaller events, then all of a sudden the whole calendar is completely pointless and she can turn up -- which is probably what she wants to do -- at the four slams and play, and then not play for the rest of the year. And I think you have to be rewarded for consistency, and her consistency in slams is great, but in the other tournaments I don't think it is."

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Djokovic winning back Open fans

Novak Djokovic returned to the US Open ready to kiss and make up. Djokovic departed Arthur Ashe Stadium to a collective chorus of jeers after dispatching Andy Roddick in the 2008 US Open quarterfinals. In his return to the Open today, Djokovic dismissed Ivan Ljubicic in a 6-3, 6-1, 6-3, first-round win and made every effort to make amends with fans, waving, smiling, signing autographs for kids, even obliging one 10-year-old fan's request to wear his sunglasses (Djokovic signed those too). Comparing the crowd response last year to a spat with a girlfriend, Djokovic said he feels comfortable in New York. "I mean this is past. What happened last year, the way I get it, to be honest, was like a fight with a girlfriend," Djokovic said. "Just a little fight with a girlfriend. These things happen. It was something that everyone can learn from it. I always felt like at home here. I played so well last three years. I see no reason for me thinking about something that happened already. So today was great. I just hope that the fans will behave nice, you know, in the next rounds."

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Is he the next big one, or will he be another Dinara Safina, who can't win the big ones?

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Is she Grand Slam material?

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No. 1 Safina angry over court change


Despite the No. 1 next to her name in the seedings and rankings, tennis has not looked like much fun for [Dinara] Safina, and after winning ugly in her first two rounds, she could not grind her teeth to a spot in the fourth round as [Petra] Kvitova won 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5). Safina was none too happy that she had to endure all this in Armstrong Stadium, the Open's No. 2 show court. She had been originally scheduled to play the first match of the night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but when the day session in Ashe ran into the night, Open organizers decided to move Safina and Kvitova and let American James Blake play his match against Spaniard Tommy Robredo in Ashe. "From my side, I can say, 'I'm No. 1 player in the world, why did they move me?"' said Safina, understandably sensitive to slights after having had to defend herself for months because she is No. 1 without a Grand Slam singles title to her name. Safina had a point on Saturday. But Blake is a popular American whose match, although he lost in straight sets, seemed like a safe

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Clijsters keeps moving forward at US Open

NEW YORK (AP) -Three months after she had the baby, Kim Clijsters picked up a tennis racket again.

Frustrating.

"I felt like an elephant sometimes, just trying to move,'' she said. "Even two steps was terrible.''

That was just for fun, though. She has been much more committed since deciding earlier this year to come back in earnest. Now, Clijsters finds herself two wins from a U.S. Open title hardly anyone could have seen coming.

The mother of 18-month-old Jada, Clijsters dismantled 18th-seeded Li Na, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals Tuesday, punishing China's top tennis star with deep, stinging groundstrokes that were part of a game that looked about like it did when Clijsters retired two years ago.

Or maybe better.

"I'm surprised to be sitting here talking to you right now,'' she said.

Back at the U.S. Open for the first time since 2005, when she won the tournament, Clijsters now has a winning streak of 12 matches at Flushing Meadows.

Clijsters has already beaten No. 3 Venus Williams and two other seeded players. Her next match is against No. 2 Serena Williams, who defeated Flavia Pennetta later Tuesday. A daunting task, indeed, but these days, anything seems possible. Even Serena Williams sees that. She leads the series 7-1, but of course, all those matches were played earlier in the decade.

"She plays tough. She plays hard,'' Williams said. "Now it's like a totally different level, because she has absolutely nothing to lose. I think that's when you can play your ultimate best tennis.''

Clijsters, the world's former No. 1, saw the potential in her second tournament back this summer, in Toronto, when she beat Victoria Azarenka for her fourth win over a top-20 opponent in the span of a couple weeks.

"I felt like, 'OK, I can compete with these girls,''' Clijsters said. "Because that was obviously a big question in my mind.''

But winning a Grand Slam tournament? Seemed crazy then. Not so out-of-the-question anymore.

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Serena was born September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. While still an infant, the family moved to Compton, California where she began playing tennis at the age of four. At nine, Serena and her family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. Since that time, she has become one of the most dominant figures in tennis.

Serena has won a title in all four Grand Slam tournaments. She has won 28 singles championships, 11 doubles championships, and was a Gold-Medalist at the 2000 Olympics. In 2002, Serena won the Italian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. On the heals of those 2002 accomplishment s, Serena was named Associated Press “Female Athlete of the Year,” “Best Sportswoman in the World,” by EFE News Agency of Spain, one of BBC's “Sports Personalities of the Year,” and nominated for the Sports Illustrated's “Sportsman of the Year” Award. In 2003, she won the Australian Open, (singles & doubles), NASDAQ Open, French Indoors and Wimbledon. She also won two ESPY Awards: “Female Athlete of the Year,” and “Female Tennis Player of the Year.” Her 2005 Australian Open victory finals match earned ESPN2 their highest highest-rated and most-watched tennis telecast ever. After injuries forced her to compete in only 4 tournaments in 2006, Serena came back triumphantly winning the 2007 Australian Open and the Sony Ericsson Open, proving that she is still on top of the tennis world.

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US Open: Serena Williams leaving friendship in the locker room for Kim Clijsters clash

Serena Williams insists it will be easy to put her admiration for Kim Clijsters to one side when she faces the Belgian for the first time in six years in the US Open semi-finals this weekend.
 
Defending champion Williams first played her younger rival a decade ago, beating a 16-year-old Clijsters on the way to her first grand slam title when she won the US Open in 1999 aged 17.

Ten years on and 2005 champion Clijsters, playing as a wild card, has stunned the tennis world by making a remarkably speedy return to a grand slam semi-finals in just her third tournament since coming out of a 27-month retirement during which time she became a mother for the first time.
 
"I have nothing but good feelings for her," Williams said of Clijsters. "She's so nice and just a really good-hearted individual and takes tennis very seriously, but takes life more seriously.

"I think that's the exact person I am. I think we're pretty similar personality-wise."

Yet Williams said that having played her sister with grand slam titles on the line, as was the case in the last two Wimbledon finals and last year's US Open quarter-finals, leaving friendships in the locker room would not be a problem with Clijsters.

"If I can play against Venus, I can pretty much play against anyone," Serena said.

Clijsters made it clear that the admiration was mutual.