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STARS

Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 to win the US Open men’s singles, his ninth Grand Slam tournament title and completing a career Grand Slam.

Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova defeated Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova 2-6 6-4 7-6 (4) to win the US Open women’s doubles.

Shingo Kunieda defeated Nicolas Peifer by walkover to win the US Open men’s wheelchair singles.

Jarmila Groth beat Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1 6-4 to win the Landsky Lightning Guangzhou International Women’s Open in Guangzhou, China

Pablo Cuevas beat Igor Andreev 6-1 6-1 to win the Pekao Szczecin Open in Szczecin, Poland

Tamira Paszek beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-6 (6) 2-6 7-5 to win the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Mathilde Johansson beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4 3-1 retired to win the Allianz Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria

DAVIS CUP

World Group Semifinals

France beat. Argentina 5-0 at Lyon, France, hard

Serbia beat Czech Republic 3-2 at Belgrade, Serbia, hard

World Group Playoffs

Austria beat Israel 3-2 at Tel Aviv, Israel

United States beat Colombia 3-1 at Bogota, Colombia

Germany beat South Africa 5-0 at Stuttgart, Germany

Sweden beat Italy 3-2 at Lidkoping, Sweden

India beat Brazil 3-2 at Chennai, India

Australia leads. Belgium 2-1 at North Cairns, Australia

Kazakhstan beat Switzerland 5-0 at Astana, Kazakhstan

Romania beat Ecuador 5-0 at Bucharest, Romania

Americas Zone Group I, Second Round Playoff – Canada beat Dominican Republic 5-0 at Toronto, Canada

Americas Zone Group II, Third Round – Mexico beat. Venezuela 4-1 at Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico

Asia/Oceania Zone Group I, Second Round Playoff – Philippines beat Korea 3-2 at Changwon, Korea

Asia/Oceania Zone Group II, Third Round – New Zealand beat. Thailand 3-2 at Nontheburi, New Zealand

Europe/Africa Zone Group I, Second Round Playoff –Slovak Republic beat Belarus 4-1 at Minsk, Belarus; Poland beat Latvia 3-2 at Riga, Latvia

Europe/Africa Zone Group II, Third Round – Slovenia beat Lithuania 3-2 at Vilnius, Slovenia, Lithuania; Portugal beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-2 at Ouebrada, Bosnia and Herzegovina

SAYINGS

“That’s what I dreamt. It’s just amazing to be in there in this final to me. Just the ride to the final was amazing. Just to have the trophy in my hands in a moment will be unbelievable.” – Rafael Nadal, after winning the US Open men’s singles title.

“This is one of the matches where the opponent plays better than you, and you just have to congratulate him and tell him, ‘You’re better’. That’s it. I don’t think I played a bad match overall.” – Novak Djokovic, after losing to Rafael Nadal in the US Open men’s singles final.

“If I couldn’t win, I would have wanted another American to.” – Liezel Huber, who lost the US Open women’s doubles final to a team that included American Vania King.

Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and his teamm — Serbia celebrates win over Czech

“Before the Davis Cup tie, we were practicing for the doubles match for the last two or three months, as we knew it would it would be so crucial. It was our dream to make it to the World Group, and now we have made it, I am so happy.” – Yuriy Schukin, after helping Kazakhstan beat Switzerland to advance to the Davis Cup World Group for next year.

“All my life I’ve tried to do something to make my country and my parents proud. It’s been a long tough journey. I want to thank my relatives, friends and family for being with me through my ups and downs. One should never give up on dreams.” — Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi, at a function to honor him.

“I live in a fabulous country with so much traditions and excellence. There is no greater joy than playing for the flag and the colors of your country. I am sure I cannot play for the next 20 years, but as long as my legs will carry, I will do my best for my country. I am proud to be an Indian Davis Cupper and thank all of you who have been with me through this difficult journey.” – Leander Paes, at a function to honor him.

“Hopefully I can get higher now as the main goal is to be seeded for the Australian Open.” – Jarmila Groth of Australia, who cracked the top 50 ranking for the first time by winning the Landsky Lightning Guangzhou International Women’s Open in Guangzhou, China

STOPPING AT THE TOP

After winning three of the four Grand Slam tournaments, Rafael Nadal will finish 2010 on top of the ATP Tour rankings. The 24-year-old Spaniard has been virtually unstoppable since the beginning of the European clay court season. When he won the US Open for the first time earlier this month, he completed a career Grand Slam and became the youngest player to win all four major tournaments in the professional era. It is the second time in three years that Nadal will finish the year as number one. Nadal and Roger Federer are the only players since 2000 to clinch the year-end spot so early, with Federer achieving the feat in 2004 and 2006.

SERBIAN VICTORY

Novak Djokovic, who recovered from an illness, and Janko Tipsarevic combined to lead Serbia over the Czech Republic and into the Davis Cup final for the first time. Djokovic, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the US Open final earlier in the week, pulled out of the opening-day singles because of acute gastroenteritis. He wasn’t at his best when he and Nenad Zimonjic lost the doubles, and he struggled in the reverse singles until he fell in the fourth game of the second set against the Czech’s top player, Tomas Berdych. Djokovic needed treatment on his right knee, but later admitted “it energized me and woke me up.” After that, the Belgrade native dominated Berdych 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4. Then Tipsarevic turned in his second impressive performance of the weekend, crushing Radek Stepanek 6-0 7-6 (6) 6-4 to clinch the tie for Serbia. Serbia will face France in the Davis Cup final.

SPANISH SNUB

Spain’s top six women players say they will boycott next year’s Fed Cup competition to protest what they say is the attitude of the Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET). The six – Maria Jose Martine, Anabel Medina, Arancha Parra, Carla Suarez, Nuna Llagostera and Lourdes Dominguez – are angry over the reduction in prize money, the lack of hard court surfaces in the country and what they consider to be poor medical services at domestic tournaments. The six have vowed not to play in the first round of the 2011 competition on February 5-6, when Spain is scheduled to travel to Estonia. In a statement sent to the federation, the six complained of “a total lack of support and interest towards Spanish women’s tennis from the federation. Very much against our will, we have been forced to take a unanimous decision to stop playing and forming part of the national team for the 2011 Fed Cup.” The federation said there is no “war” between it and the players. “The federation’s commitment to women’s tennis is very big and our successes have always been achieved thanks to the team’s work,” federation president Jose Luis Escannela said, “and I don’t see any other explanation other than a possible error in communication, an error that has just been righted.”

SECURING A SPOT

The doubles team of Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy is the first to qualify for the season-ending WTA Championships – Doha 2010, which will be held October 26-31 in Doha, Qatar. It is the first time Dulko and Pennetta will appear in the Championships as a team after a successful season in which they won five titles, more than any other team on the WTA Tour. It’s also the first time either player has qualified for the year-end event in either singles or doubles. The pair also did well in the Grand Slam tournaments this year, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open. They won their titles at Miami, Rome, Stuttgart, Bastad and Montreal. “I’m so happy to qualify for the year-end Championships with Gisela as we are close friends on and off the court and it is very special for us,” Pennetta said. “We have worked very hard this year and reaching the Championships is a perfect way to end the season.”

SURPRISE

Two weeks after there was speculation that two players from Switzerland may reach the US Open quarterfinals, Switzerland was bounced out of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group by Kazakhstan. Of course, the Swiss team played without Roger Federer, but they did have Stanislas Wawrinka, who teamed with Federer to win the doubles gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. Instead, Kazakhstan moved up with the big boys for next year’s competition after crushing Switzerland 5-0. Andrey Golubev and Yuriy Schukin clinched the tie by winning the doubles by beating Wawrinka and Yves Allegro. Golubev started the rout on opening day by defeating Marco Chiudinelli. Then Mikhail Kukushkin outlasted Wawrinka in five sets – the only two sets the Swiss would win in the three-day competition. Wawrinka was replaced by Michael Lammer for the reverse singles.

SAYING THANKS

It seems as if Leander Paes has been playing Davis Cup for India forever. Well, not quite forever, but close to it. Paes has represented India in Davis Cup play since 1990 – 47 Davis Cup ties in 21 years. And he’s still going strong. Paes teamed with Mahesh Bhupathi for a straight-set doubles victory that helped India to a surprising 3-2 win over Brazil and a spot in the World Group in 2011. The Indian tennis community took time during the tie to thank Paes. Organized by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, Paes was feted by many who have been associated with Indian tennis, including Ramanthan Krishnan, Naresh Kumar, Ramesh Krishnan, SP Mishra, Akthar Ali, Jaideep Mukherjea, AITA president Yashwant Sinha and Lara Dutta, a former Miss Universe who just became engaged to Bhupathi.

SET FOR LONDON

The duo of Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Philipp Petzschner of Germany is the third team to qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which will be held November 21-28 in London, Great Britain. Melzer and Petzschner join the world’s top two doubles teams – American twins Bob and Mike Bryan and Canada’s Daniel Nester and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic – in the doubles event. Melzer and Petzschner currently are in seventh place in the ATP Doubles Team Rankings, but are assured of a place in London by virtue of their winning the Wimbledon doubles. Melzer is trying to become the first player to qualify in both singles and doubles at the season-ending event since Emilio Sanchez in 1990. The Austrian currently is in 11^th place in the Year-To-Date South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings. The top eight singles players will go to London. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have already clinched spots.

SO MUCH HEART

India did it the hard way – sweeping the final three matches to defeat Brazil in their Davis Cup World Group playoff. After Brazil won the two first-day singles matches of the five-match competition, India’s rally began with the doubles, where Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi beat Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 64 7-6 (5) 6-1. Then the intense heat and humidity of Chennai, India, got to Brazil’s top player, Thomaz Bellucci, who retired while trailing Somdev Devvarman 7-6 (3) 4-0, sending the tie it to a decisive fifth match. Rohan Bopanna’s straight-set win over Ricardo Mello sealed the 3-2 victory for India.

STAR POWER

It isn’t often that heads of state show up at Davis Cup ties. But Serbia’s President Boris Tadic took time off from his official duties to watch the doubles match between Serbia and the Czech Republic played in Belgrade, Serbia. Tadic joined International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti in the audience. Another head of state named Boris – Russian President Boris Yeltsin – regularly attended Davis Cup matches until shortly before his death in 2007.

SISTERLY LOVE

Liezel Huber won the US Open mixed doubles with Bob Bryan and came within one point of capturing the women’s doubles. Yet Huber’s most satisfying moment came a day after the rain-delayed Open ended when her twin sister Monita underwent experimental surgery in New York and was given a good prognosis for recovery. The Houston Chronicle reported that Monita was born with a rare vascular disease and her left arm was swollen to three times its normal size because of severely restricted circulation. There was even talk of having the arm amputated. “But she’s doing great,” Liezel Huber said the day after the operation. “She has function in the arm, which is now half the size it was. It’s been stressful having to play the Open knowing this was coming, but I’m feeling very, very blessed right now.”

STADIUM ROOF COLLAPSES

Dozens of tennis players in Invercargill, New Zealand, had to flee when roofing panels at Stadium Southland crashed to the ground. About 12 young players and several parents had just finished training and were preparing to leave the arena when the roof above the courts came down under the weight of fresh snow. The Southland Times newspaper reported that one tennis player, Jason Smith, said he was standing outside the courts when the doors in front of him blasted open from the pressure and a piece of roofing panel flew past him. “I thought it was a bit of an earthquake in the beginning and then realized nothing else was moving and just ran,” he said. Tennis coach Andre Van Rooyen told the newspaper: “It was just lucky. I really think it could easily have been a few deaths. It was just carnage; it looked like a tornado coming as the roof collapsed.”

SENIOR CIRCUIT

Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Marat Safin and Michael Chang headline the field at the 2010 The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman Legends Championships to be held November 5-7 in Grand Cayman. Aaron Krickstein and Jimmy Arias round out the six-player field for the fourth event on the 2010 Champions Series, a tennis circuit for champion players age 30 and over. To be eligible to compete on the Champions Series, players must have reached at least a major singles final, been ranked in the top five in the world or played singles on a championship Davis Cup team.

STAYING THE COURSE

Mardy Fish gave the United States Davis Cup team a scare when he fell during his reverse singles match against Santiago Giraldo and ripped the flesh off three knuckles. “It looked worse than it was,” said Doug Spreen, the American trainer. “Basically we washed it out. Mardy gritted his teeth and went back to work.” Giraldo broke Fish at 5-5 in the fifth set and served for the match, which would have meant a decisive fifth match. On the changeover, American Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe had words for Fish: “All during the match I told him to think about the sacrifice and hard work that he has put in over the (past) 10 months,” McEnroe said. “And on that changeover I said, keep believing.” Fish broke back and finally won 3-6 6-3 7-5 4-6 8-6 to keep the United States in the World Group next year. Rain washed out the final reverse singles, giving the Americans a 3-1 victory. Fish, who also teamed with John Isner to win the doubles, became the first American to win three points in a single Davis Cup tie since Pete Sampras led the United States to the 1995 title.

SURGERY FOR ZHENG

China’s Zheng Jie will likely miss the rest of the year after undergoing surgery on her left wrist. Zheng withdrew from the China Open in Beijing and will undergo the surgery in the United States. Ranked 23^rd in the world, Zheng is expected to be out for three to six months. Her injury worsened during the US Open. She lost her second-round singles match to Ana Ivanovic, but reached the semifinals in doubles.

SHOWING IT ALL – ALMOST

Venus Williams will be among the athletes posing nude or semi-nude in ESPN The Magazine’s second annual “Body Issue,” which goes on sale October 8. The magazine will feature nearly 40 professional, Olympic, collegiate and amateur athletes in the issue, including an NBA free agent, an NFL defensive star and two dozen student-athletes from a Division I-A school. This is the first time college athletes are featured. Others who will be in the magazine include US World Cup soccer goalkeeper Tim Howard, pool player Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee, surfer Kelly Slater, former star running back Herschel Walker and members of the US women’s water polo team.

SALUTE

Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi was honored in Lahore, Pakistan, at a reception and presented with a gold medal by Governor Punjab Salman Taseer. Qureshi, who reached the US Open final in both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles, has been widely praised for promoting harmony between Pakistan and India by teaming with India’s Rohan Bopanna. Qureshi also met with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who said the provincial government will do all it can to increase tennis participation. Qureshi is also raising funds for Pakistani flood victims through his family’s Haq Foundation and recently received a USD $10,000 donation from American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan through their Bryan Brothers Foundation.

SUCCESSFUL DEBUT

Martin Fischer made his Davis Cup debut pay off. Playing the decisive rubber against Israel, Fischer beat Harel Levy 2-6 6-3 6-0 6-2 to give Austria a place in next year’s Davis Cup World Group while Israel is relegated to zonal competition. “I knew it was going to be tough, this was my first game in the Davis Cup, I knew I was good enough to beat Harel, I just played my game and even though the crowd was very loud, I made myself think that they were screaming for me,” Fischer said. In the opening reverse singles, Jurgen Melzer pulled Austria level at 2-2 by beating Dudi Sela in straight sets.

STRONG FIELD

Five players ranked in the top 10 in the world are set to see action in an ATP 250 tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fifth-ranked Robin Soderling, number six Nikolay Davydenko, number eighth Tomas Berdych, number nine Mikhail Youzhny and number 10 David Ferrer are all scheduled to play the Malaysia Open. Youzhny reached the US Open semifinals to boost him to his highest ranking since February 2008, when he was eighth in the world. The Malaysia Open runs from September 27 to October 3. “It is a tremendous achievement and almost unheard of for an ATP 250 tournament to have five top-10 players,” said tournament director Nick Freyer, who is also senior vice president of IMG.

SELECT GROUP

Andre Agassi has a heavyweight lineup for this year’s Grand Slam for Children. Among those performing will be Elton John, Rob Thomas, Jason Mraz and the Canadian Tenors. The Grand Slam for Children is a major fundraising vehicle for the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. Proceeds from the event support the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy and helps improve education for all children. Since 1995, the Grand Slam for Children has raised nearly USD $83 million. This year, the Grand Slam for Children will be held October 9.

SPONSORSHIP

Barclays has decided not to renew its sponsorship of the Dubai Tennis Championships. The British bank is also the title sponsor of the ATP World Tour Finals at London’s 02. “After happily fulfilling our two-year agreement, we can confirm we are no longer sponsors of the tournament in Dubai,” Barclays spokesman Richard Mackie said. “We were very happy with the arrangement and believe title sponsorship was a massive success for Barclays. There was an option to renew, which we decided against, and feel the agreement has now concluded in exactly the right way.” Dubai Duty Free, who owns the event, is expected to revert to title sponsor.

SOUP KITCHEN AID

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) and Levy Restaurants, the official restaurateur of the US Open, have teamed up to donate more than 21,000 pounds (9,500 kilos) of unused food to City Harvest following the 2010 US Open. City Harvest is dedicated to feeding New York City’s hungry. In the week following the US Open, City Harvest delivered rescued food to soup kitchens and food pantries across the five boroughs. Donated food items included bread, grains, fresh and frozen produce, seafood, dairy, juices and vegetables.

STAYING AROUND

BNP Paribas has extended its sponsorship of Davis Cup and Fed Cup for an additional five years. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said the agreement also includes sponsorship of Junior Davis Cup, Junior Fed Cup, ITF wheelchair tennis activities, and the bi-annual Worldwide Coaches Conference and regional coaches workshops. The announcement was made in Lyon, France, at the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas semifinal between France and Argentina. Davis Cup by BNP Paribas is the largest annual international team competition in sport with 125 nations taking part this year.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Guangzhou: Edina Gallovits and Sania Mirza beat Han Xinyun and Liu Wanting 7-5 6-3

Sofia: Eleni Danilidou and Jasmin Woehr beat Sandra Klemenschits and Tatjana Malek 6-3 6-4

Szczecin: Dustin Brown and Rogier Wassen beat Rameez Junaid and Philipp Marx 6-4 7-5

Quebec City: Sofia Arvidsson and Johanna Larsson beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-1 2-6 10-6 (match tiebreak)

SITES TO SURF

Seoul: www.hansolopen.com

Saint Malo: www.opengdfsuez-bretagne.com/

Tokyo: www.toray-ppo.co.jp/

Ningho: www.tiyuzx.com

Metz: www.opendemoselle.com/

Bucharest: http://bcropenromania.ro/2010/