Sharapova drops first set
- September
- 1
Maria Sharapova is up in the second, but the No. 2 seed is going to have to fight to win this fourth-round match over the No. 30 seed Agniszka Radwanska. of Poland.
Jane McManus
Jane McManus joined The Journal News in 1999, after working at The Daily News and Newsday. She covered the Jets for the Brett Favre season, and before that was a college beat writer and covered pro tennis. She plays roller derby as Lesley E. Visserate. She went to St. John's College in Annapolis, Md. and worked as a paralegal in Manhattan on cases involving the NBA and boxing, which is what sparked the whole sportswriting idea. That and watching the Knicks during the Patrick Ewing era. A trip to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism honed her high-school paper skills, and she is an adjunct there for the sports journalism class that raised her. She runs, plays basketball and chases her two girls, Jean and Charlotte.
E-mail Jane McManus at jmcmanus@lohud.com
Entries written by Jane McManus
Marat out, Jokers wild
- August
- 31
Novak Djokovic did manage to beat Radek Stepanek, but it took 4 hours and 44 minutes. The final score was 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2). It was a wild match—Djokovic did a scissors kick after winning the second set, and Stepanek high stepped back to his chair after winning the third.
After [...]
Safin, Djokovic in trouble
- August
- 31
Look’s like Harold’s prediction of an upset were off by a day. Former champ and No. 25 seed Marat Safin is down a set against the other Swiss player, Stanislas Wawrinka. At the same time, No. 3 Novak Djokovic of the easy side of the draw split sets with Radek Stepanek and is down a [...]
Blake gets that 5-set win
- August
- 31
Every once in a while, James Blake says something so smart and funny it reminds you he’s the only player on the ATP Tour who has spent two years at Harvard. Last night after winning the first five-setter of his career, Blake was asked how it felt to “get the monkey off your back.”
“I’d find [...]
Oh the Whitestone
- August
- 30
Ever had a nightmare that your car breaks down at the top of the Whitestone? Well, I got to live the dream. The good thing was that my ‘99 Beetle made it to the tennis center, with a dislodged splashguard acting like a plow in front of my car.
Great fun.
The bad news is that I [...]
Underwater rhymes
- August
- 29
So John Isner wins his second round match over a-guy-you’ve-never-heard-of and USA Network has been with him for a good part of the last set, including a tiebreak which made for great TV.
Finally, the young American wildcard gets the on-court interview, where the world will meet him, and something is wrong with the mic. [...]
Doubles and stuff
- August
- 29
The top players in men’s doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan, are the top seeds here in their home Grand Slam event. And in the first round, they will face American John Isner and Scott Oudsema. Isner has been a pleasant surprise here, but he has a better chance of beating Rik De Voest tonight in [...]
Blake breaks back
- August
- 28
James Blake, the one who lived in Yonkers for his first six years, beat Michael Russell 7-6 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (4) at Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday. He is on a high right now, with a new book detailing a nightmareish 2004 called “Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life.”
He’s [...]
Papers cut back tennis coverage
- August
- 28
The U.S. Open is the one tennis event of the year that most large papers cover. The New York papers compete with the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles papers, and wire services from around the world. But this year, several key tennis writers aren’t making the trip.
The Hartford Courant is one paper scaling back [...]
DirecTV’s extended coverage
- August
- 28
Is anyone using the DirecTV feature that allows you to switch between six live courts? The truth is that here in the media center every reporter has a television set in front of their cubicle, allowing us to watch any court from the comfort of our bunker under Arthur Ashe Stadium.
I’m curious to see how [...]
