Del Portro

It took another Spanish speaking, sleeveless T-shirt wearing young man to beat Federer.

Del Portro ended Federer's winning streak in the US Open by securing a five-set victory in Flushing Meadows. The 20-year old Argentine had a shaky start on the first set but stood his ground as the match progressed. Too bad the match began around 4 in the afternoon and my VCR wasn't set up to record the match in its entirety. So by the time I found out rather serendipitously by surfing to channel 702 as the match was still playing. But it was match point number 3 on the fifth set already. On his quest to the US Championship, Del Portro beat Nadal and and in the end 5-time US Open Champion Federer, a feat that legitimizes him as a rising talent.

As a side note, Serena finally issued another statement apologizing for her behavior yesterday and re-iterated her apology in the post match interview after the Williams sisters won the Women's Double. Man, Venus Williams just acted surly and all that. I think I used to like them better. Now it's like wow, they can't be bothered. With talks of suspension and prize money forfeited and tons of bad press, I think an apology is definitely the smart thing to do.