Serena Returns to Open, Shrugs Off 2009 Incident

NEW YORK — In her first appearance at the U.S. Open since threatening to shove her racket down a lineswoman’s throat during the 2009 semifinals, Serena Williams laughed off the incident and said it was no big deal.

“Oh my God, that was like two years ago,” Serena, who missed last year’s Open after foot surgery, said Monday morning during a press conference. “This is like two years later.”

Asked what she remembered from the semifinal against Kim Clijsters in which Williams went ballistic after a foot-fault call, Serena added: “I just remember I lost, and that was that. I got really popular. A lot of people were telling me they thought I was super cool, that they’d never saw me so intense.

Murray Believes He Can Win First Major in Queens

Like virtually every other tennis player of this era, Andy Murray may simply have been born at the wrong time.

The 24-year-old Scot shares an era with two of the greatest players in the history of tennis, and a third who is in the midst of one of the single greatest seasons ever.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have won 22 of the last 26 Grand Slam singles tournaments, and Novak Djokovic has won three of the other four, including two during a year in which he’s compiled a 57-2 record.

During that time, Murray is 0-3 in major finals and has not won a single set. Djokovic smoked Murray in straight sets to win the Australian Open in January.

Federer Says He Can Play for ‘Many More Years’

Roger Federer is 30 years old and hasn’t won a Grand Slam singles title since the 2010 Australian Open.

Yet Club Fed says he has no plans to go quietly into that good night.

In fact, Federer could imagine himself playing tennis for several more years.

“I’m confident I can still play for many more years to come at the highest of levels,” the 16-time major winner said Saturday at the U.S Open.

Federer is the No. 3 seed at this year’s Open and is scheduled to open against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia Monday night under the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights. He could potentially face No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, his arch-rival, in the final. If he fails to win the Open, it would mark the first year since 2002 he hasn’t won at least one major.