Hewitt Turns Back the Clock With Win Over Del Potro

NEW YORK — It has been 11 years since Lleyton Hewitt last won a Grand Slam event, at Wimbledon, and 12 since his first, and only, title at the US Open in 2001.

His matchup with No. 6 seed Juan Martin Del Potro on Friday night at the U.S. Open was intriguing from the start.

Both were former US Open champions, Hewitt having won back in 2001 when he beat Pete Sampras in the final and Del Potro capturing the title in 2009.

In the end, it was the 32-year-old Hewitt turning back the clock when Del Potro double-faulted on match point in the fifth set to give Hewitt a 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory that lasted 4 hours, 5 minutes and propelled him into the third round.

SNY Exclusive: Djokovic Reveals His Night of Terror

By ADAM ZAGORIA with STEPHEN PERRINE 

NEW YORK — Most tennis stars have childhoods filled with country clubs and luxury travel. Novak Djokovic’s upbringing in Serbia was filled with NATO bombers and exploding buildings.

While Djokovic has talked in the past about spending several months living in bomb shelters during the 1999 bombing of Belgrade, it’s only now that the world’s No. 1 tennis player is opening up about just how close he came to not making it through the Serbian war.

“I think Novak plays it down a bit, but his story is terrifying,” says Stephen Perrine, publisher of Zinc Ink books, who collaborated with Djokovic on his new book, Serve to Win—a combination of autobiography and prescriptive nutrition book that details how Novak became No. 1 by changing his eating habits.

Djokovic advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open Friday with a 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-2 win over Benjamin Becker.

In the book, Djokovic recounts a moment when he and his family were fleeing their apartment building during a bombing raid, and trying to reach a bomb shelter 300 yards away. As his parents and younger brothers ran ahead of him, Djokovic fell and lost sight of them:

Yanks’ Girardi Says He’d Bat Nadal Leadoff, Play Him at Short

NEW YORK — Yankees manager Joe Girardi sat courtside for Rafael Nadal’s second-round US Open match Thursday night and offered up some thoughts on where Nadal might fit in on the Yankees.

“Well, I think you’d probably have to put him lead off because he’s got a lot of fire and you want those guys to try to make things happen,” Girardi told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert as he watched Nadal crush Rogerio Dutra Silva, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, in Arthur Ashe Stadium. “And I’d probably have to put him at shortstop because he was a guy that could cover the whole field.”

(Apparently Derek Jeter would be displaced, perhaps to DH, in such a scenario. Also, Nadal is a lefty, which might make playing shortstop difficult.)

Asked if Nadal could bat third, Girardi said, “No, because I want the guy that has the fire and the passion to make something happen.”