The incident cost her around $95,000 in fines and also put her on probation for the 2010 and 2011 US Opens.

She didn’t play last year due to a foot injury, so that made her first round matchup last night against Bojana Jovanowski her first appearance in the 718 area code since the foot fault heard around the world.

Even though she is a low seed (28^th due to injuries), this is still Serena Williams so of course she cruised to a 6-1 6-1 victory.

But it’s not a Serena match without some controversy. Last night the Open set her match as the late start, so she had to wait three hours for Rafael Nadal to win his round. And of course Williams couldn’t hold her tongue about it.

“No, I think the guys should play second,” she said. “They’re guys. We’re ladies. We’re ladies. They should totally play second all the time. Ladies, you open the door for ladies. They should go second. It’s ridiculous.”

Before last year’s Open, the ladies always went first, but then in 2010 the Open decided to mix up the matches with some nights having the men in the leadoff spot.

It’s pretty obvious why this is done – money. With the Open taking ESPN’s money, they have become slaves to what the networks want to see in primetime. ESPN’s ratings are dictated by the Eastern Time Zone, which is the most populous part of the United States. Prime time is 8 pm to 10 pm, so you can understand why the network will want the biggest ratings grabber for its first match.

So when it came down to the defending US Open Men’s champion and international star, or Serena, whose first round matchup was a mockery then you can understand what would go first.

Frankly, Serena will be more than glad to take all the prize money from the Open – equal prize money with the men for that matter – so she should sometimes bite the bullet for the bigger and better matches.

With the spotlight on her this year and the zero tolerance policy she has with the Open after two years ago, Serena should just keep her head down and play the game.

The bottom line is this Serena got off easy two years ago, but if anything happens this year then she will probably face harsher sanctions from tennis’s governing bodies.

“I love the Team Tennis format that Billie Jean has created, and getting to play on the court in New York, at the beautiful facility John McEnroe has will be a thrill for sure,” Hingis said this week. “I feel great, I am enjoying life, and I want to have a great month for the fans and our team.”

The Martina Hingis of today is much more like the graceful player that stormed to the top of the women’s tennis game and much less like the rebellious twentysomething whose life turned due to injuries, boredom and other off the court issues in the latter half of the last decade. She has a new husband, showjumper Thibault Hutin, a new doubles partner at Grand Slams seniors events (Lindsay Davenport, who she teamed to win the French Open Masters with in May), and a new outlook on life that is refreshing in a sport that usually casts off its former stars for long periods of time. “I have my horses, my tennis and a very nice balance right now, especially not travelling 30 weeks a year playing,” she added.

Hingis will be a Sportimes mainstay for their matches this coming month. Fans can catch her no less than five times at the beautiful Randall’s Island facility, playing singles (including a match with the Washington Kastles Serena Williams) and mixed doubles with team captain McEnroe.

More importantly for tennis, it appears that one of their former bright stars is back and enjoying the game, and will bring that joy to the fun-filled world of WTT starting on Wednesday. For all the details visit newyorksportimes.com.

Results – Monday, October 11, 2010
Singles – Final
(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. (2) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 63 36 63

Doubles – Final (played Saturday)
Chuang/Govortsova (TPE/BLR) d. (1) Dulko/Pennetta (ARG/ITA) 76(2) 16 107 (Match TB)

Final Facts
- Wozniacki wins a Tour-leading sixth singles title of the season, and the 12th of her career, having won the 11th at Tokyo just last week. She is now 12-7 in Tour singles finals.
- Before this Asian swing, the 20-year-old Dane had never won a match at either the China Open or the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Including Montréal (August) she now has three Premier-level titles on her record.
- Wozniacki has won a Tour-leading 59 singles matches this year. Zvonareva has registered 46 match wins (third best).
- By reaching the quarterfinals at Beijing, Wozniacki ensured her rise to No.1 in the rankings the week beginning Monday, October 11. Replacing the injured Serena Williams, Wozniacki is the 20th woman to hold the top spot since the inception of computer rankings in 1975.
- Zvonareva is now 10-16 in Tour singles finals, but rises to a new-career-high ranking of No.3 this week.
- Chuang Chia-Jung and Olga Govortsova win their first Tour doubles title together, having never previously been past the quarterfinals in a partnership that began earlier this year. Their victims en route included three of the four teams that have qualified for the season-ending WTA Championships: No.2 seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik; No.4 seeds Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova; and No.1 seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.
- Chuang now has 15 doubles titles to her name; Govortsova owns four.

Final Quotes
Caroline Wozniacki, 2010 China Open singles champion:
“I thought I played a really, really good match. Vera was playing really well too. Everything is working for me at the moment. I’ve got to believe I can beat anyone. I feel in great shape and I’m looking forward to Doha.”

Vera Zvonareva, 2010 China Open singles runner-up:
“Rankings don’t matter too much to me, because I knew if I play well I’ll win matches and the ranking will come. If I go on court and think about everything but my game, I won’t be able to win any match and my ranking wouldn’t be there. I just think about what I have to do on the court to win.”

Chuang Chia-Jung, 2010 China Open doubles champion:
“Because it’s in China it’s very special for me. Olga and I have played together about half a year now and this was our best week together. We played aggressively and that was the key today.”

Olga Govortsova, 2010 China Open doubles champion:
“Almost all of our matches this week went to a tie-break, and when we get there we play so focused. CJ was hitting great volleys and I was hitting hard from the baseline. Gisela and Flavia are so good, we’re really happy. I’ve been to Beijing nine or 10 times now. I can’t wait to come back again.”

1 Serena Williams (USA) 6995.00pts

2 Caroline Wozniacki (Den) 5910.00

3 Venus Williams (USA) 5796.00

4 Vera Zvonareva (Rus) 5550.00

5 Kim Clijsters (Bel) 5325.00

6 Jelena Jankovic (Ser) 5205.00

7 Samantha Stosur (Aus) 4950.00

8 Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 4670.00

9 Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 3995.00

10 Elena Dementieva (Rus) 3945.00

11 Victoria Azarenka (Blr) 3715.00

12 Na Li (Chn) 3520.00

13 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 3516.00

14 Marion Bartoli (Fra) 3455.00

15 Maria Sharapova (Rus) 3450.00

16 Justine Henin (Bel) 3415.00

17 Shahar Peer (Isr) 3295.00

18 Aravane Rezai (Fra) 3100.00

19 Nadia Petrova (Rus) 3070.00

20 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 2780.00

The Russian’s 6-4 6-3 win over the No. 1 seed raised a few eyebrows – especially the CBS executives who wanted to see the rising star in the finals – but it didn’t surprise the hardcore tennis fans, who saw Zvonareva lost to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon finals. Much like Wozniacki, she is also a rising star, who went from the 21^st seed at Roland Garros to No. 7 here in Flushing.

“I always believe in myself,” Zvonareva said.  “I always believe I can beat anyone on the other side of the net if I’m able to play my best tennis.  There is nothing really changed for me, you know.  I know I’m not gonna play perfect tennis all the time, like most of the players, but that’s what we all trying to do.

“I know if I’m doing it, if I’m playing well, I can beat anyone.”

Today she proved just that. Controlling the match from the outset, the 26 year-old was able to break and then hold Wozniacki during the third game of the first set to easily cruse to a 6-4 win.  Zvonareva was able to control the match from the baseline, putting her younger opponent on heels, running from side to side, trying to track down balls.

“I think it’s the same probably as the previous match, very similar,” Zvonareva said. “It’s the right balance between being patient and being aggressive.  You know, with those windy conditions you have to play sometimes ugly, you know.  You don’t have to expect to play your best tennis.”

“That’s what I did well.  I was not expecting to play my best tennis, but, you know, I was trying to be patient when I needed, and step up when I got the chance.”

She got chances also early in the she when she went up a break, but Wozniacki broke back to show some fight. Yet, that game was the last the Pilot Pen winner won, as Zvonareva was able to break back and then serve for the win.

“She played a really good game, definitely,” Wozniacki said.  “You know, she was not missing a lot.  She was going for her shots.  Most things were going in.  You know, I had chances, and I don’t know, I made some mistakes today that I usually don’t do.

“Yeah, it was a tough day for me in the office, and unfortunately it was today.  That’s the way tennis is sometimes.”

Now Zvonareva will look for her first Grand Slam win by taking on Kim Clijsters tomorrow night. It will be a very interesting matchup as Clijsters is undefeated in Flushing Meadows since her comeback last year and leads the head to head matchup 5-2, but the two losses came this year. One at Wimbledon and then later this summer in Montreal.

“Any match with Kim will come down to the tough challenge, you know,” Zvonareva said.  “She’s a great mover on the court.  She has a lot of experience.  She won here last year.  You know, it’s going to be tough.  You know, we played a couple of matches for the past couple of months, but those matches are in the past.

“I will think about what worked the best for me, and I will try to take it with me tomorrow, and, you know, do it again.  Those things that didn’t work well for me, I tried to avoid them.  That’s it.”

And as for Wozniacki, it’s back to the drawing board for her Grand Slam, but as Annie once sung, “The sun will come out tomorrow.”

That means Sunshine as well.

“Mary Joe has done a tremendous job in her first two years as U.S. Fed Cup captain,” said Lucy S. Garvin, Chairman of the Board and President, USTA.  “She has created a team atmosphere that has paid dividends, and the results are indisputable.  Mary Joe has also been able to involve some of our most promising young players, paving the road for continued success in the years to come.”

Fernandez will attempt to lead the U.S. to its first Fed Cup title since 2000 when the U.S. hosts Italy in San Diego, November 6-7.  The U.S. also faced Italy in last year’s final in Reggio Calabria, Italy, losing 4-0.  World No. 1 Serena Williams and world No. 4 Venus Williams have committed to represent the U.S. in the final, joining the core U.S. Fed Cup group of Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and world No. 1 doubles player and 2010 US Open mixed doubles champion Liezel Huber.

This year will mark the first time the Fed Cup Final has been played in the United States since 2000, when the U.S. won its record 17^th Fed Cup title.

Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the world’s largest annual international women’s team competition, with 87 countries competing this year.  For more information, including access to U.S. player and historical Fed Cup records, please go to www.usta.com/fedcup.

Wilson is the official tennis ball of the U.S. Fed Cup team.

And now she cruised into the third round of the US Open, losing only two games in the first round to Chelsey Gullickson, 6-1 6-1,  and now the shutting out Kai-Chen Chang, 6-0 6-0.

Yes, it was just another day at the office for the Danish beauty.

“The expectations maybe from the outside has changed, but from myself I always go into a tournament and I want to win it,” she said.  “Doesn’t really matter what tournament I’m playing, and I always believe in myself.  It’s not always possible to win every tournament, but at least I give it a shot.

“You know, the only time I get disappointed with myself is if I feel like I haven’t given 100%.  You know, I’m almost always giving 100%.  It’s just about if I lose a match, okay, the opponent was just playing better than me that day, and I need to get back and work harder and be better for next time.”

Wozniacki is now the No. 1 seed with Serena Williams out of the tournament. She is no longer below the radar, like she was at during the first week of last year’s US Open where she was overshadowed by the Melanie Oudin story and then Kim Clijsters, who beat her in the final.

“Well, the atmosphere here is great,” she said.  “I really love playing here.  I mean, it’s a great feeling.  Also coming back from last year, you know, being in the finals, coming back here and just, yeah, playing on the big courts, it’s a great feeling.”

Her run comes after the 20 year-old injured her ankle after the Wimbledon, she took a few weeks off to get healthy, which essentially recharged her batteries, allowing her to make this run.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m that type of person that I like to do everything 100%,” she said.  “If I don’t feel like I’m practicing 100%, it makes me frustrated a little bit, when I have to take care of myself, you know, where I have to take care of my body.

“You know, Charleston was, yeah, it was tough, you know.  I got that ankle injury and wasn’t feeling great.  I had to take care of myself.  You know, it’s tough when I’m used to doing so much fitness off the court, and I really couldn’t do that.

“It was great for me to have that time off after Wimbledon, and that’s where I really started to feel like my ankle was feeling 100% and I could really practice 100% and go to sleep and feel, okay, today I’ve really done what I had to do.  That’s the way I need to progress.

“It’s bringing out the results, and I’m really, really happy now.  You know, hopefully I can just stay injury‑free and keep improving.”

And now she’s looking to win her first major, even though her bracket looks tough and a potential meeting with Sharapova looms, Wozniacki’s confidence is strong.

“My body is feeling great,” she said.  “I’m feeling fine.  I had those five weeks after Wimbledon where I just practiced, and actually that’s ‑‑ I almost feel like that’s harder than playing matches.  I really like playing matches.

“I would like to get into that rhythm.  Especially when you’re winning, you have that confidence.  You go out on the court and you know what to do.  You’re in your own bubble.  That’s what I’m aiming for.”

So today when she dropped the first set to Jamilla Groth, 4-6, you had to wonder if the good Maria was back or the bad Maria, who struggled since coming back from shoulder surgery, was still around.

“I think she came out today and really swung and didn’t give me much time to do anything out there,” Sharapova said after taking the next two sets, 6-3 6-1. “She served really well in the first set.  I wasn’t returning that well, giving her a lot of looks, you know, on second serves.

“Against a player like that, who kind of plays the 1‑2 punch type of tennis, you know, it’s quite difficult to get a rhythm in the beginning.

“You know, I just hung in there.  Between the first and second set, I knew that it wasn’t over.  In tennis you have either two or three sets to play.  So I still knew I had my chances.”

Sharapova then dominated and cruised to the win. She needs to send a message as a potential Quarterfinal with No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki looms early next week.

But first she needs to continue to finish her matches strong. Next up is Iveta Benesova in the second round and as of right now, she is still trying to find her form in this Open.

“Based on my results in the past,” she said, “I’ve been in different situations coming into a Grand Slam playing really well in the beginning, playing well throughout, or starting quite slow and then finding my game throughout.

“So it depends.  It really depends on the tournament, the situation, your opponent, really getting through matches.  Days like this where your opponent was playing really well, you really have to find, you know, ways to hang in there and ways to fight.  And at the end of the day, just hope you give yourself another opportunity.”

Sharapova actually looks the strongest since she had shoulder surgery back in Oct. 2008. When she came back last year, her serve looked weak as she was recovering from the injury. But now, she’s fully healthy and time to turn the page.

“Yeah, last year with my whole game, I was just trying to find, you know, where my feet were on the ground, just trying to find my position, see how I could handle playing a lot of matches under different circumstances,” she said. “You know, this year, you know, a whole year with the tournaments and experience, it feels really good to be healthy coming in, just playing and not worrying about, uhm, how physically you feel.”

In 2010, Sharapova took two smaller tournaments the first was in February in Memphis and then right before Roland Garros in Strasberg. But these smaller tourneys are not what she’s looking for. Not with three Grand Slams under her belt, yet none since the surgery.

“Experience helps,” she said.  “But, I don’t know, it’s really at the end of the day about going out there and doing it and finding the mental strength, the physical strength, you know, challenging yourself to go out there and be better every day.”

And today Groth learned that from Sharapova and now Benesova is in her the way of the Great Maria Comeback.

“It was really hot and windy. My opponent played really well,” Jankovic said  “She was putting a lot of balls in the court.  She didn’t really make many mistakes, and I really had to work for every point. But I wasn’t playing my best tennis.  I was just trying to find my rhythm out there and trying to do my best to get through. I’m happy that I was able to get through this match.  It was a really tough one for me.”

It was a victory gained more on guile than game. Jankovic suffered a sprained left ankle in Portoroz earlier this summer and has staggered through the US Open Series. As the top seed in Montreal two weeks ago, Jankovic lost in straight sets to 75th-ranked qualifier Iveta Beneseova. It was her fourth loss in six matches and prompted Jankovic to admit the obvious: her game and confidence are sagging.

“I didn’t really feel like a top-five player out there,” said Jankovic. “My game hasn’t been at the top level for the last couple of tournaments.”

Since her run to the Roland Garros semifinals, Jankovic has registered a 6-6 record with four of her losses coming to players ranked outside the top 25, including a 7-6(3), 6-4 setback to 114th-ranked Akgul Amanmuradova in Cincinnati.

The 2008 Open runner-up to Serena Williams looked slightly fresher than Halep in the latter stages. Seeking her first career Grand Slam main draw victory, Halep had the match on her racquet, but ran out of gas in the critical stages.

“Physically, I think she was more stronger than me,” Halep said. “She didn’t hit so hard, but she changed the rhythm of the points. I was very close and I am sad I didn’t win. I will try to do it next time.”

The fourth-seeded Jankovic resides in the softest quarter of the draw, but will need to pick up her play considerably if she is to reach the quarterfinals for the fourth time in her last five Flushing Meadows appearances.

Athletically, Jankovic remains one of the most gifted players in the game, but her habit of reverting to retrieving when the going gets tough likely won’t get the job done against the seeded power players in the draw.

“There are days when you’re not going to be feeling the ball, you’re not going to be moving your feet,” Jankovic said. “In those days, you just really have to fight and really have to try your best and give your maximum and try to get through these kind of matches. If you are able to do that, then it gives you a lot more confidence for the next round.”

The next round pits Jankovic against one of the most unlikely of all US Open comeback stories. Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic, who reached the 1999 Wimbledon final at age 17, defeated Alicia Molik, 7-6(5), 6-1, and will face Jankovic in the second round.

“I feel fantastic. I’m so so happy,” Lucic said. “I worked so hard to get here. It feels incredible.”

The 28-year-old Lucic who missed nearly four years of her pro career due to personal issues she would not revisit in today’s post-match press conference, posted her first US Open main-draw victory since 1999.

Though she essentially walked away from the sport to put her life back in order after experiencing problems with her father, Lucic said in her mind she never walked away from the game.

“Never. I was just waiting for my opportunities.  I never quit,” Lucic said.  “I’m 28 now.  People are calling me a veteran, which is like, Oh, so depressing.  I’m like old at 28. But, you know, I just love it out there. I’m doing what I love, and I know that there is still a lot of good tennis in me, a lot of good results.  That’s what’s pushing me, and that’s why I’m doing it.”

Rich Pagliaro is the editor of TennisNow.com.