Closer Look

New slogan of women's game: The Russians are here

By John O'Keefe, SI.com

From the Baseline

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva prove that the Russians have arrived. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Svetlana Kuznetsova: After Anatasia Myskina and Maria Sharapova won the French Open and Wimbledon, respectively, earlier this year, the unspoken slogan of the women's game has been "The Russians are coming."

Well, after two others played high-level tennis in an all-Russian U.S. Open final Saturday night, it can effectively be changed to: "They're here."

Could it be that the best of the bunch is Kuznetsova, the least known of the five who entered the tournament ranked in the top 10 in the world?

The most impressive thing about the 19-year-old's straight-set win Saturday was the way she seized the moment. She quickly established that Elena Dementieva's suspect serve wasn't going to fly in the final.

By creeping in and teeing off on more than a few of her serves, Kuznetsova forced Dementieva to speed up her serve in the second set to perhaps an uncomfortable level.

"I knew I could break her serve pretty easily," said Kuznetsova.

Her serve, on the other hand, was a legitimate weapon. Coming in consistently between 100 and 105 MPH, Kuznetsova, unlike Dementieva, was able to control points in her service games.

Dementieva: The good news is that the 22-year-old Moscow native probably has the purest groundstrokes in the world right now. The bad news: She has a serve that you might see at your local municipal park on Saturday morning.

The fact that Kuznetsova came out firing service returns forced Dementieva to start serving as well as she has the entire the tournament.

"I was trying to do something different," said Dementieva. "She has a very powerful game and a great return."

Head games

Normally, making 76 percent of your first serves in a match, including 88 percent in the first set, will equal victory, but not when many of them lead directly to winners by your opponent.

Kuznetsova had 34 winners to Dementieva's seven largely because of her determination to make Dementieva pay for the slow speed of her serve. Overall, the pace at which these two young Russians were hitting the ball might have been collectively as fast as it has ever been in the women's game. In the first set, a fan mockingly yelled down for the upper deck, "Why don't you hit it harder?" The two young Russians seemed happy to oblige.

Courtside confidential

OK, it was easy to predict that an all-Russian women's final that didn't include the name Kournikova wouldn't be a ratings bonanza for CBS, but there wasn't even a trace of buzz in the crowd before this match.

One guy in a lower level box appeared to be napping early in the first set.

Still, there were a couple of celebs who made it to Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday. The first men's semifinal was attended by Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, who spent most of the match ignoring the action on the court, conversing with people in their box and signing autographs for a seemingly endless stream 13-year-old girls.

Alec Baldwin took in the night session wearing a navy blazer and tie and looking like a ranking member of the USTA.

Also at night, sitting at center court about five rows up next to PBS talk show host Charlie Rose, was NBA commissioner David Stern -- no doubt pondering how the all-Russian women's final could benefit the international growth of the NBA.