A bit of tennis, a whole lot of fun

Kelvin Leong jots down the little things that have caught his attention at the US Open.
The usual suspects who are expected to be in the running come next weekend are still in the tournament. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, the Williams Sisters and Andy Murray.
However, some players have taken over the headlines with their antics and strong superhuman efforts. Here are a few of them.
Oudin's Russian Roulette
The American teen sensation seems to have an immensely strong grudge against the players from one country.
Russia.
Oudin took to the court in the second round against fourt-seed, Elena Dementieva who probably thought it was going to be an easy one hour job.
Before she could even catch her breath in the first set, Oudin was sending powerful forehands and backhands across the net to stun her into oblivion.
As if hurting one Russian was not enough, Oudin stood up to tennis' glamour queen, Maria Sharapova in the third round and played a peach of a match to wave Sharapova goodbye.
If you add her victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round to the list, Oudin has singlehandedly thrown three Russians out of the tournament.
Guess what?
The Houdini's next opponent in the fourth round is Russian as well! 13th seed, Nadia Petrova!
And if the American hotshot gets past Petrova, another shot of vodka awaits her in the shape of Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Talk about one shot too many!
Djoker no more
Novak Djokovic has been too busy playing catch up in most of his time at the Flushing Meadows this year to goof around like he used to.
No more silly antics of him imitating other players and definitely no mischievous grins at the crowd.
He had to fight tooth and nail to get past Ivan Ljubicic in the first round and just when he thought he could cruise through, Jesse Witten came storming into his path and took the first set in their second round matchup to cause a moment of panic.
The Djoker was an angry man more than a comical one as he put every sinew in his body to good use before ousting the outstanding Witten in four sets.
The beads of sweat furiously trickling down his face along with his stone-cold look of despair in between sets made up for his renowned banter.
Bigger and better
Everyone talks about Andy Roddick's huge serves.
Apparently, no one realized that his compatriot, John Isner, had an even bigger one.
The two Americans slugged it out in the third round and the match went on for three hours and 51 minutes before the giant frame of Isner raised his arms in victory.
A-Rod had a shell-shocked look on his face as he took in the raw power of Isner's serves and smashing forehands.
38 aces and 90 winners showed just how dominant Isner was against his compatriot.
Ranked 55 in the world, Isner will now carry a nation's hopes of having an American lift the US Open trophy since Roddick did back in 2003.
Safina falls flat again
Marat Safin blasted the media earlier this week for constantly criticizing his younger sister, Dinara's stay as World No.1 despite having not won a major title.
Well, the volatile Marat probably choked on his pie when his sister was ousted from the final slam of the season by a relatively unknown player, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.
Just why Safina plays the game with such angst from the moment she walks onto court and how frustrated she is from the get-go is a mystery to me.
Maybe her brother's shadow is proving to be more of a hindrance than anything else.
Well, Safina will need to wait a few months before she can prove critics wrong while Marat will do well to continue eating his pie until a miracle happens.
And by that I meant humble pie.
Enjoy the rest of the action from the Flushing Meadows.

Source ESPN Sports