Amy Eddings Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 12:10PM 
After the love is gone at the US Open, all that's left is a promise to rendezvous next year.
I returned to the media center underneath Ashe Stadium to find a corporate ghost town of empty offices, dark hallways and furniture wrapped in plastic.
Amy Eddings Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2012 at 10:52PM 
Over the net and between the lines? I can do that!"Ready? Play."
Every umpired tennis match begins with that charge from the chair ump to the players on the court.
He doesn't say, "Ready? Go." He gives the order to play.
Once it gets mentions of dramatic, staged performances out of the way, the Random House College Dictionary defines play, the noun, as an "exercise or action by way of amusement or recreation."
Amuse, the transitive verb, is "to hold the attention of (someone) agreeably; entertain or divert in a pleasant manner. Recreation is "refreshment by means of some pastime, agreeable exercise, or the like; a pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment."
Haters, playing tennis is supposed to contain all these qualities: agreeable, pleasant, relaxing, enjoyable. Go figure.
Amy Eddings Posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 12:02PM 
The view from the One Percenter perch at Arthur Ashe Stadium.Envy me. I was a One Percenter for a day. Mark and I scored Clubhouse tickets in the Emirates Airlines box for the semifinals between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams and Sara Errani.
Amy Eddings Posted on Saturday, September 8, 2012 at 9:53PM 
Tornado heading to Queens. And we don't mean Serena Williams. Photo: AP.For a fifth consecutive year, the men's singles final at the US Open will be played on a Monday afternoon, not a Sunday night.
That's because, for a fifth consecutive year, rain has spoiled the USTA's carefully-orchestrated tournament schedule.
Amy Eddings Posted on Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 12:57AM 
Andy Roddick was asked Sunday in a news conference if he ever hated tennis, the way Andre Agassi did.
No, he said, he never resented the game.
His love for the sport, and for the US Open where he won his only Grand Slam title in 2003, was obvious tonight as he entered retirement with his 6-7, 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-4 loss to 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round.
He thanked fans, saying he loved them dearly for their support through the years. During the last few games of the match, the crowd serenaded him with chants of "Let's go, An-dy!" and gave him a standing ovation after he lost. Del Potro joined them, getting up from his changeover chair to applaud the 30-year-old workhorse who has long struggled with the albatross of being American Tennis' Next Big Thing after Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang.
“I wasn't going to shy away from it, for sure,” Roddick said. “I mean, you get knocked down. You know the burden. I understand it. I understand the fact that we come from a place which probably had more success than any other tennis country, where there are certain expectations. I fell right on the back end of the golden generation, and so that was just the cards that were dealt. But as tough a situation as it is, in the grand scheme of things it's a dream. It's something you want. That's not hard."
I love what Matt Cronin had to say about Roddick on the US Open's website:
He was never an easy going person or player. He was an intense, no-holds-barred player in the tradition of US greats Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Jim Courier. He did not have Connors' clean strokes, McEnroe’s magical touch, or Courier’s thumping forehand, but he was a super hard worker who always tried to improve and never stopped giving 100 percent even when it became clear by 2007 that Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and even Novak Djokovic were better players than he was.
Effort is a weapon. John McEnroe said that during his ESPN commentary on the David Ferrer-Lleyton Hewitt match earlier this week. I was so struck by it, I hit the pause button on my DVR to write it down.
"Effort is a weapon," he said. "It's a quality that few people possess." He said five players had it: the two players he was watching, Ferrer and Hewitt, and Chang, Connors and Nadal.
I'd add Andy Roddick to that list. It's a quality we can all seek. We can't all have flat forehands, like del Po, or booming Serena serves. But we can all work hard and put in the effort to improve, in tennis and anything else that makes life worth suiting up for.
Good luck, Andy Roddick, in that next big passion that's waiting for your ferocious effort.
