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3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.

Absolute stunner from the 20-year-old Argentine over Roger Federer just finished up in Queens. Plenty of chatter underway in the Swamp. Drop by with a thought or two.

—The 17-year-old American continues to be the story, making a run at an age not seen since Serena Williams in 1999. It helps that the top of the women’s draw are by and large posers (Williams excepted). The women’s side is ripe for new blood to come and make a statement, and it is hard not to root for Oudin, the most interesting talent for an American women’s tennis player since the Williams sisters arrived.

—More on the 5′6″ Oudin? From sportsline.com:

She’s a teen queen who acts as if she doesn’t take herself seriously but talks as if she someday is going to take over her whole sport, which is not beyond the realm of possibility. What she lacks on serve — she’s only 5-6 — she makes up in nerve, never giving up in a match when falling behind, as she invariably seems to do, or on a point, even on balls seemingly hit beyond her limited reach. Oudin knocked out yet another Russian on Monday in this U.S. Open, the fourth in four matches, outhustling, outracing and eventually outplaying befuddled Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 and at age 17 becoming the youngest quarterfinalist since Serena Williams in 1999. It was great theater at Arthur Ashe Court for a sellout crowd of 24,000, which provincially, and not undeservedly, proved loudly biased for Oudin. At match point, fans stood and hollered the way they do in the top of the ninth when Yankees need only one more out and Mariano Rivera needs only one more strike.

Okay, that’s a nice visual, well done Art Spander. But you definitely lost me here:

What Oudin, the kid from Marietta, Ga., in the Atlanta suburbs, needs is nothing. She’s got it all — enthusiasm, dyed blonde hair and just enough naivete to endear her to anyone — except her opponents.

Oh. She has it all, even the correct color hair. Good to know.

Roger Federer stands alone, now with 15 grand slam titles after outlasting a damn good Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6 and 16 – 14 in as fine a 5th set as I have seen in a grand slam final. There may not have been the flair in this final as there was last year, but that may only have been the drier conditions, as the wet grass added a little something extra to that match between Nadal and Federer.

This time around, Federer ran into Roddick playing as well as I have ever seen him play, and managed to outlast him. Another joy to watch to close the mid-summer tennis classic. The match unfolded with Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, and Bjorn Borg in attendance (and sharing a row of seats), which was kinda cool.

At any rate, there should little left to argue with regard to Federer’s place among the all-time greats. He is at the head of the table.

Clearly, he’s done.

Had never before lost at the French, but now he’s lost. 31 straight wins on the Roland Garros clay to start his career, more than double the record anyone holds for any major.

He should probably retire in shame.

Read Jon Wertheim’s preview column at si.com. With that done, you can engage in a little coffee machine chatter without sounding like a complete tool.

The on-court buzz about Wimbledon 2008 is the blood-in-the-water that the men’s draw is scenting about the possible decline of the best tennis player anyone has ever seen, Roger Federer. A complete ass-kicking like Rafael Nadal handed Federer in Paris will do that.

That said, and despite a strong field, bet against Federer at your own risk (unless you are part of the Austrian/Russian betting cabal and know something I don’t. In that case, bet as you know the outcome ahead of time). It feels to me like Federer going for some redemption and winning out here and in Flushing will be how this year plays out.

Also, as usual, there is some solid chatter about the tournament unfolding in the Swamp here. Stop by and add a thought or two.

For anyone who has been paying attention, the murmuring about players throwing matches has been growing steadily louder in the last 24 months or so. Well, consider the murmurs now a shout.

From the Sunday Times (London style):

“Eight matches at Wimbledon have been reported to the tennis authorities on suspicion that their results have been fixed by professional gambling syndicates. The matches are named in a dossier compiled by leading bookmaking companies, which monitor suspect betting patterns and players thought to be willing to throw games. Four of the matches are from last year’s men’s singles at Wimbledon and involve foreign players who each lost by three sets.

…

It is believed Russian and eastern European gamblers are behind much of the illegal betting, although the dossier also names a gang of Austrian gamblers.

An official with detailed knowledge of the dossier of 140 “suspect” matches from tournaments around the world said: “If you look at a tournament, you might see one match for £23,000 [in betting turnover], one for £27,000, one for £36,000 and one for £4.5m. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that something is going on in the last one.”

Indeed it does not. The Times story details what Wimbledon is trying to do to protect itself, including strictly limiting access of outsiders to players and doing everything they can to keep inside information about health and what not from getting out to the general public. Which is all fine and good, but, how exactly does that help stop a player from pre-arranging to tank?

Perhaps the world’s tennis authorities, if they can finally prove one of these, needs to start banning players. I don’t see how else they will stop this.

Thanks to swamp all-timer wlu_lax for the heads up and the thread here in the Swamp. By the way, I love reading British accounts of such things, for goodness like this:

“One player has gone on record saying he turned down a £70,000 bung to lose in the first round at Wimbledon.”

I, I, I don’t know that that means. Bribe? Let’s go with bribe.

are retiring like flies. Or like 65-year old professionals. Or something that retires.

It’s a damned oyster carnival in here.

He’s a vampire. And apparently a day-walker to boot.

No fucking way to beat a vampire day-walker tennis player. No reason to even try.

The first of what I presume will be inifinity + 1 majors to Djokovic with the 2008 Australian Open title.

7-5 and 6-3. Straight set win for the Austrailian Open win and her third major overall.

And looked the part for #1 in the world.

…I note that Maria Sharapova won again down under.

By the way, in case you missed it Roger Federer was pushed to five sets before advancing.

“Federer needed 4 hours, 27 minutes to beat 49th-ranked Janko Tipsarevic 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 in an extended afternoon match that pushed back the night session at least two hours. Federer had won 30 straight sets at Melbourne Park since dropping the first in the 2006 final against Baghdatis. The Swiss star had lost only six games in his first two matches this year.

“It’s not such a relief it’s more happiness,” Federer told the crowd at Rod Laver Arena, where he has won the last two Australian titles and three overall. “I’m happy I could deliver a five-set thriller. It was good to be part of something like this.”

Whatever. You almost got beat. Makes the remainder of the tournament on the men’s side a little more interesting…