Whine & Cheese: Back In Black

It's past 8 a.m. local time and shockingly enough I am not experiencing any serious withdrawal symptoms with no U.S. Open tennis coverage to watch... yet!

During these past two weeks, I watched an unusually high amount of tennis... even more than normal (which is really saying something)... work has been slow and in combination with my head cold (still lingering 7+ days later)... vegetating in front the TV proved to be a quite desirable behavior... or the only valid activity that required some state of consciousness.

Anyhow, yesterday afternoon was the men's final between Roger Federer and Serbia's Novak Djokovic... and Fed's all-black attire was contagious...

Tennis legend, Guillermo Vilas, was on hand for the coin toss... and prior to that, black headband and all, Liza Minnelli belted out God Bless America (why not New York, New York!?!)... starting out quite traditionally before launching into a Vaudeville-ish, Mr. Bojangles finale.

And life was indeed a cabaret for Fed as he, in his 10th consecutive Grand Slam final appearance... won his 12th Grand Slam title (now just two shy of Sampras' all-time record)... his 4th U.S. Open title... which also made it the 4th time he has won the Wimbledon-U.S. Open double... and the 3rd time he has won 3 of the 4 Slams in one year.

In this Federer cabaret, yesterday's "old chum" was the 20-year old Djokovic... who seemed so close to making it a real match (though I am starting to suspect it is just part of Fed's "strategy" to tease opponents with break and set points). But the talented Serb proved he's a solid #3 in the rankings and won over fans with a sparkling personality... an anecdote to the Federer's icy demeanor... having the flashiness of Nadal, but without all that seriousness.

You even had to love the Djokovic support box...

For Saturday's semifinal match they color-coordinated by row to form the Serbian flag (above left) and for the final they all donned the same Adidas shirt Djokovic wore during the match (above right)... the only exceptions being Maria "we're just (wink) friends" Sharapova (upper left corner)... and no that's not Djokovic's grandpa dressed in grey in the front row... but Robert DeNiro. The story goes Djokovic & Co. accidentally met up and DeNiro invited the Serbs over to his Japanese restaurant.

And these pix just in... Roger's "on the town" pix in Times Square this morning.