The early challenge for Ana Ivanovic was to avoid crashing into the walls of an empty Belgrade swimming pool where she played tennis at 5. Now, her goal is to reach the No. 1 ranking. The 19-year-old is the youngest of a Serbian trio — including Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic — who are ranked in the top 10 and excelled at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S.

Gilles Simon and Victor Hanescu advanced to the final of the BCR Open Romania on Saturday. The sixth-seeded Simon rallied to defeat Carlos Berlocq 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3. After serving poorly in the first set, Simon found his stride in the second and cruised the rest of the match. Hanescu defeated Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-3.

Three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten might retire if he fails to play competitive tennis next year. The 31-year-old Brazilian was ranked No. 1 in 2000 but is now 662nd. He has a 2-7 singles record this season, his first playing regularly on ATP tour since hip surgery in September 2004. “My goal is to try to gain more confidence and feel conformable for the singles tournaments, and I think…

Nikolay Davydenko needed just over an hour to win his first-round match at the China Open, fresh off his U.S. Open semifinal loss to Roger Federer. The top-seeded Davydenko beat Zack Fleishman 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday at the Beijing Tennis Center. The 26-year-old Russian expects to meet soon with investigators after a British online gambling company tracked bettors putting 10 times the usual amount of…

The overnight TV ratings for both U.S. Open singles finals dropped from last year. The men’s final, in which Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic, drew a 4.2 overnight rating on CBS on Sunday, down from a 5.1 for Federer against Andy Roddick in 2006. The women’s final, in which Justine Henin defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, got a 2.6 overnight rating on CBS on Saturday night.

In a warm-up for her first singles match in nearly a year, Lindsay Davenport earned a straight-set doubles victory at the Bali Open on Monday. She joined Daniela Hantuchova to defeat Sophie Lefevre and Ipek Senoglu 6-3, 6-1. Davenport will face fifth-seed Eleni Daniilidou on Tuesday for the first singles match of her comeback.

Nathalie Dechy of France and Dinara Safina of Russia won the U.S. Open women’s doubles title in their first tournament together, beating Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan 6-4, 6-2 in Sunday’s final. Dechy also won last year’s doubles championship at Flushing Meadows, but with Vera Zvonareva as her partner — and Safina was the runner-up, pairing with Katarina Srebotnik.

Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Julian Knowle of Austria won their first Grand Slam title Friday, beating Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4 in the U.S. Open men’s doubles final. This was only the third major doubles event for the Aspelin-Knowle pairing. This is their first year together.

Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus won the U.S. Open mixed doubles championship Thursday, beating Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States and Leander Paes of India 6-4, 7-6 (6). It’s the first Grand Slam title won together by the 18-year-old Azarenka and 30-year-old Mirnyi. They lost in the Australian Open mixed doubles final in January.

As Andy Roddick and Roger Federer took their final break, a familiar tune drifted over the sound system — “After Midnight” by Eric Clapton. They play it every time the clock strikes the bewitching hour at Arthur Ashe Stadium. And it’s becoming the theme song at this U.S. Open. Late nights are something of a tradition at Flushing Meadows.

She came to the U.S. Open dressed in a revealing, metallic gold Wonder Woman outfit and left wearing leopard-print shorts so skimpy the tournament referee needed to rule whether they were OK. Is there anything Bethanie Mattek wouldn’t sport on court? “I had this bustier for New York. French nanny kind of look,” she said.

James Blake put in another long night’s work at the U.S. Open, and his play only got better as the match went on. The No. 6-seeded Blake reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows by beating Stefan Koubek 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 in a match that began Saturday night and finished a little after 1 a.m. Sunday.