American Invasion at 2009 U.S. Open

The USTA must be feeling pretty good about its tennis program right now, because this has been the best Grand Slam event for U.S. tennis in ages. Count 'em: not just Andy Roddick and James Blake, but five American guys have made it to the round of 32 in the men's singles draw, including victory lap specialist Taylor Dent, giant John Isner, upstart Jesse Witten, and perhaps the player with the brightest future of them all, Sam Querrey.

And the women's side isn't looking too shabby either with Venus and Serena Williams propelling forward extending their amazing successes into their second decade of professional tennis (Venus turned pro in '94, Serena in '95), Vania King making it to the round of 32 before losing and giant-slayer Melanie Oudin. And does Oudin ever have game.

The Bryan brothers have some countrymen in the doubles' draw--Robert Kendrick, who's playing with wacko Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia--and two more American doubles teams: Jesse Levine and Ryan Sweeting as well a Kaes van't Hof and Ryan Harrison. In the women's doubles, Venus seemed pretty iffy for her doubles match with Serena since her grimacing in obvious pain last night made it apparent that her legs are from 100 percent and she'd be well-advised to rest up for her upcoming battle with the delightful comeback story of the year: Kim Clijsters, perhaps the nicest competitor and champion ever, maybe even nicer than Venus.

And the mixed doubles as a fair amount of bearers of the stars and stripes forever too, including Liezel Huber, Jill Craybas and Eric Butorac, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Carly Gullickson (exactly how many Gullickson tennis pros are there?!) and Travis Parrott, and perennial champ Lisa Raymond. And I'm probably leaving others out.

Yes, some of the Americans are playing doubles with folks from other nations because tennis is perhaps the most global professional sport on the planet. And the legends remaining in the draw like Nadal and Federer and I suppose even Serena's alter-ego, Maria Sharapova (fellow grunter and competitor extraordinaire on the court, valley girl off), bring a special flair to this year's U.S. Open. Can't wait to see who wins!

Who knows, maybe the winners will include a few Americans.