Clijsters Wins Second Straight Open Title
It was over in less than an hour, but no matter. Kim Clijsters will savor her 6-2, 6-1 victory against Vera Zvonareva in the United States Open final much longer than she did last year’s championship.
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Ben Solomon for The New York Times
Clijsters’s 2009 title run was the first major moment in her life that she was unable to share with her father, Leo, whose death from lung cancer that January had driven her back to the tennis court and out of a 27-month retirement.
“Last year my emotions were very confusing,” she said, “because they were happiness but then also sad at the same time.”
After Clijsters dispatched Zvonareva in 59 minutes Saturday night, her joy was unfettered. She scampered into the Arthur Ashe Stadium seats to give her husband, Brian Lynch, the kind of kiss generally bestowed upon soldiers returning from the battlefield.
As the defending champion, Clijsters said she felt as if she were in the crosshairs of the news media and of her fellow players. To come through under that kind of pressure, which was nonexistent last year when she was unseeded, “is what probably I’m most pleased with over these last 14 days, that I was able to do that.”
Before Clijsters, 27, became the queen of the Open with 21 consecutive victories at the tournament, her claim to the crown was roundly questioned. Until she won the first of her three titles at Flushing Meadows, in 2005, the rap on Clijsters was that she lacked the temperament to win a major. People interpreted her inherent niceness as a lack of the champion’s hunger or killer instinct.
This year it was the 26-year-old Zvonareva who found herself on the couch of the armchair psychoanalysts, with her temperament a continuing topic of conversation. The rub on her was that she was too emotional, as evidenced by her tear-filled meltdowns during a loss in the women’s doubles final at Wimbledon and in a fourth-round defeat to Flavia Pennetta at last year’s Open.
Zvonareva, the seventh seed, showed no signs of cracking even when the strings on a handful of her rackets snapped in her semifinal against the top seed, Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to Clijsters in last year’s final. Zvonareva conducted herself as if she were eager to erase the memory of her match against Pennetta, in which she squandered six match points in the second set, flung her racket, pulled at the tape supporting her knees and failed to win a game in the third.
The first cracks in Zvonareva’s composure on Saturday appeared 19 minutes into the first set, when Clijsters earned her first break point, in the sixth game. She won the point when a backhand by Zvonareva sailed out.
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That side would be Zvonareva’s thorn all night. Twelve of her 17 forced errors and 9 of her 24 unforced errors came on her backhand. Zvonareva lost the first set when she netted a backhand after digging herself a 0-40 hole.
It was the first set she had dropped in the tournament. On the changeover, Zvonareva remained on the court and shooed a ball girl out of the way so she could hit a backhand over the net.
Neither her backhand nor her disposition improved in the second set. In the first game, Zvonareva slid into a half-splits position to retrieve a shot deep to her backhand side. When she could not reach the ball, she smashed her racket onto the court three times until it was as frayed as her nerves seemed to be.
“When I cracked my racket, I was like, ‘Come on,’ ” Zvonareva said. “The ball is just two steps away. I was able to get this ball in previous matches, and right now I’m just like so slow, cannot move.” She added: “You just let the emotions out. Maybe it will help.”
Clijsters had reeled off seven consecutive games until Zvonareva held to pull to 3-1. Despite engaging Clijsters in a few stirring rallies — one of which lasted 27 strokes — Zvonareva could not match the precision of Clijsters, who had 17 winners to Zvonareva’s 6.
“Kim just played tremendously well today,” Zvonareva said on the court as she fought back tears. “She deserved to win.”
The brevity of the match — 59 minutes — made it the shortest women’s final at the Open since at least 1980, the first year the matches were timed. Zvonareva took a small measure of comfort in knowing that Clijsters lost her first four major finals before breaking through at the 2005 Open. Clijsters said she told Zvonareva afterward: “Just keep it going. It will happen.”
A grateful Zvonareva said, “She’s a great champion but also a great person.” She added, “Maybe because she said that, maybe I’m not so disappointed right now.”
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The scene of Clijsters holding aloft the trophy did not impress Jada Lynch, Clijsters’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who warily backed away when Clijsters tried to let her touch the trophy and later was overhead telling photographers, “No photos.”
The first time Clijsters played in an Open final was in 2003, when the tournament was missing the game’s top two women, Serena and Venus Williams, because of injuries. Clijsters said that her straight-sets loss that year to her fellow Belgian, Justine Henin, was a blur, and that she has learned to better control her emotions.
Serena Williams, the current No. 1, was absent again this year after foot surgery. Her absence was supposed to open the draw, but in the end Clijsters became the first woman to successfully defend her Open title since Venus Williams in 2001.
Clijsters is so unassuming that it requires little imagination to picture her pushing her daughter in a grocery cart at the Pathmark in Wall, N.J., where she and her husband spend part of the year.
And yet, Clijsters clearly feeds off the bright lights and the crowd’s electricity at Ashe.
“What I like the most is that I see well,” she said. She added: “I can just really focus on the ball a lot better.”
At night matches, Clijsters said, “there’s a different vibe.” She added: “They’re special. The crowd gets into it.”
But like many of the people in attendance, Jada grew restless toward the end of the second set. To keep her occupied, family members gave her wristwatches to play with. All too soon, Zvonareva’s time was up.
Watching the Catwalk, and Clicking ‘Add to Cart’
It used to be that designers showed clothes at Fashion Week to court the influential few, mainly the buyers and fashion editors who determined what styles would be hot in retail stores a season away.
But now they are starting to sidestep the middleman. Web technology, and a desire to entice luxury shoppers who are suddenly spending again, are spurring designers to fling open the tent flaps to their runway shows and appeal directly to shoppers.
Call it public-access high fashion.
In this fall’s women’s runway shows, which started Thursday with New York Fashion Week and continue throughout the next month in London, Paris and Milan, shoppers at their keyboards will have a front-row seat.
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Gucci will allow anyone to sign up to watch its show online, and will let viewers share live Webcam videos as though they were playing with YouTube. Alexander Wang is projecting video of its show on a “moving billboard” in Manhattan, and Betsey Johnson is showing live Web versions of the show and the backstage frenzy before it.
And in the most aggressive outreach, Burberry, the British design house, will not only stream its women’s runway show live from London, but also will allow anyone with a computer and a credit card to order the merchandise as models strut in it.
“It’s giving the consumer even more inside access than the buyer in the front row,” said James Gardner, founder and chief executive of Createthe Group, which is working on the runway live streams for Marc Jacobs and Burberry. “They’re able to put the product in their shopping bag, pay with their credit card and check out before the buyer is even finished watching the show and goes to the showroom the next day.”
Burberry’s strategy represents a huge change from the past, when a literal golden ticket was the only way to see its show. The anointed — buyers from Barneys, editors from Vogue, actresses like Claire Danes — were sent an engraved antique brass entry card. This time, in addition to the online access, 1,500 people will be invited to Burberry stores worldwide, where they will watch the show on high-definition screens and be able to order merchandise immediately via an iPad app.
“Technology is the enabler,” said Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer at Burberry. “This gives them an opportunity to feel that energy and feel the attitude of what you’re working on. I find it incredibly liberating.”
In the last few years, fashion has gradually opened itself up to ordinary shoppers. Bloggers have sidled into shows alongside fashion editors, the TV show “Project Runway” has made design seem doable, and Fashion’s Night Out has brought designers into stores to meet shoppers.
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But never before have Fashion Week designers so aggressively appealed directly to consumers with their shows, in large part because technology makes it so easy but also because economic conditions make this round of runway shows so important.
The luxury shoppers that Fashion Week designers go after all but disappeared during the recession, not only because rich consumers’ investments plummeted but also because it was unseemly to buy expensive items in a sober time.
Now, though, they appear to be buying again. Hermès International said last month that its profit rose 55.2 percent in the first half compared with a year earlier. Tiffany & Company said its second-quarter profit rose 19 percent, and the luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton said in July that first-half profit rose 53 percent.
“They’ve been coming back,” said Dana L. Telsey, chief executive and chief research officer of the stock-research firm Telsey Advisory Group. But, she said, there are “concerns over what companies will face in the second half of 2010.”
With that air of uncertainty, this season’s runway shows — when designers unveil their clothes for the following season, editors pick out trends and buyers place orders — is under particular scrutiny. If the shows succeed, Ms. Telsey said, they can “help create a halo effect of continuing the upward momentum.”
So designers, who had avoided technology to the point of eschewing e-commerce, are using it to ride today’s shopping wave. Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta and more than 40 other designers are streaming live video of the New York show on their Web sites and Facebook pages and on fashion roundup sites like Style.com.
Still, there are risks with the tech-forward approaches. Most significantly, the designers could alienate professional buyers — who still wield huge power with retailers — especially when clothes are made available for immediate purchase online, as with Burberry.
“The economic challenge has added new focus to this, and technology and digital has almost become the most important strategic priority in these companies,” said Mr. Gardner of Createthe Group. “The brands are seeing this really resonates with the consumer, and we see huge spikes in traffic” when the shows are live-streamed.
Even so, he said, professional buyers could take cues from the online shoppers. “If you have lots of people preordering certain product,” he said, “it can be a very helpful way to let the buyer and brand know what’s popular.”
Some designers are trying to sandwich tradition and technology. Diane von Furstenberg will show her spring 2011 collection on Sunday, and the company is live streaming it to a select group of bloggers at her store-turned-lounge, which is open to the public for most of the weekend. But the technology in the lounge — touch screens mounted on the wall, Web-enabled printers and PCs — will feature the fall and resort wear already in stores.
“The shows have always been for the trade,” said Paula Sutter, president of the company. “It’s important to sell what’s in the store.”
Burberry’s approach has required an overhaul of the company’s supply chain, from when yarns are dyed to when leather is procured. The company is promising customers who order the runway items — outerwear, makeup and accessories — that they will receive them within seven weeks, versus the normal four- to six-month lag between the runway and the rack.
“It’s one thing when you’re talking to the industry that’s used to a six-month turnabout,” said Mr. Bailey of Burberry. “It’s very different when you’re talking to a direct customer.”
In catering to customers, though, Burberry and other design houses need to be careful not to lose their appeal by seeming common, said Jean-Noël Kapferer, a luxury-marketing consultant and professor at the business school HEC Paris.
“The Internet helps build the awareness and desire by letting so many people peep into the catwalk,” Mr. Kapferer said in an e-mail. But “if too many people can buy it,” he said, “the brand loses its exclusivity.”
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