Early observations on the US Open

My favorite Grand Slam of the year began this week. Well it's kind of my favorite by default as the US Open is the only one I have been able to attend thus far (though tentative Wimbledon plans are in the works).
Anyway here's what I think so far...
1. Andy Roddick has not won a Grand Slam since dumping sweet, cute girlfriend Mandy Moore. Granted, the Mandy/Andy thing made me nauseous but she was a good, calming influence. I think Roddick's ego has gotten the better of him. And I think it's perfectly delicious that the ad campaign he did for American Express about him losing his MoJo (because MoJo finds his AmEx and goes out partying) is airing this week during the tournament.
2. Attention everyone: Scoville Jenkins, age almosot 19, who lost to Roddick in last year's first round, and who is now fighting hard but still down two sets to love against Nadal, has become a man. Yes, apparently winning more than 4 games in the main draw of the open is some kind of male right of passage. So when Monica Seles and Martina Hingis were winning Grand Slam titles at the ages of 16 and 17 were they going through the same rite of passage? I guess by the Jenkins scale they would probably entering old age since they had won mere matches years earlier. Let's tone down the "he's a man" rhetoric, Johnny Mac--after all, this isn't an Army recruiting commercial.
3. In a classic chicken/egg situation, I wonder whether Serena Williams started taking tennis less seriously and the media reported on it or if the media felt she was taking it less seriously and then she actually did lose interest. Her demeanor thus far has been apathetic, and her interviews self-deprecating in the usual way which implies that she is so much better than everyone else. I do sympathize with her having to deal with a media that fixates on her broken diamond (yes, real) earrings that fall on the court and the combined worth of her all the jewelry she wears on a given night. Then again--who wears $40,000 worth of diamonds while playing tennis??