NEW YORK -- Venus Williams stood on the floor of Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday afternoon with a guttural roar rising all around her. The racket dangled loosely in her right hand alongside her thigh, a sheen of perspiration on her upturned face. She savored the approval of the crowd and took a moment to drink it all in, having just arrived at match point late in the third set of her fourth-round dispute with US Open No. 10 seed Karolina Pliskova.Across the net, Pliskova felt very lonely.But at least I have my serve, she remembered thinking. So at least something was on my side. I was just thinking, I have to go. I have to put everything into this point. And yeah, I made it.Dismissing the match point enabled Pliskova to hold serve for 5-all in the final set, and from there, she went on to win the 2-hour, 24-minute barnburner 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3).The match will be remembered by many spectators as a heartbreaker and the long moment when a courageous, boundary-shattering, exemplary woman and uber-athlete of 36 was denied a thoroughly deserved win. It will seem to some that justice, even if only the poetic variety, was not served.But looking at it that way is the real injustice, and Williams would be the first to tell you that. She had a wonderful time. She acquitted herself beautifully in her own eyes. The love showered upon her by the crowd was inspirational. She said, It was a high-, high-quality match. Its such an amazing feeling. I enjoyed every single moment of that.Pliskova arrived in New York with a hot hand, having logged back-to-back wins over No. 3 Garbine Muguruza and No. 2 Angelique Kerber in winning Cincinnati. But she was carrying some heavy baggage too, in the form of a growing reputation as a Grand Slam underachiever. Ranked No. 11 (and as high as No. 7 in the past), Pliskova was the only member of the top 20 who had not been as far as the fourth round at a major. Her record at Grand Slams before the Williams match: 16-17.The first two women Pliskova had beaten had an average ranking of No. 217. Williams had two US Open titles and a 74-14 record at Flushing Meadows. Speculating on what she might do to Pliskova in the cauldron of Ashe was an ugly enterprise.But one counterintuitive factor escaped everyones attention: In many of the ways that count, the 36-year-old Williams and the 24-year-old from the Czech Republic are mirror images. It was suggested in their previous meeting. They played in Zhuhai, where Williams won in just more than two grueling hours 7-5, 7-6 (6).Like Williams, Pliskova is a lean 6-foot-1. The engine driving her game is a big serve. (They cracked eight aces apiece in Mondays match.) Pliskova leads the WTA Tour in aces. Williams and Pliskova both whale on the ball off the ground, looking to force the action, open the court and create an opportunity to move forward. Each of them is a glutton for pace, giving and taking it with gusto. Williams might be the greater athlete, but age is a great leveler.The similarity between the women also might explain why the match was played in such an air of poise and dignity. Both women wore their hair pulled back and out of the way. They wore understated tennis dresses. Neither of them indulged in fist-pumping or emotional outbursts, even in the most pumped-up or emotional moments.The factors holding Pliskova back have been largely mental; the one quality she doesnt share with Williams is that basic champions cocktail of will, talent and confidence. But she might be getting there. The win Monday certainly shatters memories of numerous Grand Slam embarrassments from the past.Yeah, I hope they will stop [talking about my Grand Slam failures], Pliskova said. Even if they will discuss in the future, I dont care.Its a reasonable stance, given how this match played out. Pliskova started slowly. She spotted Williams the first set after falling behind 3-0. It looked like a blowout might be in the works when Williams went ahead 3-1 in the second set, but Pliskova broke right back, and from that point, it was game on. Her own serve improved, and Williams began making errors off the ground.Still, Williams reached match point at 4-5, 30-40 in the third set. While the crowd roared, Pliskova held counsel with her serve and then decided to go to the forehand. She tagged a good one. Williams belted it back. Pliskova hammered out a sharp reply and moved in to finish the point with a forehand volley.The threat was neutralized, and Williams was never again in position to win. But she had no regrets about how the match point played out.She had a great serve. She hit another great shot, and I still played a great defensive shot, Williams said. I did the best I could on that. Whenever you have a match point on someone elses serve, its a little bit of an asterisk. I really have no regrets on that.Indeed, Williams had no reason to regret anything -- not on this day, not in this tournament and perhaps not in her career. That career, incidentally, is still a work in progress. Williams said so, and Pliskova endorsed her desire to continue.I still have the feeling she can play for so many years because shes moving so well, Pliskova said. I remember her. I was [a] little girl watching her, obviously Serena, on TV. They are still playing. They are still playing the best tennis ever. Its amazing. Hydro Flaske Med Sugerør .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. Hydro Flask Straw Lid . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. http://www.danmarkhydroflask.com/hydro-flask-24-oz-flaske.html . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. Hydro Flaske Tilbud .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. Hydro Flask Kaffe . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Leading California by 18 points midway through the second half, San Diego States Jeremy Hemsley thought he and his teammates became a little complacent.Coach Steve Fisher didnt see it that way and was more focused on the outcome -- a big win for the Aztecs, one week after they got blown out by 14th-ranked Gonzaga.Hemsley scored 15 points, Trey Kell converted a 3-point play with 2:21 remaining that pushed a shrinking lead back into double digits and San Diego State beat California 77-65 on Monday night.We let them get some easy looks and we werent rebounding as well as we did in the first half, Hemsley said. Thats something we do have to work on, playing the whole game and not letting the foot off the gas pedal.Malik Pope had 14 points and five rebounds in his season debut before fouling out late in the second half, Kell scored 11 points and Max Hoetzel added 11 points and seven rebounds for San Diego State (3-1). Pope sat out the first three games with a knee injury.The Aztecs shot just 36.9 percent and let most of a 62-44 lead slip away before holding on for their fourth straight win between the two teams.You have to be able to stem the tide and not allow a run to grow and grow and grow, Fisher said. It happens. I dont know that we let up. Cal competes hard and so do we.Both teams struggled shooting most of the game but combined for 67 free throw attempts at the Golden 1 Center, home to the NBAs Sacramento Kings.Ivan Rabb had 19 points and 11 rebounds in his first game of the season for California (2-1).Once Ivan settlled down and we settled down we were able to see the defense and we were able to do a better job, Bears coach Cuonzo Martin said.ddddddddddddOLDEN DEBUT FOR BOTH TEAMSThe game was the second NCAA game played at the Golden 1 Center. UC Davis beat Sacramento State 81-72 in the first half of the doubleheader. Former Cal point guard and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson attended the game and sat courtside.POLL IMPLICATIONSMaybe the voters saw this coming. California dropped out of the Top 25 this week despite beating Irvine while playing without three starters. The Bears had a chance to get back in with a win over the Aztecs but thats not going to happen now.BIG PICTURESan Diego State: Fishers team had been playing short-handed in its first three games but got most of the injured guys back. Popes return was key but the Aztecs will need to find more scoring somewhere. They made only 11 of 32 shots after halftime.California: This was a step up in competition and the Bears didnt handle it well early, shooting only 23.1 percent in the first half. That they made it close in the second half was mostly due to the Aztecs poor shooting. Still, what looked like a blowout turned into a tight stretch run and for that Cal can feel good. Getting Rabb back was also big, though its clear hes going to need some time to get adjusted.UP NEXTSan Diego State: Hosts Savannah State on Nov. 28.California: Hosts Wyoming on Friday night. ' ' '