Federer Heads the Men’s Field at the U.S. Open

Roger Federer, the three-time defending champion, heads the men’s field for the United States Open, which includes all players ranked in the top 100. The United States Tennis Association announced yesterday that the field would also include the former Open champions Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin.

The Open will be played Aug. 27 to Sept. 9 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.

With his victory last year, Federer, who has won this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, joined Ivan Lendl (1985-87) and John McEnroe (1979-81) as the only men to win three consecutive United States Open men’s singles titles in the Open era. Behind Federer on the entry list are No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain, the French Open champion; No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, No. 4 Roddick of the United States; No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia; No. 6 Fernando González of Chile; No. 7 Tommy Robredo of Spain; No. 8 Richard Gasquet of France; No. 9 James Blake of the United States; and No. 10 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

Other American men who received direct entry into this year’s tournament include No. 40 Mardy Fish, No. 45 Robby Ginepri, No. 62 Vince Spadea, No. 63 Amer Delic, No. 68 Michael Russell, No. 91 Sam Querrey and No. 97 Paul Goldstein.

Eight entrants have won Grand Slam singles titles in their careers, including the 2003 French Open champion, Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain; the 2002 Australian Open champion, Thomas Johansson of Australia; and the 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moyá of Spain.

Clemens Keeps the Yankees Close Enough

Among the strong impressions from the Yankees’ 6-1 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays last night before 52,147 slightly giddy fans at Yankee Stadium:
¶ Alex Rodriguez marched on in his quest for another Most Valuable Player award with a two-run double that provided the tying and winning runs in the seventh inning;

¶ Andy Phillips improved his chances of securing the full-time first-base job before the July 31 nonwaiver trading deadline with a two-run single in the same inning and several more slick fielding plays around the bag;

¶ Roger Clemens, two weeks shy of his 45th birthday, again battled long enough and tough enough to keep his team close before handing the baton after the sixth inning to the shaky pitching hands of the bullpen;

¶ And Manager Joe Torre, who celebrated his 67th birthday, still has a few things to fret about, even though his team won for the fifth consecutive time and for the 11th time in 14 games.

“This was a nice gift,” Torre said, referring to the result on his birthday and not implying the Blue Jays gave the Yankees something not earned. But Torre quickly added that his relief pitchers have to stop walking batters and forcing him to use Mariano Rivera for five-out saves, as he did last night.

“Eventually, it’s going to catch up with you,” Torre said.

Speaking of catching up, the Yankees are doing it on two levels. Because Boston and Cleveland lost, the second-place Yankees moved to within seven games behind the first-place Red Sox in the American League East and six games behind Cleveland in the race for the A.L. wild card.

Seven is still a lot. But the Yankees trailed by 12 as recently as July 5 and by 14 ½ on May 29.

“There’s definitely a positive outlook,” said Rodriguez, who had the most important hit last night and has 92 runs batted in. Rodriguez drove a 2-1 pitch over the head of left fielder Reed Johnson, who was not playing deep enough to reach the ball that landed in front of the wall.

Two runners scored and the fans chanted, “M.V.P.!”

Toronto Manager John Gibbons came to the mound to replace starter Shaun Marcum (5-4), who mixed his pitches well in giving up only two hits over the first six innings.

Four batters later, Phillips drove a bases-loaded single through the left side of the infield off Brandon League to score two more. The victory went to Mike Myers, the first of five Yankees relief pitchers, who faced only one batter, Lyle Overbay, and retired him on a grounder to first with the bases loaded in seventh.

When asked about that critical play, Myers said the most important part was neither his pitch nor his fielding play at first base.

“Andy giving me a good feed,” Myers said of Phillips’s throw. “He’s so solid over there defensively, it’d be nice to see him there a whole year. He’s diving. He’s scooping balls out of the dirt. He’s all over the place.”

Indeed, in the Toronto fourth, with two men on and one man out, Phillips saved an inning-ending double play by scooping a relay throw from Robinson Canó.

Clemens scattered nine hits and one walk among three strikeouts as his record stayed at 2-4. He seemed to labor on a humid night and admitted he may have been working too hard on physical conditioning.

“I’m not young,” Clemens said. “My body wasn’t helping me much. I didn’t have much energy. I continue to show Joe I can get out of some of my messes.” His voice took on a determined tone as he continued.

“The training I’m doing is for October,” Clemens said. “That’s why I came here. I know what I bring when I go to the mound, especially in this stadium in the pinstripes.”

Others on the same mound in the same uniform are disappointing their manager. Luis Vizcaíno, the most reliable relief pitcher lately, needed a rest last night, and so did Kyle Farnsworth, who is struggling to hold on to his eighth-inning role.

So Torre used Scott Proctor, who walked two men, and Myers, who did well against a left-hander, his specialty; and Brian Bruney, who walked a man; and Ron Villone, who walked a man; and, finally, Rivera, who retired all five batters he faced.

INSIDE PITCH

Johnny Damon, the designated hitter for most games in recent weeks, started in left field in place of Hideki Matsui, who was the designated hitter. In the Toronto sixth, Lyle Overbay moved from first to third on a single to left by Aaron Hill. When Damon unsuccessfully tried to throw out Overbay at third, Hill moved to second. Damon has a batting average of .236. ... Joe Torre said he would let Jorge Posada catch Mike Mussina tomorrow night instead of Mussina’s usual catcher, Wil Nieves. Posada will rest today because it is a day game after a night game. ... Phil Hughes, who is returning from ankle and hamstring injuries, worked four innings yesterday with Class AA Trenton and gave up a run and two hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He will work next for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday.

Steam Blast Jolts Midtown, Killing One

A steam pipe explosion beneath a street near Grand Central Terminal yesterday propelled a giant scalding jet of brownish steam toward the sky, sending commuters who had been heading home stampeding to safety.

Officials said that one person died and more than 30 were hurt, two of them critically. The city said that three firefighters and one police officer were among the injured.

The blast, near 41st Street and Lexington Avenue, raised fears of terrorism, but officials were quick to dismiss that possibility. “There is no reason to believe this is anything other than a failure of our infrastructure,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said.

The explosion sent up a foul cloud of hot steam mixed with mud, rust-colored gunk and pieces of pavement just before 6 p.m. in one of the busiest parts of the city. The mayor said that some telephone lines had been knocked out, but that electric power had not been.

As people on the sidewalks scrambled to flee and office workers in the buildings above looked down in horror, debris from the geyser pelted nearby skyscrapers. Then it rained on the streets like a sudden hailstorm. Some witnesses said the jet of steam roared like Niagara Falls.

Some people ran so fast their shoes came off. Others dropped their briefcases and purses. Men in tailored suits were caught in a lapel-singeing cloud. At a health club high up in the Grand Hyatt hotel next to Grand Central Terminal, people working out on the treadmills said the explosion was so powerful they worried the building would collapse. The steam shot up from a crater that looked like that of a volcano, with orange flames and bubbling mud around the edges. The explosion packed enough force to flip over a tow truck that ended up in the crater, which was about 35 by 40 feet. Several hours after the blast, officials said the crater could grow even larger because pavement at the edges was in danger of collapse.

The cloud of steam — and the hail of debris that followed — lasted more than two hours and raised concerns about asbestos, which was used when the pipe was laid in the 1920s. Officials advised people who had been in the neighborhood to discard their clothes and bathe carefully.

The mayor said the explosion appeared to have been caused by cold water that reached the pipe, which measured more than a foot and half in diameter and dated to 1924. “Cold water apparently causes these to explode,” he said.

Con Edison, which maintains the steam pipes beneath the city’s streets, said the pipe ruptured at 5:56 p.m. Kevin Burke, the chairman of Con Edison, said crews had checked the pipe after the thunderstorm that soaked the city in the morning. He said a heavy rain can cause a “vapor condition” if rainwater seeps onto a steam pipe, causing the steam to condense. He said the inspection earlier in the day had given no indication that anything was amiss.

Michael S. Clendenin, a spokesman for the utility, said tests would be conducted for asbestos. “We always assume there’s asbestos in a steam pipe,” he said, “so we are treating these materials sent up by the rupture, including piping, as if asbestos were in them.”

There have been more than a dozen steam pipe explosions in the city in the last 20 years. One of the largest shook the neighborhood around Gramercy Park in 1989 and did millions of dollars in damage. Three people were killed, two of them Con Edison employees who had been working in the street before the explosion.

Within hours of the blast yesterday, Con Ed and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection began taking air samples to determine whether asbestos had been released. They were also checking the debris that littered the street. Mr. Bloomberg said subway entrances and exits would also be tested.

The mayor urged people who might have come into contact with mud or soot from the blast to wash carefully, and to have their clothes cleaned separately as soon as possible.

Jessica Leighton, a deputy commissioner at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, also cautioned people inside buildings near the blast to close windows and set air-conditioners to recirculate the air inside instead of drawing in air from outside.

Asbestos is a known carcinogen. Most health officials say there is no safe level of exposure. But asbestos-related diseases generally are linked to sustained exposure in industrial settings over many years.