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US Open Tennis: Who would win the US Open if it were a popularity contest?

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Playing great tennis brings in the crowds at Flushing Meadows like it does anywhere else in the world but so does heart, passion, charisma and plucky underdogs defying the odds. Barry Millns looks at who are the most popular players at the US Open.

As you would expect in the land of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, the leading Americans at this year's US Open have drawn huge attention and support whenever they have appeared at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in Flushing Meadows, New York. For men's quarterfinalists Andy Roddick (currently trading at [18.5] to regain the title) and Mardy Fish that has meant more than the rest.

Following in the footsteps of legends such as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi was always going to be tough challenge for the next generation of American pros. But in a country which likes to see itself as the biggest and the best, having the world's fastest server in Roddick, a former champion and world No.1 has made him 'box-office' every year he has played here since lifting the title back in 2003.

Fish, although nine months older than A-Rod, has largely been B-list by comparison, only occasionally making headlines at the highest level. But on his best run by far, he has experienced similar adulation.

Beating another of their buddies, James Blake, in a featured night match in the third round, silencing the 'J-block' supporters in the process, thrust him back into the spotlight. Beyond that, like Roddick throughout, every move he has made in public at the venue, especially on the practice court, has drawn huge crowds eager to get a glimpse and maybe an autograph.

But it is not just the Americans who are so popular. They stood at least five deep the other afternoon around Rafael Nadal's ([2.28]) practice session. Having achieved so much this summer the Spanish warrior has been given a huge ovation regardless of his nationality every time he has walked out on court.

So, too, Roger Federer ([3.2]) who got the biggest cheer among a parade of champions on opening night and again even before he walked into the Arthur Ashe Stadium for his fourth round match against Igor Andreev when the crowd saw the Swiss on the big screen being interviewed in the tunnel!

Such is the patriotic fervour this event likes to drum up you might have thought that a foreigner who has dominated it for the past four years, beating national heroes Agassi and Roddick in two of his finals in the process, might be regarded with respect but little warmth. Far from it, especially now Federer's lost his air of invincibility and No.1 ranking - thousands want to see him play his very best again to try and regain it.

Yet in this consumer-driven society fans are always on the look out for new, less established names to thrill and entertain them, especially those who show their emotions and connect with the crowd. Two in particular have done that this year - the dynamic, free-spirited Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, who threw their bodies around the courts in every match they played and filled the stands for all of them.

Then, as with any sporting crowd, there is always support for a clear underdog, especially if he comes back heroically to cause an upset or two. The prize for that this year has to go to Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, the man who stunned Roddick three years ago in the first round, and who as a qualifier this time came back from two sets to love down twice in succession and then knocked out world No.5 Nikolay Davydenko to reach his first major quarter-final.

Ultimately, though, as the well-supported Andy Murray ([11.0]) noted after reaching his first major semi-final, winning the whole thing is "what really, really counts". Roddick knows it too and if he can end the second longest drought in tennis history of an American man failing to win a grand slam (currently 20 compared to a spell of 21 back in the mid-1960s) then his stock and popularity will go through the roof.