At 7, 264 yards, Winged Foot's West Course is the longest lay-out in US Open history.

BBC: SPORT | Golf | Donald fights back at Winged Foot

He looked dapper in a dark suit and tie and proved a gracious host, speaking excellent, if not always idiomatic, English for 90 minutes in his suite at the posh Carlyle Hotel, where a lesser-known novel by Alexandre Dumas lay open on the coffee table and a stack of European films on DVD sat next to a flat-screen television.

WSJ: Maurizio Pollini: Not as Others See Him | Cultural Conversation by David Mermelstein

Nadal, the six-time grand slam winner and reigning Australian Open champion, has been coming off a two-month lay-off due to knee tendinitis, a break that kept him from defending his 2008 Wimbledon crown.

CNN: Del Potro reaches his first U.S. Open semis

Nearby lay a dead female elk, its stomach ripped open - an early-morning feast for the wolves.

BBC: Sweden wolf cull divides wilderness opinion

Woods has twice come into a major after a long lay-off, with mixed results - he missed the cut in the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot after his father died, and he won the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines while playing on a seriously injured left knee.

BBC: Tiger Woods to return to golf at the Masters

That's how we'll open the doors of opportunity and lay a new foundation for our economic growth -- by investing in our citizens.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama on New Training for New Job Creation

After an initial lay-off, she was forced off the circuit for a second time after being knocked out of the French Open in the second round.

BBC: SPORT | Tennis | Henin-Hardenne beaten on comeback