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A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

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What: https://www.usopen.org

The U.S. Open, final leg of tennis’ Grand Slam, begins today, and the ATP has all the bases covered for fans with https://www.usopen.org, the tournament’s official Web site.

The site offers feature stories, player biographies, shopping opportunities and ticket and seating information.

And, like the site devoted to Wimbledon, a web camera is positioned above center court. Visitors to the site are promised a chance to see everything from a wide-angle view of matches to close-ups of fans in the stands.

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There are interactive elements too.

Have an opinion? Share it with the other fans in the U.S. Open chat area. Or vote in the Web poll, which asks visitors their opinion on the Open.

You can send an e-mail message to any competitor via postcards that have different designs.

Also featured are audio excerpts and video footage from interviews with players after matches.

If watching and following the Open aren’t enough, there’s an interactive tennis video game just a download away that puts you across the net from a computer player.

For the tennis nut, there is even footage from the draw, when the names were drawn and the pairings announced.

One of the best features of the site is the page that shows the entire draw in bracket form.

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For those tennis handicappers looking a few rounds ahead to see what matchups might evolve in the second week, this section is perfect.

But the best thing about the site is that it includes a search engine. All too often, Web sites devoted to popular sporting events fail in this regard. In short, https://www.usopen.org has plenty to keep any tennis fan happy, even those who can’t get to New York.

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