As day 11 of 2008’s U.S. Open dawns, as defeated players drop off their brackets and into the blue abyss of history, as Men’s Quarterfinal victors Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray await their Saturday semi-final and weary warriors Djokovic, Roddick, Federer, and Muller prepare for today’s combat, and as the peerless Serena Williams surveys the three women left between her and Open title #3, the time seems right to inquire: who is tennis’ best?

DecoTurf, tennis surface.

A subjective question to say the least, especially given susceptibility to injury; psychological fluctuations (see last week’s Tennis Ball Furniture and Luke Wilson’s Richie Tenenbaum for further insight here); and, notably, different playing surfaces. Two schools of thought exist as regards the issue: 1. The best is the player who dominates Grand Slam play from year to year-thus, Nadal is without peer in 2008; 2. The best is the Wimbledon Champion-the event’s longevity and prestige having to many minds secured its predominance as the tournament of tournaments.

To these well-reasoned approaches, I’d like to add a third: the best is the winner of the U.S. Open. Admittedly, this approach might reveal a certain bias towards the above mentioned psychological component (Federer has won the last four), but it also allows for great variety, since, in the six years previous to Federer’s dominance, the winner was different every year. Why would I claim that the U.S. Open is a great equalizer of sorts? Because of DecoTurf, of course.

The preferred surface at Flushing Meadows since 1978, synthetic DecoTurf has several advantages over the natural surfaces, offering a consistent speed of play, true ball bounce, better footiing, durability, low maintenance, UV resistance, affordability, and-most importantly-vibrant long lasting colors. One of the most intriguing aspects of DecoTurf is its susceptibility to fine tuning. The layers of rubber polymers that constitute the surface can be chosen for hardness or forgivability, with the end result being a court of varied speed and bounce-you can choose from all three ITF classifications: Medium-Slow, Medium, and Medium-Fast. And since the surface doesn’t change over time, the edge goes to the most consistent and all-around player, so there’s no advantage to serve and volleyers, no upper-hand for the walloping ground-stroker or the soft-touch lobber. And did I mention the exciting color palette? A nice change from the habitual green and white, DecoTurf comes in a dizzying array of inner and outer court colors. So beyond the perks to actual play (and Federer, for one, is convinced that blue is the way to go: “it’s much easier on the eyes, especially because it doesn’t reflect the sun as much as the green surface”), one can imagine themed courts in tune with players’ dispositions: gray on blue for the iciness of Federer, red on purple for the exuberance of Nadal. So let the French have their clay with its distracting reddish dust and high bounce, let the Brits have their grass with its skittering ground strokes and warp speed serves, here in N.Y., we’ll take layer upon layer of acrylic and latex.