EGN NEWS DESK
The autumn-like climate that arrived in New York City this week reminds us of two issues. Kids are going again to high school quickly. And the U.S. Open is again in session.
Here are 5 storylines to observe for the ultimate tennis main of the 12 months, which begins on Aug. 26 on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Coco’s Revenge
After Coco Gauff received her first Grand Slam singles title on the U.S. Open a 12 months in the past, changing into the primary American teenager to win the event in almost a quarter-century, expectations rose for the rising famous person. And whereas being ranked No. 3 on this planet is nothing to sneeze at, Gauff’s 2024 has been pretty rocky.
While another stars skipped the Olympics, she embraced the Games, and was even named as a flag bearer for the opening ceremonies. But she fell in spherical of 16 in each singles and doubles—the place she and companion Jessica Pegula have been the highest seed—and likewise bought knocked out, together with companion Taylor Fritz, within the combined doubles quarterfinals. “At the tip of the day, it’s over,” the upset American stated after her Games resulted in Paris. “I’ll attempt to take the optimistic out of it and do higher subsequent time.”
Read More: Coco Gauff Is Playing for Herself Now
In August she performed in Toronto and misplaced her second match. Then on to Cincinnati, the place Gauff misplaced her first match.
Gauff has carried out comparatively nicely on the majors this 12 months: she reached the semis of the Australian Open and the French Open, whereas shedding within the Wimbledon spherical of 16. But if she needs to repeat in New York, she may wish to summon the doubters—actual or imagined—who have been “actually including fuel” to her fireplace a 12 months in the past and helped propel her to a rousing victory in entrance of a house crowd. She’ll have loads of fan assist, and a second consecutive U.S. Open would make Gauff’s 12 months an unqualified success. And she’s solely 20.
Sinner’s Sins?
The world’s top-ranked males’s participant, Jannik Sinner of Italy, is (kinda sorta?) embroiled in a doping controversy, casting an unwelcome shadow over the tennis proceedings. Sinner twice examined optimistic, in March, for hint quantities of a banned steroid; he denied deliberately utilizing the substance, clostebol, as a substitute claiming that it bought in his system through a physiotherapist treating him with an over-the-counter spray bought in Italy. A tennis integrity investigation discovered Sinner’s rationalization “credible,” and a tribunal concluded that the quantity of steroids he took have been so small they might not have had “any…efficiency enhancing impact on the participant.” Sinner was stripped of his outcomes, rating factors and prize cash on the Indian Wells event in March, since gamers are in the end answerable for what they put of their physique, unintentionally or in any other case.
Read More: Novak Djokovic Grabbed the Only Thing Missing on His Mantle, an Olympic Gold Medal
These findings, unsurprisingly, produce other gamers griping. “Different guidelines for various gamers,” Canadian professional Denis Shapovalov wrote on X. “Can’t think about what each different participant that bought banned for contaminated substances is feeling proper now.” Nick Kyrgios stated: “Whether it was unintended or deliberate. You get examined twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you need to be gone for 2 years.”
Sinner performs on. The additional he advances in New York City—Sinner received the season’s different hard-court main, the Australian Open—the extra questions are certain to come up.
Sabalenka’s Sorrow
Aryna Sabalenka has had a particularly tough 12 months. Her ex-boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov, died in an “obvious suicide” in March in Miami, the place Sabalenka was enjoying within the Miami Open. “I’m heartbroken,” she stated in response to Koltsov’s dying: she performed on, shedding within the third spherical in Miami, smashing her racquet thrice in frustration. She canceled her press conferences.
A abdomen bug helped finish her French Open, and a shoulder damage stored her out of Wimbledon.
The Belarusian stalwart, nevertheless, has returned to high type: she received the Cincinnati Open on Aug. 19, and will probably be a favourite to win her first U.S. Open (Sabalenka has received the final two Australian Opens). She informed The Guardian that she wished she stepped apart for a bit after Koltsov’s dying. “It was actually emotional and actually traumatic, and type of broken my psychological well being at that time,” she stated. “At the tip I paid for my choice.”
No trophy can heal a tragedy. But Sabalenka will probably be straightforward to tug for this 12 months.
Andy, Andy, Andy
The sentence has turn into nearly rote at this level. “So-and-so is seeking to turn into the primary American man since Andy Roddick, in 2003, to win the U.S. Open.” In truth, no American man has received any main singles title since Roddick’s triumph 21 years in the past.
Ben Shelton made a run final 12 months, making the semis earlier than falling to Novak Djokovic in straight units. Frances Tiafoe, who like Shelton skipped the Paris Olympics to prep for the summer season hard-court season, made the ultimate in Cincinnati, the place he misplaced to Sinner: that’s a promising signal of his ascendance. Tommy Paul and Fritz teamed as much as win doubles bronze in Paris, however they misplaced their first-round matches in Cincinnati, lending credence to the “skip Paris” technique.
An American man continues to be primed for a significant breakthrough. One big-time downside: storyline 5.
The Once and Future GOATs
Defending U.S. Open champ Novak Djokovic, winner of 24 grand slam titles and contemporary off his first Olympic gold medal, and world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, who received the U.S. Open in 2022 and has since received three different main championships—together with the French Open and Wimbledon this 12 months—discover themselves on the reverse ends of the draw, establishing a doubtlessly tantalizing ultimate. Alcaraz crushed Djokovic within the Wimbledon ultimate in July; a number of weeks later, the burgeoning rivals met on the Olympic ultimate in Paris, the place Djokovic received a pair of tiebreakers to win a sterling match. Djokovic, 37, merely refuses to exit quietly. Alcaraz, 21, wants Djokovic to cease successful, so he can begin chasing the Serbian’s majors haul in earnest.
Sept. 8, Alcaraz-Djokovic III? That could be one heck of a approach to finish this 12 months’s main tennis marketing campaign.
