NEW YORK – The jokes on social media did not disappoint after some big surprises at the US Open 2024.
‘I just arrived in New York after a day of travelling without internet. My dream is to see my idols Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz play,’ tweeted humour and satire tennis account @SvenARG in X.
There waa a sense of emptiness after two of the biggest title favourites lost in less than 24 hours. The last two champions of the men’s draw; the most popular tennis players.
Leaving New York behind, the Spaniard enjoyed Formula 1 at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, and the Serb surely came back to Europe to be with his family, while the last Grand Slam of the year continued to provide remarkable moments, controversies and arguments.
There is plenty of excitement on and off the tennis court in the most electric and hyperactive tournament on the calendar.
Tiafoe’s house
‘This is my fucking house,’ screamed Frances Tiafoe when on Friday afternoon – in a match that should have been a night match – he took New York revenge on Ben Shelton, who had beaten him in the 2023 quarter-finals.
He never won the US Open, nor did he play in the final. He came close in 2022 when he lost to Alcaraz in the semis, but Tiafoe feels at home on Arthur Ashe because of the energy the crowd gives him, and because of what Flushing Meadows means to him: ‘I’m thinking about this tournament all year’.
‘In a couple more (matches) you’re going to be able to really say that,’ James Blake told him after his win over Alexei Popyrin. If he wins three matches (Dimitrov is his next hurdle) Tiafoe will be the champion in Queens, and no one will argue with him any lines as he celebrates.
‘I’m really going go for the title’, confessed the Cincinatti runner up.
The name of Andy Roddick sounds every year in the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre. The former world number one was the last North American who knew how to be champion in the men’s singles. Extra pressure for Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, those called to pay a debt of 21 years.
Andrey Rublev and the demons, chapter #125
‘Three certainties in life: death, taxes… and that Andrey Rublev won’t reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam’.
The humour of the internet expressed in memes can sometimes be cruel, but many other times it has a lot of reality: the backpack is getting heavier and heavier for a tennis player of great level and very regular, but who has not been able to get past the quarter-finals in any of the major tournaments. This Sunday he fell again before the impossible round. His friend Grigor Dimitrov took him out in the round of 16 in a match in which it looked like he was going to turn it around. It was 6-3, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3 for the Bulgarian.
With the great tennis he plays, at some point the Russian will have to get through the window to that unknown terrain. He has the level, what is lacking is his head, and from time to time, outbursts of anger and rage take hold of him.
On centre court at the US Open, the 26-year-old also experienced one of those episodes, when in the first part after an unforced error with his drive, he hit his foot and left hand several times with his racket. He had to be treated by the doctor for damage to his hand.
At least Rublev knows that his emotions are constantly betraying him. The Russian is working on resolving it. He explained it in detail to CLAY in an interview at the end of 2022: ‘I’m very emotional and I take everything to heart when it comes to something important to me… and tennis, obviously, is everything. Every match, every point, I take it very emotionally and very personally.
‘Bad technique breaks down under pressure.’
‘Where’s Coco’s confidence?’ asked Mary Joe Fernandez to Brad Gilbert in the ESPN studio. A few minutes earlier, Gauff had lost painfully to Emma Navarro in three sets in large part thanks to her own serve. She was surely doing post-competition work as her coach discussed aspects of her game on television. Perfect timing for some; too strange a situation for others.
The exchange in that studio with former tennis player Rennae Stubbs was not to be missed.
‘On the practice courts, everything is fine. It hasn’t been a problem,’ said Gilbert, who explained that what he was looking for with Gauff was for her to be consistent with his second serve and to generally dispatch it with the same speed.
Gilbert’s analysis didn’t convince the multiple doubles champion: ‘It’s hard for me to say, because Brad is sitting here and he’s her coach. But, the technique… the elbow is very low, the grip I feel is a little bit off, so it’s hard to hit that second serve high, or what we call the three-quarter serve (…) you have to be able to hit the ball the right way under pressure,’ Stubbs replied masterfully.
She serves very well in practice, but I hate what I’m going to say… most people serve well in practice because they don’t have 15,000 people on top of them, or millions watching them on TV. Billie Jean King always says ‘bad technique cracks under pressure’ and unfortunately that’s what’s happened to Coco this year, because she’s low on confidence.’
What’s the ballgirl’s fault?
Yulia Putintseva generated the disgust of the tennis world after a controversial scene during her third round match against Italian Jasmine Paolini.
The Kazakh had a rude attitude towards a ball girl, who slowly threw the balls to the tennis player. Putintseva stood there staring at her, and made no move to take the balls.
After two balls, the player born in Russia caught the third with a grimace.
Several tennis voices came at her (one of them was Stubbs: ‘The disrespect and obnoxious behaviour here is unbelievable and typical of her’), until she came out on her social networks to apologise.
‘Honestly, it wasn’t about her. I was really mad at myself for not winning the game after the ‘break’ and then I was empty with my emotions and so focused on my thoughts that I wasn’t even realising what was going on and who was giving me the ball.’
Don’t clarify, it’s getting dark.
