For the first time since the 2018 Australian Open, someone other than Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic is going to win a men’s singles Grand Slam title. For the first time since the 2016 Australian Open, someone other than Nadal, Djokovic, or Roger Federer is going to win a men’ singles Grand Slam title. And in a matter of days, Marin Cilic is no longer going to be the youngest active slam champion.
That’s right; Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, is the youngest active champ at 31 years and 11 months old.
Finally, the younger generation is going to break through.
Even with Nadal and Federer not playing this tournament, it did not always seem like a breakthrough was in the cards. After all, Djokovic had been in utterly dominant form throughout the 2020 campaign. He was 23-0 heading into the season’s second slam and fresh off a title at the Cincinnati Masters–also held at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Following a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 third-round beatdown of Jan-Lennard Struff, there was no reason to think anything was about to change.
But then it all did in an instant. Djokovic’s default against Pablo Carreno Busta changed everything in a blink of an eye. In one moment, everyone else left in the men’s singles draw went from a big underdog in the overall event to a realistic Grand Slam title contender. Okay, Jordan Thompson and Frances Tiafoe were still longshots even with Djokovic out; still, anyone outside of the Big 3 is beatable on any given day. Everyone had a chance. And everyone still in it still does.
They are playing like it, too.
With a few exceptions (Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem being the prime examples, and Carreno Busta as well), they are playing like the weight of the opportunity is too heavy. Tiafoe might as well have not taken the court against Medvedev on Tuesday night. Felix Auger-Aliassime wasn’t much better when he faced Thiem. Matteo Berrettini, a 2019 U.S. Open semifinalist, did not win more than three games in any of his last three sets against Andrey Rublev in the fourth round. Alexander Zverev and Borna Coric, who are in the half of the draw vacated by Djokovic, both played far below their normal standards in their quarterfinal contest on Tuesday afternoon. But someone had to win, and that someone was Zverev.
The German, unprompted, brought up the Djokovic issue himself when asked about the poor quality of his match against Coric.
“I mean, look, obviously I didn’t play well,” he admitted. “It’s no secret about it. I was down 6-1, 4-2 after about 28 minutes. It’s not a secret I didn’t play my best. But I found a way; found a way to win that second set, and I feel like that’s the most important.
“I think the Novak news shocked us all, and obviously for us younger guys we see that as a massive opportunity. But we have to put our head down and just do our job and focus on ourselves.”
Tuesday’s nightcap between Carreno Busta and Denis Shapovalov was without question a great five-set battle. Still, the match was on Shapovalov’s racket, as expected. He dictated play basically the entire way; in the end, however, he could not hit his way past the rock-solid Spaniard. The 21-year-old Canadian fired 76 winners, but he also committed 77 unforced errors–11 of them double-faults. Again, it was a very good match; sometimes even great. But it was also Shapovalov’s match to lose, and that is exactly what he did
“There’s a lot of dark horses out there,” he said afterward. “It’s anybody’s slam. It’s very exciting for tennis.
“It’s definitely causing a lot of nervous matches. I saw Borna playing against Sascha today. There was a lot of nervousness, as well. It’s going to be a lot like that, I think.”
who ya got winning it all?
Medvedev seems more steady. Thiem has a good shot. Should be one of the two.
I’ve got Medvedev. Maybe comfortably. He doesn’t look at all rattled to me. And somebody said it in a different thread…dude is like an octopus out there. Just…everywhere all at once, all arms and legs and half a sneer.
That was me calling him an octopus, Cheryl 😀 He is everywhere at once, floats around, moves fast, stretching his long tentacles to reach every ball.
My only question is about his endurance being good enough over 5 set matches vs someone as physical as Rafa, Thiem, or possibly an improved crafty lefty like Shapovolov. Rublev was close to getting a set but Meddy truly is the best mover at his height (6’6″) in tennis. It used to be Cilic or Delpo (long ago).
The Octopus (nice metaphor, Cheryl)….but PCB very impressive last night!!
Don’t know where to post this so putting it here.
I just burst out laughing as I had a very quick look just now on The dysfunctional tennis blog and the Nole fans are writing insane stuff about the lineswoman being to blame for a. Being a stupid old woman who wasn’t on sufficient high alert
b. Being a faker who was covering up for her crimes involved in a.
c. Probably a fed fan.
d. Was wearing a BLM badge so a deranged libtard who was only there for pc reasons and should have been banned because of the badge anyway!
Anyway! There was a great reply to all this by someone called
Tennis Vagabond who appears to possess a brain unlike many there. It goes as follows:
“Actual US open thread:crickets.
Arguing over whether a line judge who got hit in the throat is a Federer/ military- industrial-tennis- establishment plant: Still going on, days later.”
Ha ha ha!
I usually like TV very much, amy.
Loved his post rc!
Maybe we should invite him to post here?!!😀
Will write some more on Ntforum later. Stay strong darling!
Amy lol thats TX for you such a rabid bunch, as for Tennis Vagabond, hes a Federer fan, but one of the fairest , and one of the most knowledgeable fans on that forum, he also has a wicked sense of humour, he also wrote a book 😀
Hi Alison. Agree about TV. He’s a rare one.
Some stark raving mad posts on there Alison!😀
But the one by TV really made me laugh out loud which was very welcome…
I think Med and Thiem are the best. However, Zverev may benefit if those 2 will have a 5 setter and win he may be lucky enough to win it all.
I still haven’t decided who is my favourite. I like a lot Med and Thiem.
I have to say that Busta has decent chance as well.
Med or Thiem deserve it after losing Slam finals .
Zverev is due a Slam, also .
The real final will be played with Medvedev and Thiem. Whoever wins that match wins US Open without a doubt, and I am pretty sure this years US Open winner will be Daniil Medvedev. This guy is on a mission right now, and he is just all around the best player of the last 4 with only Thiem being able to challenge him, but he will need to play his absolute best. Will be a crazy match tho.
Very different results from what ‘Cinci’ seemed to predict
Like everyone else I think the winner will be Thiem or Medvedev. Thiem’s strong and fit and Medvedev may look like a cripple out there with pills, drinks and pieces of tape dangling from him but he gets it done. Maybe they’ll kill each other and the other finalist will sneak through but I don’t think so.
I got the urge to watch the last game and a bit of the trophy ceremony from last year’s amazing final and was struck again by Medvedev’s runner up speech. Best I ever heard. He apologized to the crowd for his earlier mis-steps, admitted he was human and could make mistakes and *learn from them*. If only Djokovic could have done that in the last presser, the one that he skipped, he would have saved himself so much grief!