Men’s Preview: US Open

Kavalier Karamazov
Aug 27, 2017 · 4 min read

The glitz and glamour of American hardcourt tennis reaches its peak at the US Open. For two weeks, under white lights, in the nocturnal heat, Flushing Meadows is ablaze in all its synthetic swank and splendour. The squeaky surface and blaring music, not to mention the raucous din of the crowd, make the atmosphere at Arthur Ashe loud and jaunty. Too loud and jaunty for proper viewing, I say, making the US Open stand tall yet garish, rich yet raunchy, in contrast to the European elegance of the French and Wimbledon, or the easygoing charm of the Australian Open.

All this excess matters not if the tennis is of the highest class. Players play, players win, players entertain. The rest is structure and design, bamboo and jewellery. Look up the draw, though, and you’d wonder where these players are? At the time of writing this, five of the ATP top-eleven are missing; Murray being the latest casualty, due to hip injury. Djokovic, Wawrinka, Nishikori and Raonic are the other four to drop out; most of that quartet is out of rest of the season. So the Big Four has been halved, leaving Nadal and Federer, neither of who exudes form or fitness to stake a major claim. Yet I hoped, if only for the thrill of it, that the draw would be kind enough for us to rub our hands in anticipation for a first Nadal-Federer US Open final. No such luck.

In a loaded top-half, we have the big guns in Nadal, Federer, Kyrgios, Dimitrov, Thiem, Berdych. While a Nadal-Federer semifinal is a possibility, their paths leading up to it are hardly easy. Nadal, despite the recent world no. 1 coronation, comes with an ever-growing halo of uncertainty surrounding him on all surfaces except dirt. If he somehow makes it through the fourth round against either Berdych or Fognini, he could face Dimitrov in the QF, who’s coming off a first Master’s win at Cincinnati. Federer lost to Zverev in the Montreal final, withdrew from Cincinnati due to back issues, and arrives here with the prospect of a fourth round against Kyrgios, and, if all goes well against the maverick Aussie, a potential QF against Thiem. The chance of a semifinal between two first-timers appears more likely than a first time Federer-Nadal matchup on Arthur Ashe.

Bottom-half is a barrel of dark horses. Zverev is one of the favourites to climb through, based on his title-winning form and game. The lanky twenty-year-old has the flat strokes and a powerful serve to cap his breakthrough year with a deep run here, although betting against him winning is a tad risky. The other favourite to make the semifinal from this draw? Take your pick: Cilic, Ferrer, Gilles Muller, Isner. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga? Why not? It’s that open.

Tennis is ripe for transition. The greats who grace it are not what they were once. The young ones challenging the older statesman – those with legs and nerve slowly ebbing the stoical aura of greats, thus making us fall for them – the emergence of fearless freshmen who do go the distance and blaze a definitive trail: this is what is essential if we are not to end up looping endless videos of vintage matches, if we are to stop pining for the bygone days of glory. If we’re not to ask: after the Big Four, who?

Although this is not how we want it ideally – the absence of best players hardly makes the other players seem better – it is still a sumptuous set-up, with just the right mix of waning oldies and emerging newbies, without any clear-cut favourites, full of novel possibilities.

Let’s cross our fingers real tightly for a Zverev or a Kyrgios bursting out of their millennial cocoons to make history. (This year at grand slams, Thiem came closest when he made the French Open semis – but, as I wrote then, only a serious injury could have stopped Nadal from winning the title.)

All said and done, this could be a repeat of 2013 for Nadal: when he won the French and US Open. Or a year in which Federer, at 36, could win his sixth US Open, third slam of the year and 20th overall.

All in all, come September 10, history is up for grabs, and if you’re seated close enough — and not on the tipping point of the topmost tier at Arthur Ashe — you might hear the roar of the champion, before the music kicks in.

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Kavalier Karamazov

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Books: I smell, covet and read: Will write one some day.

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