Concluded the tournament Cincinnati, which was played in the Flushing Meadows bubble, without an audience, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the feeling among players is that there is something “strange” in the environment, but everyone is ready to compete in a Different US Open, which will begin tomorrow with an opening day in which it already debuts Novak Djokovic, in the night session.
As the first great novelty of the tournament was having to perform the traditional Press Day with the stars of the ATP and the WTA virtually for the first time in their history. One of the players that grabs the attention is the American veteran Serena Williams, third seeded, who will have a chance to win her seventh US Open title and reach the 24th Grand Slam to join the legendary Margaret Court.
“I am never satisfied. That has been the story of my career. It's like I'm never satisfied until I retire. “ Williams, 38, declared that he will play the tournament for the twentieth time. “I think it is a chaotic year. People are understanding and trying new things and the same can happen at this Open.”
If Serena is the attraction of women's tennis, despite the poor performance she had in the Cincinanti tournament, Djokovic, number one in the world, takes center stage on and off the court. Djokovic won the Cincinnati tournament for the second time on Saturday, but he did so amid controversy with the actions of cutting off Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut's pace in the semifinal match and then saying “I don't know how I won the match.”
More controversy has generated taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the absence from the Open of the great champions such as the Spanish Rafael Nadal, current monarch, and the Swiss Roger Federer to promote the formation of a players' union parallel to the ATP. Immediately, Nadal, Federer, the British Andy Murray, along with the Austrian Dominic Thiem, among other greats of the circuit, have completely rejected Djokovic's plan, which he has seen as opportunistic and at least inopportune due to the situation he currently lives in. all the world.
But Djokovic believes that the project is good and that having an independent players' union can work together with the ATP, although he reiterated that it will be the players who must decide whether in the end they want the project to go ahead. While in terms of arriving undefeated (23-0) this season at the Open, which will be his fifteenth contest, Djokovic, 33, current world number one, said that “Running an undefeated streak obviously brings even more confidence in every game. I'm just trying to enjoy it and move on. “
Djokovic, who by winning the Cincinnati tournament for the second time already has 35 Masters 1000 titles, tied with Nadal, said he did not know how long the winning streak will last or what kind of legacy he will leave, because in the end it will not be him who judge. The same one that young tennis promises like the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas expect, who will see his dream of playing on the Arthur Ashe court come true, although it is strange to do so without spectators. “It has been a dream of mine forever, to play a night game at Arthur Ashe,” Tsitsipas admitted, 22 years old. “I am also convinced that this tournament will leave many surprises.” Tsitsipas, who lost in the Cincinnati semifinals to Milos Raonic, whom Djokovic beat in the final, will face the world number one if they both make it to the top four.
On the part of Murray, who returns to the Open after two hip operations in three years, he considers that this year “will be something strange.” None of that worries the Russian Daniil Medvedev, last year's finalist, that he lost to Nadal, and that he described as a “unique” experience playing a five-set match. “It was a great match, a great fight, a great level. Against Rafa, who was in his best form. I need to remember this sometimes, just play the same tennis,” Medvedev stressed. “I'm really trying to be ready for whatever the US Open can bring me.”
One of them would be the one that if he reaches the semifinals he could meet the Roberto Bautista Agut, the best option for Spanish tennis in the fight for the title in the absence of Nadal and who already eliminated him this week in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati. “It's true that everything is strange without the fans, but the tracks are the same and the outside environment of the weather the same, and because of what I did in the Cincinnati tournament, I feel happy with how I'm going to get to the Open “, said Bautista Agut, 32, and eighth seeded.
While the young tennis players, the Japanese Naomi osaka winner of the 2018 Open and local teenager Coco Gauff, admitted that they want to be more than just players and that they want their voices and “ideals” to be heard throughout the world and they consider that they will have no better platform to do so than from the flushing meadows bubble and from day one.