By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Novak Djokovic captured his 14th career Grand Slam title in New York.
Photo credit: US Open Facebook
NEW YORK—The 2018 US Open gave us the birth of a new Grand Slam champion and the rebirth of a 14-time major title holder.
As we bid a final farewell to Flushing Meadows, here are our 18 takeaways from two weeks in New York.
1. Juan Martin del Potro said he believes Novak Djokovic can surpass 20-time Roger Federer as Grand Slam king. Based on the Djoker's dominance winning Wimbledon, Cincinnati and his third US Open crown, it's tough to dispute del Potro.
Historically, Djokovic wins majors in bunches: he joined Federer as the only men in the Open Era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back three times. Continuing to climb the ladder of legends, Djokovic raised his 14th major championship standing shoulder-to-shoulder alongside childhood hero, Pete Sampras, for third place on the all-time list.
The 31-year-old Djokovic is younger than the rivals he's chasing on the all-time list and holds career winning records over both Federer and Nadal. Barring injury or apathy, Djokovic should reach 20 majors, the question is how many more will Federer and Rafael Nadal win?
The irony of this US Open outcome was before their Cincinnati final faceoff, Federer and Djokovic disagreed on five-set matches. The 37-year-old Swiss, who supports more best-of-five-setters in ATP finals, faded in the steamy swelter of New York, while Djokovic, who supports best-of-three sets even in Grand Slams, showed supreme fitness sweeping Cincinnati and Flushing Meadows in succession.
2. The Serena Williams vs. Carlos Ramos imbroglio is a symptom of the larger illness in the sport: an alarming lack of communication. Serena is absolutely right that there is a double-standard in how officials rule men and women's matches. However she's wrong using Ramos' ruling in this final as an example of that inequity.
Serena repeatedly suggested Ramos was calling her a cheater and demanded an apology when in fact he did no such thing. He called her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, for coaching from the stands which Mouratoglou admitted was true. Yet Williams, who never calls for on-court coaching in WTA events, was incensed by what she perceived as a blow to her competitive integrity when in fact the call was on her coach, who conceded he was trying to coach her.
By the letter of the law, Ramos was absolutely right. However he was wrong failing to use common sense to try to defuse the tension. If he had issued a soft warning prior to the game penalty and she continued berating him as a "thief" and demanding an apology, then the verbal abuse call could not have been questioned. It's a Grand Slam final and she was not using profanity as so many other male champions have used in blow-ups without receiving the same punishment.
3. If you don't think a double-standard exists in officiating rewind to earlier in this US Open to Mohamed Lahyani climbing down from his seat to coax Nick Kyrgios into playing or Alize Cornet hit with a code violation for changing her shirt on court, an act men do quite often without penalty.
Double standard is a two-way street: the USTA and WTA both issued pro-Serena statements. If there's a role reversal and it was Osaka sparring with Ramos and berating him as a thief do you honestly think both organizations would have released statements on her behalf? And what about Serena snapping at Ramos "don't talk to me!" then continuing to give the ump a dress down after pressing the mute button on him.
4. Jimmy Connors decried a chair umpire as "an abortion!"during his famed US Open semifinal run at age 39 and the crowd ate it up as Jimbo symbolically standing up for the little guy everywhere against the powers that be.
Yes, Serena is the biggest diva tennis has seen since Suzanne Lenglen. Yes, Serena is such a superstar she can pull the plug on her own pressers and no one questions it. But is what she said to Carlos Ramos worse than Roger Federer's diatribe at chair umpire Jake Garner during his 2009 US Open final loss to Juan Martin del Potro?
Of course, Federer did not smash a racquet before this outburst, the point is we've seen clear double-standards in calling men's and women's matches. And secondly, what's wrong with seeing real, raw emotion from Serena or any other champion provided they're not using profanity or making obscene gestures?
5. Naomi Osaka is 20 years old and displayed the poise, grace and class of a veteran champion while winning her maiden major and enduring the circus-like climax afterward. Think about this: Osaka has dominated her idol, the greatest woman player of all time twice in a matter of months. Oska has crushed Williams in two tournaments Serena won a total of 13 times, and barely looked stressed doing it. Working with coach and former Serena-confidante Sascha Bajin, Osaka constructs points with more care these days, she showed grit staring down 13 break points against Madison Keys in the semifinals and she hasn't even scratched the surface of the player she can be.
Osaka is the same age as Aryna Sabalenka, the only woman to take a set from the Japanese during her trip to the title. Here's hoping we see these two battling it out for a decade. If that happens and young stars like Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and Daria Kasatkina continue to grow, the women's game will flourish.
6. Barring injury, Dominic Thiem will likely win a major in the next couple of years. Thiem won massive respect for both his exceptional effort and extraordinary grace after losing a gut-wrenching five-set epic to Rafal Nadal. The Roland Garros finalist departed to a well-deserved standing ovation The knock on Thiem is that he over-plays, but people said the same thing about Vilas and he's in the Hall of Fame. Thiem plays with passion and showed signs he's finally figuring out how ideal court positioning as he translates his game from red clay to hard court.
7. The last woman to win a Grand Slam title wielding a one-handed backhand, Francesca Schiavone, officially retired in Flushing Meadows while Carla Suarez Navarro kept the one-handed flame burning brightly toppling Maria Sharapova to reach the quarterfinals.
8. The new Louis Armstrong Stadium rocks. Though it seats 14,000 it feels more intimate and the design allows fans buying concessions to still keep an eye on the match. The flipside is players said it is one of the noisest stadiums and Denis Shapovalov said it's tough to tune out the big screen showing replays.
"The only thing that bothered me a little bit, especially when the roof closed, it was like the screen," Shapovalov said. "It's a huge screen right in front of you. They're constantly showing replays, showing live points. It's really tough to focus out there. I mean, it's like right in front of your face, and it's massive."
9. Watching Nick Kyrgios up close at Queen's Club was like seeing flashes of a major contender. Watching Kyrgios at Flushing Meadows was like watching a guy auditioning for the Harlem Globetrotters tennis team. Kyrgios is on a great career track if he's aiming to supplant Gael Monfils as the game's greatest showman someday, but it's not the trajectory for a Slam champion. Kyrgios can light up Laver Cup and Hopman Cup with shotmaking, but for all his great gifts he's yet to show the sustained spine or spirited love of the battle that compatriots Alex de Minaur and John Millman showed in Flushing Meadows and that's a shame because he contineus to short-change himself.
10. For the second straight Slam, women seeds suffered major mis-steps. Defending champion Sloane Stephens and eighth-seeded Karolina Pliskova were the only Top 10-seeded women to reach the US Open quarterfinals. At Wimbledon, none of the Top 10 ladies' seeds made the quarterfinals.
11. ESPN hosted thorough and entertaining coverage. Among the highlights: the sights, sounds and reaction to the classic Nadal vs. Thiem match, Darren Cahill correctly suggesting Brisbane-born John Millman, who hails from one of the most humid spots in tennis, could use conditions and the slower hard court to grind Roger Federer, Pam Shriver's spot-on interview with Serena Williams' coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. ESPN analyst Mouratoglou candidly admitted trying to coach the 23-time Grand Slam champion—and pointed out Osaka's coach and Seren's former hitting partner, Sascha Bajin, was coaching too, adding Uncle Toni Nadal was notorious for coaching from the stands.
12. A few quibbles on TV coverage: Please televise the coin toss. It's sometimes reveals nerves, signals intent and in the case of Serena and Rafa can be an indicator of intensity. The network went split-screen sometimes effectively showing viewers compelling match climaxes as they occurred, but sometimes the graphics are so small it's hard to see the score. Mid-match interviews with coaches were much more revealing than the pre-match interviews with the tense and tight-lipped players. Mouratoglou and Venus Williams' coach David Witt, both provided insight before and during the Williams sisters clash.
13. At the Nitto ATP Finals in London last November, Jack Sock was asked if he'd consider playing doubles in 2018. "I was never a doubles specialist, even though you guys think that for some reason," Sock snapped back.
Fast forward to this year and Sock solidified his status as the world's premier doubles player (who may or may not actually like doubles), winning his second straight Grand Slam doubles title with Mike Bryan. Doubles not only gives Sock much-needed repetition on serve and return it empowers him to show all the shots in his expansive game, something lacking in his predictable, run around the backhand and bash the big forehand singles style. Here's hoping these two keep playing together and eventually Sock learns to apply the all-court skills he shows in doubles to the singles court.
14. Madison Keys will rue her 0 for 13 on break point performance in a straight-sets semifinal loss to Naomi Osaka, but should be encouraged making Slam semifinals on two different surfaces this season.
The 23-year-old Keys is close to a major breakthrough if she can just make more balls on pivotal points. Careless errors in neutral rallies really cost Keys, who has contested quarterfinals or better in four of her last five Slams. I wish Keys would adopt the philosophy her former coach and now advisor Lindsay Davenport displayed: when confused or out of position just drive it deep down the middle, back the opposition up, deny the angle and get ready to launch.
15. The US Open serve clock is a step forward though it's uneven application is another story. It's absurd that the Grand Slams and WTA haven't reached an accord on coaching. If speeding up the pace of play is a shared motive, they should allow coaching from stands, something the US Open is considering but hard to imagine happening at Wimbledon which can be as quiet as a confessional booth.
16. Coaching from stands has happened throughout history and happens all the time now. Unless you're going to assign an official to player boxes, it's futile to try to police coaching from stands since the chair umpire can't possibly follow the ball, the players and activity in different player boxes simultaneously.
Really, how dramatically do you think a coach or friend yelling from a box among 23,000 voices is going to impact a match? Is "serve more to her backhand" or "move closer to the baseline" or "hit the body serve" really that profound that you need someone yelling it to act on it? Stop the charade and selective enforcement and make it legal to coach from the crowd. Sure, the umpire will have to issue more "quiet please" requests, but at least you minimize the prospect of the debacle we saw on Saturday night recurring in a future final.
17. Best celebrity fans: Ben Stiller, who was in full fan-man mode sitting in Rafa's box for the king of clay's stirring comeback conquest of Dominic Thiem and engaged in ecstatic celebration with Team Rafa afterward. A lefty, like Rafa, and avid player himself, Stiller gave us a "pass on grass" moment forgoing Wimbledon to his hometown tournament. On the ladies side, US Open stalwart Gladys Knight always looks so joyful watching the Open and her presence, weeks after her friend Aretha Franklin's recent passing, on the big screen was even more poignant and powerful for fans this year.
18. Flushing Meadows boasts two stadiums with retractable roofs, a galaxy of stars in the field and occupying the luxury suites, performers ranging from Kelly Clarkson to Brandon Victor Dixon, dancing fountains and more pyrotechnics than Broadway shows. Players, coaches, commentators speak in the language of performance. ESPN host Chris McKendry repeatedly introduced players standing "backstage" for their pre-match interviews. Contenders don't just play the US Open, they're "on a journey", "overcoming challenges", shaping "my story", tuning into "the process."
That's why Naomi Osaka's authenticity after her rousing run to the title was so refreshing. The 20-year-old is a champion with zero interest in post-match spin and no pre-packaged story to sell. Asked her planned post-match celebration, a smiling Osaka replied "sleep", adding "I'm not really a social person like that. Maybe I'll play video games. I don't know."
18. The USTA conceded it intentionally slowed down the courts this year. The slow track, combined with sweltering heat and humidity, created a swamp-like slog that saw John Isner make 11 shirt changes and Dominic Thiem sweat through three pairs of sneakers.
First question: why slow down the court?
Secondly, if the aim was to aid Americans how does it help?
All four 2017 women's semifinalists—Sloane Stephens, Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Keys—did just fine with a faster court. If aiding Americans wasn't the end game then why do it? And what is the criteria for setting court speed moving forward? A more immediate question: How will what we saw in New York impact the 2019 Australian Open, which has seen Roger Federer thrive on the faster Oz surface sweeping successive titles.
Lastly, the bounce of the ball is as big of a concern to players as surface speed. Penn is the official ball in Cincinnati, while the US Open has used the Wilson ball for years, which players say feels heavier and exhibits a different playability.