By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 21, 2024

 

Novak Djokovic is one of the favorites to win it all in New York this year. How will he respond to the demands of the Flushing fortnight?

Before the main draw at the US Open is held on Thursday (12 noon EST), we’re here to take a look at some of the key storylines.



All Eyes and Ears on Sinner

Now that the information about Jannik Sinner’s doping violations and provisional suspensions, as well as all the relative details about Sinner’s case (all the way down to his trainer not washing his hands) is out there, we get to see how Sinner handles himself in the white-hot glare of the New York media spotlight.

He’s been declared innocent, but that hasn’t stopped people from judging him, and the recently turned 23-year-old will have to demonstrate thick skin and mental strength to play to his potential in New York while the maelstrom swirls around him. Sinner leads the tour with five ATP titles, and is standing firmly atop the ATP rankings, but what will this next phase of his career look like?

We’ll know more on Friday, when Sinner does his media day press conference. Stay tuned.



Sabalenka Steps Closer to.. Next Step in NYC

Now that she’s fully recovered from the shoulder injury that forced her out of Wimbledon, recently crowned Cincinnati champion Aryna Sabalenka comes to New York as the prohibitive favorite to win it all. That’s largely thanks to her impressive victory over Iga Swiatek in the semifinals at Cincinnati, and her general proclivity for playing better than the Pole on faster surfaces. But let us not forget that Swiatek is the one with a US Open title to her name – not Sabalenka. Remember, Swiatek defeated Sabalenka in three sets en route to her maiden US Open title in 2022.

At the time, it appeared that Swiatek had solved the challenge of playing Grand Slam tennis on a hard court, but we still don’t have a definitive answer from Swiatek, who lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the round of 16 last year, and hasn’t been past the round of 16 at the Australian Open since 2022, either.

Sabalenka, meanwhile had the US Open title within her grasp last year before falling to Coco Gauff, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, and we know what Sabalenka can be like when she’s on a vision quest.

Meanwhile, Gauff enters the draw in a bit of a freefall, having lost three of four since her match with Donna Vekic at the Paris Olympics. The 20-year-old American’s title defense fell short at the first hurdle in Cincinnati last week, as she was bounced by Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva in three sets.

Oddsmakers are right to favor Sabalenka for this title, but there will be no cakewalks on the women’s side, where the talent pool is deep and the capacity for surprise is high.



Alcaraz, Djokovic the Men to Beat

Oddsmakers list Carlos Alcaraz as the top title favorite, with Novak Djokovic as No.2. Behind him it is Jannik Sinner, followed by Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev.

Sounds about right, doesn’t it.

Remarkably, given that he’s still 21 years old, Alcaraz has won four of the last seven majors he has played – a run that commenced with his US Open title in 2022. The fact that he was defeated by Djokovic in the gold medal match puts the Serbian legend back in the mix. He had gone through Wimbledon without a single title, and was blown off the court by Alcaraz in their final at SW19, but Djokovic once again flipped the script when he came through in Paris to claim the gold medal.

Certainly Djokovic was helped by the fact that the Olympics is a best-of-three set event. Or, let’s say, it didn’t hurt. And we still wonder how the Grand Slam king, at 37, will handle the New York pressure cooker at this stage of the season. Best-of-five sets, extreme heat and humidity and an unforgiving hard court surface could make this grind too difficult for Djokovic.

As for Alcaraz, if he has the energy, he’ll be playing with a chip on his shoulder after falling to Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals last year in New York. It was an uncharacteristically flat performance for the Spaniard, who has a decided matchup advantage over Medvedev but could not exploit it on that day.

There is also the added intrigue that the draw brings on the men’s side. Either Sinner or Djokovic will have Alcaraz in their half of the draw, and whoever it is will be considered unlucky.

Big Names pepper the first week, maybe week two?

Among the women’s singles wild cards are a pair of former champions – Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu – as well as Amanda Anisimova, who reached the final at Toronto two weeks ago. It will make for some exciting first-round matchups, as nobody in the draw will want to see these three names next to theirs on the drawsheet.

On the men’s side we could see some interesting qualifiers, as Diego Schwartzman and Joao Fonseca are playing final round qualifying on Thursday, plus Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka – both former champions – have been granted wild cards. Thiem is playing his last major. Wawrinka, at 39, may not return. See them while you can!

And let us not forget Danielle Collins, who will play her final US Open. She’s had an incredible season after announcing her plans to retire at the end of the season. Does she have more of the fire that brought her to back-to-back titles in Charleston and Miami earlier this year? New York fans certainly hope so.



The Land of Surprises?

Flushing Meadows has always been a land of opportunity, and these days, it seems, more than ever. Just look at some of the recent champions: Bianca Andreescu was the first woman to win the Open on her main draw debut in 2019, and two years later Emma Raducanu matched the feat, and also became the first qualifier to ever win a major. Carlos Alcaraz came through as a teenager in 2022, becoming the youngest male player to win the title in Queens since Pete Sampras in 1990.

On the women’s side there have been many others of late, namely Sloane Stephens in 2017 and Flavia Pennetta in 2015.

The Big Three – Federer, Djokovic and Nadal – have been dominant on the men’s side, winning 13 of 20 titles since 2004, but we have still seen the surprising breakthroughs of Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev in 2020 and 2021. Remember that Marin Cilic vs Kei Nishikori final in 2014? That one came out of nowhere as well.

With the Big 3 close to the finish line, can we expect the men’s side to produce more surprises? How about an American in the final? It hasn’t happened since 2006, but with five Americans inside the Top 20 this week, it isn’t unreasonable to think that it could happen again soon.