Women’s Singles
To start off, not all the favorites coming into the U.S. Open played. Bianca Andreescu, Ashleigh Barty, Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina, and Kiki Bertens are some of the best Women’s Tennis Players in the world, and they all opted out from playing the 2020 U.S. Open due to their concerns about COVID-19. The first round on the Women’s side was mainly chalk, meaning most of the higher-seeded players advanced to the second round. The only seeded ladies to get knocked out in the first round were the 25th seed Shuai Zhang, the 29th seed Veronika Kudermetova, and 32nd seed Rebecca Peterson. The second round was chaos, a lot of upsets happened. The number one overall seed, Karolina Pliskova, was upset by Caroline Garcia in straight sets. All of the following ladies were upset, 5th seed Aryna Sabalenka, 9th seed Johanna Konta, 10 seed Gabrine Muguruza, 11 seed Elena Rybakina, 12 seed Marketa Vondrousova, 13 seed Alison Riske. The 19 seed of Dayana Yastremska was upset as well as 21 seed of Ekaterina Alexandrova, 30 seed of Kristina Mladenovic, and the 31 seed of Anastasija Sevastova.The rest of the women who were seeded all advanced to the third round. The third round was chalk for the most part, except for the 7 seed Madison Keys, who retired. Retired in Tennis that a player has given up due to fatigue or injury and cannot continue play. This allows a player’s opponent to advance to the next round without further play.
The fourth round was a combination of the first three rounds, meaning you had some upsets and chalk. The three big upsets in the fourth round were the 2 seed, Sofia Kenin, losing in straight sets to 16 seed Elise Mertens. The next big upset was 6 seed Petra Kvitova losing in three sets to Shelby Rogers. The final major upset in the fourth round was 8 seed, Petra Martic losing in three sets to 23 seed Yulia Putintseva. The other two seeded players to lose/get upset in the fourth round were 17 seed Angelique Kerber losing to 28 seed Jennifer Brady in straight sets. Victoria Azarenka upset/beat 20 seed Karolina Muchova in three sets. The Quarterfinals matches weren’t that really competitive, except for the 3 seed Serena Williams having to come back to win in three sets, after dropping the first set. The other three matches in the Quarters were not competitive matches. Victoria Azarenka beat 16 Elise Mertens, 6-1 and 6-0. The 4 seed Naomi Osaka beat Shelby Rogers in straight sets. This match was kinda competitive because Osaka won 6-3 and 6-4. The final quarterfinals match was between 23 seed Yulia Putintseva and 28 seed Jennifer Brady. Brady won this particular match 6-3 and 6-2, so it wasn’t a super competitive match.
The semifinals were very interesting and competitive matches because they both went three sets. The first semifinal matchup was between 4 seed Naomi Osaka and 28 seed Jennifer Brady. Osaka won the first set in a tie breaker. A tiebreaker in tennis is when both players have won 6 games a piece in a set. Naomi won the tiebreaker 7-1, taking the first set 7-6. Brady won the second set 6-3, to force a deciding three set. Naomi Osaka won the third set 6-3, advancing to the finals of the U.S. Open. The other semifinal match was between 3 seed Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Serena won the first set in convincing fashion, 6-1. After dominating the first set, Serena lost the second set 6-3 to Azarenka, who forced a deciding third set. Serena Williams also lost the third set 6-3 to Azarenka. Williams was upset in the semifinals, and Azarenka advanced to the U.S. Open. The finals were a very interesting but competitive match. Victoria Azarenka won the first set over Naomi Osaka 6-1, not a good start for the favorite. Osaka is seeking her 2nd U.S. Open title in the last three years. Naomi came back after a disappointing first set to win the second set 6-3, to force a winner take all third set. Osaka dominated the third set.She won 6-3 again, thus defeating Azarenka. In conclusion, the women’s singles were not what viewers expected, but it makes for exciting tennis.
Mens Singles
Some of the biggest names on the men’s side in Tennis opted out of the 2020 U.S. Open because of their concerns surrounding COVID-19. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Nick Kyrgios, and Stan Wawrinka are some of the most known players in the world. Nadal and Federer both opting out made the outcome of who is going to win unpredictably. The first round there weren’t a lot of major upsets. The biggest surprise would have to be the 9 seed Diego Schwartzman getting upset in five sets in round one. The 16 seed John Isner losing in the first round was kinda shocking, at least to me because he usually plays some of his best tennis of the year in New York.
A feel-good story for the first round of this particular tournament would be Andy Murray. Murray has been through a lot of adversity the last couple of years, mainly injuries, but seeing him back and play well was a welcome sight by tennis fans worldwide. The second round was similar to the first, there weren’t a lot of upsets. The biggest upset in this round would have to be 13 seed Cristian Garin losing in five sets to Mikhail Kukushkin. An unexpected upset would have to be the 25 seed Milos Raonic, losing to Vasek Pospisil in four sets. The 14 seed Grigor Dimitrov losing/getting upset by Marton Fucsovics was a bit shocking, but if you don’t bring your A-game there is always a chance for you to get upset.
The third round of the U.S. Open on the men’s side is when things get very interesting. This round is where you see the first top seed go down. The 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas gets upset by 27 seed Borna Coric in a thrilling five-set match that comes down to a tiebreak. Another top 10 seed went down in this-round and that would be the 8 seed of Roberto Bautista Agut in a five set match against Vasek Pospisil. This was a matchup of two seeded guys where the lower seed came out on top. 21 seed Alex De Minaur defeated 11 seed Karen Khachanov in a competitive five set match. The fourth round you saw something that rarely happens, the number one seed in Novak Djokovic was disqualified from his match against 20 seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Djokovic struck a lineswoman in the throat with a ball he hit out of frustration. The Grand Slam rulebook calls for disqualification of a player for abuse of a ball when it is struck with negligent disregard for consequences. To put this rule in simpler terms, if you take advantage of a ball without thinking about the damage it could cause then you should be disqualified. In this round, you had two lower seeds defeat two higher-seeded guys. First match was the number 7 seed of David Goffin against the 12 seed Dennis Shapovalov, where Shapovalov lost the first set in a tiebreak but came back and won the next three sets to upset Goffin. The only match where this occurred was the 6 seed Matteo Berrettini vs. 10 seed Andrey Rublev. Same thing in the previous match I mentioned, Rublev lost the first set but won the next three sets 6-3 in all of them.
The quarterfinals had some competitive matches. You had 5 seed Alexander Zverev get dominated in the first set of his match against Borna Coric but turned it around. Zverev won the next three sets, but it took two tiebreakers in both sets 2 and 3 for him to advance to the semis. The only quarterfinal match where the higher seed lost was when 12 seed Dennis Shapovalov lost in a thrilling five set match to 20 seed Pablo Carreno Busta. The number 2 and 3 seeds of Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev won their quarterfinal matches in straight sets. Medvedev needed tiebreakers in two of those sets to decide the outcome of the match but regardless he still advanced to the semis where he would face Thiem. The semifinal matches were very exciting to watch if you are a tennis fan. The first semifinal match was a five set match where the 5 seed of Alexander Zverev defeated 20 seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Zverev lost the first two sets of his match but came back and won the next three sets to advance to the finals. This was the most chalk match of the entire tournament on the men’s side, meaning you expected these two players to end up in the semis. 2 seed Dominic Thiem and 3 Daniil Medvedev had a very exciting match, even though Thiem won in straight sets. Medvedev played some great tennis but came up short in the second and third set tiebreakers and Thiem took advantage of that and moved on to the finals.
The finals of the Men’s Singles 2020 U.S. Open was some of the best tennis you will ever see. The finals matchup was 2 seed Dominic Thiem vs. 5 seed Alexander Zverev. Both of these players were seeking their first major title, which added to the excitement going into this match. Zverev won the first two sets, and had control of his game heading into the third set. Alexander was six points away from winning his first major but he got tight late in the third set. Thiem took advantage of a couple mistakes that were made by Zverev to take the third set. Thiem came out in the fourth set on fire, he looked like a completely different player from the first two sets of this match. Dominic went on to win the fourth set 6-3, to force a deciding fifth set. The fifth set was so back and forth, which only added to the excitement that had been building the entire match. Zverev was up 5-3 in the fifth set serving for the championship but Thiem would not quit. He broke Zverev and got serve back with a chance to tie the fifth set at five games a piece. Thiem did exactly what he needed to do to keep his chances of winning his first major alive. He tied the fifth set at 5 games each and then broke Zverev again to go up 6-5 in the fifth set. After being down 5-3, Thiem won the next three games to have a chance to serve for his first major. Zverev wasn’t going down without a fight, he broke Thiem to tie the set at 6 games a piece and forced a tiebreaker to decide who is going to win this match. The tiebreaker was very back and forth, meaning great tennis was being played. The tiebreaker was evenly matched until Zverev made a couple mistakes that allowed Thiem to provide a little bit of separation between the two players. That all went away very quickly because Zverev tied the tiebreaker at six points a piece and he was serving to go up in the tiebreaker. A mistake led to Thiem getting the advantage of 7-6 and being able to serve for the match. In the last rally Zverev hit his return out which meant Thiem had just won the U.S. Open. This was the first time a male tennis player came back from two sets down to win this major since Pancho Gonzales defeated Ted Schroeder in 1949. This match was the perfect way to end a wonderful tournament. There was a first time major winner who had an epic comeback, you can not script these kinds of things.
