OK, I'm declaring my surrender to unjust fate with regards to having anyone to be a favorite at this year's U.S. Open. And I must note that this goes back to the D.C. Open a few weeks back, when Alejandro Davidovich Fokina couldn't close the deal on his first-ever tournament victory in men's professional tennis. More on that in a bit. And also, my frustrating favorite, Elena Rybakina, folded in the semifinal against Leylah Fernandez (who, I admit, it's good to see playing well), and didn't make the final. More on her in a moment, too.
(At least Tommy Fleetwood broke through with his first win on the PGA tour, timing it nicely to win a $10 million check, too.)
The run of bad luck (note -- good players make their own good luck) began at the U.S. Open when the very pretty Anna Kalinskaya, who would likely have massive sponsorship deals if she was a consistent Top 10 player, was up 5-1 against Iga Swiatek, and then proceeded to drop the set and the match. A lot of it was due to Swiatek finally starting to play better and fixing her serve return position, but still, at 5-1, you have a couple of chances for the set on your serve. She did, and didn't finish it off.
Next up, I started hoping that Taylor Townsend would advance to her first-ever quarterfinal. I wasn't really invested in her, but she got noticed for a couple of different shots. An epic second-set tiebreak, which are great to watch if you aren't really pulling for one player or the other, results in a numerous match points, even on her serve, that she couldn't convert. And on one of those match points, her opponent, Barbora Krejčíková, scraped the line with a lob return. Virtually the exact same thing happened to Davidovich Fokina at the D.C. Open against de Minaur, who eventually won that match and title. Townsend, of course, went on to a tearful loss despite a great effort.
Finally, back to Rybakina. She was playing great, but came up against Markéta Vondroušová, who won Wimbledon in 2023 unseeded. She wasn't seeded here either, due to a big drop in the rankings caused by not playing due to injury, but she's obviously talented. So Elena lost the first set, managed to win the second set 7-5, but only won two games in the third. Her team has to work on her consistency.
Hard to see now how the final won't be Sabalenka vs. Swiatek.
On the men's side, Davidovich Fokina lost in the second round, and Francis Tiafoe, who I really wish would get it together once and win a Slam, in the third round in straight sets, including a 7-9 loss in the third set tiebreak. So lacking longshots to back, I guess I'll go with Taylor Fritz (yay, more shots of Morgan Riddle in the stands) and de Minaur.
Hard to see now how the final won't be Sinner vs. Alcaraz (again). But to be the best you have to beat the best, and the best players tend to play better. Oh well.
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| Darn it |
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