It probably is a shock to all other than the most ardent of tennis fans that the US Open starts next Sunday with its qualifying rounds. The main tournament begins net Moinday, 26th August.
There is barely any time to reflect on the sporting juggernaut of the Paris Olympics. Mind you, the notoriously noisy New York crowds and noisy planes that fly over the Open’s stadia at Flushing Meadow en route to La Guardia airport, will be light relief after all the techno music and Euro pop that saturated the French games.
What do we know for certain about next week? Neither Nadal, Federer nor Murray will be there. No word about Sabalenka yet.
Djokovic comes to New York having won no ATP tour title for the year, but weirdly having won the ITF tournament at the Olympics. Continuing their pattern of matches with at least one tiebreaker- 5 from 7 in a rivalry Djokovic leads 4-3-Djokovic claimed his much coveted gold medal, beating his young nemesis, Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3) 7-6 (2).
Djokovic now joins Nadal, Agassi, and Serena Williams and Mrs. Agassi as the only players to have won all Grand Slam titles and an Olympic Gold medal in singles.
Of course greater glory and honour could come to Djokovic if he defies the laws of aging and wins in New York. Victory would give him a 25th Grand Slam title and move him past Margaret Court’s long-standing record of 24. The US Open has not been Djokovic’s favourite Grand Slam. He has ‘only’ won four titles and has lost six finals. Novak’s winning percentage in New York, however, is still an extraordinary 87%.
Australia is unlikely have its first US Open Champion since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001. Remember, Barty never won a US Open. Alex de Minaur could not play in Paris, due to the recurrence of a hip injury that prevented him from playing Djokovic in a quarter-final at Wimbledon. De Minaur, even if he plays, is unlikely to be fully fit to give his best on an unyielding hardcourt surface.
This should not upset Australian sports lovers too much as they feast on Australia’s record haul of Olympic medals, including gold. Taking the third biggest team to Paris, Australia finished fourth on the medal tally, with our female athletes winning 13 of the team’s 18 gold medals. There were only three individual male gold medallists: Cameron McEvoy- 50 metres freestyle, Matt Wearn- Sailing- Dinghy class and Keegan Palmer- Skateboarding.
How sad it is then that ‘failure’ in two female sports: Matildas in the Soccer and the performance of break-dancer, ‘Raygun’, should attract such negative commentary. It says far too much about the zeitgeist of our times that Australia’s Prime Minister had to call for calm after the dancer attracted a welter of social media abuse.
If only Australians were so passionate about more substantial matters. Success in sport may well be the barometer of our national pride, but barometers aim to provide objectivity in their measurements. Too much of Australia’s negative response to sporting ‘failure’ borders on the immature and pathetic.
As always, the greatest stories of the Olympics were the triumphs of the minnow nations. Botswana, Dominica and St. Lucia all had athletes that won the first gold medals for their nations.
The Gods also had their way in lowering the high and mighty. After winning the Men’s 100 metres athletics final, by the most ludicrously minute margin- 5/1000ths of a second-Noah Lyles embarked on an unrestrained display of post-victory behaviour that made Muhammad Ali’s antics look monastic.
Lyles confidently predicted, like Ali, that he “would be the greatest” and win the sprint double by winning his speciality event of the 200 metres. Pride cometh before a bout of Covid that debilitated Lyles, relegating him to bronze in the 200 metres, behind the flash from Botswana. Lyles was then unable to participate in the USA’s Men’s 4 x100 metres relay team, which managed to disqualify itself in the final.
The greatest do not always have to be the champions. The modesty and grace that Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim displayed in winning a fourth successive Olympic medal in the Men’s High Jump was timeless.
The joy that Australia’s Jessica Hull conveyed after winning a silver medal in the 1500 metres was infectious. She was Australia’s first female medallist in the Olympic Women’s 1500 metres and was overjoyed. Jessica was also honoured to have been beaten by Kenya’s indomitable Faith Kipyegon who joined Usain Bolt’s pantheon by winning her third successive Olympic title in this blue riband event.
If recent Grand Slam history is any guide, it will be a long time before we have a female player that wins three successive Grand Slam titles. The last woman to do so was Justine Henin-Hardenne at the French Open from 2005-2007. That was dominance over three years. Faith has been numero uno over eight years. The last men to win Grand Slam titles eight years or more apart were Federer at the Australian Open- 2004 and 2017; Nadal at the Australian Open- 2009 and 2022; Djokovic at the Australian Open- 2015 and 2023; Nadal at the French Open- 2005 and 2022; Federer at Wimbledon -2003 and 2017; Nadal at the US Open -2010 and 2019 and Djokovic at the US Open -2011 and 2023. The last woman to do so is Serena Williams: at the Australian Open in 2005 and 2017; at Wimbledon in 2002 and 2016- (let’s not forget Australia’s Evonne Goolagong/Cawley won Wimbledon in 1971 and 1980) ; and Serena again at the US Open in 2002 and 2014. The only woman to have won French Open titles more than eight years apart is Margaret Court who won her first title in 1962 and her last in 1973.
Ok, back to New York. Predictions please! For the Men’s title I cannot see other than Djokovic, Sinner-provided he is fully fit or Alcaraz winning. Zverev will be thereabouts in the second week. In the Women’s anyone’s guess is as good as mine. Gauff will be keen to defend her title; however, she capitulated too easily at the Olympics. Was it the strain of being USA’s flagbearer on a drenched boat during the opening ceremony?
After the tennis concludes, America’s next great contest, the Presidential race, will roar into its final stanzas. Two days after the US Open concludes there will be a debate between Trump and Kamala Harris. Presumably there will also be the traditional debate between the Vice-Presidential candidates: two white men, a generation between them in age and an equally great gulf in social attitudes. It is the younger man, the Republican’s JD Vance, who embraces a radically conservative agenda that is diametrically opposed to the socially progressive attitudes of the Democrat’s Tim Walz.
The jettisoning of Biden has clearly derailed Trump’s focus. When your main target is removed, it is harder to attack the unknown. Trump, now the far older candidate, has to convince undecided voters that Harris and Walz have legacies that play to his fearmongering. At least we know the people will decide.
The recent ousting of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh by a ‘people power’ movement has echoes of the doomed ‘Arab spring’ of 2010-2012. The Prime Minister has fled the country, but who fills the vacuum? There is no guarantee of a consolidation of democracy as the nation’s military are still to decide the country’s new leader. Myanmar, all over again?
The great athletes and tennis players are inevitably fearless, especially at critical moments. For the tennis purists, winning a Grand Slam event is a tour de force as great as securing Olympic gold. As astonishing as so many athletes were in Paris, a Djokovic victory in New York would be the gold standard of the sporting year, if not decade.
As always, there is all to play for!
Stop press: 13th August- Australia's main chance in the Men's Singles now appears to be Alexei Popyrin. This morning Popyrin, who took a set from Djokovic in their third round match at Wimbledon, won his first Masters ATP 1000 final in Montreal. Unseeded, Popyrin defeated Ben Shelton, Dimitrov and Korda, who had beaten Zverev in their quarter-final en route to the final where he defeated No.5 seed, the mercurial Rublev in straight sets. Rublev had defeated Sinner in their quarter-final.
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