Bill Simons
New York
FOUR TO THE FOURTH: Four American men – Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Brandon Nakashima – are into the fourth round. Fritz and Nakashima are both San Diego natives.
JUST WONDERING: The era of the Big Three now seems a thing of the past. So can we say that tennis has fully arrived in a new era?
READING NOLE’S TEA LEAVES: Will Novak Djokovic win another Grand Slam? This fall, will he reach the ATP finals, where he’s won a record seven times? To do so, he’ll have to do well at the Shanghai and Paris Bercy Masters. Will he finish the year in the Top Ten? It’s best not to write off the GOAT.
MATTERS OF FACTS AND STATS: Djokovic is said to be the man who can’t help setting records. Goodness, even his loss to Alexei Popyrin last night set records…This is the first time Novak hasn’t gotten beyond the third round at the US Open since 2006…This is the first year since 2017 that he hasn’t won a Slam…This year, for the first time since 2002, there won’t be a Grand Slam winner from the Big 3.
For another year, Margaret Court’s record of 24 singles titles at majors remains intact. Serena had 15 chances to equal Court’s record. She didn’t. Novak has had four chances to surpass that record, but has fallen short…Djokovic had more double faults in his Popyrin match than in any of his previous 438 Grand Slam matches…Aryna Sabalenka’s match against Ekaterina Alexandrova, that started at 12:08 AM Saturday, was the latest starting time of any match in US Open history.
OLYMPIC FATIGUE TAKES ITS TOLL: The Olympics is famous for bringing the world together – what’s not to love? But this year it shattered tennis.
Gold medalist Djokovic was dismissed by No. 28 Alexei Popyrin. Djokovic had put his body and soul into winning gold. But even Nole can do just so much. The Serb confided he was “out of gas” when he came to the Open, and added that just reaching the third round was an achievement.
Similarly, four-time US Open winner Rafa Nadal put everything he had into the Olympics. He skipped Wimbledon, but in Paris he fell badly in both singles and doubles, and retreated to his Spanish estate to recover. This could be his last year.
Rafa’s doubles partner, Carlos Alcaraz, won silver in Paris. But the effort seemed to take its toll. In Cincinnati, where he lost early, he smashed his racket. In New York, Botic van de Zandschulp, who’d been considering retirement, smashed the Spaniard’s hopes of winning three Slams in a summer.
The 2024 French Open and Wimbledon champ then openly shared what a mess he was in, confiding, “I feel like I’ve taken steps backwards mentally, and I don’t understand why. I’ve had a spectacular summer…I left those tournaments saying that I’d taken a step forward…Now I’ve taken steps backwards…I don’t know how to control myself…I don’t know how to handle it.
“I need more time. I have to get to know myself…Maybe I’m the kind of person who…demands too much of himself mentally.”
And maybe Olympic fatigue was a factor in Brandon Nakashima’s upset victory over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, who won Olympic bronze and was seeded No. 18.
Players this year have had to go from the clay court swing in Europe to the grass season and Wimbledon, back to clay for the Olympics and then to the North American hardcourts. Plus they’ve had to play with an array of different balls.
The Olympics disrupted tennis even before it happened. Rafa chose not to play Wimbledon. Iga Swiatek wanted to rest before the Olympics. So she packed her pre-Wimbledon schedule with back-to-back commercial commitments so as not to disrupt her preparations for the Olympics, which she so wanted to win. At Wimbledon she lost in the third round. And, BTW, neither of the 2020 Olympic gold medalists, Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic, have won a Slam since then.
Yes, all three Olympic women medalists are still in the US Open draw. But clearly, the emotions, passions and scheduling challenges of the Olympics have taken their toll.
PAUL’S POINTS: After winning today, Tommy Paul was asked whether the shock upsets of Djokovic and Shelton gave him a big opportunity. He sighed and said, “I will have the opportunity to play the No. 1 player in the world [Jannik Sinner].” When asked about his feelings, after the top stars lost, he joked, “Carlos and Novak have won quite a few tournaments. So I don’t feel sorry for them.”
Paul then stated the obvious, saying that, for American tennis, “It’s an exciting time. We all want to do really, really well here…[and] hopefully at some point we’ll be playing each other in the last weekend.”
FRIENDLY FOE: Alexei Popyrin said it was more impactful winning the Canadian Open Masters tournament than beating Djokovic. He’s pals with his next foe, Big Foe. When the Aussie was struggling, Tiafoe would send him inspirational videos from Kobe Bryant.
AMERICA WATCH: No. 6 Jessica Pegula easily defeated Spain’s No. 74 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. She’ll next play Russian Diane Shnaider, who’s No. 18. No. 14 Tommy Paul downed the University of Kentucky product, Gabriel Diallo, in four sets. The 6’ 8” Canadian is No. 143. Dallas’ Ashlyn Krueger, 20, fell to Russian No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova.
HIGHER FORCES AND THE DESTINY OF NOVAK DJOKOVIC: When speaking with ESPN, Novak reflected on his career in general and the Olympics in particular: “I actually believe in destiny…higher forces at play…in certain stages of your life and career.”
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOTHER SERENA: Serena Williams was at the US Open Saturday. Last week she told NBC, “I will never love anything as much as tennis. There is no adrenaline like that…[These days] all my energy is going into my business and children.” Serena added that she’s loving her body right now, “even though it’s not picture perfect.”
She’s volunteering at Olympia’s school, where she’s treated as just another mom. Williams also shared that her approach to dealing with two daughters is to “spend more time with her older daughter Olympia, because she’ll remember.” Olympia, 6, enjoys both tennis and golf.
ITALIAN ROLE REVERSAL? Millions of Americans go to Italy for summer vacations. In contrast, Italian Jannik Sinner is having quite a special American vacation. Sure, he had to brush aside all those questions about his doping scandal. But he won the Cincinnati Open, and in the first two rounds at the Open he’s now downed two Californians, Mackie McDonald and Alex Michelsen. The world No. 1, who easily won against Aussie Christopher O’Connell Saturday, has moved into the fourth round, where he’ll face yet another American, Tommy Paul.
Also reporting: Vinay Venkatesh
