We have made it, after the Australian, French and Wimbledon Grand Slams, we have made it to the US Open in Flushing, New York to "officially" close out the 2024 season. This post will cover newsworthy events and matches, as my followup post will be the last rounds which gets us to the men and women's finals.
Round One: There were two upsets to much lower ranked (if ranked at all) players: Fifteenth ranked Holger Rune was upset on the men's side, while USA's Sloane Stephens fell to her opponent in three sets.
Naomi Osaka upset 10th ranked Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets, Osaka's first victory over a top 10 opponent in years! Osaka also made quite the fashion statement! I personally think she looks a baby drag queen's first look, but kudos to her for mixing things up!
Naomi Osaka- fluffed and bowed, and a winner!
Eleventh ranked Stefanos Tsitsipias (typo nightmare!) fell to an unranked opponent in four sets.
Nineteenth ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime also fell in the first round in straight sets. Graff, Sinner and Djokivic, Swiatek, Jabeur, and Alcaraz all made it thru the first round. A noteworthy match in that it made history, Brit Dan Evans took 5 hours 38 minute to defeat his opponent, which is now the longest singles match at the US Open.
Round Two: Early on, pretty quiet for the most part, as most of the favorites are moving on to round three. Djokivic's opponent had to tap out after two sets, so Novak moves onto round three. Eighth-ranked Casper Rudd had a challenge, but was able to defeat his opponent to reach the 3rd round, as did Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka. American's Tommy Paul, Francis Tiafoe, and Tyler Fritz also advanced.
Osaka did lose her match in the 2nd round and is done for this US Open!
I wrote the earlier paragraph too soon.
Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands, unranked, and entered the US Open as a qualifier, pulled off one of men's tennis biggest upsets of all time, defeating 3rd ranked Carlos Alcaraz, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in front of a stunned crowd at Arthur Ashe Court. Alcaraz seemed lethargic and mentally fatigued; his "joy mojo" was not present, and just had NO GAME for the match. I'm guessing the fatigue from the tennis tour, has caught up with Carlos, but taking nothing away from Botic, who did play an outstanding match against one of the world's best tennis players. Botic (you really think I'm going to TRY and type his last name?) next plays Great Britain's Jack Draper in the 3rd round.
A clue from two weeks ago when Carlos played in the Cincinnati tourney and lost in an early round...Carlos RARELY loses his composure, but his racket found out the hard way when he does as he lost his match in that tourney:
I shall be in mourning for a bit.
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