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Even before Novak Djokovic was kicked out of the US Open for accidentally hitting a linesman with a ball during his fourth-round match, the 2020 edition of this tournament was not intended for matchups between the all-time greats in the masculine side.
He had also missed the fan-generated moments of supercharged intensity that come with a packed stadium.
Now, with Djokovic disqualified, the US Open has almost completely morphed into a tournament run by the next generation of the sport, with few of the mainstays that have underpinned tennis for more than a decade aside from Serena Williams.
“It’s an opportunity to create new stars,” said Jim Courier, former world No. 1. “We need those new stars to win majors as well so that the general American public really pays attention to them, but you have to start somewhere.”
On the men’s side, without Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are not here to grab the spotlight and trophies, the future is being programmed by a new generation of bigger and strangely athletic players in their 20s. And the women’s game, already so open, looks like it will only open more in the next few years, even as Williams chases a record 24 individual Grand Slam titles before retiring.
Djokovic was mostly overwhelming in his first three matches, but it was Felix Auger-Aliassime, 20, of his country’s Canada, a rapidly growing powerhouse in tennis, barely sweating when he dispatched British star Andy Murray, who was coming back. from hip surgery, on the court where Murray became a Grand Slam champion in 2012.
The men’s draw, packed with Europeans, started with the most players under 23 at a Grand Slam tournament since 2005, according to the ATP Tour. Ten men under the age of 25 reached the knockout stages, the most at a Grand Slam since the 2009 Australian Open, and the most at the US Open since 2001.
“This feels like the beginning of a kind of next phase,” Courier said.
The transition will not be easy. Tennis has enjoyed a golden era for the past decade, with Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Williams betting on being the greatest professionals of all time. It probably won’t happen again anytime soon.
With Federer (knee surgery) and Nadal (doubts about traveling during the coronavirus pandemic) skipping the tournament, America’s television audience was suffering even before Djokovic’s untimely departure. ESPN’s ratings for the first week dropped an average of 35 percent compared to the last three years. Competition in the NBA playoffs, a league that’s usually already out of season, hasn’t helped.
As players only tennis fans are familiar with the duel in empty stadiums, on Sunday afternoon the round of 16 matches between Petra Martic of Croatia and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and Alejandro Fokino of Spain and Alexander Zverev of Germany were presented. , it’s hard not to. See the rows of unoccupied seats as an omen.
“Hopefully it’s just this year,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, president of the Association of Tennis Professionals, which represents men’s players and their tournaments.
Williams, a megastar without whom it would have been difficult to see the tournament happen, can still win the title. Lesser known Sofia Kenin, 21, from the United States, won the Australian Open in January and also made her way into the second week at the US Open. Naomi Osaka, the 2018 US Open champion, has drawn a lot of attention both for her game and for her persistence in speaking out against systemic racism.
Even with them at the top, the women’s tournament is basically a game of chance. By Sunday night, the No. 23 and No. 28 seeds in the women’s draw had booked places in the quarterfinals, as had Shelby Rogers, ranked No. 93 in the world.
“The women’s game is so deep that anyone can win a Major,” Jen Brady, 25, of the United States, declared Sunday after defeating former World No. 1 Angelique Kerber to reach the quarterfinals. end of his first Grand Slam.
For years, tennis relied on rivalries to sell itself. Judging from this year’s US Open, that might not be possible in the near future, for men and especially for women.
“There is nothing in sport like great rivalry,” said Steve Simon, executive director of the Women’s Tennis Association. “But going to every big event, whether it’s the US Open or Roland Garros or Wimbledon or Australia or the final of the tour, we have all these possibilities and 10-12 stories against one or two.”
Gaudenzi, the men’s tour president who was once ranked 18th when he played, said tennis has gone through periods of transition before, most recently when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi retired in the early 2000s. “We are. speaking of the three greatest players of all time, and they will be difficult to replace and greatly missed, “he said, referring to Federer’s big three, Nadal and Djokovic. But, he added, “we have good players and good personalities” beyond them.
The players on display this week also bear little physical resemblance even to the Big Three, suggesting that the future of tennis looks higher and even more physical. For years, most of the best tennis players came in all sizes. Then came Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, who are roughly the height of the NBA’s little point guards.
Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Zverev, the 3rd, 4th and 5th seeds at the US Open, are 24 or younger and have the NBA’s combination of height and winged footwork like Kawhi Leonard, the Los Angeles Clippers star. At 6ft 4in, Auger-Aliassime evokes the style of Golden State Warriors shooter Stephen Curry with a tennis racket. Its long arms function as trabuckles, producing cannon-like serves and powerful forehands.
“You still need one of these players to break through,” said Donald Dell, ATP’s longtime agent and co-founder. “But money is the great motivation” that could attract more of the world’s best athletes to tennis, he said.
That’s especially true of women’s tennis, which is by far the highest paid sport for women and offers the same pay at the biggest events. It also helps explain the depth of American women in the field of the US Open, even when European women dominated the top 20 seeds. The United States has more depth than it has in decades, especially in its portfolio.
There were 11 American women among the 32 finalists, although Coco Gauff, 16, was not one of them. Gauff, who captured attention after her run to the round of 16 at Wimbledon last year, lost in the first round. She is one of several promising young black girls for women’s soccer in the United States, including Hailey Baptiste, Katrina Scott, and Robin Montgomery.
His time at the top of the sport seems like a few years away. Ahead of them are some women less known than Gauff but who are very talented and athletic. Catherine McNally, just 18 years old, came back from a set down to defeat No. 21 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova to advance to the third round, as did Ann Li, 20, and Amanda Anisimova, 19.
“I learned that I belong here,” said McNally, who is 5-foot-11 and grew up playing basketball.
Martin Blackman, director of player development for the United States Tennis Association, said that with so many elite athletes entering the game, the competition is likely to get even fiercer, decreasing the chances of a player, or even a small group of players will dominate.
“These women are investing in themselves and building amazing teams,” Blackman said. “That leads to parity.”
Christopher Clarey contributed reporting.
