Evelyn Reynolds

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    Caroline Wozniacki Is Getting Very Good at Comebacks

    Wozniacki keeps finding magic at the U.S. Open, but she’s not the only player enjoying a revival. Stan Wawrinka and Elina Svitolina also can’t find the exits.America likes to fancy itself the land of second chances. Show some humility. Work hard. A new you, or perhaps a better version of the old you, is just around the corner.So perhaps it’s fitting that comebacks have featured so prominently in the first days of the U.S. Open. Some have gone well — Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina, Stan Wawrinka, Jennifer Brady. Others — Venus Williams, who suffered an opening night drubbing — not so much.What binds them together though, is the seemingly irresistible pull of a sport and a life that so many players complain about but ultimately struggle to say goodbye to, knowing that once the door locks completely, as it does for everyone eventually, there is no way to unlock the pathway to the international glamour, fame and money of their former life.“It’s the competition,” said Brady, 28, who is rediscovering her form following two injury-plagued and mentally grueling years. “You just can’t replicate it.”That’s not all. On Thursday, there was the 38-year-old Wawrinka in the fading light of Court 17, which is a kind of tennis bullring, rolling back the years to a time before foot surgeries seemed to spell the end. He had just dispatched Tomas Etcheverry, who is 14 years his junior, in four gritty sets, rallying the capacity crowd of 2,800 which had been screaming for him all afternoon. He stirred them like an orchestra conductor, urging each bank of stands to get louder to earn their post-match, souvenir ball.“I like the emotion I get from tennis,” Wawrinka said later. “I also know the day I stop I will never find those emotions anywhere.”Friday afternoon’s third round delivered a tense, three-set battle between dueling comeback stories, as Wozniacki, 33, a former world No. 1 playing her first Grand Slam following a three-year, two-pregnancy retirement, outlasted Brady.It was the second time in three days that Wozniacki had found the old magic in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where she had her breakout run to the her first Grand Slam final 14 years ago. On Wednesday, she topped an old rival and two-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, in two tight sets under the lights. On Friday, she came back from a set down against Brady, an Australian Open finalist in 2021, winning 12 of the final 14 games. She said three years ago she never thought she would be competing on this court again, much less winning.“What an honor this is,” she said Friday.Stan Wawrinka stole the show on Court 17 on Thursday, beating the much-younger Tomas Etcheverry in four sets.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesIt is fitting that Wawrinka and Wozniacki are clicking once more here. This is the tournament where Jimmy Connors went on his storied run to the semifinals in 1991 when he was 39. It’s where, in 2009, Kim Clijsters, took a wild-card entry and in just her second tournament back after a two-year break won the singles title.The enduring image of that night was Clijsters’s toddler daughter running across the court during the trophy ceremony. Her opponent in that final — Wozniacki.If ever there was a player that seemed done for good, Wozniacki was it.She had been playing almost her entire life. She had fulfilled her childhood dreams of reaching the top of the rankings and in 2018 winning a Grand Slam tournament title at the Australian Open. She had won $35 million in prize money and earned tens of millions more in endorsements.When Wozniacki left the sport in 2020, she had spent the previous two years battling ​rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease that sometimes left her joints so swollen she struggled to get out of bed. She and her husband, David Lee, a retired N.B.A. player, were raising their two children in Florida, and Wozniacki had become a mainstay of tennis television commentary.The Wozniackis have always been an intense sports family. Her father played soccer for Denmark and Poland and her mother played volleyball for Poland. For Wozniacki, a fitness freak, tennis was a profession but also a cardio workout. But she did not play for so long during her temporary retirement that when the day arrived that she wanted to hit some balls she had no idea where her rackets were.The ball started coming off her strings as soundly as she felt it ever had.“I realized that, yes, I love playing tennis,” she said. “I love to play the game, I’m very passionate about it, and I want to be the best I possibly can be.”Pretty soon she was floating the idea of a comeback to her father, who has always been her coach, and her husband, who essentially said, ‘why not, you only live once.’ Now here she is in New York, with the kids in tow, taking her 3-year-old daughter, Olivia, to a park near her hotel in the morning, and competing for one of the biggest titles in the sport in the afternoon and evening. On off days she has been going to museums.“Pretty cool that I get to live my passion and be a mom and kind of wear many hats,” she said Friday after yet another win in a Grand Slam after so many years of them.There are, of course, different ways to go about a comeback. Svitolina, who is from Ukraine and like Wozniacki had a child last year, tried to remain fit through her pregnancy. Then she spent three months after childbirth reworking her game with a new coach, Raemon Sluiter.She played a series of smaller tournaments in the spring as she prepared for top-level tennis and set few expectations for immediate success, especially given how much energy she was spending raising money for relief efforts in Ukraine. In June, Svitolina made the quarterfinals of the French Open and in July she made the semifinals of Wimbledon. She and her husband, Gael Monfils, have left their daughter at home in Europe.“Pretty cool that I get to live my passion and be a mom and kind of wear many hats,” Wozniacki said Friday after advancing to the round of 16.Robert Deutsch/USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConWozniacki, on the other hand, took the go-big-or-go-home approach, beginning her comeback at the two big U.S. Open tuneup tournaments in Montreal and outside Cincinnati, then playing the year’s final Grand Slam with just three post-comeback matches. She wrote in Vogue that she believed she could win the U.S. Open.Ultimately, most of the best tennis players come to understand that they are not simply athletes but also performers and entertainers. Once they make that leap, they begin to draw energy not just from the act of competing but also the feedback loop experienced by doing the thing they have done from the time they were very small, to the exclusion of nearly any other pursuit, in front of thousands of people.It becomes a kind of drug, and the fix isn’t available from simply playing a few friendly sets in a quiet park. Anyone can do that.“I love playing in front of a big crowd,” Wozniacki said Friday. “I love playing on the big stadiums. That’s exciting to me. That’s why I’m still playing. It’s a great feeling.” More

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    Why Are So Many Players Getting Sick at the U.S. Open?

    Ons Jabeur has won two rounds despite having flu symptoms, but Dominic Thiem was forced to retire from his second-round match with an illness.Early in the second set of her second-round match on Thursday night, a ball bounced just past Ons Jabeur’s reach, and she lost the point, throwing her arms up in exasperation.On any normal day, Jabeur, the No. 5 seed, would probably have reached the ball in time to return it down the line, but she has been playing while sick.Jabeur, who reached the U.S. Open final last year, is among several players who have had to contend with an illness of some sort at this year’s tournament.Dominic Thiem of Austria retired in the second set of his second-round match, doubled over at the net with what appeared to be a stomach-related issue. Emil Ruusuvuori withdrew from the tournament before his first-round match, citing an unspecified illness. Tennys Sandgren, who failed to advance out of the qualifiers, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he became ill after returning home from the tournament.“I got the us open bug,” he said in a separate post, adding, “in a way still feels like I’m in the tournament but at home.”It’s not just players. The ESPN commentator John McEnroe said on Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus after feeling unwell.It is unclear whether all of the players have the same illness, or whether their cases are connected, but something has been going around the U.S. Open.Hubert Hurkacz with U.S. Open medical staff during a timeout in his second-round match on Thursday.Peter Foley/EPA, via ShutterstockHubert Hurkacz seemed to struggle during his second-round match on Thursday, when he was upset by Jack Draper of Britain. During the match, medical staff came out to treat Hurkacz for what did not appear to be a physical injury. Around the tennis grounds, sniffles and coughs can be heard, and some players have been toting tissues in their bags.The string of illnesses comes as a late-summer wave of coronavirus infections has been reported across the United States, with indications of a rise in cases in the Northeast and in the West.Illnesses are possible at any tournament, where players are often in close quarters and share facilities. But with players no longer required to test for Covid-19, it is difficult to determine the cause of the illnesses among them.Health protocols at the U.S. Open have become less stringent since 2020, when spectators were not allowed to attend the tournament and when players took to the empty courts in face masks.When fans were allowed to return in 2021, they were required to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus. That requirement has since been dropped, and those attending the U.S. Open this year do not need to show proof of vaccination, provide a negative coronavirus test or wear masks.“I’m taking a lot of medicine,” Ons Jabeur said on Thursday after winning her second-round match despite being sick.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressAfter willing her way — just barely — to a first-round win, Jabeur said she had the flu. In her second-round match, she appeared to struggle again, coughing on court several times, including during her interview after beating the unseeded Czech player Linda Noskova in three sets.Jabeur said later in a news conference on Thursday that she had been sick for about a week.“I’m taking a lot of medicine,” she said, adding that she “basically took every medication” the U.S. Open doctors have.Jabeur said her stomach had been “fine,” but she noted that she knew other players had been struggling with stomach issues. She seemed to waver on whether she had the flu or something else.“I think I got a flu or something,” she said on Thursday night.It was unclear whether Jabeur, who plays her third-round match on Saturday against the No. 31 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, had taken a coronavirus test to rule out the possibility of an infection.“I’m a zombie because I have a flu,” she said. More

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    The One-Handed Backhand Is on the Way to Extinction

    How can something so beautiful to watch, a stroke so etched into tennis history, be so exploitable — and why have a dwindling handful of players remained loyal to it?Behold the beautiful and beloved one-handed backhand, but do it quickly, because time is running short for tennis’s lustiest shot.Yes, the shot that made Roger Federer famous, the signature stroke of Rod Laver, a favorite of John McEnroe, and Pete Sampras and Martina Navratilova is fast going the way of the wooden rackets of the early 1980s, a relic that generates joy and nostalgia when a tennis aesthete lays eyes upon it, but one whose days may be numbered.Even those who play with a one-hander have their regrets. Just ask Chris Eubanks, the late-blooming breakout star of American tennis this year, whose one-handed backhand is as smooth as they come. Eubanks said he was about 13 years old when he fell hard for the Federer backhand and decided to switch from the two-hander he had played with since he first picked up a tennis racket.“If I knew what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have,” Eubanks said as he sat in the lounge of his Midtown Manhattan hotel in the days leading up to the U.S. Open.Stefanos Tsitsipas is the lone man ranked in the top 10 using a one-handed backhand. He lost in the second round to Dominic Stricker, a Swiss qualifier.Earl Wilson/The New York TimesNot so long ago, the top ranks of the sport, especially the men’s game, had no shortage of one-handed backhands. In addition to Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem won Grand Slam titles with the shot. Among the top 10 men now, only Stefanos Tsitsipas plays with a one-handed backhand. Tatiana Maria, No. 47 in the world, is the highest-ranked woman to rely mostly on her one-hander.In more immediate terms, it has been a mostly terrible first week for one-handed backhands in the singles competitions at the U.S. Open. As the second round wound down on Thursday afternoon, Wawrinka, who at 38 years old still rips his one-hander as hard and as clean as anyone ever has, Grigor Dimitrov and Daniel Evans were the top one-handed backhand standard-bearers remaining.“I’m not hitting as well as when I was winning Grand Slams, that’s for sure,” Wawrinka said after beating Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina on Thursday in four sets despite uncharacteristically hitting a handful of wayward backhands. But Tsitsipas, Thiem, Eubanks and Maria all lost in the first days of the tournament.So did Lorenzo Musetti, the rising Italian whose silky one-handed backhand can make tennis cognoscenti drool. His stroke starts low, sweeps up and forward practically from knee level, then flies up with a high-stretching finish. Somewhere along the way, it makes easy, pure contact, and that fuzzy yellow ball flies off his racket. Musetti, 21, is supposed to be a rival for Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old world No. 1, during the next decade. Musetti is ranked 18th, but he has yet to make a Grand Slam quarterfinal.In January, Tsitsipas faced Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final. Tsitsipas’s backhand is another of the prettiest, smoothest strokes in the sport.“My signature shot,” Tsitsipas said earlier this week. “It kind of defines me.”Yet it took about three games to figure out Djokovic’s strategy that evening — pound ball after ball deep onto the Tsitsipas backhand. Djokovic won in straight sets.And therein lies the great contradiction of the one-handed backhand. How can something so beautiful to watch, a stroke that is so etched into tennis history, be so exploitable, and why have a dwindling handful of players remained so loyal to it?The answer to the first question, experts say, is mostly a function of the increasing role of power and velocity in the sport. Even clay courts, historically the slowest surface, play hard and fast these days. Players, who spend more and more time in the gym, keep getting bigger and stronger, and now hit forehands at more than 100 miles per hour. Rackets and strings allow for so much topspin that rally balls from even average players are bouncing up to eye level, making it hard for even the 6-foot-7 Eubanks to get on top of the ball on some backhands.David Nainkin, who leads player development for men for the United States Tennis Association, has advice for any young talent he sees wielding a one-handed backhand — get rid of it. The two-handed backhand is far more stable, he said, and the motion is shorter and simpler.“It’s almost impossible to make it with a one-handed backhand now,” he said. “I think you’ll see less of it maybe in the next 10 years.”Martina Navratilova during the 1986 French Open final. She credited her mastery of the one-handed topspin backhand for her rise.Trevor Jones/Allsport, via Getty ImagesNavratilova, who credits her mastery of a one-handed topspin backhand for her rise to near invincibility in the early 1980s (thank you, Renee Richards, her coach at the time) is a little less draconian, but not that much. Navratilova said she would encourage young players to keep two hands on the racket — most of the time.“Work on the one-handed slice and volley,” she said, though she added that trying to use it to keep up with modern pace and spin likely wouldn’t work.Given all that, how to explain the ongoing devotion to the one-hander among a dwindling few?In a word, Federer.As much as the Swiss master has done for the sport, he may be more responsible for the current generation of one-handed backhand devotees — and their shortcomings — than anyone.Why does Denis Shapovalov, the talented 24-year-old Canadian who missed the U.S. Open with a knee injury, love to hit the one-hander with both feet off the ground?Federer.Eubanks?Federer.Tsitsipas?Federer. And Sampras.Watching Roger Federer inspired many of the current generation of one-handed backhand users.Mike Hewitt/Getty ImagesTsitsipas said he remembers the day when he made the commitment to the one-handed backhand. He was 8 years old. The previous day, he had played a two-hander, and his coach had made fun of him for going back and forth, asking Tsitsipas if he was going to commit. That day, Tsitsipas did.Tsitsipas knows the advantages of the two-handed backhand. Safer shot, easier to control. But he isn’t about to quit the one-hander. He wants to be like Federer, in every way, and Sampras, too.“I’m here to kind of not have it die,” Tsitsipas said of the shot. “It kind of sits in my heart deeply because I really want to be like them.”Eubanks, too found it irresistible, and still does. “I just love it,” he said. “It just looked so good.”He took one hand off the racket one day at practice and tried not to pay attention to the coaches who might have been looking at him side-eyed, or making comments to his father, who was his primary coach. He told himself this shot was going to work for him, and he was stubborn about making sure it did.With the wisdom of age and a half-dozen years climbing his way into the top 100, plus time spent working as an analyst for the Tennis Channel, Eubanks is familiar with the shot’s drawbacks, especially the timing it requires, but he isn’t about to switch. “It’s a little too far gone,” he said. “Can’t quite do that now, not and win.” More

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    John Isner Says Goodbye to Pro Tennis at the U.S. Open

    A 6-foot-10 American, Isner had announced he would retire following the tournament. Losses in singles and doubles on Thursday ended a career known for powerful serves and a marathon match.Josh Zipin of Manhattan rushed over from Arthur Ashe Stadium to the Grandstand court of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Thursday hoping to catch the final set of John Isner’s singles match. Zipin, 34, said he had never seen Isner play live, and wanted to see what his “insane” serve looked like in person.“Somebody behind me was asking if Isner served to you 100 times, how many times could you return it in the court and the person sitting behind me said one,” Zipin said. “I think that’s probably being generous.”For 16 years, Isner, the 38-year-old American star, has wowed fans around the world with his signature game, which combined a booming serve, powerful groundstrokes, and quick hands at the net with volleys and overheads.A North Carolina native who stands at 6-foot-10, Isner is the career ace leader in the history of the men’s tour. But he is perhaps best known for winning the longest match in tennis history when he played for 11 hours 5 minutes over three days against Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon in 2010. That match, along with another Isner marathon at the tournament in 2018, led Wimbledon to institute a final-set tiebreaker. (If you have 11 hours to kill, you can watch the match in full here.)Isner won the longest match in tennis history, beating Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon after a battle that played out over three days.Pool photo by Suzanne PlunkettIsner was in the top 20 of the singles rankings for 10 straight years, from 2010 to 2019. He was a U.S. Open quarterfinalist in 2011 and 2018, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2018 and has earned nearly $23 million in career prize money, but was unable to win a Grand Slam tournament title.Andy Murray, one of Isner’s contemporaries, said during an interview this week that Isner “was always a disaster to play against or see in your draw,” adding that “his serve’s the best of all time.”Thursday would turn out to be the last time he would fire that serve at a pro event. Isner had announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, before the U.S. Open that the tournament would be his final act so that he could spend more time with his wife, Madison, and their four children.“This transition won’t be easy but I’m looking forward to every second of it with my amazing family,” Isner wrote. “Time to lace ‘em up one last time.”Isner won his first-round match on Tuesday in straight sets against Facundo Diaz Acosta, an unseeded player from Argentina. A number of his cohort, who have since retired, including Bob and Mike Bryan and Sam Querrey, were in attendance.On Thursday, he was defeated in five sets by a younger American named Michael Mmoh, who stayed composed despite playing before a crowd that was solidly in his opponent’s corner.When the match was over, Isner buried his head in a white towel and fought back tears. He could barely speak during the on-court interview.Mmoh said the match was “no doubt the biggest win of my career,” and he congratulated Isner on a remarkable, trailblazing career.Lisa Katter, 54 of Long Island, said she was impressed by Isner’s performance. “I can’t believe even at this point in his career he’s still acing an entire game,” she said.Then, not quite ready to call it a career, Isner slung his bag over his shoulder and trudged off to play doubles. A few hours later, that too was in the books, as he and fellow American Jack Sock, who is also retiring after the U.S. Open, lost in three sets.Isner ended his doubles career with Jack Sock, an American who is also retiring after the tournament.Al Bello/Getty ImagesLater, Isner said that he was feeling many emotions — disappointment over how he played, gratitude to have one last time to compete in the atmosphere at the U.S. Open, and pride in what he achieved throughout his career.“It just didn’t go my way today,” he said. “It’s a tough way to go out but at the same time I went out in front of a packed stadium and a standing ovation and it was pretty cool.”He said it was hard to explain how badly his body has felt recently, and he was looking forward to not having to practice anymore. He said he looked forward to finding what he was passionate about, and devoting more energy to being a good husband and father.“Tennis is a,” he started before trailing off and lowering his head to gather himself. “It’s been a huge part of my life so it’s tough to say goodbye, it’s not easy.” More

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    At the U.S. Open, Alex Michelsen Is Growing Up Fast

    Things some teenagers do that make adults crazy: spending too much time on devices, leaving dirty dishes in the sink and sending hard backhands down the line.Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 35, had seen enough of the latter from 19-year-old Alex Michelsen in their first-round encounter at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. After the final point of Michelsen’s surprisingly easy victory, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, Ramos-Vinolas slammed his racket onto the court twice, mangling it beyond repair.Ramos-Vinolas, a veteran left-hander who was once ranked No. 17 in the world, had just learned what tennis insiders had already been discovering this summer: that Michelsen is one of the hottest young American men to emerge in an already deep collection of players.Ranked 601st at the beginning of the year, Michelsen has burned through the rankings like a comet, reaching No. 127 going into the U.S. Open. His standing is set to rise even higher after his already impressive performance this week at his first Grand Slam tournament, which started only five days after he turned 19.Michelsen, who turned 19 only a few days ago, faced the veteran Spanish player Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first round.Karsten Moran for The New York Times“Two years ago, I never thought this would happen this quickly,” Michelsen said after the match. “I thought I would go to college and then try to figure out the tour after college. But I’m really happy with my timeline.”Until his summer surge, Michelsen was considered a top college recruit, headed to the University of Georgia, where he was expected to hone his game and eventually, hopefully, join the professional tour. But after tearing through the challenger tour — tennis’ minor league — the last few months, scoring impressive wins over excellent, experienced players, Michelsen decided to forego college and turn pro.In July, he won the Chicago challenger tournament and reached the final of the ATP tournament in Newport, R.I., beating Kei Nishikori, a past U.S. Open finalist; John Isner, a former top-10 player; and Mackenzie McDonald, then ranked No. 59, along the way.His real-time ranking rose to No. 115 after he beat Ramos-Vinolas, and up next on Thursday is No. 25 Nicolas Jarry in the biggest match of Michelsen’s life — again.The son of two college tennis players, Michelsen began playing the sport at age 3. His mother, Sondra, starred at San Diego State and his father, Erik, was a three-time all-American at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif.“My parents had contrasting game styles,” Michelsen said. “My mom would stay at the baseline and make every ball. I took that from her. My dad likes to serve and volley, come to the net and be more creative, so I took that from him. I feel like I’ve combined those two very well.”Michelsen won in straight sets against Ramos-Vinolas, a former top-20 player.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesWith his integrated tennis DNA, Michelsen features a well-rounded game, firing right-handed forehands and serves even though he was a left-handed baseball player as a kid. With a wide variety of talents, Michelsen can adapt to combat his opponents’ strengths and styles with a savvy court and tactical awareness, also bequeathed in part from his parents.But unusual for many young players, Michelsen came to New York without his parents, who remained home for work and to look after Holly, the family’s new King Charles Cavalier puppy. Michelsen also went to the Chicago challenger with a friend and traveled solo to Newport, R.I. Earlier this summer he went to Europe with Eric Diaz, who coaches Michelsen along with Jay Leavitt, his partner at the Tier 1 Performance academy in Newport Beach, Calif.“It’s a healthy balance,” Diaz said. “His mom and dad taught him so much about the game and they also know when to give him time to grow on his own. Alex likes that and it is worked very well for him.”Michelsen credited elements of his game to his parents, who both played at the college level.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThe growing process can often be an uneven one for emerging tennis players, full of bumps and ugly outbursts. Michelsen has at times demonstrated emotional volatility and Diaz, who played at Georgia for his own father and coach, Manny Diaz, has sternly urged Michelsen to contain his turbulent teenage emotions on court.The pair were in England after a tournament in Nottingham this summer. The plan was to move north and play another grass-court tournament in the country. Michelsen did not make the cut into that event, so he and Diaz checked the tournament schedule and the map. They traveled 16 hours by train to Blois, France, for an event on clay, but Michelsen had only grass-court sneakers. He struggled with the footing, resulting in several combustible moments.“There were a few hats thrown and maybe a ball that might have wandered out of the facility that might have been his fault,” Diaz said.He laughs at the memory, but it was not as funny at the time. Diaz walked away from the court during a couple of matches and then later told Michelsen it was time to grow up.“If you’re going to act like a kid, then I’m going to leave,” Diaz said. “I told him afterward, ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you are pretty good and it’s about time to let the tennis do the talking and to control the attitude. You are going to be on stages where you will have a lot of eyes on you.’ I think the realization set in and the maturity set in. He’s really carrying himself well, now.”Indeed, the teenager was composed and in top form in the first round. It was the adult throwing the tantrum.Karsten Moran for The New York Times More

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    At The U.S. Open, Arthur Fils Of France Keeps On Winning

    At the U.S. Open, Arthur Fils, a 19-year-old Frenchman, is surpassing expectations. Britain’s Jack Draper, 21, has been there. It’s all good.It happens every year in tennis. Actually, four times a year.A young, bright-eyed player with fistfuls of skill and promise wins a match or two at a Grand Slam, and all of a sudden, the next big thing has arrived. There were U.S. Opens past when the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center were buzzing with the names Donald Young and Ryan Harrison, or any number of other quick hits who had their moments but never lived up to those first-week spectacles, or their own expectations.And here we are once more, just a few days into the year’s final Grand Slam, with no shortage of chatter about Arthur Fils, the gallant, 19-year-old Frenchman, who a year ago was battling to get within sniffing distance of the top 300. Now he is ranked 48th in the world and won his first match at a Grand Slam — on his third try — on Tuesday.On a field court in front of bleachers teeming with in-the-know spectators desperate for a glimpse of the future, Fils outlasted Tallon Griekspoor, the 24th seed, in five sets. Fils battled through cramps in the fourth set, hung with Griekspoor through the fifth, then overpowered him in the final two games, swinging his racket without fear, like only a player who has almost zero professional experience with failure and heartbreak can.Fils greeted Griekspoor after beating him on Tuesday.Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesOn Thursday, Fils has a golden opportunity to reach the third round when he faces Matteo Arnaldi of Italy, a 22-year-old ranked 61st in the world. In the span of three days, Fils went from a teenager who was winless in his two previous matches at a Grand Slam to a favorite to make the final 32. The crowds will no doubt be there once more.“I really trust in myself,” Fils said an hour after his win over Griekspoor. “I think that I can win against anybody.”Between mouthfuls of salmon and rice, Fils spoke of his journey from a boy who picked up a racket on a family vacation in the south of France when he was 5 years old, to hitting once a week with his father at their home near Paris, to developing his game with coaches at France’s tennis federation beginning when he was 13.Until that point, he had competed in swimming, track and field, judo, and soccer — his true passion — but he was better at tennis than the other sports, so tennis became his thing. He is so young that when he was asked about the matches he watched during his childhood that made early impressions on him, he mentioned Roger Federer’s win over Rafael Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final. Since he won his first ATP tournament in Lyon in May, he has been shouldering the hopes of a nation desperate for its first male Grand Slam champion since Yannick Noah in 1983.“That’s my dream since I’m 10,” Fils said. “Dreams now sometimes can help in the real life.”Maybe, but professional career arcs in tennis rarely follow an ever-upward trajectory during the early years. On Tuesday, Fils did not have to look far for the cautionary tale.Shortly after he was done for the day, Jack Draper, a 21-year-old from Britain, was sitting around a high table, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head, fresh off a much-needed first-round win over Radu Albot of Moldova.Jack Draper against Felix Auger-Aliassime at the 2022 U.S. Open.Julian Finney/Getty ImagesA year ago, Draper was where Fils is now, the buzz of the tournament and the guy his compatriot Andy Murray touted as a future top player, vanquishing sixth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in the second round before losing to Karen Khachanov of Russia in the third.Since then, Draper has battled pain all over his body — there were abdominal and hip injuries during the first months of this year and a shoulder injury in the spring that caused him to miss the grass court season.“There’s people who are now in a better position than I am who I hadn’t heard of for a while last year,” Draper said. “So everyone’s on their different journey.”He shares an apartment near the Lawn Tennis Association’s Roehampton headquarters with Paul Jubb, his close friend and another rising British pro who caught his own buzz last year when he pushed Nick Kyrgios to five sets in the opening round of Wimbledon. Jubb has been battling an ankle injury for much of the year. On many days, hitting sessions have been replaced by physical therapy as together they have tried to come to terms with their immediate tennis lives not going exactly they way they hoped.“We’ve been keeping each other’s spirits up,” Draper said. “Just try and keep going and know that my time will come.”Draper celebrated match point against Radu Albot of Moldova during their first-round match on Tuesday.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesThe challenge for players in the Fils and Draper cohort is that the time for one of their own has already come. Carlos Alcaraz is just 20 and is already the world No. 1.Alcaraz’s breakthrough came years after conventional wisdom in men’s tennis held that the game had grown too physical for teenagers to excel. Then Alcaraz came along and set a new standard for Gen Z, likely raising the volume of the buzz when a fresh face has a good day or two at a Grand Slam.That suits Fils just fine. He is on his maiden voyage to New York.“Really nice,” he said. “Big city.”Noisy, too, which he doesn’t mind, especially when fans are buzzing about him, something he — and Draper, too — will try to use to their advantage on Thursday.“The New York City crowd is amazing,” Fils said. “They pushed me.” More

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    At 19, Coco Gauff Is the Veteran Player in Her U.S. Open Matchup

    Coco Gauff, at 19, was three years older than her latest opponent in the tournament, Mirra Andreeva, who turned professional last year.As Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva faced off at the U.S. Open on Wednesday, fans in the stands remarked about how old — really how young — they were while competing at the top of their sport.Gauff, who at 19 is not much older than the 16-year-old Andreeva, has for several years been a household name in tennis, ever since she made a run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2019. Her growing stardom means that she often finds herself playing in featured matches at the U.S. Open, in front of the most fans in person and in choice television slots.On Wednesday, that was in a 6-3, 6-2 win over Andreeva at Arthur Ashe Stadium, playing ahead of Novak Djokovic. It was a matchup, and a moment, that Gauff, a sixth-seeded American, controlled with ease while keeping a breezy but brisk pace.Some of her confidence, Gauff acknowledged, comes with experience. When asked on the court what she had learned in the past three years, Gauff said that when she was 16, she played every match as if it were “life or death.”“You still have to allow yourself time to make mistakes,” she said. “And the losses, as long as you learn from them, are OK.”Andreeva, an unseeded Russian, said after the match that she hadn’t gotten much advice from older players on tour yet, but that she was eager for their wisdom: “I will always listen to them.”Andreeva, left, congratulated Gauff after their match.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAndreeva played in her first tour event this year and has shown some youthful struggles in maintaining her composure on the court. In her last match against Gauff, at the French Open in the round of 32, she hit a ball into the stands, striking a spectator. She received a code violation and acknowledged that she could have been disqualified, calling it a “really stupid move.” She was also fined $8,000 at Wimbledon for unsportsmanlike conduct after throwing a racket, arguing and refusing to shake hands with the chair umpire.Andreeva has defended herself by saying that Roger Federer had outbursts when he was young, too, echoing an argument that other players, like Serena Williams, have made about whether women’s players and men’s players receive similar scrutiny for their conduct.Gauff, who has often been complimented for her composure, said this week that she debated whether to complain during her opening-round match against Laura Siegemund about the pace of play, with Siegemund often pushing the serve clock to its limits.“I really don’t like confrontation all that much,” Gauff said in her postmatch media interview on Monday. She said she had been thinking about the delays the whole match. “I wasn’t sure if I was in the right or not until it happened multiple times,” she said, but she reached a point of frustration and felt the need to speak up to the chair umpire.“I try my best not to let my emotions to take over myself,” she said.Gauff pledged ahead of her second-round match not to be flustered by her opponent this time, and to ignore age — her own and Andreeva’s. “She has her ranking, and that’s all that matters,” Gauff said ahead of their match.Instead, their youthfulness played out in the form of athleticism, as they traded long, sprinting rallies from the baseline and as Gauff found openings to inch forward and finish points.One rally in the second set lasted 30 shots, and ended with Gauff expertly handling a drop shot from Andreeva with a backhand approach shot for a winner. She celebrated that point by urging the crowd to cheer, a request fans quickly obliged.By then, it was clear that Gauff and Andreeva have had no trouble reaching young fans.“It’s amazing that they are so young and they have this amazing skill and talent to just be here and play on that court,” said David Keating, 10, as his father applied sunscreen to him and his twin brother, Michael.Gauff says she has been trying to ignore age as a factor in her matches.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesEve Maulshagen, who started playing tennis three years ago and just made her high school team in Central New Jersey, said in the main plaza at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that she liked the idea that someone at 16 could be playing in front of so many people on TV. “That’ll be me in a year when I’m 16 — but not like a pro,” she said with a laugh.Gauff has been trying to ignore age as a factor during her matches. On Friday, she will play Elise Mertens, a 27-year-old from Belgium, in the third round. They have played twice, and Gauff won both matches, most recently during the French Open in 2022 in the round of 16.“I want to maintain a long career,” Gauff said during her on-court interview on Wednesday. “I have to really have fun on the court and I think I’m having fun with the wins and losses.” More

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    Life at a Grand Slam: What You Don’t See on TV at the U.S. Open

    When Mackenzie McDonald dueled Félix Auger-Aliassime for three and a half hours in the opening round of the U.S. Open, fans were only seeing a glimpse of the time McDonald put in toward his surprise win on Monday.For both players, and hundreds of others at the sprawling tournament, a match day extends well beyond a warm-up and the contest itself. The preparation, of course, takes weeks and months, with the grueling men’s and women’s professional tennis tours pushing players to seek higher rankings to gain a more favorable path at the Grand Slam tournaments.And once they arrive in Queens, a new series of obstacles emerges as players adapt to the feel of the courts, the ambience of New York and the demands of one of the world’s biggest sporting events.McDonald greeting his agent Saturday morning before heading to Queens.The driver was able to get McDonald to Billie Jean King Tennis Center from Manhattan in less than a half-hour for a sponsor event on Saturday morning.For McDonald, the 28-year-old American who broke into the top 50 of the singles rankings in 2022 and upset Rafael Nadal in the second round of this year’s Australian Open, the preparation for the U.S. Open began on Aug. 22 when he arrived in New York. McDonald, who lost in straight sets to Borna Gojo of Croatia in the second round on Wednesday, said he trained hard for his first few days, then tapered a bit to recover before his four-set duel against Auger-Aliassime.Those practices, along with the travel, can become repetitive. Jessica Pegula, the American ranked third in women’s singles, last week compared the routine on tour to “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 film in which a man relives one day again and again. McDonald echoed that sentiment.“Things can get monotonous week after week, locker room after locker room, hotel after hotel,” McDonald said. “It’s good to have those small goals or little things that drive you that make you believe that you can get better.”Two Days OutTwo days before his opening match, McDonald couldn’t focus solely on his play. Before practicing on Saturday, he had to stop by a fan event put on by Wilson, his racket sponsor.His day began around 8:45 a.m. as he made his way down to the lobby of his hotel in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. A driver and S.U.V. were waiting for him, his girlfriend and his trainer as they walked out of the hotel.McDonald volleyed with children and posed for photos and videos during an event for his racket sponsor, Wilson.On a normal day, the drive from the East Side of Manhattan to Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park can take up to an hour in heavy traffic.“It’s never easy,” McDonald said of the commute to Queens. “Day after day, it definitely adds up.”But on a Saturday morning, with little traffic and an assertive driver familiar with shortcuts, the ride was a brisk 21 minutes 16 seconds.The quick ride afforded McDonald some extra time to drop off his bags before heading to the Wilson event, where he spent about half an hour volleying with children, then posed for pictures and videos.With that commitment filled, McDonald could focus on more intense tennis for the rest of his day, starting by working with a physiotherapist and finding time to eat, and following that with two hours of practice.McDonald’s first hour of practice was scheduled at noon against Marcos Giron, another American player, on Court 4 near Arthur Ashe Stadium. As McDonald and Giron hit back and forth and played out points, dozens of fans stopped by to watch them. As their practice drew to a close, several of those fans began to gather courtside in hopes of an autograph or a picture. But McDonald had no time.After shaking hands with Giron and his trainer, McDonald quickly grabbed his bags and scurried off for his next practice on a court on the opposite end of the tennis center, nearly half a mile away.To avoid having players walk that distance through a sea of fans, the U.S. Open has vans that shuttle them and their trainers out to the farthest practice courts. McDonald and his trainer hopped in a van, but the driver wanted to stay a few more minutes to see if any other players would come.Already behind schedule, McDonald politely asked the driver if they could leave without waiting. In the early rounds of the tournament, when hundreds of players need to practice, court time is precious.“They definitely show the glamour of the sport on TV,” McDonald said. “It is all the behind the scenes, it is the day to day and the around-the-year tournaments that we play that really get us to these moments.”By the time McDonald arrived to his next practice court, it was just after 2 p.m., and the sun was beaming down with temperatures in the 80s. He trained for another hour before finally cooling down and heading back to his hotel to rest.Shuttle vans are available to allow players to move between practice courts without having to wade through crowds. McDonald had two hours of practice scheduled for Saturday afternoon on two different courts. He did not have time to sign autographs between sessions.Last PracticeOn Sunday, McDonald wanted to scale back his workload to only an hour of tennis, so he could be fresher for his match the next day. He still did not know his exact playing time, but because it would likely be in the afternoon, McDonald said he hoped to have an afternoon court slot on Sunday.He was scheduled for 4 p.m. against Lloyd Harris of South Africa on Court 5, where McDonald was scheduled to play the next day.“Way more of a chiller day for me,” McDonald said, adding that the rest of his Sunday would be spent resting, hydrating and taking “my mind off of tennis for a bit.”But even when he’s not training, McDonald said there’s other preparation that goes into playing a match, including creating a game plan and looking over analytics.“The mental preparation for my match on Monday started once that draw came out,” he said.Match DayBefore McDonald’s match on Monday, there were three others scheduled on Court 5, starting at 11 a.m. Being scheduled later in the day often leaves players trying to figure out how long each of those matches will last so they can plan an ideal time to leave their hotel.McDonald, right, played the underdog against Felix Auger-Aliassime, left, a Canadian who has been ranked as high as sixth in the world.McDonald was down, 0-40, in a game in the fourth set before rallying to win the game, set and match.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBut trying to make those predictions can be a gamble when rain or a lengthy five-set men’s match can delay another match’s start time. At majors, McDonald said that he likes to arrive four hours before a match to be treated by a physiotherapist, hit with a partner for half an hour, have lunch and then prepare his sports drinks and rackets.“There’s definitely a lot of little nuances that go in part of each day that you’re really submerged in,” he said. “Everything’s invested toward what’s going to prepare me best to play this match today.”McDonald and Auger-Aliassime finally took Court 5 around 5:45 p.m., and after a quick warm-up, it was 5:51 p.m. when the umpire, Jaume Campistol, said: “Ready? Play.”From the beginning, it looked like the match was going to be a long duel. It took an hour and nine minutes for McDonald to win the first set on a tiebreaker.Auger-Aliassime took the second set, but after that, McDonald settled in. As McDonald and Auger-Aliassime played on, cheers from Arthur Ashe Stadium overflowed out of the venue, and they could be heard on Court 5. At one point in the fourth set, Auger-Aliassime appeared to complain to the chair umpire about the noise coming from Ashe.Eventually, after more than three hours on the court, McDonald prevailed, winning the last five points of the final game of the fourth set to win, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and advance to the second round.Before his win, McDonald said that each incremental victory is what motivates him on tour. The drive to advance, he said, pushes him through long practices, commutes and extensive travel.“I want to win a title so bad,” said McDonald, who has made one singles final in his career, losing to Jannik Sinner of Italy at the 2021 Citi Open in Washington, D.C. “I always find that each week, your opportunity each week, can be that week that can shift things, and I think that dream is what we’re all chasing.”And after he beat Auger-Aliassime, the routine of mental and physical preparation began again for Round 2. More