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      Queens Is Abuzz Over Two Americans in the U.S. Open Finals

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      For the first time in more than two decades, an American man and an American woman will play in the U.S. Open singles finals.Outside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night, dozens of tennis fans gathered, looking up at a screen broadcasting the match inside, the all-American men’s semifinal between Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz.Many didn’t have tickets to be inside Arthur Ashe, but they were content just to be nearby and part of the atmosphere. Fans at the U.S. Open have been abuzz this week, excited that for the first time in more than two decades both an American man and an American woman will play in the U.S. Open singles finals.Jessica Pegula will play Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final on Saturday afternoon, and Taylor Fritz will take on Jannik Sinner for the men’s title on Sunday.With Americans’ presence guaranteed in the finals, the grounds at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens have felt almost like the Fourth of July. Fans have been cheering more loudly than usual for American players, flocking to practices to catch a glimpse of their favorites and draping themselves in red, white and blue.The last time the United States was represented in the men’s and women’s finals at the U.S. Open was in 2002. That year, the finals were an all-American affair with Pete Sampras defeating Andre Agassi in the men’s final, and Serena Williams taking the women’s title in a match against her sister, Venus Williams.Houston Bigelow of Washington, D.C., wore his support on Friday.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesGinny DeHart, left, and Jen Otto traveled from Mississippi for the Open.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After Beating Carlos Alcaraz, Botic van de Zandschulp Keeps His ‘Lucky Charms’ Close

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      Botic van de Zandschulp’s career has had its ups and downs. But a pair of Manhattan financiers he knew as a boy in the Netherlands have become part of his “team.”Botic van de Zandschulp, a Dutch tennis player, scored one of the biggest upsets of the United States Open when he stunned the four-time grand slam champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round on Thursday. Coming from a player ranked No. 74 in the world, it may have seemed shocking, but Mr. van de Zandschulp has enjoyed the greatest successes of his career at the Open.In 2021 he went from qualifying all the way to the quarterfinal stage, and then he turned the men’s singles draw upside down this week.Watching from the player’s box were Mr. van de Zandschulp’s two secret weapons in New York: the Pham brothers, a pair of American former players who speak Dutch and help their childhood pal from a Dutch youth tennis program to feel at home. And they are cheering him on again Saturday, as Mr. van de Zandschulp plays the 25th-seeded Jack Draper of Britain in the third round.But Richard and Victor Pham, both Manhattan financiers, had not been in contact with their boyhood friend for 15 years until they reunited during his first trip to the United States in 2021, when Mr. van de Zandschulp made his electrifying run to the quarterfinals. It started a tradition the three men carry on today.“Every time I’m coming here, I have dinner with them and they come to all my matches,” Mr. van Der Zandschulp said on Friday. “And every time it is working out pretty well.”The Phams met first Mr. van de Zandschulp, now 28, when they were boys in the Netherlands. The Pham brothers, born in Denmark to Vietnamese immigrants, began playing tennis, and played it well. Richard, now 29, hit alongside Mr. van de Zandschulp at one of the Dutch tennis federation’s training facilities when he was about 8, and eventually they were joined by his Victor, who is three years younger.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The NYC Restaurant Where Italian U.S. Open Players Go Between Matches

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      A Manhattan trattoria has become the de facto lounge for Italians at the U.S. Open.The Wimbledon semifinalist from Carrara sat in the bar area with his family. The 69th ranked women’s player, a hard-charging right-hander from Rimini, ate in the main dining room with friends. Out in the back garden, the 31st best men’s player in the world, a rising star from Rome, chowed down with his team.It was Saturday night before the start of the U.S. Open, and Via Della Pace, an East Village trattoria, was buzzing. Three of Italy’s best tennis players — Lorenzo Musetti, Lucia Bronzetti and Flavio Cobolli — were dotted around the space, enjoying a relaxing evening at what has become the Italian players’ cafeteria and lounge each year during the U.S. Open.“It’s beautiful place for us to come,” said Mr. Cobolli, decked out in a crisp blue dinner jacket with a bright white polo shirt underneath. “We always have a table and we eat well, with real Italian pasta.”Players from other countries also find their spots in New York during the Open. Some French players frequent Le Baratin in the West Village, while others visit Tao’s various locations or the Odeon. But for the Italians, it’s Via Della Pace, where Italian films are shown in silence on the TV behind the bar and memorabilia of calcio (soccer) and tennis adorn the walls.Flavio Cobolli, far left, chats with one of Via Della Pace’s owners, Giovanni Bartocci, standing, during dinner with his team and family.Adrienne Grunwald for The New York TimesOn any given night during the three weeks of the Open — including a week of practice — there could be as many as five Italian players in the joint, sometimes more, in addition to coaches, agents, friends and family. Matteo Berrettini, who reached the Open semifinal in 2019, fueled up on Via Della Pace’s pasta, is a regular. He sometimes goes several nights in a row.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Naomi Osaka Unveils Harajuku-Inspired U.S. Open Look Made by Nike and Yoon Ahn

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      When Naomi Osaka walks onto the court at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y., this week, she will be covered in bows.One large bow is pinned like a pillowy prize to the back of her bomber jacket. Underneath her jacket, on the back of her competition dress, a smaller shiny bow rests on four tiers of ruffles. Two tiny bows are stuck to the backs of her shoes.“Be very honest,” the designer Yoon Ahn said she told Ms. Osaka when they were conceptualizing the look. “There are no wrong ideas. What are you into right now?”Ms. Osaka responded with Japanese subculture references, said Ms. Ahn, who co-founded the Tokyo label Ambush in 2008 and began collaborating with Nike in 2018. (On Aug. 27, Ms. Ahn will release an eight-piece collection of vintage tennis-inspired clothing for Nike Women.)“She sent me a few looks of this ‘Lolita’ goth thing she was really vibing at that moment,” Ms. Ahn said. “They go out and wear pink, frills, bows, lace. It’s about really owning the cutesy-ness and the girly-hood.”Two versions of Ms. Osaka’s U.S. Open look were made: one in black, for evening matches, and another in green, for daytime competition. (Nike also made a version for her 1-year-old daughter, Shai, who “might” watch her mother play, Ms. Osaka said.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Open: Rajeev Ram and His Partner Just Keep Winning Open Doubles

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      They have won three years in a row and are on an 18-match winning streak.Nearly two weeks had passed since Rajeev Ram had again come painfully close to an Olympic gold medal.“It’s still hard,” he said in an interview this month. “Even many days after now, it’s still hard. I knew what a big opportunity this was.”In Ram’s Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, he settled for silver in mixed doubles with Venus Williams. Eight years later in Paris, it was silver again, this time in men’s doubles.Ram and fellow American Austin Krajicek did get their scrapbook moment by eliminating the Spanish superstars Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in a quarterfinal in front of a center-court crowd at Roland Garros that was hardly in Team U.S.A.’s corner.Ram teamed up with Austin Krajicek during the Summer Olympics in Paris and won a silver medal.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images“Even if they’re not cheering for me, I’ll take that atmosphere any day of the week,” Ram said.But Ram and Krajicek could not hold a second-set lead in the final and lost the gold in a match tiebreaker to Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia by the crepe-thin margin of 10-8.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Open: The Tennis Player Emma Navarro Is Getting Someplace Fast

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      Navarro, 23, has been steadily climbing up the tennis world rankings and will be seeded at the U.S. Open for the first time.As speedy as Emma Navarro is on the tennis court, she is never in a rush.By her own admission, Navarro isn’t very good at time management. But she defends herself by explaining that her most enduring trait, one of the reasons she has catapulted from playing low-level challenger tournaments to being ranked just outside the world’s top 10, is that she makes it a point to stay in the here and now.“I’m naturally very present, which makes it hard to plan ahead,” Navarro, 23, said by video call from Toronto earlier this month. “But I think it helps with just taking one thing at a time and feeling like I’m not in any rush to be anywhere that I’m not yet.”Navarro has been one of the biggest surprises in women’s tennis over the last 16 months. In January 2023, she was ranked 149th and playing in a $25,000 tournament in Naples, Fla., which she won. Now she is ranked 13th. She will be seeded at the U.S. Open for the first time.Navarro has never advanced beyond the first round of the main draw at the U.S. Open and has won only one match, in the junior tournament in 2019. Last year she lost in the first round to Magdalena Frech.She was born in New York City, and her family left Manhattan for Charleston, S.C., shortly after 9/11. It was there, at age 14, that Navarro began working with Peter Ayers, who remains her coach.Navarro lost to Amanda Anisimova in a semifinal game at the National Bank Open in Toronto earlier this month.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Open: A Super Saturday When the Big Stars Played On and On

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      Throughout its 143-year history, the U.S. Open has produced memorable matches and compelling story lines.There was the five-set semifinal victory for Manuel Orantes over Guillermo Vilas in 1975 in a late-night match in which Orantes saved five match points and then returned hours later to beat Jimmy Connors for the title.There was the final in 1995 between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles that Seles lost in three sets after more than a two-year hiatus following a stabbing attack by a Graf fan. And then there was the Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi quarterfinal in 2001 where Sampras prevailed in four tiebreakers after midnight.There was also the quarterfinal in 2008 between Venus and Serena Williams when Serena won 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7). And the five-set semifinal in 2011 between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic during which Djokovic rallied from two sets down and then saved two match points in the fifth before winning four straight games for the victory.Fans had reason to clap during the finals match between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, which went to three sets.Jose R. Lopez/The New York TimesBut no day in U.S. Open history carries more cachet than Super Saturday on Sept. 8, 1984. That day, fans and television audiences were treated to more than 12 hours of play in which each match stretched to the limits of durability and drama. For a single admission price, spectators got to see 16 sets, 165 games and 979 points.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Micky Lawler, a Longtime Tennis Executive, Turns to Basketball

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      She was a force at the WTA and is now the commissioner of Unrivaled, a new women’s basketball league.Micky Lawler knows a thing or two about starting over.As a child, Lawler, whose father was an executive with a Dutch electronics company, lived in seven countries: the Netherlands, where she was born, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Kenya, France and Belgium.But the move that impacted Lawler the most came when she was 24 and returning to the Netherlands after finishing graduate school in Delaware.“As the plane pushed back, I could see my friends, who had come to the airport to say goodbye, standing by the gate, and I realized that I would miss them much more than they would miss me,” Lawler, now 63, wrote in an email last month. “For me, this departure entailed closing a very important chapter and leaving behind everyone I held so dear.”Lawler felt the same chapter-closing emotions when her position as president of the Women’s Tennis Association was eliminated last December, months after the WTA announced its partnership with the venture capital firm CVC Capital Partners. That ended a 38-year career in tennis, during which Lawler was instrumental in overseeing the growth of tournaments, sponsorship, marketing and broadcast deals for the largest women’s sports entity.But Lawler has already moved on. In June, she was named commissioner of Unrivaled, a new women’s basketball league to debut next January.Unrivaled is designed to be a complement, not a competitor, to the W.N.B.A. It was founded by, among others, Breanna Stewart, the New York Liberty forward, and her United States Olympic teammate Napheesa Collier, a forward with the Minnesota Lynx. The league features three-on-three play on a court that is about 70-feet long, two-thirds the size of a traditional basketball court. Each hourlong game consists of four seven-minute quarters designed to attract the devotion of younger, goldfish-attention-span fans. Media rights deals are still being worked out.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More