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    U.S. Open Draws Pave the Way for a Rematch of Djokovic vs. Alcaraz in Final

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    Novak Djokovic, the No. 2 seed, does not have an easy path to a 24th Grand Slam title, and neither does Iga Swiatek, the defending women’s champion.After a marathon match between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Ohio, Djokovic said he hoped to play Alcaraz again at the U.S. Open “for the crowd.”The crowd may get to see that rematch.The men’s and women’s singles draws for the U.S. Open, which begins on Monday in New York, revealed the path for Djokovic and Alcaraz to meet again in the final, which would also be a rematch of last month’s Wimbledon final, a thrilling five-setter that Alcaraz won after nearly five hours on the court.“Every match we play against each other goes the distance,” Djokovic said after the final on Sunday, adding that the match felt like a Grand Slam.Djokovic returns to New York after missing the U.S. Open last year because he was unvaccinated against the coronavirus and travel restrictions would not allow him to enter the United States. Now, with an injured Rafael Nadal and a retired Roger Federer not in his way, Djokovic will seek his 24th Grand Slam title and his third of the season after winning in Australia and France earlier this year.Djokovic, who will play Alexandre Muller of France in the first round of the tournament, will not have an easy path to the final. He could potentially face the No. 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the quarterfinals, and in the semifinals, Djokovic could play Holger Rune of Denmark or Casper Ruud, the Norwegian who reached last year’s U.S. Open final.Alcaraz, who will face Dominik Koepfer of Germany in the first round, could also see some formidable opposition as he looks to defend his U.S. Open title. Alcaraz could play against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the quarterfinals, followed by one of two Russians, either Andrey Rublev or Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion.The women’s draw could also lead to several rivalries and rematches. Iga Swiatek, the No. 1 women’s player in the world, could end up in the final against Aryna Sabalenka, this year’s Australian Open champion.In defending her U.S. Open title, Swiatek could face Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals. Before this month, Swiatek had won seven matches against Gauff, but the 19-year-old American finally found a way to defeat Swiatek this month in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open. Gauff went on to win the tournament for her first WTA 1000 title.On the other side of the draw, Sabalenka could play a quarterfinal match against Ons Jabeur, the Tunisian No. 5 seed who reached the U.S. Open final last year and lost in the Wimbledon final in July. In the semis, Sabalenka could meet either Caroline Garcia of France or Jessica Pegula, the American No. 3 seed.While both draws offer promising matchups, this year’s tournament will miss some big names: An injury has kept Nadal sidelined since the Australian Open, with hopes to return next year. Naomi Osaka, a two-time U.S. Open champion, will miss the tournament after giving birth to her daughter this summer, and Emma Raducanu, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, is out as she recovers from three minor procedures.Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, was withdrawn from the tournament because of a provisional suspension she received last year after she tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug during the 2022 U.S. Open.This year’s U.S. Open will also miss trick shots from Nick Kyrgios, who withdrew from the tournament because of a wrist injury.But despite the notable absences, the tournament will open with some strong first-round matches: Tsitsipas, who lost to Djokovic in this year’s Australian Open final, will start off against Milos Raonic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2016. Venus Williams, the 43-year-old seven-time Grand Slam champion, will play Paula Badosa, who won at Indian Wells in 2021. And Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, will play in the first round against Beatriz Haddad Maia, a Brazilian player who has had a decent season, reaching the French Open semifinals this year and the round of 16 at Wimbledon. More

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      In Comebacks, Serena Williams Showed ‘You Can Never Underestimate Her’

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      Big moments on the biggest stages cemented Williams’s reputation as the queen of comebacks.During the 2012 U.S. Open final, Serena Williams was so close to losing that the idea of a comeback seemed out of the question.Her opponent, Victoria Azarenka, had gone up 5-3 in the final set, giving her numerous ways to put Williams away.“I was preparing my runners-up speech,” Williams said.Instead, she delivered what became a signature comeback of her career, breaking Azarenka’s serve twice and winning the championship without losing another game.The significance of that victory went beyond the title itself, as it turned around a year in which she had lost in the first round of the French Open. And as Williams comes close to retiring, that win illustrates how many fans will remember her tennis career — Williams coming back time and again under difficult circumstances.Here are some of the moments that helped Williams build that reputation.Australian Open, 2007Dean Treml/Agence France-Presse – Getty ImagesAfter struggling with a knee injury for much of 2006, Williams went into the 2007 Australian Open unseeded and ranked No. 81. But she went on to win the tournament, defeating Maria Sharapova.“She goes months without playing a match, loses in a tuneup and then runs the table,” Jon Wertheim, a Tennis Channel commentator and author, said.Pam Shriver, an ESPN tennis analyst, said that Williams entered the Australian Open that year in poor shape, but that by the end of the tournament, “she almost looked like a different player.”“That was one of the most memorable comebacks that I can remember that resulted in a major championship,” Shriver said.After the match, Sharapova said to the crowd in Rod Laver Arena that “you can never underestimate her as an opponent.”“I don’t think many of you expected her to be in the final, but I definitely did,” Sharapova said.2011 Health ScareChris Trotman/Getty ImagesIn February 2011, Williams was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism. Williams recovered in time to play Wimbledon, and later revealed the seriousness of her health scare.“I was literally on my deathbed at one point,” Williams said at the time. The circumstances, she said, changed her perspective, and she went into Wimbledon that year with “nothing to lose.”Serena Williams’s Farewell to TennisThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Decades of Greatness: Over 27 years, Serena Williams dominated generation after generation of opponents and changed the way women’s tennis is played, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles and cementing her reputation as the queen of comebacks.Is She the GOAT?: Proclaiming Williams the greatest women’s tennis player of all time is not a straightforward debate, our columnist writes.An Enduring Influence: From former and current players’ memories of a young Williams to the new fans she drew to tennis, Williams left a lasting impression.Her Fashion: Since she turned professional in 1995, Williams has used her clothes as a statement of self and a weapon of change.Williams made it to the round of 16. Then, she won her next two tournaments, the Bank of the West Classic in California and the Rogers Cup in Canada. She finished her year by reaching the U.S. Open final, where she lost to Samantha Stosur.“That comeback was unbelievable,” Shriver said. “No matter the score, no matter whatever, she still thought she could win.”2012 Summer RunDoug Mills/The New York TimesWilliams was eliminated from the 2012 Australian Open in the round of 16, and she was upset at that year’s French Open, where she was knocked out in the first round.“When she lost in the French Open in the first round, the career buzzards came circling,” Wertheim said. “There were plenty of times her career was supposed to be over, and she came back. The obvious one is 2012.”Williams responded to the losses by training under a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who went on to work with her for the next decade.And after that French Open, Williams went on a streak. She won Wimbledon before taking the gold medals in women’s singles and doubles at the London Olympics, and then she delivered her win against Azarenka at the U.S. Open, “playing some of the most inspiring tennis of her career,” Wertheim said.French Open, 2015Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAt the French Open in 2015, Williams lost the first set of three consecutive matches. Each time, she came back to win in three sets.“Opponents were points away from eliminating her, and Serena simply refused to go off the court anything other than the winner,” Wertheim said.Williams went on to win the semifinal while dealing with a bout of the flu.The day after the semifinal, still sick, Williams said she briefly thought about withdrawing from the final.“Out of 10 — a 10 being like take me to the hospital — I went from like a 6 to a 12 in a matter of two hours,” she said at the time. “I was just miserable. I was literally in my bed shaking, and I was just shaking, and I just started thinking positive.”Williams won the final for her 20th major singles title.Pregnancy ComebackClive Mason/Getty ImagesIn 2017, Williams surprised the tennis world when she shared that she had won that year’s Australian Open while she was close to two months pregnant.Williams missed the rest of the 2017 tennis season, and had another major health scare after she gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian. Williams was bedridden for her six weeks after she had blood clots in her lungs. Severe coughing caused her cesarean section wound to open. And doctors found a large hematoma, a collection of blood outside the blood vessels, in her abdomen.She returned to tennis in 2018, when she reached the Wimbledon final (where she lost to Angelique Kerber) and the U.S. Open final (where she lost to Naomi Osaka). The following year, she reached the Wimbledon final (losing to Simona Halep) and the U.S. Open final again (losing to Bianca Andreescu).“To have a child in the north half of your 30s and reach four major finals is an extraordinary feat that hasn’t gotten the full due,” Wertheim said.The Farewell ComebackHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesWilliams was forced to withdraw early in her first-round Wimbledon match last year because of an injury. She was given a standing ovation as she walked off the court in tears, as many began to wonder whether it would be the last time Williams would appear at the All England Club.She returned to Centre Court at Wimbledon this year but was defeated in the first round. She continued to struggle after that, losing early in the tournaments she has entered. At the National Bank Open in Toronto, Coco Gauff said that she was moved by how Williams has continued playing and “giving it her all.”“There’s nothing else she needs to give us in the game,” Gauff told reporters. “I just love that.”Williams will attempt one more comeback at this year’s U.S. Open. Along with her singles draw, she will also play in the women’s doubles tournament, partnered with her sister Venus. While we wait to see how this comeback takes shape, one certainty, Shriver said, is that Williams will be playing with the support of her fans.“The crowd is going to be crazy,” Shriver said. “I think the noise on a Serena win will be some of the loudest noise we’ve ever heard at the U.S. Open.” More

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      Coco Gauff Advances to French Open Semifinals

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      After graduating from online high school, Coco Gauff is in a new phase of her tennis career, and she is marking the occasion at the French Open in her favorite city.She has long had precocious power and speed, which she underscored by reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon at age 15. Three years later, she is playing with less exuberance and more patience. And on Tuesday, on the same Philippe Chatrier Court where she lost her cool a year ago amid errors and clear frustration, she kept it together impressively, defeating Sloane Stephens, 7-5, 6-2, to reach her first Grand Slam singles semifinal.Gauff, 18 and seeded No. 18, will face Martina Trevisan, an unseeded Italian, who will also be playing in her first major semifinal. Trevisan defeated 17th-seeded Leylah Fernandez, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3, on Tuesday.“I feel so happy right now; words cannot explain,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “Last year in the quarterfinals was a tough loss for me, and I think that match really made me stronger, to better prepare for moments like today and the moments I will face in the next round.”A year ago, Gauff faced Barbora Krejcikova, a then-unseeded doubles specialist, in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and lost, 7-6 (6), 6-3. She failed to convert five set points in the opening set, made unforced errors by the bunch and uncharacteristically destroyed her racket with three angry blows to the red clay as she fell behind in the second set.Krejcikova went on to win the title, and Gauff had to work through her regrets: trying to separate the player from the person, an approach she shared with the crowd after her victory over Stephens.“I believe in myself, but I think when I was young, like even last year, I was kind of too focused on trying to fulfill other people’s expectations,” she said. “I think you should just enjoy life. I know no matter how good or bad my career is, I think I’m a great person.”Gauff, who is from Delray Beach, Fla., has long been identified as a potential superstar, and with good reason. At 13, she was the youngest U.S. Open girls’ singles finalist in history. She won the French Open girls’ title at age 14, a year before her breakthrough run in 2019 as a qualifier at Wimbledon, where she defeated one of her role models, Venus Williams, in her first main-draw match at the All England Club.Unlike some teen prodigies, Gauff did not soar to the top of women’s tennis in a hurry. Her progress has not been linear, but she is in new territory now in the final four of the French Open on a gritty surface that perhaps suits her best.She can extend points like few players in the game with her quickness and defensive skills, and can also finish them with her terrific two-handed backhand and increasingly with her forehand, long her weaker wing. She was far from perfect against Stephens, making 18 winners to 23 unforced errors, including six double faults. But she played the critical points better, rarely going for a winner from a compromised position. Instead, she patiently worked her way to the opening while the unseeded Stephens struggled to maintain her consistency, mixing forehand winners with untimely mistakes and several gaffes at the net.Stephens, a former U.S. Open champion, has had great success on clay, reaching the French Open final in 2018, where she lost to Simona Halep. But she had not won a clay-court match this season before arriving unseeded at Roland Garros.“I would have liked to play better today, but that doesn’t take anything away from the work she has put in obviously to reach this point,” Stephens said of Gauff.Stephens, 29, is now based in the Boston area, but she was long based in South Florida, like Gauff and her family, and knew them well enough to attend Gauff’s 10th birthday party. She has long been a role model for Gauff, and she defeated her in the second round of the U.S. Open last year in their only previous meeting on tour.“I’m glad today was different,” Gauff said. “Honestly, I just told myself to stay mentally there. I knew there were some shots I probably should have made and some shots she gets in the court that probably no other player gets in the court.” More

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      Leylah Fernandez and Coco Gauff Advance at the French Open

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      She outlasted Amanda Anisimova, a hard-hitting American, showing the kind of big-stage composure that got her to the final of last year’s U.S. Open.PARIS — It is a new season and a different surface, but Leylah Fernandez, still tenacious and still a teenager, is back in the deep end of another Grand Slam tournament.She needed all of her resourcefulness and upbeat energy on this unseasonably chilly Sunday afternoon at Roland Garros.Amanda Anisimova, a 20-year-old American seeded 27th, is one of the biggest pure hitters in women’s tennis, capable of generating phenomenal pace with a seemingly casual swipe of the racket.She has a new model this season, which has helped her control her easy power. The 17th-seeded Fernandez spent nearly two hours digging in the corners and lunging for returns, but in the end, the counterpuncher beat the puncher 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 as Fernandez’s quickness, consistency and yes-I-can positivity made the small difference as she advanced to her first French Open quarterfinal.“She’s very offensive,” Fernandez said. “I just tried to be as offensive as her and just take my chances, and the balls went in today.”That is no coincidence at this stage. Fernandez, a 19-year-old Canadian, looks like a big-stage player and was part of perhaps the biggest surprise in tennis history when she and another unseeded teenager, Emma Raducanu, advanced to the U.S. Open final last year with Raducanu, a qualifier, winning in straight sets.The rest of the women’s field has certainly taken notice.“I’m thinking, especially if the U.S. Open taught us anything, that anybody can win on any day,” said Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American who is seeded 18th at Roland Garros.Gauff played one of the better matches on Sunday, defeating No. 31 seed Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-0 to return to the French Open quarterfinals, where she lost last year to the eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova in an error-strewn match that Gauff ranks as one of the biggest disappointments of her short career because of the way she managed the most significant points.“I think that was the biggest lesson I learned last year in my quarterfinal,” Gauff said. “I had a couple of set points, and I think I freaked out when some of those points didn’t go my way. Today I didn’t freak out.”Instead, she gathered strength and showed increased patience on the clay, often engaging in long rallies with Mertens before going for winners (or hitting a lunging backhand around the net post).Her work on herself and with her new coach, Diego Moyano, seems to be paying dividends, and Gauff will next face one of Moyano’s former pupils, Sloane Stephens, in an all-American, intergenerational duel.Stephens, 29, is unseeded this year but has long thrived on clay and was a French Open finalist in 2018. On Sunday, she overwhelmed Jil Teichmann 6-2, 6-0. Stephens defeated Gauff 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of last year’s U.S. Open when they played for the first time on tour. But that was hardly the first meeting. Both are based in South Florida, and Stephens attended Gauff’s 10th birthday party and practiced with Gauff for the first time when Gauff was 12 and already planning on facing Stephens on much bigger stages.“Today I didn’t freak out,” Coco Gauff said of her straight-sets win on Sunday.Yoan Valat/EPA, via Shutterstock“I had a very competitive mind-set since I was a little girl,” Gauff said. “Yes, I looked up to her and all that, but I knew that I was going to be playing against her.”For those who followed the dueling Cinderella stories, Fernandez and Raducanu will be forever linked, but though both were seeded here in Paris, they have not been on parallel paths since New York.Neither has come close to taking the regular tour by storm. That has been reserved for a player who is only slightly older: the new No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who at age 20 has won 31 straight matches and remains a prohibitive favorite at Roland Garros, where she was a surprise teenage champion herself in 2020.But while Raducanu has signed a series of major endorsement deals and shuffled coaches, she has yet to get past the quarterfinals of a regular tour event since the U.S. Open. Fernandez has often lost early as well but she did defend her singles title in Monterrey, Mexico, in March and is now making her best run in Paris with a fine chance to go further considering that she will face the unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan in a rare quarterfinal between left-handers at Roland Garros.Sloane Stephens will face Gauff, her fellow American, in the quarterfinals.Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFernandez said she put too much pressure on herself to succeed after the U.S. Open final.“I just wanted to be more offensive, more aggressive and improve my game as fast as possible,” she said. “I think I just understood that there is a process, and it’s still a long year, a very long year, and I just need to calm myself down, calm my mind down. And just accept that things are going to be tough, things are going to go sideways in a match, in a practice. And just understand that I’ve got more tools in my toolbox that I can use and just find solutions.”That last sentence sounds like she has been studying the Rafael Nadal phrase book, and there is indeed a touch of Nadal in Fernandez on court. She, too, is a speedy lefty with unorthodox technique. Nadal has his bolo-whip finish on the forehand; Fernandez has extreme grips of her own and often hits her two-handed backhand with her hands far apart.There are the intangibles, too: the in-the-moment combativeness; the resolute walk between points and the ingrained rituals. Anisimova might want to jot down a few notes considering her lingering tendency to get negative. She often grimaced at her errors on Sunday, mocking her own shots and flinging her racket across the red clay in frustration late in the final set to the sound of a few scattered boos from stands that were never more than half full on the main Chatrier Court.Fernandez seemed like a more composed and focused presence. Even if her game was a flickering flame, her commitment was not.“Every time I step out on the court I still have something to prove,” she said. “I still have that mind-set I’m the underdog. I’m still young. I still have a lot to show to the people, to the public so that they can just enjoy the tennis match.” More

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      Emma Raducanu Defeats Sloane Stephens at Australian Open

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      Despite being a Grand Slam champion herself, Raducanu had never faced one until she played and defeated Stephens in the first round of the Australian Open.MELBOURNE, Australia — Emma Raducanu wasted no time in announcing her presence in her first Grand Slam match since her stunning run to last year’s U.S. Open title.After hitting a forehand winner down the line past Sloane Stephens — the 2017 U.S. Open champion — Raducanu shouted a loud “Come on,” punctuating the first point of the match.From there, Raducanu was off and running, sprinting through the first set in 17 minutes with the loss of just four points. Though Stephens found her footing in the second set and was able to prolong rallies with her foot speed and counterpunching, Raducanu regained control in the final frame to close out the match 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 on Tuesday night in Margaret Court Arena.A Melbourne moment to remember ✨🇬🇧 @EmmaRaducanu opens her account at the #AusOpen with a first round victory over Sloane Stephens, 6-0 2-6 6-1.🎥: @wwos • @espn • @Eurosport • @wowowtennis #AO2022 pic.twitter.com/UeUbmdRy18— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 18, 2022
      When a backhand half-volley from Stephens hit the net to end the match, Raducanu dropped her racket and covered her face with her hands, a reaction rarely seen from a top player after a first-round win. Then again, rarely has a player reached the top after having skipped so many rungs on the ladder. Seeded 17th, this is Raducanu’s first appearance in the women’s competition at the Australian Open, and only her third Grand Slam event over all. During last year’s Australian Open, Raducanu was ranked 348th, opting to stay home and study for high school exams rather than traveling to Australia.Tuesday’s match, only the second night match of Raducanu’s career, was also the first time she had played a third set at a Grand Slam: Her run to the U.S. Open title last year, which began in qualifying, entailed winning 20 straight sets across her 10 matches.“I think 2022 is all about learning for me,” Raducanu said. “Being in those situations — winning a set and then having to fight in a decider — is definitely all just accumulating into a bank of experience that I can tap into later on down the line. Yeah, very happy that today I can add to that.”Despite being a Grand Slam champion herself, Raducanu had never faced one before Stephens.Tuesday’s match was the first time Raducanu had to play a third set at a Grand Slam tournament.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images“When Sloane was fighting back in the second set, I definitely accepted that,” Raducanu said. “I was almost expecting it, because she is a champion and you don’t just become one by rolling over.”Raducanu will play her second-round match on Thursday against the Montenegrin Danka Kovinic, another early steppingstone for a player who has already shot to superstardom in her home country. Raducanu’s U.S. Open win propelled her to the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award, and she was named an M.B.E. — Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire — on the Queen’s New Year’s honors list. Shortly after her triumph in New York, a congratulatory message to Raducanu appeared on the Royal Mail’s postmarked envelopes across Britain for four days.Stephens, 28, admitted that while both she and Raducanu had won in Flushing Meadows, their titles had little in common. “We won the U.S. Open, but our situations are very different,” Stephens said. “I think she is carrying a whole country, and that’s quite different than my win at the U.S. Open.”Despite her swift success, Raducanu has received blowback from members of the British media, who have suggested that she has not focused enough on her tennis after her results dipped following a windfall of endorsements. In Nike’s first video advertisement featuring the 19-year-old, the company dramatized those criticisms, showing Raducanu playing as phrases like “fluke” and “one-hit wonder” flashed behind her in capital letters.For those who had wanted to make uncharitable assessments, there had been some reason for concern: Raducanu had lost four of the six matches she had played since winning the U.S. Open, including a brutal 6-0, 6-1 loss to Elena Rybakina last week in Sydney.Raducanu, whose training before the match in Sydney had been limited by a recent case of the coronavirus, said she was “very happy to have turned it around so quickly” after that stark defeat.“The last week I put some great work in,” she said. “Sydney for me, wasn’t a deal breaker. I was still feeling positive; I just knew where I was at that point.”Stephens, who noted the “massive scream” Raducanu let out after the first point of the match, said that she could sense Raducanu’s readiness to silence doubters.“I think the hardest part is trying to prove that you are good enough to be where you are or good enough to stay where you are,” Stephens said. “The more you try to do that, I think, the more emotion shows and the more things are probably out of character than normally you would do, because you’re trying so hard to show and prove that you’re this person, or this ranking.”Raducanu said she also has had to learn to deal with self-criticism.“The biggest challenge is to be patient,” Raducanu said in her pretournament news conference. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Whether that’s practice, whether that’s off the court, I want to be the best I can all the time; sometimes it’s just not very viable.”She added: “I need to just relax. As long as the trend is trending upward, just a matter of small fluctuations, I think I can be proud. Whatever challenge that is, I feel kind of ready to face it now.”Sloane Stephens after losing a point to Raducanu.Tertius Pickard/Associated PressWhile Raducanu’s career continues to trend upward, Stephens said that her accomplishments have come in a “very backward” sequence.“It’s hard to manage,” Stephens said of Raducanu’s uncharted trajectory. “But I think if you have the right people in your corner guiding you, they will know when to take breaks. They will know when to push her harder, and they will know when she’s up for it.”Stephens had been expecting to be on a break of her own during this tournament. She married her longtime boyfriend, the soccer player Jozy Altidore, on New Year’s Day, and said she planned the wedding for January because she had “fully planned on skipping” the Australian part of this season. She said she had not wanted to take the risk of having to quarantine and of having to retread upon the pain she felt here a year ago: While enduring the mandatory hotel quarantine before last year’s Australian Open, Stephens attended the funerals of her grandparents via Zoom.“Last year, I had a very traumatizing experience in quarantine, and I just wanted to completely remove myself from that,” Stephens said on Tuesday. “No matter what, even if it was like two days, I didn’t want to do it.”Stephens, who said she had completed full-fledged off-season training, said people close to her were caught off guard when she decided to make the unexpected trip Down Under.“I think everyone was a little bit surprised,” she said. “But, yeah, I just was like: ‘I’m ready.’”Her opponent, Raducanu, proved that she was even more ready. More

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      At the Australian Open, Everyone Not Named Djokovic Is Ready to Star

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      After Novak Djokovic’s immigration troubles, he is gone, but don’t worry: Plenty of other stars and story lines are ready for the spotlight.MELBOURNE, Australia — It has been an exhausting two weeks, as if a Grand Slam tennis tournament has been contested already — albeit in courts instead of on them, and with all the focus on two missed shots.Novak Djokovic’s battle with the Australian government ended on Sunday, when a court in Melbourne denied the unvaccinated tennis star’s request to overturn the government’s decision to revoke his visa. After dominating the news cycle and even delaying release of the match schedule, Djokovic left the country, unable to compete in the Australian Open, which begins Monday.“Australian Open is much more important than any player,” Rafael Nadal said in his pretournament news conference. “If he’s playing finally, OK. If he’s not playing, Australian Open will be great Australian Open with or without him.”Rafael Nadal practicing in Melbourne on Saturday.Quinn Rooney/Getty ImagesContemporaries, and contenders?Djokovic’s cohort of champions, including Nadal himself, could make noise at this event. Nadal, who is also going for a record 21st Grand Slam title to break the three-way tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer, won a small tournament in Melbourne in the first week of the season and has been able to practice at full strength less than a month after contracting the coronavirus. Nadal, seeded sixth, opens against Marcos Giron of the United States on Monday.Andy Murray, the only player consistently able to hang with the Big Three during their primes, also enters the Open with confidence after reaching the final of the ATP tournament in Sydney last week.Ashleigh Barty of Australia is the favorite to win women’s singles.Andy Cheung/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA midtournament showdown loomsAshleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka ended their seasons after losses at the U.S. Open last year, and both looked rested and ready in the first week of this season. Barty, who had to complete a lengthy quarantine upon her return home, said on Saturday that she had made the decision to stop when she did last year for “the right reasons” for herself.“Ultimately I felt like I’d had a fantastic year,” Barty said. “I was tired. I knew that for me to give myself the best chance to start well here in Australia was to go home and rest. I have absolutely no regrets.”Barty, the top-ranked player in women’s tennis, won the singles and doubles titles in Adelaide in the first week of the season, positioning herself as a favorite to win her first Australian Open title. Barty has embraced being the home favorite and the pressure that comes with trying to be the first Australian man or woman to win a singles title here since 1978, the longest such home champion drought of any Grand Slam event.“I just have to hope that everyone understands that I’m giving it my best crack,” she said. “It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want to. But you go about it the right way, you do the right things and try to give yourself the best chance — that’s all you can do. That goes for all the other Aussies as well.”When the draw came out, the match that was quickly circled as Barty’s toughest test in her path to the title was a potential fourth-round encounter with the defending champion, Osaka, who is seeded 13th. After saying she was taking an indefinite break from tennis after her third-round loss at the U.S. Open, Osaka played well in her first tournament back this month, reaching the semifinals of a small event in Melbourne before withdrawing with a minor abdominal injury.Emma Raducanu will face Sloane Stephens in her opening match.Mike Frey/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRaducanu readies for returnEmma Raducanu, the shock 2021 U.S. Open champion who marched through qualifying and the main draw without dropping a set, has begun this season less auspiciously. After contracting the coronavirus last month, she said, her training has been limited to “maybe six, seven” hours on court before she played her first match in Sydney last week.It showed. Raducanu was blitzed, 6-0, 6-1, by Elena Rybakina.Raducanu has a tough test in her opening match, facing the 2017 U.S. Open champion, Sloane Stephens. Stephens, who married her longtime boyfriend, the soccer player Jozy Altidore, on New Year’s Day, also comes to the tournament without much competitive preparation.“Obviously you don’t win a Grand Slam without being very capable,” Raducanu said Saturday, referring to Stephens. “I think it’s going to be a tough match for sure. I’m going to go out there and enjoy the match, because just playing in this Grand Slam, I had to work so hard to be here.”Another first-round match of particular interest features two rebounding Americans: 11th-seeded Sofia Kenin, whose 2020 Australian Open title helped her earn WTA player of the year honors that season, opens against Madison Keys.Kenin, who struggled with injuries and family problems last season, showed promise during a run to the quarterfinals this month in Adelaide in her first tournament since Wimbledon. Keys, whose ranking had slipped to 87th, won a tournament in Adelaide the next week and rose to No. 51.Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, left, and Italy’s Matteo Berrettini during a practice session on Saturday.Andy Cheung/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBurst bubblesThough the Djokovic news might make it seem otherwise, there are far fewer restrictions for vaccinated players at the tournament this year compared with the strict hotel quarantines last year that compromised preparations for many athletes.But while the reins loosen on players, the landscape regarding the coronavirus pandemic has shifted drastically around them. At one time, there were only a handful of cases in the country each day; the rolling average is now over 100,000. Australia is heavily vaccinated, which has greatly reduced deaths and serious illness, but the tournament has still “paused” ticket sales at 50 percent for sessions that had not yet exceeded that amount in sales. All purchased tickets will be honored.Dylan Alcott of Australia has said he will retire after the Open.Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhen g’day means goodbyeTwo Australian fan favorites are calling it a career at this year’s tournament. Samantha Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion, has said that this will be her last tournament in singles. Stosur, 37, has said she may continue to play doubles with Zhang Shuai; the two won last year’s U.S. Open.Dylan Alcott, who won a “Golden Slam” last year in quad wheelchair singles, by winning all four majors and a Paralympic gold medal in the same year, will also retire. Alcott’s face is one of the most prominent in promotional posters for the tournament around the city, and the tournament plans to hold the final of his event in Rod Laver Arena.Alcott’s odds of a happy ending seem good: He has won 15 of the 19 Grand Slam singles events he has contested in his career.The top American, Taylor Fritz, is one of the players participating in a Netflix series about the men’s and women’s pro tours.Kelly Defina/Getty ImagesGame, set, match; lights, camera, actionLong envious of the popularity that Formula 1 racing received as a result of its Netflix series “Drive to Survive,” tennis players have expressed excitement about the start of production on their own documentary series.With cooperation between the tours and the four Grand Slams providing access to camera crews around the tour, filming is underway at Melbourne Park. Though the full cast of key characters from the men’s and women’s tours is not yet known, Stefanos Tsitsipas and the top American, Taylor Fritz, are known to be participating.Novak Djokovic won’t defend his Australian Open title this year.John Donegan/Associated PressHow to watch the Australian OpenWith a 16-hour time difference between Melbourne and the Eastern time zone, watching the year’s first Grand Slam tournament can make for its own sporting challenge, with sleep a ferocious opponent, depending on where in the world you are watching from.For the most part, the tournament’s day sessions begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time, with the night sessions in Melbourne beginning at 3:30 a.m. (Match times are subject to change.)In the United States, matches will be broadcast on ESPN and the Tennis Channel, and in Canada they will be on TSN.The complete match schedule can be found on AusOpen.com. More

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      Gauff-Stephens U.S. Open Matchup Another Sign of the Williams Legacy

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      Neither Venus nor Serena Williams entered the U.S. Open this year. But their influence in the women’s singles tournament is clear.When Sloane Stephens and Coco Gauff face off on Wednesday night at the U.S. Open, their drawing power as young Black women in Arthur Ashe Stadium will be just the latest showcase of the legacy of the sisters Venus and Serena Williams.Neither Williams sister is competing at this year’s tournament because of injuries — the first time both sisters are absent from Flushing Meadows since 2003. But their presence is clear throughout the tournament even though they aren’t in the field.When Venus Williams broke through to her first U.S. Open final in 1997, she was the first Black woman to do so in nearly 40 years. Now, success by Black women in the tournament is the norm. In the four women’s singles tournaments from 2017 through 2020, six of the eight slots in the finals were filled by Black players. Naomi Osaka won the tournament twice — including in 2018 against Serena Williams — and Stephens beat Madison Keys for the title in 2017. Serena Williams also made the final in 2019.Stephens beat Keys in the first round on Monday in a rematch of their 2017 final, leading to her showdown with Gauff in the second round.Gauff, 17, had not been born the last time the U.S. Open was without either of the Williams sisters. She said that when she was younger, her father “spent a lot of money” on front row tickets at Ashe to watch the Williamses up close.“Since I was 8 years old, pretty much every year coming — to watch them really,” Gauff said. “That’s probably the only reason why we spent so much money on tickets and travel, is to watch them play.”Stephens, 28, has not been particularly close to the Williams sisters even though she looked up to them as a child. But she has formed a bond with Gauff, who grew up near Stephens in Florida.“The evolution of her game has been really awesome,” said Stephens, who said she had known Gauff since Gauff was 8 and calls her “Cocofina” as a nickname.“To be as established as she is now is super inspiring, super awesome,” Stephens said. She added: “She has a lot of amazing things she does in her game. Obviously she’s young so she still has things to work on, but I think she’s a very established player with great things in her game.”Gauff said that facing Stephens at the U.S. Open would be a “full-circle moment.”“I’ve known her for a long time, so I don’t even know what the first memory is,” Gauff said of Stephens. “I do remember when I was 10 years old, I had a birthday party at a water park, and she came to it, which is really cool. All my friends were excited that Sloane Stephens is at your birthday.”Gauff reached the final of the 2017 U.S. Open junior tournament when she was 13, the year in which Stephens won the top singles title. More

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      Sloane Stephens Beats Coco Gauff at the U.S. Open

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      Stephens relied on her experience as the 2017 U.S. Open champion, and her wicked forehand, to outmaneuver the 17-year-old Gauff in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.The guard is changing in women’s tennis, and with Serena Williams not playing this year’s U.S. Open, the night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday was left to the leaders of the generations of American players who have followed.On one side of the net was Sloane Stephens, 28, and the 2017 U.S. Open champion. On the other was Coco Gauff, the youngest player in the top 100 at age 17 and the highest seeded American left in either singles draw, at No. 21.Both are based in South Florida and they have known each other for years, but had never faced each other on the professional tennis tour. Though Gauff is the higher-ranked player, Stephens took control of the match and never relinquished it to win 6-4, 6-2, in just one hour and six minutes.With heavy rain drumming on the closed roof, it was difficult to hear the ball bounce or the calls of “out” from the prerecorded voice that is used in the electronic line calling system.But hearing was not required to grasp the power and precision of Stephens’s forehand. It is her signature shot, once judged the best in the women’s game in a New York Times poll of players and coaches, and it was the decisive shot against Gauff.“The forehand was key today,” Stephens said. “I wanted to come out here and really execute and play my game, and I was able to do that well, and I’m really pleased with how I played.”Stephens hit eight winners with the forehand: bolts from the baseline and well-struck passing shots when Gauff pushed forward. But that number did not sum up the damage. Stephens also rushed Gauff repeatedly with the shot, forcing errors even off Gauff’s more reliable wing, the backhand.Stephens varied the pace, but she also brought the pace when she felt it was required, and she struck the balance just right.She served effectively, putting 84 percent of her first serves in play and winning 80 percent of the points when she did so. Her average serve speeds were significantly lower than Gauff’s, but her precision was superior.When the match ended decisively with a love hold, Stephens quickly transformed into a supportive rival, telling Gauff “I love you” and hugging her at the net.“I think everyone knows I love Coco,” Stephens said. “She’s such a great player, and I feel so lucky to have seen her grow up and see her play from when she was like 8 years old. I have seen her game really transition and change. I’m really proud of the player she is and the girl she is and the woman she is becoming.” More

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      U.S. Open in the U.S. and Canada: What to Watch on Wednesday

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      Sloane Stephens and Coco Gauff will meet on the third day of action at Flushing Meadows.How to watch: From noon to 6 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN; 7 to 11 p.m. on ESPN2; and streaming on the ESPN app. In Canada on TSN from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN app.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM | 11 a.m.Andrea Petkovic vs. Garbiñe MuguruzaGarbiñe Muguruza, a two-time major champion, has never been past the round of 16 at the U.S. Open. After a pair of tiebreakers secured her first-round victory, she will hope to have an easier path forward. But Andrea Petkovic has beaten Muguruza in each of their three meetings on tour. With the last meeting in 2016, before Muguruza’s Grand Slam tournament titles, Muguruza will look to shake off any mental blocks and push past Petkovic’s aggressive style of play.Félix Auger-Aliassime of Canada will play qualifiers in his first two rounds.Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesCOURT 5 | 2 P.M.Félix Auger-Aliassime vs. Bernabé Zapata MirallesFélix Auger-Aliassime, the 12th seed, overcame Evgeny Donskoy, a qualifier, in the first round, but needed four sets, with three tiebreakers, to secure passage into the second round, where he will face another qualifier.Bernabé Zapata Miralles beat Feliciano López in five sets for his first main draw victory at a major championship. The victory will propel him into the top 100 when the men’s rankings are recalculated next week, after Miralles secured three Challenger-level titles within the last year.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Sloane Stephens vs. Coco GauffCoco Gauff, the 21st seed, eked past Magda Linette on Monday night, coming back from a set and a break down to win in three sets. Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open women’s singles champion, also needed three sets to reach the second round, beating Madison Keys, whom she also beat in the 2017 final. The two Americans will meet for the first time: Stephens will hope to overwhelm Gauff with powerful groundstrokes before the 17-year-old can adjust with a counterpunching rhythm.LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM | 7 p.m.Kevin Anderson vs. Diego SchwartzmanKevin Anderson and Diego Schwartzman will provide a study in contrasts in their fourth meeting on tour. Schwartzman, at 5 feet 7 inches, is over a foot shorter than Anderson, who is 6-8, and their heights define their style of play. Anderson has a powerful serve-and-volley game, which allows him to penetrate into the court easily. Schwartzman is more defensive, using his movement and excellent positional sense to outmaneuver opponents even as they limit his space.Sleeper match of the day.COURT 9 | 11 a.m.Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Pablo AndújarPhilipp Kohlschreiber and Pablo Andújar are veterans of the men’s tour. Each made his debut in the early 2000s. Each feels most comfortable at the baseline, grinding out points and wearing out his opponent. For the casual fan, watching them can be a demonstration of just how much effort a best-of-five-sets match can extract from a player. For junior athletes, it can be a lesson in patience and consistency. More