Tennis

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares109 Views

      in Tennis

      Naomi Osaka Makes U.S. Open Return. But Not for Tennis.

      by

      Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam singles champion, has taken breaks from tennis for her mental health and to start a family, but she is aiming to compete again in 2024.Naomi Osaka didn’t bring any rackets with her when she arrived at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Wednesday afternoon. Osaka had no plans to play tennis.“For me, coming back here, it means a lot,” Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, said. “It’s like seeing an old friend that you haven’t seen in a long time.”Osaka was speaking in the main news conference room on Wednesday inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. She knows it well. It’s where she got to field questions from reporters on some of her best occasions, like her U.S. Open championships in 2018 and 2020. It’s also where she has been during low moments, including a first-round exit at last year’s tournament.“There were some tears shed,” Osaka said about the room. “A lot.”On Wednesday, Osaka had returned for a panel with Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who stands as the most decorated Olympian ever; Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general; and Dr. Brian Hainline, the chief medical officer of the N.C.A.A. and the chairman of the United States Tennis Association board.Michael Phelps, the decorated Olympic swimmer, said in the past he trained more intensely instead of reaching out for help with mental health issues.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesThe topic of the panel, mental health and sports, is one that Osaka has spoken about often since she cited mental health concerns in her withdrawal from the French Open in 2021. Her exit then led to a break from tennis.Osaka, who turned pro in 2013 as a teenager and came to be seen as the heir apparent to Serena Williams, is away from tennis now, too. In January she announced she was pregnant but planned to play in the 2024 Australian Open. She gave birth to her daughter in July, calling it on Instagram “a cool little intermission.”On Wednesday, Osaka, 25, said she had plenty of time to reflect during her most recent leave from the sport.“It definitely made me appreciate a lot of things that I took for granted,” she said.Osaka did not say when she planned to return to tennis during the panel, but she later told ESPN in an interview that she had designs on playing in 2024, adding that she has been training and should be hitting balls soon.Speaking back in that room, Osaka alluded to the idea of having a long career.“I just remember watching the Australian Open and being very devastated because I’ve never missed an Australian Open,” Osaka said. But while watching, Osaka said, she thought about how late Serena and Venus Williams played into their careers.Serena Williams, who retired at last year’s U.S. Open, played until she was 40. Venus Williams, 43, played at this year’s tournament, losing in the first round of singles.“I was thinking I probably no way will ever play at their age,” Osaka said. “But sitting here, I’m like, you know what? I might do that.”Osaka said pregnancy gave her a lot of time to think, and that she felt isolated at times. She had to force herself to ask for help.“I actually felt lonely during my pregnancy just because I felt like I wasn’t able to do a lot of things,” she said.She added: “Normally I’m thinking, ‘If I’m going to be an independent woman, then I’m not going to ask anyone for help. Whenever something happens, just take it on the chin.’ But then I got to a place where I needed to ask for help.”For decades, many athletes have been reluctant to share their struggles with their mental health. It’s especially the case for professionals, whose jobs require them to push their bodies to perform at the highest level. But in recent years, athletes have gradually become more open about discussing mental health. Besides Osaka, they include the gymnast Simone Biles, the basketball star Kevin Love, and, in tennis, Amanda Anisimova, the young American once ranked in the top 25 who in May cited mental health concerns in deciding to step away from the sport.Among Olympians, Phelps has also led a push to speak out on mental health.Osaka spoke on a panel with Michael Phelps, third from left; Dr. Vivek Murthy, left, the surgeon general; and Brian Hainline, fourth from left, the chief medical officer of the N.C.A.A. and the chair of the United States Tennis Association board.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesPhelps, who has also faced mental health issues, said that, like for Osaka, working through those problems required realizing he had to reach out and ask for help.“I learned that I couldn’t do it all by myself,” Phelps said.After winning six gold medals at the 2004 Athens Games, Phelps entered what he described as a “post-Olympics depression.” But instead of reaching out to someone for help, Phelps said, he compartmentalized his issues by swimming and training more.It wasn’t until about 2014, Phelps said, when he hit a “breaking point.”“I decided that something had to change,” he said. “So for me, I had to become vulnerable for the first time in my life.While Osaka didn’t say exactly when she’ll play again, when she returns the difficulties of life on tour will follow, such as time away from family and the pressure of competing in an individualistic sport. But this time, Osaka said she will be more comfortable seeking help when she needs it.Osaka said that she had two friends she counts on when she is dealing with loneliness.“I know I can reach out to them at any time, and I think it’s really important,” she said. “You’re not alone in anything.” More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Tennis

      Ecuavoley, Anyone? Sport of Ecuador Thrives in Shadow of US Open.

      by

      Each summer, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens hosts one of the most distinct, continually functioning sporting events in New York City. It features hundreds of players hitting balls, delicious food on offer and spectators sipping drinks while soaking in the entertainment. And on the other side of a fence, there is also a tennis tournament.For virtually as long as the U.S. Open has been held at its current site, families, mostly immigrants from Ecuador, have made the surrounding parkland and parking lots home to their own kind of championships.Their game is known to many as ecuavoley, a brand of three-a-side volleyball believed to have originated in Ecuador, where many consider it a national sport alongside soccer. It is also one of the primary activities in this corner of New York.“This is my game,” Miguel Tenecela, 41, an electrician from Corona, Queens, said between games. “It is in my blood.”Ecuavoley, anyone? An Ecuadorean game that resembles volleyball, ecuavoley is played in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, near the site of the U.S. Open. The games are lively, and sometimes bets are wagered.Because of its diversity, Queens is sometimes called the world’s borough, but some areas enjoy a pronounced Ecuadorean flavor. Some estimate the number of people in Queens originally from the Andean country at well over 100,000, with many concentrated in Corona, the neighborhood just west of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. And as it is with the U.S. Open, the park is where they showcase their favored sport.Last weekend, Tenecela and many of his friends and family members gathered, as they often do, for hours of ecuavoley, also called voley or boley, a game with Andean roots dating to the 19th century. On Friday, Yarina’s “Rosalia-Ecuador” pumped from a speaker as barbecue grills billowed savory smoke from under the many red and blue canopies surrounding the playing courts.People laughed, children darted around on bicycles and scooters, young parents — including some women in traditional Andean clothing — pushed baby carriages, and players hustled and perspired as spectators cheered. At night, portable lights were hoisted into tree branches, powered by batteries and generators, and money changed hands, the wagering adding some sizzle to the heated competition.Watermelon, mango and grilled chicken are among the foods on offer in the park.Mostly on weekends in the summer, dozens of courts are lined out by thin ropes anchored into the dirt by metal spikes. The courts are carefully placed alongside the New York Hall of Science, near where many tennis fans park their cars before entering the U.S. Open. Some of the tennis enthusiasts glance at the festivities on their walk to the stadiums and see scores of players, many wearing the jerseys of Ecuador’s national soccer team or their favorite club teams, pushing large, highly inflated soccer balls over thin nets.Metal spikes keep the court lines in place, and scores are kept on homemade devices.The ecuavoley games form a parallel universe to the professional tennis being played nearby.At least twice as many canopies, courts and people — ecuavoley and soccer players, spectators and picnickers — were spread across other areas of the park on Sunday, at least a few thousand in all, a parallel sporting universe to the trendier tennis championships on the other side of the tall fences.At night, the ecuavoley courts are lit by portable lights affixed to branches and run by batteries or generators.Years ago, the game was played almost entirely by immigrants from Ecuador. But as people with backgrounds from other countries, like Peru, Mexico and Colombia, saw their Ecuadorean neighbors play the game, some joined. On Sunday, a large Mexican flag was draped over one of the tents. But the vast majority of players last weekend were from places like Cuenca and Chimborazo in Ecuador.“It is very important for our community,” said Arnold Saquipulla, a welder who is from near Cuenca and has been playing ecuavoley in the park for 20 years. “People work hard. This is what we love to do to relax. It keeps us connected.”Food vendors set up shop on weekends to cater to the large crowds.The sport has been especially important for the community after the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 ravaged Corona, Elmhurst and other parts of Queens. One in every two people in the neighborhood was diagnosed with Covid-19, according to the city health department, and one in every 160 residents died from it in that area. Many were friends of Teresa Benitez and her family, longtime ecuavoley participants from Corona.“We lost maybe 200 people we knew from here, people who came here to play volleyball with us,” said Benitez, a retail worker. “There was a time I was afraid to look at my phone. I did not want to see another text about someone who was gone. It was terrible.”“Now,” she added, spreading her arms to indicate the entire area of play, “we make sure we enjoy all of this.”During the U.S. Open each year, some minor restrictions are imposed, Benitez said. Some areas are lost to temporary parking lots, and a heightened police and security presence can sometimes limit movement. Still, the games go on.“It’s only a couple of weeks,” Benitez said. “You have to share. It’s the fair thing.”Benitez came to New York from Cuenca in 1982 at age 11 with her family, including her younger sister, Blanca. Back then, people played their special brand of volleyball close to the Willets Point-Shea Stadium subway station on the No. 7 line. Gradually it has grown and moved to other locations nearby.Most of the players are men, but Benitez said her father encouraged her and Blanca to play sports, too, and she passed that on to her children. She loves playing soccer the most, as does her daughter Adriana Tito, a nursing student. Tito won her league championship game in soccer on Sunday morning, then went to the park to play ecuavoley with her mother, father, aunt and family friends. Her knees were scarred and bloodied from both games.“I hate losing,” Tito said with a laugh. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”With three players per side, each team is allowed to touch the ball only three times before sending it over the net, which is higher and thinner (more like a banner) than an ordinary volleyball net. Players may carry the ball in their hands a bit longer than in traditional volleyball. The large, hard ball takes its toll on arms and wrists.“When you start playing in the spring, after a long winter with no playing, it can hurt a lot,” said Segundo Roque, 42, a construction worker, who is also originally from near Cuenca. “Now I can only play about six games, then it is too much on the arms.”Games are usually divided into sets of 10 or 12 points, and the first team to win two sets takes the match. On rare occasions, teams stop after one or two sets, which is called medio pollo, or half chicken — a dodgy tactic employed to avoid losing a bet. Tenecela, the electrician, was noticeably sour after an opposing team pulled a medio pollo at one set apiece.“I don’t like playing against people like that,” he sneered. “It’s not the right spirit.”Of course, not everyone shares that passion for ecuavoley. Soccer is fiercely contested across the park, and that is the game that Luis Cueva, 51, prefers.“For me, the volleyball is boring,” said Cueva, a construction worker. “But so many people love it.” More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Tennis

      Ben Shelton Beats Tiafoe and Advances to U.S. Open Semifinal

      by

      Shelton, 20, becomes the youngest American man to reach a U.S. Open semifinal since Andy Roddick in 2003.There was a time when a U.S. Open quarterfinal match between two big-hitting American men could just be referred to as “tennis,” rather than as a historic night for the sport in this country.This is the way the home Grand Slam tournament would always be for the country that has won the Davis Cup, the team event contested by several nations, more than any other. But it wasn’t that way, not for 18 years, and then on Tuesday night, two young Black men, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, made it so again.They came to it from different places — Tiafoe, the son of a maintenance man at a tennis center in suburban Maryland; Shelton, the son of a former top-60 tour pro who became a highly regarded college coach. During the last year, they have become brothers of a sort, Tiafoe, the 25-year-old veteran who has become one of the tour’s most popular players, guiding the 20-year-old Shelton, who didn’t have a passport a year ago, through his first season as a professional.“Great guy off the court, but on the court a nightmare to deal with,” Shelton said of Tiafoe over the weekend.Shelton’s serves, at nearly 150 miles per hour, have become the buzz of the tournament.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesShelton, the powerful lefty whose serves, at nearly 150 miles per hour, and 112 m.p.h. forehands have become the buzz of the tournament, was right about that.“Ben has wanted to play me at the Open for a long time,” Tiafoe had said in discussing his game plan. “Make him play a lot of balls, just try to make it a really tough night for him.”On a thick, sweaty and breezeless night at Arthur Ashe Stadium that seemed to get hotter as it wore on, Tiafoe and Shelton put on the sort of tight, nervy show that stretched past midnight and into Wednesday morning. The U.S. Open is known for its late-night spectacles, storied battles that only so many can stick with until the end. It wasn’t that way Tuesday and into Wednesday, as the stadium stayed loud and live and Shelton and Tiafoe traded punches and counterpunches from start to finish.When it was over Shelton had prevailed, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2.Shelton struck early, playing the first set like a loose, midcareer pro who had done this before, his arm whipping serves and forehands as Tiafoe appeared tight and sloppy, giving up two service breaks and doing much of Shelton’s work for him.Tiafoe had his serve broken twice in the first set.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesBut then Tiafoe reverted to form, resisting playing the match like a testosterone-fueled hitting contest. He ground out points and games and let Shelton cool off and tighten up, as younger players often do, to draw even.The match turned on a crucial third-set tiebreaker, a seesaw battle that Shelton was on the verge of cruising through before hitting two consecutive double faults. Suddenly Tiafoe, who had given up control of the set a few games before, was on the precipice once more.Barring an injury or some other calamity, Shelton is likely to have plenty of moments like the one that happened next, with Tiafoe a point away from taking a two-sets-to-one lead.There is a specific sound that comes off Shelton’s racket when he lays into a serve or a stroke like only he and Carlos Alcaraz, the world No. 1, can these days. It’s nothing like the familiar thwop of strings hitting a felt ball, but more like a sledgehammer nailing a spike into a railroad tie. Tiafoe’s serve was plenty good. Shelton’s forehand return blasted onto the line inches from the corner. Tiafoe barely moved for it.The match turned on a third-set tiebreaker won by Shelton.Amir Hamja/The New York Times“Sometimes you just have to shut off the brain, close your eyes and just swing,” Shelton said.Two errors later, Shelton had the set and, for all intents and purposes, the match, breaking Tiafoe’s serve in the first game of the fourth set and never looking back.“Left it all out there tonight,” Shelton said. “Emotional battle.”Next up is Novak Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, in the semifinals on Friday.“Doesn’t get any better than that,” Shelton said.Maybe it will. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Tennis

      Carlos Alcaraz and Other Top Tennis Pros Rely On Drop Shots

      by

      Carlos Alcaraz is among the ranked players on the men’s and women’s tours who have increasingly dared to use the drop shot on crucial points.I thought I had seen it all on a tennis court until I watched Carlos Alcaraz at the U.S. Open on Monday.No, I’m not talking about the speed and punch of his forehand. I’m talking about his audacious creativity: As Alcaraz worked his way into the net early in the match, Matteo Arnaldi lifted a lob over the Spaniard’s head. Alcaraz stopped, whirled his back to the net, jumped, and reached high to pull off a rare backhand overhead, which most pros attempt to hit with as powerful a snap as they can muster.Alcaraz is not most pros. Instead of a snap, he purposefully deadened his stroke, sending the ball scooting off lightly and with a curve so it landed not far from the net.A backhand, overhead drop shot winner in front of a packed house at Arthur Ashe Stadium? Who does that?It was a small moment amid his 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win, but it was beautiful, jaw-dropping and telling all at once.In this, the age of power tennis — all those buff-bodied players, every racket now rebar stiff — Alcaraz is among the players resurrecting the softest, slowest change-of-pace stroke of them all: the drop shot, a.k.a. the marshmallow, a.k.a. the dropper.Today’s players hit consistently harder than ever, as those who watched Alcaraz Monday would attest. But to win big — as in, emerging-victorious-at-Flushing-Meadows big — nuance is critical.Increasingly, tennis’s top players are deploying drop shots, which until recently had fallen out of favor.“Oh yes, we’re seeing it more now,” said Jose Higueras, who coached Michael Chang, Jim Courier and Roger Federer to major titles, as we watched a match from the stands lining Court 11 last week. He added: “You have to use the whole court, every part of it. These soft little shots do that. People think it’s defensive, but it’s actually very offensive.”The dropper is the equivalent of a changeup pitch in baseball. It’s about disguise and surprise. Its finest practitioners — think Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Ons Jabeur in the women’s game — usually wind up as if they are about to hit a pounding groundstroke or a volley aimed at the baseline.But that’s a ruse. The ball does not catapult off their strings. It pops off meekly, with a gentle lift that bends briefly before beginning a raindrop descent over the net.Drop shots ask questions. “Hey, you, camping out there on the baseline, waiting for another two-handed backhand ripper. Did you expect me?”“Can you change directions, churn out a sprint and catch me before I bounce twice?”There was a time in the professional ranks — think of the era after John McEnroe’s dominance, all the way through the power game of the 1990s and early 2000s — when tennis’s marshmallow was an afterthought. When players did pull it out, they stuck to the percentages, seldom hitting it from the baseline or on big, high-tension points.Change came as pro tennis’s top players increasingly drew from Europe, and particularly Spain, where they had grown up playing on clay, a surface that rewards a deft touch.Ons Jabeur is among the drop shot’s best practitioners. Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRafael Nadal fully embraced the drop shot. Andy Murray, who trained in Spain as a junior, became a master.But it was Higueras getting through to Federer that broke the dam. In 2008, when Federer hired the Spaniard to help take his game to a new level, Higueras immediately noticed that his new pupil rarely used the dropper, preferring to rely on his big forehand.Higueras argued that adding softness to the mix would bring a finishing spice to Federer’s already stunning game. Mixing in more drop shots would force the competition to defend shots in front of the baseline — no more camping out at a distance.Federer went on to win seven major titles after Higueras’s fix, including, in 2009, his only French Open.After Federer adopted the changeup, a cascade of players on the men’s and women’s tours followed suit. Every year since, the drop shot’s use seems increasingly part of the game.“There are players that use it out of desperation,” Grigor Dimitrov, the Bulgarian ATP Tour veteran, said last week. “There are players using it to change the rhythm. There are players using it to get a free point and players using it to get to the net.”So, have we reached peak drop shot?“I think we’re going to be seeing it more,” he said.He’s not the only one. Martina Navratilova predicted that more pros would follow Alcaraz’s lead. “I think he will have an effect on the game,” she said in March, “in players really seeing, ‘I just cannot hit amazing forehands and backhands, I have to be an all-court player, I have to have the touch, I have to be brave, etc.’”In every match, the No. 1-ranked Alcaraz will consistently wind up for a forehand, see his opponent bracing behind the baseline for a Mach 10 ball, and then, at the last nanosecond, slow his swing, cup the ball gently, and send it plopping across the net with the speed of a wayward butterfly.Alcaraz has thrown the percentage playbook out the window. He will hit drop shots at any turn, whether he is stationed near the baseline or at the net, whether a match is in its early-stage lull or at its tensest moments.When asked about the shot, Alcaraz recalled the joy of hitting it and befuddling his opponent. What goes through his mind after hitting the perfect dropper?“It’s a great feeling,” he said, smiling broadly. “I mean, I feel like I’m going to do another one!” More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Tennis

      Coco Gauff Storms Into the U.S. Open Semifinals

      by

      After easily beating Jelena Ostapenko, 6-0, 6-2, Gauff, 19, is now one match win away from her first career singles final at the Open.Coco Gauff saluted the fans in every direction of Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday, thanking them for their support through one of the easiest, but also most significant, wins of her young career. She then spread out her arms and with a big smile waved her fingers upward, as if to ask for just a little more love.That is all Gauff, 19, needs, now, just a tad more support to help accomplish her dream. With only two more victories at this U.S. Open — four sets — Gauff would capture her first major singles title, and for now she is handling the pressure, if she even notices it, with the cool composure of a multiple-time champion.“I told myself, ‘Man, I should enjoy this,’” she said. “I’m having so much fun doing it. I should not think about the results. I’m living a very lucky life and I’m so blessed. I don’t want to take it for granted.”Winning tends to lead to smiles and Gauff, the No. 6 seed, is playing some of her best tennis, taking full advantage of a favorable draw to blaze into a U.S. Open semifinal for the first time.Under the noon sun on Tuesday, Gauff pounded a weary Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia into near oblivion, 6-0, 6-2, in just 68 minutes to become the first American teenager to reach the U.S. Open semifinal since Serena Williams in 2001.Williams was also 19 that year. She went on to reach the final, where she lost to Venus Williams, her older sister. Serena Williams had already won the U.S. Open in 1999 and eventually built her total to 23 major singles titles, staking a claim as perhaps the best player in tennis history.“She’s my idol,” Gauff said of Serena Williams, “and I think if you told me when I was younger that I would be in these same stat lines as her I would freak out. I’m still trying not to think about it a lot because I don’t want to get my head big or add pressure, but it is a cool moment to have that stat alongside her.”Gauff has reveled in the support of the fans, who have come to the U.S. Open in record numbers this year, in part to see her.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesIn her semifinal, Gauff will play another eminently beatable opponent in No. 10 Karolina Muchova, who defeated No. 30 Sorana Cirstea, 6-0, 6-3, in their quarterfinal match Tuesday night.Gauff has recent experience against Muchova, a win last month in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Ohio, their only career meeting, helping to make her road to the final, and perhaps her first Grand Slam title, potentially quite smooth. She has already avoided a prospective quarterfinal match with top-seeded Iga Swiatek after Ostapenko upset her in a late match Sunday night.When Ostapenko returned to play 36 hours later with the temperature on the court in Ashe above 90 degrees, she was no match for Gauff. Attempting to hit aggressive winners from the beginning, Ostapenko made 36 unforced errors as Gauff played a patient, mature game, allowing her flustered opponent to cave in on her own.Gauff, who won the tournaments in Washington, D.C., and Mason, Ohio, after a disappointing first-round loss at Wimbledon, has continued her success on hard courts by rolling through the draw in Queens. She has beaten three unseeded players — including the former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki — No. 32 Elise Mertens and No. 20 Ostapenko. Her biggest test could be No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, if they both reach the final.Gauff was unable to watch Ostapenko sweep Swiatek from her path on Sunday night because of a cable television dispute with the provider for her hotel. But when she saw the score, she knew that the greatest obstacle to success had simply vanished.“I was shocked,” Gauff said. “But I knew that I was going to have to go out there and play tennis, regardless of whether I was playing her or Jelena.”Ostapenko was understandably upset that she had to play so soon after her three-set win against Swiatek. She said she returned to her hotel in Manhattan at about 2 a.m. on Monday and did not fall asleep until 5 a.m., buzzing on adrenaline.She said she had been told after her match that her quarterfinal against Gauff would be at night, and considering Gauff’s popularity, it was reasonable to assume that they would be given that premier time slot. Instead, tournament organizers put them on court at noon, the first singles match of the day. Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, two popular rising Americans, were given the night stage on Ashe instead, following the Cirstea-Muchova match.“When I saw the schedule I was a little bit surprised,” Ostapenko said, “not in a really good way.”Ostapenko struggled in the noon match after having played the night before.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesOstapenko also said she had trouble with the sun, and added that she actually expected more from Gauff, even though she won only two games and held serve just once. But her real gripe was with the scheduling.“I think it’s a little bit crazy,” she said.Gauff, at her post-match news conference, spoke eloquently about her place in tennis, about handling pressure, growing up famous and learning from the example her grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, who integrated Seacrest High School in Delray Beach, Fla., in 1961.“She always reminds me that I’m a person first, instead of an athlete,” Gauff said.The athlete side of her has gathered all her skill, swagger and savvy to power to new achievements at the U.S. Open. She reached the final of the 2022 French Open, where she lost to Swiatek, but this is her home tournament, where fans — and oddsmakers — have made her new favorite.She has reveled in the support of the fans, who have come to the U.S. Open in record numbers this year, in part to see her. She has not shied from the attention, nor failed to smile, at least after her five wins.When she was younger, Gauff’s dreams were about winning tournaments, she said, like the U.S. Open. But in those dreams, she never saw fans or autograph seekers or any other people at all. Just the trophy.In hindsight, she said, people like the ones in Ashe on Tuesday and the ones who will cheer for her going forward, the ones who have said she inspires them, have made the experience even better.“I will always continue to embrace the crowd, embrace the people,” she said, “because the conversations that I’ve had, really made me feel like I’ve done well in this life, so far.” More

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Tennis

      Zheng Qinwen Is Coming Into Her Own

      by

      Zheng, 20, has battled through four matches at the U.S. Open, improving with each win. On Wednesday, she will play Aryna Sabalenka, who is on the cusp of being the world No. 1.Zheng Qinwen, the brightest of China’s growing cohort of bright tennis lights, was 7 years old when she first picked up a racket.Almost instantly, she was among the best children her age in her hometown, Shiyan, by Chinese standards a smaller city with 1.1 million people. She loved the sport, and after two months she and her father traveled to Wuhan, a few hours’ drive away and with a population of more than 11 million people, to show off her game to a more advanced coach. The opportunity thrilled her, and she soaked up compliments.Her father, however, left out one detail, which she only learned after the hitting session. Since she had done well, she would not be coming home with him and instead would stay in Wuhan to train.“I cried a lot,” Zheng, 20, said during a recent interview.The situation got a little better when her family rented an apartment in Wuhan and her grandparents took turns taking care of her. But every two weeks when her parents would come to visit, she would beg them not to go.The memories of those days remain painful. Being a sports prodigy in China, where it has not been uncommon for young children to grow up in sports academies and spend long periods away from their families from a young age, is not for the faint of heart. In Zheng’s case though, at least the hardship is paying off on the court.Zheng, who is ranked 23rd in women’s singles, has battled through four matches at the U.S. Open and is getting better with each one. On Monday night she beat Ons Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam tournament finalist, for one of the best wins of her career. On Wednesday, she will face Aryna Sabalenka, who will become the world No. 1 when the new rankings come out on Monday, in her first career major quarterfinal.Zheng’s next opponent is Aryna Sabalenka, who has advanced to the semifinal or better at the past four major tournaments. They have never played each other on tour.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesZheng and every young Chinese player carries a unique burden onto the tennis court, especially now. Their generation came of age as part of the tennis boom that Li Na and, to a lesser extent, Peng Shuai, wrought to the country. Both, especially Li, who became the first person from China to win a Grand Slam singles title, were groundbreaking figures, inspiring countless children in China and in the Chinese diaspora to pick up tennis rackets. With more than one billion people, China figured to be in prime position to become the next great tennis power.While that has not happened yet — though earlier this year Wu Yibing became the first Chinese player to win an ATP title — Zheng has been a prospect to watch for several years now. After roughly three years in Wuhan, she moved to Beijing, to train at an academy overseen by Carlos Rodriguez, who coached Li, her tennis idol. She also caught the attention of the same agency that had represented Li and earned an opportunity to move to Barcelona to train among the sport’s top rising stars and be closer to the world’s most competitive junior tournaments.This time, her parents thought that was too far for their daughter to travel on her own. Her mother decided to move with her while her father remained in China, and her mother has mostly been with her ever since. She turned professional at 15, and began a mostly steady climb up the rankings.At the French Open last year, she appeared on the verge of a breakthrough, winning the opening set of her match against top-ranked Iga Swiatek before succumbing to menstrual cramps. But then her progress seemed to stall.This spring, her management team reached out to Wim Fissette, a Belgian known as one of the top coaches in the game. Fissette has previously worked with a slew of Grand Slam singles champions, including Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka.In Zheng he saw an explosive, athletic player, but a young woman who still seemed fairly raw. He did some due diligence and learned she had a reputation as a hard worker who was extremely ambitious.“A really interesting project where you can, like, really build the player,” Fissette said of Zheng on Tuesday.This year, Zheng began working with Wim Fissette, who has coached Grand Slam tournament winners like Kim Clijsters and Naomi Osaka.Tim Clayton/Corbis, via Getty ImagesIt is early days. They are still working to get to know each other and gain the other’s trust. Fissette said the task is a little harder with Zheng because her parents speak only limited English. That has made getting to know more about what makes Zheng tick a little slower, though he said he has learned quickly that she is quite funny, and also loves karaoke. Sometimes she can seem as serious about that as her tennis.Already though Zheng has begun to adopt some of the trademarks of Fissette’s previous charges, playing with more offense and aggression. She said he often reminds her that players are rarely as aggressive as they think they are. Be the one to dominate the game, he tells her, the champion is almost always the one who is dominating, not the one who is being defensive.“You can’t just wait for the opponent to miss,” she said.Zheng has twice recovered after losing one-set leads in the U.S. Open.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesTwice in this tournament, Zheng has fumbled away one-set leads. She knows why. Her mind begins to drift ahead to the ultimate result instead of focusing on the point she is about to play. Sometimes it takes losing a set to bring her back to the present.After Wimbledon, where, still struggling to figure out how to play on grass, she lost in the first round, she took a 10-day break and traveled to China to see her extended family, most of whom she had not seen in a year and a half. Her life has had a lot of that.She loves New York, especially the drive from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens back into Manhattan, taking in the view of the skyline. She has spent mornings walking in Central Park, amazed that she can enjoy the quiet of nature in the middle of the metropolis.“Suddenly all the car noise is gone,” she said.She is on her own for this trip, without her parents once more. This time, she said, she is embracing the time without them, the chance to make decisions for herself, something she said she still needs to work on. For so long people have been making big decisions for her. Now she is ready to try that for herself.“I’m at this age, in this moment, when I’ve been feeling quite comfortable on my own,” she said. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Tennis

      This Year’s U.S. Open Belongs to Coco Gauff, Win or Lose

      by

      It has become clear that Gauff, at age 19, is the queen of this U.S. Open.It’s Sunday evening, a little after 6 o’clock, and Coco Gauff is going through her postmatch routine in the section of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center where players warm up before matches and cool down after them.Two other stars of American tennis, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, who are among her close friends, are there, too. Tiafoe is winding down after his fourth-round U.S. Open win, which set up his all-American quarterfinals match against Shelton, who is getting ready to play a mixed doubles match. The friendly trash talk has begun, and Gauff cannot resist being involved. She knows just how to do it.Tiafoe, who spends a lot of time shirtless and does not lack for confidence when it comes to his rippling physique, and Shelton are playing this tournament in bright sleeveless shirts. Shelton looks better in his, Gauff tells Tiafoe.And, by the way, so does Carlos Alcaraz, the world No. 1, who beat Tiafoe in the Open semifinals last year and who is also playing in sleeveless Technicolor. “You’re wearing confetti,” Gauff says.Then she is off to boast that she has gotten the better of one of the princes of the tournament and to make fun of her 60-something coach’s penchant for Jolly Ranchers and the dad-rock tunes he keeps sending her. She must also pose for the endless series of selfies that so many, especially Gen-Z fans, desperately want as they pay her their ultimate compliment.“My queen,” they say of her.In the quarterfinals on Tuesday, the sixth-seeded Gauff will face 20th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who eliminated top-seeded Iga Swiatek in her previous match. If Gauff wins, she will still have to find her way through two more pressure-packed matches to win the tournament. But over a week into the year’s final Grand Slam event, one thing has become clear: Gauff, at age 19, is the queen of this U.S. Open.Gauff, at age 19, has been a fan favorite at the U.S. Open.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesFans hurry across the grounds to get to their seats in Arthur Ashe Stadium before her singles matches. No one wants to miss her first fist-pumping “Come on!” or one of her ball-chasing points that go corner to corner, backcourt to net and then back again, and increasingly end with her cracking an overhead smash or with her opponent sending the ball into the net.The first-come-first-served seats on the smaller courts with general admission access begin to fill long before she and her doubles partner, Jessica Pegula, take the court. Organizers moved their doubles match on Monday into Ashe when space freed up in the late afternoon. They won.The N.B.A. player Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat is one of the many boldface names who have come out for her matches. Others include the singer Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey, a model and influencer. They were in the house on Friday for Gauff’s third-round win over Elise Mertens. Butler was there, too, and returned for her fourth-round win over Caroline Wozniacki on Sunday.Gauff’s reaction: “Again?”Perhaps this was the way it was always going to go for Gauff, who at age 10 earned a coveted spot in the training program at the tennis academy of Patrick Mouratoglou, who coached Serena Williams.Like anyone who saw Gauff on the court then, Mouratoglou came away impressed with her early speed, power and ability to change direction in an instant and make a quality shot. He called her into his office for an interview, something he puts all of his prospects through, and asked her why she thought she could become a top-level player. She had appeared shy on the court, but now she looked him in the eye from the beginning of their conversation to the end, and told him she wanted this more than any other girl.A lot of players say that, Mouratoglou said in an interview on Monday. He started putting her on the court in matches against players who were more advanced in their development than she was. More often than not, she found a way to win.At 13, she made the final of the U.S. Open junior tournament. At 15, she beat Venus Williams on Centre Court at Wimbledon and made the fourth round.Gauff, right, and Venus Williams shook after Gauff defeated her in the first round at Wimbledon in 2019.Tim Ireland/Associated Press“She is ready for greatness,” Mouratoglou said. “Of course, she feels the pressure like everybody does, but the difference comes from having the belief that you belong there, that you are supposed to do well, that you may be in the spotlight but you enjoy having that pressure, pressure that she has had since she was a kid.”Living under that scrutiny, especially when early success arrives, can have its advantages and drawbacks. Women’s tennis during the past decade is replete with players who won a Grand Slam event in their late teens or early 20s, then struggled for the next year to win three matches in a tournament.During her first seasons on the tour, Gauff was impatient to reach the top, given her breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2019 and her run to the French Open final last year. Before this season, though, she spent some time studying the top 10 players and the recent Grand Slam tournament winners. She saw that many of them were peaking from age 22 to 26.She wasn’t yet 19, but she was about to begin her fifth season of top-level tennis. Her mother told her to be patient, that she didn’t have her “grown woman strength yet,” and said she would know when she got it.“I guess I’m not as mature as other players are,” she said one afternoon in Australia. “That’s going to come with life on earth, not how many years you are on tour.”Gauff waited for a serve while playing Elise Mertens.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesSome may disagree with that assessment. Three years ago, when she was 16, Gauff took the microphone at a Black Lives Matter rally in her hometown, Delray Beach, Fla., days after the murder of George Floyd.“No matter how big or small your platform is, you need to use your voice,” she told the crowd that day. “I saw a Dr. King quote that said, ‘The silence of the good people is worse than the brutality of the bad people.’ We need to not be silent.”This summer, she was one of the featured players at the Citi Open in Washington D.C. She had endured some disappointing results in the previous two months, losing to Swiatek for the seventh consecutive time at the French Open in the quarterfinals and bowing out in the first round of Wimbledon.But the role of a headliner at a midsize tournament comes with some responsibilities. Mark Ein, the owner of the Citi Open, watched as Gauff chatted with V.I.P.s, including a member of President Biden’s cabinet and a justice on the Supreme Court, as if it were business as usual. Then she went out and won the tournament, and Ein sensed there was something different about the teenager who had first played in his event in 2019.“She gave off this sense of being in control of the situation, both on the court and off,” Ein said. “Every once in a generation in tennis it seems there is someone who breaks through at a very early age, and the test is how you can handle it. The all-time greats seem to have a composure that lets them succeed.”Gauff’s ability to run down balls in the corners is one of her strengths.Maansi Srivastava/The New York TimesSince 2019, Gauff’s face has never been hard to find on billboards at any tournament where she is playing. Still, her management team at Team8, the boutique agency that Roger Federer began with his longtime agent, Tony Godsick, has tried to take a slow and steady approach.She could have deals with dozens of companies. So far, her portfolio beyond the usual racket and clothing sponsors, New Balance and Head, includes only Rolex, Bose, Barilla, Baker Tilly and U.P.S.Gauff still sometimes rocks back and forth when she is speaking in public. She will giggle at herself in the middle of a sentence. She is still over a year away from ordering a drink legally in the United States.If she loses to Ostapenko on Tuesday or to someone else in the days ahead, time will still be on her side for a long while. But in many ways, her time has arrived. More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Tennis

      A Young Player’s Future Looks Bright Until He Runs Into Carlos Alcaraz

      by

      Unseeded Matteo Arnaldi rolled into the fourth round at the U.S. Open, but that’s where his terrific run ended.Matteo Arnaldi, an unheralded Italian player, was having a lovely time in New York, knocking off one opponent after another on his way to the fourth round at the U.S. Open.One, Arthur Fils of France, is expected to become one of the top players of the next decade. Another, Cameron Norrie, the 16th seed, has been among the better players of the past two years. Those wins earned him a date on Monday with Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion and world No. 1, in Arthur Ashe Stadium.“A good challenge,” Arnaldi, 22, who grew up in the shadow of other Italians his age, such as Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti, said ahead of the match.His coach, Alessandro Petrone, thought so, too.Arnaldi lost his fourth-round match, 3-6, 3-6, 4-6, to Alcaraz.Amir Hamja/The New York Times“I think tomorrow will be not so easy,” Petrone said Sunday afternoon as he tried to come up with a game plan for taking on Alcaraz.Both were right. It took Alcaraz 1 hour 57 minutes to take apart Arnaldi, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. He has dropped just one set in four matches.None of this is particularly surprising. Alcaraz has won two of the past four Grand Slam events and has played in only three of them, having missed the Australian Open with a pulled hamstring.But this is the first time he has had to defend one of the biggest titles in the sport, a challenge that some top players can struggle with. Iga Swiatek, the women’s defending champion, lost Sunday night, a defeat that will cost her the No. 1 ranking when the new rankings are released next week.Alcaraz said Monday that he had tried to put thoughts of defending a title out of his head.“All the pressure that people put on you, on the defending champions, I just delete it and focus on my own game,” Alcaraz said.So far, so good.Alcaraz has won two of the past four Grand Slam tournament events and has played in only three of them.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesAlcaraz’s match Saturday against Dan Evans of Britain, long a favorite of tennis sophisticates because his style is smooth and varied, was a shotmaker’s delight. The two players put on a show, impressing themselves and others with long rallies, filled with touch and power. There were plenty of big winners hit from behind the baseline and drop shots feathered to within inches of the net.This is the way Alcaraz likes it best. Massive video boards loom high above Arthur Ashe Stadium. Alcaraz loves to watch matches on television when he isn’t on the court, though he also likes watching when he is on the court as well.If he has played a particularly exceptional shot, one that elicits a loud and lusty roar from the crowd — and this happens a lot — as soon as the point is over, his eyes gaze skyward.“I love to see it again,” he said Monday through that broad smile.The stakes rise each day, but so far one of the secrets of Alcaraz’s success is that tennis has remained something of a hoot.His workday over by early evening, he had the luxury of watching the match between his upcoming quarterfinal opponent, either Sinner or Alexander Zverev of Germany.His five-set quarterfinal match against Sinner at the U.S. Open last year ended at nearly 3 a.m.“Going to be a really tough quarterfinal,” Alcaraz said.Or not. More