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      Benoit Paire Loses, But Scores a Victory Just by Playing

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      Last year the French player missed the tournament after a positive Covid-19 test kept him confined to his hotel room. Even after a first-round loss, Paire felt free.A year ago, French tennis player Benoît Paire spent the U.S. Open isolated in his Long Island hotel room after testing positive for Covid-19, unable to take his place in the draw and unable to find his happy place in the aftermath.Paire, no pillar of consistency in normal times, struggled in new ways in extraordinary times, missing the fans and shot after shot, sometimes making very little effort as the opening-round losses piled up.“I was there without really being there,” he said.But the crowds are back, as the first day of the U.S. Open made loud and clear on Monday once the ticket holders managed to navigate the insufferably long security lines and actually get into the tournament.Paire left his Manhattan hotel room in the morning and made his way to Court 13, one of the outdoor courts that still feels like an outdoor court even after all the new stadium construction at Flushing Meadows.The fans are close to the action here, and the action on the adjacent court is close, too. The fans gathered at Court 13 soon made their loyalties clear, chanting “Benoît” a great deal more often than they chanted the name of his worthy Serbian opponent Dusan Lajovic.“I was happy to see the crowds again, to share a moment with the people,” Paire said. “It’s true that when people applaud for a great point or a break point well saved it makes you feel good. And it pushes you, or at least it pushes me. That’s why I play tennis. So I’m taking more and more pleasure in it, and that’s why I’m coming back to my good level.”Paire’s tennis clothes, freshly delivered from his new sponsor, have “be normal” written on them, but that does not seem like the message Paire actually wants to deliver.He does not resemble other tennis players with his long hipster beard worthy of a 19th century French painter: think Édouard Manet. He also has a creative side of his own: conjuring half-volley winners from places on the court where most tour players would not consider trying to hit a half-volley winner. His two-handed backhand is smooth, versatile and often deadly. His forehand, with its odd and cramped backswing, is unique and not always in a good way.But like Nick Kyrgios, another outrageously gifted tennis player who has rejected the tour without its fans, Paire, ranked 49th, is hard to take your eyes off with a racket in hand.He left the 40th-ranked Lajovic shaking his head and chuckling after some of his best shots, but though Paire clearly cared, which was progress to be sure, he could not back up his strokes of genius with enough solid play under duress.There were double faults at inopportune moments, unforced errors that looked lackadaisical but were also down to fatigue in the heat and humidity.Though Lajovic’s shirt was soaked through with sweat early on, Paire was the one who looked the weariest, hunching forward and resting a hand on each knee as he settled in slowly to return serves.But he still found the energy to blow off some steam late in the second set, losing his temper after stopping play because of a shout from the crowd and a lost point.Tennis rules are clear on this: the point stands. But Paire took umbrage and eventually took it out on the umbrella over Lajovic’s chair, smacking it hard enough with his racket to break the umbrella and startle the chair umpire and the fans sitting in the front few rows.Paire received his second code violation of the match — this one for unsportsmanlike conduct — and was docked a point. He went on to lose the set and the match 6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.It was a downbeat result after his joyful run to the quarterfinals at the Western & Southern Open in the Cincinnati suburbs earlier this month. But Paire sounded like an unusually happy man for a first-round loser.A different French player is missing the U.S. Open this year because of quarantine: Gilles Simon, who is not vaccinated and restricted to his New York hotel room after his coach tested positive for Covid. Simon was considered to be a “close contact.”But Paire is free to swing away, free to move around the grounds that were packed on Monday as he left not-so-lucky Court 13 and made his way back to the locker room with two security guards running interference.Not that Paire wanted to stay in his bubble. The fans kept running toward him, cellphones in hand, to pose for selfies, and though many a first-round loser would have kept his chin down and picked up the pace to refuge, Paire slowed down and accommodated each and every one. More

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      Novak Djokovic Knocks on the Door of a Very Exclusive Club

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      Only five players have achieved a Grand Slam, the last being Steffi Graf in 1988. Winning four major titles in a calendar year — the holy grail of tennis — is improbably hard.It has been more than half a century since a man completed tennis’s Grand Slam, and that man is ready for company.“I don’t own the club; I’ve just enjoyed belonging to it,” Rod Laver, 83, said in a telephone interview last week from his home in Carlsbad, Calif. “If someone comes along to win all the four, I’d be the first to congratulate them.”The moment could be near. Novak Djokovic won the first three Grand Slam tournaments of the year and needs only to win the United States Open, which began on Monday in New York, to join Laver in the club.It is undeniably exclusive. The four major tournaments — the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — are all more than 100 years old. But only five players have achieved the Grand Slam in singles by winning all four majors in the same year: Don Budge in 1938, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Laver in 1962 and 1969, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988.“Being able now to put myself in a position to win four out of four is honestly incredible, and I’m really stoked about New York,” Djokovic said in an interview before the draw was released. “I can’t wait.”Technically, Djokovic already has won “four out of four” over two seasons in 2015 and 2016. Though that was rare and remarkable, it was not a Grand Slam, which by tradition and the constitution of the International Tennis Federation requires that the four titles be won “in one calendar year.”“You’ve got to do it in the calendar year,” Laver emphasized. “Start at the Australian in January and finish up in New York in September. That, for me, is a Grand Slam.”For a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Australian Open came last, taking place in December. But for peak Laver, it was the first leg, and the wiry and driven Australian left-hander nicknamed Rocket is the only player to have achieved the Grand Slam twice in singles. He did it once as an amateur in 1962 and once, more impressively, as a professional in 1969 against deeper fields that included major singles champions like Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe and Tony Roche.Rod Laver returning the ball during his victory over Andrés Gimeno of Spain during the men’s singles quarterfinals of the 1969 French Open.Bodini, via Associated Press“I just look at those opponents, that kind of opposition at the time, and I feel like it’s the standout Grand Slam of them all for men or women,” said Steve Flink, the American tennis historian and author of “The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time.”Laver is also the only player to have saved a match point on the way to a Grand Slam in singles, escaping against his Australian compatriot Marty Mulligan in 1962 in the quarterfinals of the French Championships.“A Grand Slam takes some good fortune, and I was fortunate that day,” Laver said.The term Grand Slam entered sports in the 20th century via contract bridge, a card game in which a grand slam meant winning the maximum 13 tricks.In baseball, it came to mean a home run with the bases loaded, and in 1930, Grand Slam became a part of golf’s lexicon when Bobby Jones won the four major tournaments of that era.It was only a matter of time before other sports embraced the concept. In 1933, when the Australian tennis star Jack Crawford won the first three major tournaments, journalists used the term as he tried to win the U.S. Championships.John Kieran, a longtime sports columnist for The New York Times, wrote that “if Crawford wins, that would be something like scoring a grand slam on the courts.”Crawford almost did, reaching the final and taking a two-sets-to-one lead over Fred Perry, the British star, before Perry took complete command to win the title.Five years later, Budge, a redheaded Californian with a big serve and dreamy backhand, chased the Grand Slam in earnest, spurning big offers to turn professional at the end of 1937.“He was determined to try and go out and win the Slam in ’38,” Flink said. “Some people were telling him, don’t do it, you could get hurt, you could ruin your lucrative pro career.”Don Budge achieved the Grand Slam in 1938, spurning calls to turn professional, which would have made him ineligible for Grand Slam tournaments.Ray Illingworth/Associated PressAt that stage, turning professional would have made Budge ineligible for the Grand Slam tournaments and restricted him to the barnstorming circuit. But Budge, determined to chase his goal, remained an amateur and secured the Grand Slam with relative ease against often-overmatched opponents. His health and the logistics were more daunting. He had an abscessed tooth for much of the season that left him vulnerable to illness. The trip by boat to Australia to start the year took several weeks. And at the U.S. Championships, where Budge was set to face his unseeded friend and doubles partner, Gene Mako, in the final, a hurricane delayed the match for nearly a week.Despite all that time to ponder the stakes, Budge beat Mako in four sets and completed tennis’s first Grand Slam.It has remained a rare feat. Connolly, a teen prodigy from San Diego, had the most dominant run to a Grand Slam. She was nicknamed Little Mo because her deep and penetrating groundstrokes reminded the sportswriter Nelson Fisher of the firepower of the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, which was nicknamed Big Mo. Connolly lost just one set in the four majors in 1953. She might have won a second Grand Slam but was out of the game by age 19 after a horseback riding accident. She died of cancer at 34.Maureen Connolly with the women’s singles trophy after beating Doris Hart in the final at the Wimbledon Championships in 1953.Central Press/Getty ImagesCourt and Graf, the other women in the club, routinely outclassed their opponents in their Grand Slam seasons. But Court, a powerful Australian, had an enormous scare: tearing ligaments in her ankle during her quarterfinal victory at Wimbledon against Helga Niessen Masthoff. A doctor suggested she withdraw from the tournament. But Court, with the Grand Slam at stake, pushed on, receiving painkilling injections in the ankle before the semifinal against Rosie Casals and the final against Billie Jean King.“I had no doubt that this feisty little player who played sublime tennis while chattering away eccentrically was the biggest hurdle to clear if I was to win the Grand Slam, and so it proved,” Court wrote in her 2016 autobiography.Margaret Court received painkilling injections in her ankle to finish Wimbledon in 1970.Associated PressCourt beat King, 14-12, 11-9, in one of the best major women’s finals. Court went to New York, ignored medical advice to withdraw, and won the U.S. Open after another painkilling injection, defeating Casals in a three-set final.She thanked the officials, Casals and “the Lord” and returned to the locker room, where she had a beer with her husband, Barry.Court, like Laver, targeted the Grand Slam before the season. Graf did not. 1988 was her breakthrough year, and her overwhelming success surprised Graf, a self-contained champion who did not embrace the spotlight but whose foot speed, forehand power and crisply sliced backhand set her apart.Steffi Graf won all four major singles championships in 1988 and an Olympic gold medal, for the so-called Golden Slam.Peter Morgan/Associated PressSince then, only Serena Williams has come close to a Grand Slam, winning the first three majors in 2015 before losing to Roberta Vinci of Italy in the U.S. Open semifinals in one of tennis’s biggest upsets.Williams’s inability to seal the deal — she would have faced another Italian outsider, Flavia Pennetta, in the final — or play her best showed how expectation builds during a Grand Slam chase.Though Williams twice won four majors in a row — the so-called Serena Slams — the Grand Slam hunt generates higher levels of start-to-finish pressure. Players know that if they lose at the Australian Open to start the season that the Grand Slam is unattainable that year.“That’s the way it was devised and the way it was understood from the beginning,” Flink said. “I don’t see any reason to retrofit it. Budge, Court and Laver all knew when their starting point was and weren’t going to say, ‘Well, I lost the first one but maybe I can win the next one and still get four in a row early next year.’ No, the quest was done until the following year.”Martina Navratilova maintains that she did complete the Grand Slam, even if she didn’t win all four in the same year. Navratilova won six straight majors in 1983 and 1984, a year in which she won an astounding 74 straight singles matches. To drum up interest in the sport, the International Tennis Federation had declared in 1982 that four majors in a row amounted to a Grand Slam, and Navratilova received a million-dollar bonus from the I.T.F. when she achieved that feat at the 1984 French Open.But there was resistance to the concept. The I.T.F. soon retreated and has reverted to defining the Grand Slam as a calendar-year achievement. Navratilova is not on the short list.“Looking back now, yes, of course, I wish I had done it in the calendar year because then I’m on the same level in every way with Rod and Steffi and Margaret, but at the time it was not judged that way,” Navratilova said in an interview last week.What also has changed is that when Laver won his Grand Slams, three of the four majors were played on grass with only the French Open staged on clay. But the U.S. Open switched to hardcourts in 1978 and the Australian Open did the same in 1988, so Graf had to achieve her Grand Slam on three surfaces.“A lot of players couldn’t play that well on grass, so I had an advantage in that area, and maybe the fact I was a left-hander on grass was a little bit of an advantage, too,” said Laver, referring to his excellent sliced serve wide in the ad court.Djokovic is the first man since Laver to win even the first three legs of the Grand Slam: an indicator of the depth of the challenge. If Djokovic, 34, finishes the job in New York, he will be the oldest player to achieve the Grand Slam in singles. Laver was 31 when he won the U.S. Open in 1969.“It’s quite a milestone, and there’s a reason why no other male tennis player in the Open era has managed to win all four Slams in the same season,” Djokovic said. “The game has been improving every decade and obviously it’s not comparable to the tennis of 40 or 50 years ago, because of the technology of the rackets. They used to play with wooden rackets. We have so much more advantage and help coming from the rackets and just the pace and just generally the game itself has transformed a lot. But that probably makes it more challenging and difficult to win it.”And yet Laver found it challenging in 1969. He had to win a marathon five-set semifinal over Roche at the Australian Open. He had to rally from two sets down in both the second round of the French Open, where he beat Dick Crealy, and Wimbledon, where he beat Premjit Lall before holding off Stan Smith in five sets and Ashe and Newcombe in four-setters. At the U.S. Open, Dennis Ralston pushed Laver to five sets in the round of 16.“All it takes is one bad day and it’s gone,” Laver said.He was once convinced that Roger Federer would be the one to join the Grand Slam club, but Rafael Nadal’s clay-court prowess snuffed out most of Federer’s best chances and quite a few of Djokovic’s, too. Nadal has won the French Open a record 13 times.“So unless Nadal does it, those are 13 years nobody is doing the Grand Slam,” Laver said with a laugh.Astonishingly, given their stature, neither Nadal nor Federer has won even the first two legs of a Grand Slam.“Even getting it to the final leg is a great achievement,” Laver said. “I know Novak’s shoulder has been bothering him recently. That’s just one of the things that can go wrong, but, yes, I think he has every chance to pull off a Grand Slam and win the U.S. Open.”If he does it, Laver plans to be the man to hand him the trophy. He will be in New York for the men’s semifinals and final at the invitation of the United States Tennis Association.“I’d like to be there to see if he can win it,” Laver said. “It’s been quite a long wait.”Cindy Shmerler More

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      Tennis Players Want a Choice About Vaccination; Tours Encourage It

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      Despite the possible consequences of not being vaccinated — illness and the loss of income and opportunity to play — tennis players have been stubbornly slow to get the vaccine.When the United States Tennis Association announced on Friday that proof of coronavirus vaccination would be required for all spectators 12 and older to enter the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, it widened a gulf between the spectators and the players they’ll be watching at the U.S. Open.Adults in the stands will now be roughly twice as likely to be vaccinated as the players on court: The WTA said “nearly 50 percent” of its players were vaccinated, while the ATP said its vaccination rates were “just above 50 percent.”Despite the possible consequences of not being vaccinated — illness, of course, but also the inability to play and make money — tennis players have been stubbornly slow on the uptake, even as many have lost opportunities to play in major tournaments because of positive tests. While some players are openly skeptical of the need for a vaccine as a healthy young person, some simply haven’t prioritized it.The French veteran Gilles Simon, who was disqualified from the U.S. Open on Friday for “medical reasons,” confirmed in an interview with L’Equipe that he was removed because he hadn’t been vaccinated. Simon’s coach, Etienne Laforgue, tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in New York, and Simon was disqualified because he was deemed a “close contact.”“I was not against it to the point of never being vaccinated, I’m just saying I didn’t feel the need or the urge,” Simon told L’Equipe.Simon would have remained eligible to compete in the tournament, with increased testing, if he had been vaccinated.“I’m not very scared of Covid, actually,” Simon said. “My basic philosophy is: ‘If you’re afraid of it, you get vaccinated; if not, no.’ It’s still a choice.”Simon must now isolate in his hotel room for 10 days, according to federal and New York City guidelines. Simon, 36 and ranked 103rd, rued that his hotel room, where he will stay during what he admitted might have been his last U.S. Open, lacks a nice view.“If your last memory of a U.S. Open is 10 days in a room, it is not one you want to keep,” he said.The highest-profile tennis player to miss this year’s U.S. Open because of a positive Covid test is the fifth-ranked Sofia Kenin, who, despite disappointing results this year, remains the highest-ranked American on either tour under the pandemic-adjusted ranking system. Kenin said she had tested positive despite being vaccinated.“Fortunately I am vaccinated, and thus my symptoms have been fairly mild,” she said.Many tennis players have been able to take advantage of on-site vaccination programs set up by tournaments as they travel on tour. The top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, whose native Australia has lagged behind in its vaccination rollout, was able to get vaccinated in April at a tournament in Charleston, S.C. Before she did, Barty made sure that she wasn’t cutting in line.“That was important to me, knowing that those who were the most vulnerable were able to get it first,” she said in April.Simon’s contention that vaccination should remain a choice is supported by both tours, even as they urge players to choose vaccination.Other sports have been more successful at getting their athletes to get the shot. The W.N.B.A. said in June that 99 percent of its players were vaccinated. The M.L.S. Players Association said in July that it was “approaching 95 percent.” This week, the N.F.L. announced it had reached a player vaccination rate of nearly 93 percent. Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, said in July that 90 percent of N.B.A. players were vaccinated. Earlier this month, the N.H.L. said its player vaccination rate was at 85 percent, and its union warned that unvaccinated players might lose pay if they tested positive.In tennis, where each player is an independent contractor, there is no player union to encourage unified behavior and no general manager or team owner to encourage vaccination for the team’s competitive benefit. Other individual sports are still ahead of tennis, however: The PGA said early this month that its player vaccination rate was “above 70 percent.”“While we respect everyone’s right to free choice, we also believe that each player has a role to play in helping the wider group achieve a safe level of immunity,” the ATP said in a statement. “Doing so will allow us to ease restrictions on-site for the benefit of everyone on Tour.”The WTA said it “strongly believes in and encourages everyone to get a vaccine,” and has set a goal for 85 percent of players to be vaccinated by the end of the year. But it is currently “not requiring players to get a vaccine as this is a personal decision, and one which we respect.”Sofia Kenin was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open after testing positive despite being vaccinated.Robert Deutsch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe third-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas caused an uproar in his native Greece earlier this month after he said that he would get vaccinated only if it were required to continue competing..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“I don’t see any reason for someone of my age to do it,” said Tsitsipas, 23. “It hasn’t been tested enough and it has side effects. As long as it’s not mandatory, everyone can decide for themselves.”Giannis Oikonomou, a spokesman for the Greek government, said Tsitsipas “has neither the knowledge nor the studies nor the research work that would allow him to form an opinion” about the necessity for vaccination, and added that people like athletes who are widely admired should be “doubly careful in expressing such views.”The top-ranked Novak Djokovic has drawn scrutiny for his approach to health issues throughout the pandemic, and has declined to disclose his own vaccination status. Djokovic said it was a “personal decision” when asked about vaccine protocols on Friday. “Whether someone wants to get a vaccine or not, that’s completely up to them,” Djokovic said. “I hope that it stays that way.”Andy Murray, a member of the ATP player council, said that “there’s going to have to be a lot of pretty long, hard conversations with the tour and all of the players involved to try and come to a solution” on the high number of players holding out on vaccination. He said he appreciated the privileges New York City regulations afforded him as a vaccinated person, such as eating indoors in restaurants.“I feel like I’m enjoying a fairly normal life, whereas for the players that haven’t, it’s different,” Murray said. “I’m sure they’ll be frustrated with that.”Murray said he believes players have a duty to others.“Ultimately I guess the reason why all of us are getting vaccinated is to look out for the wider public,” he said. “We have a responsibility as players that are traveling across the world, yeah, to look out for everyone else as well. I’m happy that I’m vaccinated. I’m hoping that more players choose to have it in the coming months.” More

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      Putting the ‘Open’ Back Into the U.S. Open

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      The Grand Slam tournament that signals the end of summer in New York welcomes fans who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to pack the house when the main draw begins Monday.It has been two years since tennis fans queued for $25 lobster rolls at the United States Open, 24 long months since tipsy spectators could shout from the upper deck of Arthur Ashe Stadium during rowdy night sessions.But starting on Monday, the U.S. Open will pulsate with fans again, proceeding close to normal with people packing the stands and spending at the concession stands as if it were 2019 all over again.But just as New York has sputtered toward a frustrating and uneven reopening due primarily to the highly contagious Delta variant, New York’s signature two-week summer sporting event returns with full spectator capacity, amid a mixture of hope and anxiety.City leaders expressed shock and concern that the tournament in Flushing Meadows was initially prepared to allow roughly 55,000 people per day to enter the grounds with almost no protections against the coronavirus. But players generally seemed delighted that, unlike last year when no fans were allowed to watch in person, throngs of tennis enthusiasts will be back on hand with all their famous New York zest and vigor.“I’m just happy there’s a crowd in general,” said Naomi Osaka, who won last year’s women’s singles title inside a ghostly empty and echoing Arthur Ashe Stadium.But the crowds will now be required to show proof of vaccination after a hasty retreat on policy by the United States Tennis Association late last week. It was the first, but likely not the last, hiccup for New York’s annual curtain call for summer — a highly attended, two-week tennis festival that straddles Labor Day and by the end signals the first cool hints of fall.On Wednesday, five days before fans were expected to arrive en masse, tournament officials announced that no proof of vaccination or recent negative coronavirus test would be required for fans entering the grounds, and there would be almost no mask mandates.The announcement stunned and alarmed city officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who pressured tournament officials to beef up the restrictions. After a series of discussions over the next two days, the U.S. Open announced that all fans would need to provide proof of at least one Covid vaccine shot.Although it would have been better to make the decision weeks ago to give ticket holders fair warning, the announcement still pleased the tournament’s early critics, like Mark Levine, a City Council member from Manhattan who chairs the health committee and condemned the tournament’s initial lax coronavirus protocols as a dangerous health risk.“Now we can get back to enjoying great tennis without worrying that there will be a superspreader event,” he said.But while the fans are finally back, many top players will not be. Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Venus Williams, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem, last year’s men’s champion, are skipping the tournament because of various injuries. Together, they have won 19 of the last 42 U.S. Open singles titles.Novak Djokovic has won another three. If he raises the trophy in two weeks, he will become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win the Grand Slam — all four major tournaments in the same calendar year — and the first man since Rod Laver in 1969.Djokovic’s quest will be the primary tennis theme of the tournament, as long as he doesn’t get disqualified for testing positive for the coronavirus, or some other reason. Last year, Djokovic was tossed from the tournament in the fourth round after he hit a ball in frustration off his racket and it struck a line judge.Since that ignominious exit he has won the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon, and although he lost at the recent Olympics, he is the strong favorite to make this U.S. Open memorable for something other than the coronavirus and a somewhat hectic reopening.“I know how big of an opportunity is in front of me here in New York where historically I’ve played really well over the years,” Djokovic said. “It’s probably the most entertaining tennis court that we have and the crowd will be back in the stadium.”Unlike the fans, the players are not required to be vaccinated. But they will be tested upon arrival and every four days after that. If they test positive, they must withdraw. And any unvaccinated player who is in close contact with someone who is found to have contracted the coronavirus will have to isolate for 10 days, thus ending their tournament, too. So, fans who come to see a favorite player might go home disappointed if that player, or their opponent, is forced to pull out.But several players noted that the presence of fans has a clear impact on play, whether intimidating or motivational.“I played a lot of brutal matches here over the years,” said Andy Murray, the 2012 champion. “The crowd always helped. They like people that fight, give their all, show their heart and emotion and energy and stuff on the court.”Those attending should see things as close to normal as they were in 2019, the last time spectators were permitted. The concession stands, restaurants, bars and shops will be open and fans can mill about freely — unlike last year when a smattering of devotees tried to absorb some of the feel of the tournament from outside the gates.Last year Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in the men’s final in a mostly empty stadium.Jason Szenes/EPA, via ShutterstockBut some experts remain concerned about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, including Charles Branas, a physician and the chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia University’s School of Public Health. Dr. Branas said he is worried about people with only one shot of vaccines that require a double dose. He said they are considered under-vaccinated and do not have the full protective benefit of the vaccine.“I understand this is a big event and a lot of money and jobs are at stake and severe restrictions can be costly,” he said. “But if there is an outbreak at the event, or somewhere else that can be traced back to the event, that has a cost too in a lot of different ways. You have to balance it.”Dr. Branas was also concerned about the roofs and the ventilation of Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums when they are closed. He noted the “three Vs” that experts focus upon regarding the current situation: Vaccinations, the variant and ventilation.“A closed roof, even if there is some opening on the side, is not optimal,” he said.Similarly, Mayor de Blasio had insisted that either a vaccine mandate be imposed for the two stadiums, or the roofs on both would have to remain open, even in rain. The U.S.T.A., which spent more than $150 million on those roofs, was loath to see the costly structures sit idle in wet conditions, gumming up the tournament’s scheduling and frustrating ESPN, the main broadcaster.So it opted for the vaccine solution, and took it even further than the mayor recommended, mandating vaccines for all fans, not just those with tickets to Ashe or Armstrong. The U.S.T.A. exceeded the mayor’s requirements because about 90 percent of ticket buyers this year hold tickets to Ashe, anyway, according to the U.S.T.A., and doing the screening on the outside the grounds was seen as more efficient than doing it inside.Louis Marciani, the founder of the Innovation Institute for Fan Experience, which focuses on the safety and health of fans at sporting events, applauded the tournament’s ultimate protocols, even if they were hastily reconfigured.“We as an organization support their decision because it is based on scientific evidence and local conditions,” he said. “Let’s face it, this might not be such a good idea in a place like Las Vegas that does not have as high a vaccination rate.”Brian Hainline, a physician and a member of the U.S.T.A.’s medical advisory board, said the goal was not to prevent a single infection, but to prevent an outbreak.After that, it’s all about the tennis and the $25 lobster rolls, the end of summer and the whisper of autumn in New York. And maybe a Grand Slam, too. More

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      What to Watch Monday at the U.S. Open

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      Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas meet for the first time, and the spotlight shines once again on defending champion Naomi Osaka.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.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, these times are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern Standard.Grandstand | 11 a.m.Simona Halep vs. Camila GiorgiSimona Halep, the 12th seed, pulled out of the Western & Southern Open earlier this month citing a tear in her right abductor. The two-time major champion is a tough competitor when healthy, but multiple injuries this year kept her out of the French Open and Wimbledon.Camila Giorgi, ranked 36th, is on an upswing, having won her first Masters 1000 event at the National Bank Open in August. Giorgi has an aggressive baseline game that will put Halep on defensive footing, and for both players it will be a proper test of their capabilities to make a deep run at the U.S. Open.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 2 p.m.Andy Murray vs. Stefanos TsitsipasAndy Murray, who won the U.S. Open in 2012, has struggled with injuries since 2018, playing on the tour intermittently between surgeries. Still, Murray has been able to compete well enough, reaching the third round at Wimbledon in July.Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 3rd seed, crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round after a charge to the finals at the French Open. His consistency is often challenged by experienced players and the Greek star will be in for a grinding match against the three-time major tournament champion in their first meeting.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Naomi Osaka vs. Marie BouzkovaNaomi Osaka, the 3rd seed, won the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020, and will be looking to start her title defense with a convincing first round victory. Osaka lost in the third round of the Olympics to the eventual silver medalist, Marketa Vondrousova. The disappointing result in Tokyo can surely be put behind her as she returns in front of the adoring crowds of New York.Marie Bouzkova reached her second career WTA final in February on the hard courts of Melbourne leading up to the Australian Open. The 23-year-old Czech won the Girls’ U.S. Open title in 2014 but has not replicated that success on the pro tour. An upset against Osaka would be her biggest win.Daniil Medvedev returns the ball during a practice session prior to the start of the U.S. Open.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 9 p.m.Daniil Medvedev vs. Richard GasquetDaniil Medvedev, the 2nd seed, will face off against Richard Gasquet, a veteran of the ATP Tour, to cap the night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Medvedev won the National Bank Open earlier this month, and is a favorite to make the final on Sept. 12. Gasquet has not been past the third round of a major tournament since 2016, and an upset seems unlikely as Medvedev will look to repeat or better his finals run from 2019.Sleeper match of the day.Court 8 | 11 a.m.Mayar Sherif vs. Anhelina KalininaBoth Mayar Sherif and Anhelina Kalinina cracked the top 100 this year after career best performances at Grand Slam tournaments. Sherif became the first Egyptian woman to win a main draw match at a major tournament in Australia this year, and Kalinina reached the second round at the French Open. These promising players are well matched opponents. Kalinina won their only matchup when they met on clay in July, but Sherif is well suited to hardcourts and should be the slight favorite going into today’s match. More

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      Can Novak Djokovic Be Invincible Again?

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      For months, the Serbian champion was unbeatable at the sport’s biggest tournaments. Then came the Olympics.For months and months this year, at the most important tennis tournaments, it seemed as if Novak Djokovic was invincible, as if he simply could not be beaten.With the biggest titles on the line, professional tennis threw everything it had at Djokovic for the first seven months of 2021. In Australia in February, he overcame a debilitating abdominal tear, snap Covid-19 lockdowns and the hottest player in the game. In Paris in June, he neutered the most dominating player a Grand Slam tournament has ever known and then staged an epic comeback to win the French Open title. At Wimbledon, he managed some of the best young players in the game as if they were hopeless children.Arriving in Tokyo for the Olympic Games, he quickly became the toast of the athletes’ village, and the gold medal — perhaps two of them — appeared to be little more than a formality.Nenad Lalovic, a fellow Serb and a member of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee, snagged the honor of presiding over the medal ceremony, certain that he would be delivering gold to a man who had become a deity in their homeland.Djokovic’s first victim, Hugo Dellien of Bolivia, asked for Djokovic’s shirt as a souvenir and told him that merely being on the court with him had been a dream come true. After matches, Djokovic headed to the weight room for nighttime training sessions. Can he lose? the rising Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was asked after Djokovic had dismantled him, 6-3, 6-1, in the round of 16 in Tokyo. “I don’t think so,” he said.Djokovic beat his first two opponents handily during the Olympic tournament.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBut invincibility in sports can be as fleeting as it is powerful. For Djokovic, who traveled to Tokyo to collect the fourth jewel in his quest for a Golden Slam — the four Grand Slam titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year — the magic dissipated during a shocking 11-game span that lasted roughly 45 minutes, as Alexander Zverev of Germany stormed back from a set down and conquered the king.An hour later, Djokovic was back on the court, flubbing easy shots in the sweltering night during a mixed-doubles semifinal with Nina Stojanovic. They lost to a vastly inferior duo from Russia. When it was over, he sniffed back his tears and leaned on the shoulder of a teammate as he walked to the locker room.The next afternoon, he flung his racket into the stands and whacked it against the net post as he failed to find the answers against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in the bronze medal match.It all seemed so un-Djokovic, so not 2021. Djokovic has not played a competitive match since the Olympics and has remained largely silent, citing a need to rest and nurse an aching shoulder. That has left everyone to wonder which version of Djokovic will take the court this week at the U.S. Open as he tries to become the first man to win a Grand Slam since Rod Laver did so in 1969.“I can’t wait,” Djokovic said in a news conference Friday. “I’m very motivated.”Making an argument against Djokovic is nearly impossible. The U.S. Open is played on hardcourts, the surface on which Djokovic has won 12 of his 20 Grand Slam tournament titles. Djokovic’s chief rivals throughout his career, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, have pulled out as they battle advancing age and injuries. The defending champion, Dominic Thiem, also withdrew because of an injury.As in all Grand Slam tournaments, matches are best-three-of-five sets, which makes upsets less likely. At the Olympics, Zverev was on the edge of defeat and then got remarkably hot for 11 games, which was all he needed to win the match. Could he have sustained that level for another set? Perhaps, but history suggests it would have been very hard.Djokovic during his Australian Open win.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesDjokovic is also likely to play several of his U.S. Open matches at night so that he can be featured in the prime time telecast. He is nearly unbeatable under the lights, when the afternoon heat that can be his kryptonite has subsided.John McEnroe, the seven-time Grand Slam champion and ESPN commentator, said the only person who could beat Djokovic was Djokovic. Last year, Djokovic famously lost his temper in the round of 16, accidentally swatting a ball into the throat of a line judge, resulting in an automatic disqualification.“I think he’s ready for the moment,” McEnroe said of Djokovic during a pretournament conference call on Tuesday.And yet, after Tokyo, the idea that no one can topple Djokovic on the sport’s biggest stages is no longer absurd.“For another player, it’s always good to see the vulnerability of the all-time greats,” said Paul Annacone, a former coach of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. “It’s reassuring. But in this case, it is a very measured level of reassurance.”Invincibility is a rare commodity in tennis. There are so many matches and so many tournaments in so many countries, it’s virtually impossible not to lay the occasional egg. Martina Navratilova probably came the closest to it in 1983, when she played 87 matches and lost just once. Steffi Graf won the Golden Slam in 1988, a campaign that included a scary, 34-minute 6-0, 6-0 triumph in the French Open final. Graf lost three matches that year, but never when it counted most.As Djokovic begins his quest for perhaps the most hallowed achievement in the game, Zverev figures to be his most likely foe, especially with the memory of Tokyo still fresh.Djokovic took apart three other next-generation stars in Grand Slam finals earlier this year.Djokovic hoisted the French Open trophy in June.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesHis final against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in Australia quickly turned into a three-set clinic. At Wimbledon, Matteo Berrettini of Italy won the opening set of the final but got no closer.Stefanos Tsitsipas, the young Greek hope, came the closest to an upset, grabbing a two-set lead in the French Open final. He then lost his serve, and his nerve, early in the third set and never recovered.Against Djokovic at the Olympics, Zverev displayed a rarely seen ability to neutralize Djokovic’s most dangerous weapon — the greatest service return in the history of the sport — with his twisting 130-mile-per-hour blasts. As the finish line drew closer, he swung even harder, unleashing strokes with a freedom that had long eluded him in the most crucial moments.Last week, Zverev blitzed Andrey Rublev of Russia in the final of the Western & Southern Open, prevailing in 58 minutes.Like everyone else, Zverev knows Djokovic is a heavy favorite, though perhaps not an invincible one. Djokovic will walk onto the courts in New York on rested legs that have not been taxed in nearly a month. Will he be fresh or rusty?“It’s definitely going to be an interesting U.S. Open,” Zverev said after the Western & Southern final. “I know where I stand. I know how I am playing.”The losses in Tokyo led Djokovic to take a hiatus. He said that he did not regret his journey to the Olympics, especially the opportunity to mingle and dine and stretch and celebrate with thousands of other athletes in the Olympic Village. After, though, he was exhausted, so he decided to skip the Western & Southern Open, which he had planned to play.Djokovic returns the ball during a practice session on Saturday ahead of the U.S. Open.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesHe said that he could feel the pressure and the expectations mounting and that he expected fierce challenges to come from Medvedev and Zverev, but that he was trying to approach the challenges one ball at a time.“There is a slight difference in terms of what is at stake, but I don’t give it too big a significance on a daily basis,” he said.After nearly a month without competition, Djokovic has most likely put Tokyo in his rearview mirror, chalking up the experience to extreme heat and the precariousness of the best-two-of-three format. But he may need a match or three to find his rhythm and recapture that aura of inevitability he carried onto the court all year, a weapon that can be far more potent than the special drinks and energy bars he packs in his tennis bag.During her dominant run, Navratilova said, she could see in the eyes of her opponents before the first ball was hit that they knew how slim their chances were. The idea that the match might not go her way defied logic.“Your best is better than their best, your medium is better than their medium, so why would you lose?” she said.Amazingly, Djokovic has been at this level, or very close to it, twice before. In 2011 and in 2015, he won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments and dominated his chief rivals, Federer and Nadal. For long stretches, it appeared as though he might never lose.And then, eventually, he did. Nothing lasts forever, in tennis or in life, even when it somehow seems impossible that it won’t. More

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      A Relaxed Ash Barty Is Still No. 1

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      She stepped away from the game and came back stronger, winning four tournaments this year, including Wimbledon.In a year when mental health has often been a headline in sports, it is fitting that Ash Barty of Australia is the No. 1 women’s player in the world. Barty had the self-awareness to walk away from tennis for more than a year in 2014 to seek a more normal existence (though she also took up professional cricket).In 2019, when she stumbled at Wimbledon, losing in the fourth round, she took a few weeks to return home and rejuvenate. And after staying off the tour for nearly a year during the pandemic, she has won four titles this year, including Wimbledon.Barty discussed her approach to tennis and life as she prepared for the United States Open. The following interview has been edited and condensed.Are you someone who has always gone your own way?I grew up with values from my mom and dad that you make the right decisions for the right reasons, and they are not dependent on tennis. When I do that, regardless of what that means for my tennis, I’m a happy person. Certainly, you can’t please everyone, but that’s all I need to do.Do you get frustrated when people attack Naomi Osaka or Simone Biles for making decisions based on their mental health?I haven’t followed those stories too closely, but based on the headlines, I hope that they are making the right decisions for the right reasons. It shouldn’t matter to Simone and Naomi what the rest of the world thinks.Barty serving to Angelique Kerber during the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open on Aug. 21 in Mason, Ohio. She went on to win the tournament.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesIn 2019, after reaching No. 1, you fell at Wimbledon, took three weeks off and then fell in the second round of your next tournament. Did you feel pressure as the new No. 1?It was really exciting — this was something I’d worked towards. It certainly didn’t add any pressure, if anything it took it off because I had absolutely nothing to prove to anyone.After Wimbledon, it was really important for me to go home and take stock. I arrived in the U.S. knowing I was probably not going to be playing my best tennis in some of those tournaments. But I had a solid end of the year. [Barty reached the finals of the China Open and won the year-end WTA Finals.]This year, was it easy to find your footing right away?I just take each week as it comes. Each match is an opportunity to do the best that I can on that given day. Whether that’s a win or loss is quite irrelevant. It’s more about going out there with the right attitude regardless of the result.As an athlete you need to be able to separate and not place your self-worth on those wins and losses — that’s certainly a false way to determine whether you’ve had a successful career. It’s more about the way you go about it and how much you enjoy that journey.Were you confident before Wimbledon or worried about lingering injuries?I always trust in my tennis. If I play well, I’ll be very hard to beat. But at Wimbledon, my team and I had no idea how my body was going to respond, so we were on edge. I would wake up each morning to see if I felt all right. Getting through the tournament physically was massive, so I was able to relax and play some of my best tennis when it mattered most.The U.S. Open has proved your biggest challenge. You’ve never gotten past the fourth round. Is there a specific challenge to playing there for you?I love playing in New York, and I love the conditions. Making the fourth round a couple of years in a row is not terrible — being in the second week of a Slam is where you want to be — and I’ve lost to some quality opponents. We just keep chipping away. I just go there and try to put my best foot forward. More