United States Open (Tennis)

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      A Trip to the U.S. Open Forever Changed Me

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      A father-son tournament gave our columnist almost unfettered access to players at the 1983 U.S. Open, changing the course of his life.There slouched John McEnroe, the top-ranked tennis player in the world, dolefully reading a newspaper in a corner of the locker room.There stood Ivan Lendl, the second-best player in the world, only a few feet from me in the cramped quarters. In a few hours, he would be on center court, but now he talked to another player about golf.I took it all in, a fly on the wall amid tennis royalty. Mats Wilander ambled by. I could hear Jimmy Connors telling his ribald jokes.Was this really happening? Was 16-year-old me in the locker room at the United States Open of 1983? Even today, I pinch myself when I think of it.That year, my dad and I made up a doubles team representing the Pacific Northwest in the father and son division of the Equitable Family Tennis Challenge. We had flown to New York, all expenses paid, to compete against amateur tandems from across the county in the popular tournament. Its championship rounds were held at Flushing Meadows, smack in the middle of America’s tennis grand slam.Kurt Streeter and his father, Mel Streeter, after the Equitable event in 1983.Courtesy Kurt StreeterEver since, the U.S. Open has been special to me in a way I feel down to the marrow. Without it, I would be a different person. And I would not have a cherished memory with my late father.What a different time that was. In 1983, total prize money for the male and female pros stood at $1 million. Fans and players mingled on the grounds. Entering through the gates, nobody checked your bags.As part of the Equitable event, teams of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives and siblings played matches on the same courts where the pros played. We had passes that let us into the locker room, right there with the best players in the world.During the Open’s second week, after playing a match in our little tournament where the big prize was a silver plaque, I showered next to a small clutch of pros in the shower room. There I was — soaping up in the buff — when one of the pros walked in to take his shower. It was France’s Yannick Noah, my favorite player, who had slashed his way to victory at the French Open that summer, becoming the first Black player to win a Grand Slam tournament championship since Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon in 1975.Noah kindly asked about me in his accented English. I explained that I was a nationally ranked junior, one of the few Black players at that level in the United States, and told him about the Equitable tournament. I asked if he was ready for his next big match that night in the quarterfinals. He said he could not wait.“I hope you and your father are there,” he added before wishing us luck.When our columnist met Yannick Noah at the 1983 U.S. Open, Noah had just won that year’s French Open, becoming the first Black player to win a Grand Slam championship since Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon in 1975. Focus on Sport/Getty ImagesAs great and lucky as they were, those rare moments in the locker room were not what sticks with me most about that Open. What sticks out are encounters with two other tennis luminaries. Encounters that changed my life.One afternoon on the Flushing grounds, I spotted Nick Bollettieri, the former Army paratrooper turned supercoach whose Florida tennis academy produced many of the world’s best young players.I sidled up to Bollettieri. I asked about his academy, and told him I dreamed of attending one day but that my family, struggling after my parents divorced and dad’s small business faltered, could not afford the extremely steep price. Luckily, one of Bollettieri’s assistant coaches was nearby. The assistant said he had seen me put up a good fight against one of the top seeds at the boys’ 16-and-under nationals in Kalamazoo, Mich. I needed polish, the assistant said, but I had game.Bollettieri thought for a moment, then he motioned for me to come closer. “Find Arthur,” he instructed, “and ask if he will help.” Bollettieri meant Arthur Ashe, whose Wimbledon win had sparked my tennis ambition. The two had teamed up to help other minority players attend the academy.If Arthur would fund part of it, Bollettieri said he would also help.I ended up asking my father to find Ashe and broach Bollettieri’s idea. It seemed too daunting a task for me to pull off. But dad always pushed me, always looked for ways to help me stand on my own two feet. He had taught himself tennis after his college basketball career ended, and pretty much insisted I learn tennis too. Now he told me it was my job, and mine alone, to make the pitch.So began my search for Arthur Ashe. I was not usually this gutsy, but I waited for him to finish a news conference near center court at the old Louis Armstrong Stadium. When he finished, I tepidly approached.I can still feel Ashe’s welcoming handshake, still sense his patience as he listened carefully to what I had to say. I remember him promising to see what he could do to help.Arthur Ashe after winning the U.S. Open in 1968. He was the first Black male player to win a Grand Slam tournament.Authenticated News/Getty ImagesThe next day, as my father and I played one of our matches on the Flushing grounds, Ashe stopped by to watch a few points.At first, I was so nervous that I clunked a few easy returns. But when it was time to unleash my one true weapon, a left-handed serve I could blast like a fastball or bend in a spinning arc, I cranked it up.Ace. Ace. Winner.My dad and I did not win the tournament, but we won that match. And Ashe knew I was for real.A few months later, at home in Seattle, I received a phone call. “Hello, Kurt,” said the voice on the other end, “this is Arthur Ashe.”He had struck a deal with Bollettieri to help pay for my stay at the Florida academy. I went there for the last semester of my senior year in high school. The place swarmed with tennis talent. My first bunkmate? Andre Agassi.Fate holds a mysterious sway in our lives. If I had not been at the U.S. Open that year, I would not have ended up at Bollettieri’s academy.If I had not attended the academy, I would not have had the confidence to attend the University of California, Berkeley, a perennial collegiate tennis power and the university that shaped my adult life. At Cal, I played my way from lowly recruit to a full scholarship and became the first African American to captain the men’s tennis team.Fate has its way with us all.My brother Jon and I ended up treating dad to a trip to New York for the 2004 U.S. Open, our first time back since the Equitable tournament.It was there that I noticed he was sick. He struggled for breath and had lost not just a step but also a measure of his mental sharpness. On one sweltering afternoon, he wandered off and got lost.Not too long after that, my father lay in a hospice. He was dying of amyloidosis, a blood disorder that attacked his brain, lungs and heart.As he struggled for life, we often held hands. I searched for any trace of his familiar, comforting strength. When he summoned the energy to talk, sports was the cord that once again bound us together.We spoke of memories. We recalled our shared love for the Seattle Sonics and Roger Federer, and all the beautiful years we spent together playing tennis from the time I was a toddler.“We’ll always have the Open,” he told me, gripping my hand firmly.Yes, I assured, we always will. More

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      What to Watch on Sunday at the U.S. Open

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      Barbora Krejcikova and Garbiñe Muguruza meet in a battle of players ranked in the top 10 in the world. Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime plays Frances Tiafoe.How to watch: From noon to 6 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, 7 to 11 p.m. on ESPN2, and streaming on the ESPN app. In Canada, on TSN from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN app.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | NoonElina Svitolina vs. Simona HalepElina Svitolina, the fifth seed, has never been past the semifinals of a Grand Slam event, while Simona Halep, the 12th seed, has won two major titles on the “natural surfaces,” grass and red clay. The two stars have met nine times on tour, and Svitolina holds a slight edge, with five victories. Although both missed out on the U.S. Open last year, they have had plenty of experience in Arthur Ashe Stadium and will be sure to provide a wonderful match to start the day.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Frances TiafoeOn Friday night, both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe battled opponents for five sets under the lights of the two main stadiums at Flushing Meadows. Tiafoe upset the fifth seed, Andrey Rublev, in a tight match; Tiafoe won 150 points, while Rublev won 148, and every other stat line provided similar margins. Auger-Aliassime pushed past Roberto Bautista Agut, the 18th seed, riding behind a dominant service performance that included 27 aces. As the two heavy hitters face off, viewers can expect an explosive match under the lights.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 8 p.m.Barbora Krejcikova vs. Garbiñe MuguruzaThe WTA tour has been defined by a lack of predictability. New stars appear, and consistent champions struggle through major events. In contrast, this year’s U.S. Open has been a much more favorite-friendly venue. Today’s match between Barbora Krejcikova and Garbiñe Muguruza will be the first since the 2020 Australian Open played between top 10 players at a major. Krejcikova won the French Open this year, and Muguruza has won two Grand Slam events, making this a particularly well-matched pair; neither will be hindered by the nerves that can accompany a deep run at a major tournament.Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain playing in a first-round match on Monday.Elsa/Getty ImagesLouis Armstrong STADIUM | 1 p.m.Leylah Fernandez vs. Angelique KerberLeylah Fernandez knocked out Naomi Osaka in a three-set battle on Friday night, outlasting the defending champion. Fernandez won her first WTA title on hard courts at the Monterrey Open in March and has backed up her breakthrough year with fearless ball striking.Angelique Kerber, a three-time major champion, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, her first time past the fourth round of a major since her victory at Wimbledon in 2018. Kerber has faced tough opposition through the first three rounds but has looked thoroughly in control, using her counterpunching style of play to push around more aggressive opponents.Sleeper match of the day.Grandstand | 5 p.m.Carlos Alcaraz Garfia vs. Peter GojowczykPeter Gojowczyk, ranked No. 141, upset Ugo Humbert, the 23rd seed, in the first round after a grueling set of qualifying matches to get into the main draw. Having never been past the second round of a Grand Slam event, even with 17 main draw appearances, Gojowczyk is flying in rarefied air.Carlos Alcaraz Garfia broke into the public consciousness on Friday after a career-defining upset over the third seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas. The 18-year-old Alcaraz played a near-perfect match to reach the fourth round of a major event for the first time, using his flat baseline shots to power past Tsitsipas, a former ATP Tour Finals champion.As this is the only main draw singles match out on the grounds today, expect New York fans to pull for either the veteran underdog or the young star based on whichever will help elongate the match. More

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      Barbora Krejcikova, on a Roll, Is a Contender at the U.S. Open

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      When Open qualifying was canceled in 2020, the Czech player who was outside the top 100 doubled down on her game, fitness and work ethic. Now she’s a top 10 player and in the final 16.Barbora Krejcikova missed out on last year’s U.S. Open when the qualifying draw was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, she played small tournaments in her native Czech Republic in hopes that she might earn enough ranking points to move closer to her goal of breaking into the WTA top 100 singles rankings for the first time.Krejcikova cracked the top 100 last October, but that was only the beginning. This year, she is not only playing the U.S. Open, she’s ranked in the top 10, moving from afterthought to juggernaut.Beginning with a WTA title in Strasbourg in May, Krejcikova is on a 28-3 roll, which included a stunning run to the French Open title, and another WTA title in July in Prague. Her three losses in that time came at Wimbledon and Cincinnati to top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, who was the eventual champion at both events, and to eventual gold medalist Belinda Bencic at the Olympics.“It feels good, for sure,” Krejcikova said in an interview. “I’m still feeling like I’m dreaming, but I’m also improving with every single match. I’m just very happy that I can play all the big tournaments, and get to see all the big players, to learn from them a lot and have a chance to play against them. All of this is something very special, and I’m just extremely happy it’s happening.”The eighth-seeded Krejcikova will face the ninth-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza in the fourth round on Sunday, the first Grand Slam match between two women ranked in the WTA top 10 since the 2020 Australian Open (Muguruza is ranked 10th).Muguruza, who beat Krejcikova in March in Dubai and lost to her last month in Cincinnati, called her steep ascent “quite shocking,” and said she could already sense a difference in Krejcikova’s game and attitude. “She has way more confidence now after winning a slam,” Muguruza said. “I can feel it in her shots.”Krejcikova, 25, said that her work ethic changed and sharpened during the pandemic, when she pushed herself to do more fitness, physiotherapy, and recovery work than she had before.“I had more time, so I spent more time with my coach,” Krejcikova said. “I started to be a little more professional. I didn’t expect that it’s going to help, but as I see it right now, it’s helping and I’m moving forward. That’s where I get the craziness in my head saying ‘OK, you’ve got to go again, you’ve got to go again.’”Krejcikova said that “craziness” has led to a single-mindedness about her craft. “I just work really hard, and I dedicate everything to tennis,” she said. “All my focus is around tennis, around the things about tennis. Tennis, tennis, tennis, tennis. Even sometimes my family says I have to stop at some moments, but I’m at this stage where I’m playing this well, and I just want to keep improving. That’s my mentality.”Simona Halep, who first played against Krejcikova five years ago when she was ranked 200th, said she had always recognized a strong drive in Krejcikova, on top of her quick hands and stable demeanor. “She’s a great player, and I think she deserves to be there,” Halep said. “Every time I saw her in the gym and on the court, she was working super hard. Yeah, credit to her.”Krejcikova said she isn’t sure what kept her from reaching her goals sooner, but said that she wanted to enjoy every moment now.“I’m just really happy I’m here,” she said. “Playing the smaller tournaments, it’s not the same. Being here, playing Grand Slams, playing WTAs, being able to play on a big stage, on a big court, you cannot really describe it. You have that feeling in your stomach when you step on a court and you’re very nervous and you don’t know what to expect. You just want to play your best tennis, and you don’t know if you’re going to play your best tennis or not.“Then the first point starts, and for me time stops, and I’m just there. I’m just enjoying the moment, and I think during that moment it’s where I’m playing my best tennis. I just want to get to this mood, to this point. I just want to fight for every single point in every single match, because it took me so long to get here, and who knows how long I’m going to be here? You never really know, so I want to take every chance that I get.”Krejcikova, who is ranked second in the WTA year-to-date rankings behind Barty, said her next goal is to be considered worthy of the sport’s largest stages: the main courts and marquee sessions at Grand Slam tournaments.She said that despite her impressive results, she does not feel like a star attraction.“Right now I don’t feel that even after all that I did, and all that’s happening, I still don’t feel that T.V. wants to see me or the tournaments want to see me,” she said. “I don’t know why; it doesn’t really matter. I just want to get to that point where I’m going to play my first round on a huge court, and there will be people who want to see me.“I’ll want them to be entertained, and to do the best show for them. I’m not at this point yet. My motivation is not winning or losing; my motivation is to get to this stage.” More

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      Carlos Alcaraz Emerges as a Sensation at the U.S. Open

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      After the teenager from Spain stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas, he said he has dreamed of playing on “the best court in the world” for much of his 18 years. Now he’s won on it.The coming-of-age party and fifth-set tiebreaker were over on Friday night. Carlos Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, had finally finished throwing towels into the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands after his U.S. Open upset of Stefano Tsitsipas. One by one or in small groups, the fans walked up the stairs toward the exits.They were smiling, sometimes shaking their heads and uttering words like “amazing” and “unbelievable.” This being 2021, two young boys ran toward their mother brandishing their phones to show off the courtside selfies they had taken with Alcaraz.Has another tennis star been born? We will see. Big expectations can bring even ultra-talented teenagers down to earth. But the 55th-ranked Alcaraz looked like the real deal against the third-seeded Tsitsipas, ripping next-level groundstrokes, making the court look small with his foot speed and embracing the big stage and moment with the same gusto that Spain’s greatest player Rafael Nadal did in his teens.It is quite a package, and it was quite a third-round match: four hours and seven minutes of momentum shifts, fast-twitch offense and defense and raw emotion.It ended with Alcaraz flat on his back on the court that he had never set foot on until Friday morning when he walked into the nearly empty stadium for practice and looked up — and up — at the five tiers of stands.“When I walked in, I took a photo with my team,” he said in an interview in Spanish. “It was spectacular. I could not believe this moment had finally come. In my opinion, it’s the best court in the world. So big.”One wonders if Alcaraz’s court preferences will change if he becomes a regular on center court at the French Open or Wimbledon. Clay after all is Spain’s favorite tennis canvas and Alcaraz’s first surface. But his bold game seems right for bright lights and big, brash cities. He experienced Ashe Stadium to the fullest in his debut with the crowd roaring for him, in part because of the ill will that Tsitsipas has generated of late with his anti-vaccine stance and gamesmanship but also because of Alcaraz’s incandescence.He sank his teeth into the match immediately, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, forcing Tsitsipas to adapt to the ferocious pace.“Ball speed was incredible,” Tsitsipas said. “I’ve never seen someone hit the ball so hard. Took time to adjust. Took time to kind of develop my game around his game style.”According to data from Hawkeye, Alcaraz’s average forehand speed was 78 miles per hour: 3 miles per hour faster than the U.S. Open men’s average this year. His backhand speed was 75 miles per hour: five miles per hour faster than the average.No wonder Tsitsipas felt like there was no safe haven, but he appeared to have solved the problem when he won the second set and then took a 5-2 lead in the third, going up two breaks of serve. But he lost the edge and the set in a tiebreaker before roaring back to win the fourth set 6-0.The logical thought at this stage was that the kid had had a great day, but that best-of-five sets against a top three player would remind him of how far he had to go.So much for logic. Alcaraz resumed mixing huge groundstrokes and deft drop shots, hitting high notes with the crowd providing nothing but positive feedback. The final score was 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 0-6, 7-6 (5).Carlos Alcaraz during his upset win over Stefanos Tsitsipas.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“I didn’t expect him to raise his level so much, especially after having lost the fourth set this way,” Tsitsipas said. “He was a completely different player.”You cannot prepare yourself completely for such situations. You must experience them to find out what you are made of. Alcaraz, index finger wagging and fist pumping, looked very much in his element.“The fact that the crowd was behind me and pulling for me to win is what I think helped me reach that level in the fifth set,” Alcaraz told me. “Without them, I wouldn’t have made it. It’s something I will never forget.”It has been quite a first U.S. Open, quite a first visit to New York, but Alcaraz has imagined himself here for years.“I could see from watching on television that the New York fans were passionate about tennis,” he said. “I wanted to experience that for myself.”He is from Murcia in southeastern Spain, and from a tennis family. His father, also named Carlos, was a fine junior player and later became the sports director at a tennis club in Murcia.“In my family, I think we have the sport in our blood,” Alcaraz said. “We all played from the time we were young.”He started hitting at age 3 and was soon winning national junior titles in Spain while playing against his elders. He won his first ATP points at 14 — an exceptionally young age — at an event in Murcia. He played the professional tournament only because it was close to home, but his potential was clear in the small world of Spanish tennis.Nadal, one of men’s tennis’s greatest prodigies, was born and raised on the Balearic island of Majorca in a sporting family and did not lack for local tennis role models. Carlos Moya, the French Open champion and the first Spanish man to reach No. 1 in the ATP rankings, was also from Majorca and mentored and practiced with Nadal when was in his early teens.Rafael Nadal and Alcaraz at the Madrid Open in May.Sergio Perez/ReutersAlcaraz has had contact with Nadal. There is no shortage of photos on the internet of them posing together when Alcaraz was still a junior. They played in May in the second round of the Madrid Open on clay, and Nadal won 6-1, 6-2. But the comparisons are likely to continue if Alcaraz keeps grabbing big matches by the lapels.“Thanks to Rafa, I learned the importance of playing with high energy and giving everything from the first ball to the last,” Alcaraz said. “The challenge of trying to go to where Rafa has gone is also a big motivation for me, even if I know it’s all but impossible.”The Spanish star who has had the biggest influence on Alcaraz’s game is actually Juan Carlos Ferrero, another former world No. 1 who is now Alcaraz’s coach and operates an academy in Villena in Alicante.“Since I met him when he was 14, 15, I knew of his potential, about his level,” Ferrero said on Saturday at the Open.Ferrero, a French Open champion and U.S. Open finalist in 2003, was a great mover: a fluid baseliner who unlocked rallies and problems with structure and consistency. Alcaraz is a serial risk taker who likes to resolve the conflict in a single swipe of his racket but does share one of Ferrero’s qualities: fast feet. Alcaraz’s ability to run around his backhand and rip an airborne forehand is already world class.“When you see somebody at 18 who can hit the ball that big already off both sides and moves that well, it’s close to unique,” said Paul Annacone, who coached former No. 1s Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. “To me, his backhand is actually better than his forehand. He misses his forehand. It’s huge, but he misses it. He doesn’t miss the backhand much at all. Sometimes I do wonder, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, whether someone who plays like that is really fearless or just doesn’t have any tennis I.Q. yet. That’s the unknown, but if you look at the kid’s tools, once he understands how to open up the court and use short angles and realize he doesn’t need to blast everything, it will be pretty scary.”Getting the balance right will take time, and the next challenge will be avoiding a letdown on Sunday when Alcaraz will be the favorite instead of the underdog against 141st ranked qualifier Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in the fourth round.“I know I have to take this round by round,” he said. “I can’t get ahead of myself, but I think I have a great opportunity here.”What is clear for now is that Alcaraz’s take-no-prisoners style of play is not a reflection of his approach to life outside the arena.“Outside the court, I’m a relaxed guy, pleasant, always laughing and making jokes,” he said. “I am totally the opposite of what I am on court.” More

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      Even for the Greatest Players, Life in Tennis Can Be a Slog

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      Naomi Osaka is taking an indefinite break from tennis as she struggles to find meaning and joy from playing. It’s a sadly familiar script for the sport.The moment resonated with nearly every player who has ever picked up a racket, and especially those who have reached the pinnacle of tennis.A tearful Naomi Osaka sat behind a microphone late on Friday night and spoke of how the sport she has so dominated at times has become a joyless binary journey between relief after victories and sadness following losses. There is no contentment, no happiness.Then came what may be her last public words for some time.“I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while,” she said.How long is anyone’s guess. But while Osaka’s misery is her own — like the unhappiness of the unhappy families Tolstoy refers to at the start of Anna Karenina — tennis has seen this movie so many times before that an unavoidable question arises: What is it about this sport that makes so many of the best players in the world, a collection of athletes seemingly swaddled in wealth and fame and glory, so intolerably miserable?“I think with anything you’re passionate about, it’s always a love/hate relationship, because you want that thing so bad all the time, you want to be perfect,” Bianca Andreescu, the Canadian star who won the U.S. Open the first time she played it in 2019 but has battled injuries, inconsistency and the frustrations that come with both ever since, said after her third-round win Saturday. “In my case, it’s tennis.”Careers cut short because of broken minds rather than aging bodies haunt tennis like ghosts.Bjorn Borg of Sweden, a superstar of the 1970s and winner of 11 Grand Slam titles, lost his fourth U.S. Open final in 1981. He walked off the court, drove away in his car, and never played another Grand Slam tournament again. He was 25. Steffi Graf, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, quit at 30, just weeks after a French Open title and a Wimbledon final, saying she had lost her motivation and passion for the game. Andre Agassi and Jennifer Capriati succumbed to drug abuse and, in Capriati’s case, addiction, though they managed to mount comebacks.More recently, Paula Badosa of Spain has spoken of her battles with depression brought on in part by the frustrations and pressures of the game. Iga Swiatek of Poland, who won the 2020 French Open at 19, spoke after a recent loss of seeing little other than tennis balls when she closed her eyes at night. After losing a hard-fought match at the Olympics she sobbed into a towel as though she had lost a close relative.Paula Badosa has spoken of her depression brought on by the pressures of the game.Aaron Doster/Associated PressAthletes in team sports talk about the joy that comes from being a part of something larger than themselves, of heading into battle surrounded by a band of brothers and sisters.Golfers play an individual sport filled with crushing frustrations, but they walk peaceful, beautiful grounds through a morning or afternoon, a caddie by their side lending advice and providing technical and emotional support. When they lose, the golf course gets the best of them.Tennis players and coaches speak of the singular form of intensity and loneliness that accompanies the game.From the time they are small children, tennis players run on hard, often hot, and sometimes sweltering courts for hours as a human on the other side of the net tries to pound them into exhaustion and defeat. And they do it alone, prohibited from communicating with anyone during the most important matches.They cross borders and time zones and oceans often from week to week during a grueling, 11-month season. Sometimes they compete at 11 o’clock in the morning. The next day they might start at 11 at night. Sleeping and eating schedules are discombobulated.Tennis players talk differently when they talk about losing. The player not holding the trophy at the end of a tournament does not come in second place, and semifinalists do not finish in third or fourth. Pro golfers who finished fourth often say they had a great week. Marathoners and swimmers talk about being on the podium.As Novak Djokovic, no stranger to tennis misery, said the other night, “We are a particular sport that only has one winner.”The coronavirus pandemic has only magnified pressures and pitfalls, and added another kind of loneliness. For more than a year, at most tournaments players have had to limit their movements to their hotels, practice courts and competition venues, passing long hours alone in soulless rooms. They are tested for Covid-19 every few days, always one swab away from a 10-day isolation far from home.Daria Abramowicz, a sports psychologist who travels with Swiatek, said the sport in its modern form is an energy sucking journey of climbing the rankings ladder, defending your position, and cultivating fans, as well as sponsors, who can provide a financial safety net but bring their own demands.Daria Abramowicz, a sports psychologist, with Iga Swiatek in Australia in February.Alana Holmberg for The New York Times“If your tank is empty or almost empty, and if you feel burdened that there are a lot of challenges all around the performance, it is impossible to enjoy the process and enjoy this moment,” Abramowicz said.For better or worse, Osaka has taken on burdens.After the murder of George Floyd, she flew to Minneapolis to march with protesters. After the shooting of Jacob Blake, she single-handedly brought her sport to a standstill when she announced she would not play her semifinal match in the Western & Southern Open. She wore a mask with the name of a different victim of police violence onto the court for each of her matches at the U.S. Open last year.“She allows herself to really feel and experience that sadness,” said Pam Shriver, the former top player and Grand Slam doubles champion.In May, ahead of the French Open, Osaka tried to overturn years of tennis protocol when she refused to participate in post-match news conferences because she said they put too much stress on players, especially after losses. Her stance led to an ugly confrontation with tournament organizers and her withdrawal from the tournament after just one match.In Japan, where she has become a symbol of a new, multiracial vision of a traditionally homogeneous society, she embraced the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron and becoming the face of the Games. It was her first competition since the French Open.She has told the world about her battles with depression the past three years, a move that John McEnroe said took great courage. The seven-time Grand Slam winner, who 40 years later is still shaken by the sudden departure of Borg, his chief rival, said her candor probably helped countless people. McEnroe added that it may also make it harder for Osaka to thrive because of the increased attention it brings.“She’s the type of player we need around the sport another 10 years, that should win a bunch of more majors hopefully, if she’s in the right head space,” McEnroe said days before the start of the U.S. Open.After spending roughly two years on the pro tour with Swiatek, Abramowicz has concluded that players can survive careers — inevitably filled with losses and disappointment — only by working every day to build self-worth and self-confidence that is not measured by wins and rankings points but rather relationships. Only then can they find a way to enjoy the process, as enervating as it might be.“You need to maintain the core values, because without that there is nothing,” Abramowicz said. “There is just burned ground.” More

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      Canadian Tennis Players Excel at the U.S. Open

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      Canada’s high-performance tennis program is achieving its goal of producing elite players, several of whom have advanced at the U.S. Open.The Canadian flag is everywhere at the U.S. Open, where Canadian players are winning on courts across the grounds and beyond.On Saturday, Bianca Andreescu won in Louis Armstrong Stadium while Denis Shapovalov waited to play there in the night session. On Friday, Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Roberto Bautista Agut in Armstrong, Vasek Pospisil won at doubles on Court 10, and three Canadian girls won junior qualifying matches at the Cary Leeds Center in the Bronx.The biggest win took place in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday, when Leylah Fernandez, a French Open junior champion two years ago, beat No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka to muscle her way toward the front of Canada’s booming tennis program, an assembly line of players that includes four men in the top 60 and six girls in the top 100 of the junior rankings.Not bad for a country with about a tenth of the population of the United States. But Canadian players are pouring over the border and making New York their temporary home.“I’m just glad that there’s so many Canadians going deep in this tournament,” Fernandez said shortly after she had showed the steely nerve it took to oust the defending champion in the world’s biggest tennis stadium. Fernandez, who turns 19 on Monday, is the latest young Canadian to captivate the tennis world, following in the path of Andreescu, who won the 2019 U.S. Open; Auger-Aliassime; Shapovalov; and, before them, Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard.A country of about 37 million, Canada has made a concerted effort over the past several years to develop elite players, and it is working. Most of them pass through Tennis Canada’s high-performance development program, and many were either immigrants themselves or the Canadian-born children of immigrants.Fernandez belongs to that list, too, although her route is unique. Her father and coach, Jorge Fernandez, was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and moved to Montreal with his family when he was a small boy. Fernandez’s mother, Irene Exevea, is of Filipino descent from Toronto.Jorge Fernandez describes himself as a former journeyman professional soccer player in the lower levels of the game, mostly in Latin America. He never knew anything about tennis until his daughter showed interest as a schoolgirl.“She played some soccer in Montreal,” the elder Fernandez said in a telephone interview Saturday, “but I didn’t want her to just follow me. I wanted her to find her own passion.”That turned out to be tennis, but Leylah struggled to gain the favor of the local tennis associations. She was part of a Quebec-based development program for a while, but it dropped her, Jorge said, in part because she was tiny. She still wanted to play.“I told her, ‘It’s OK, we’ll do it ourselves,’” her father said.They plunged ahead on their own, and soon enough, Leylah Fernandez was tearing through the ranks of her age group and several years above it, winning so many tournaments that Tennis Canada officials finally invited her to train with them.But as often happens when parents hand their children over to tennis federations, there were differences of opinion, especially over how much Leylah should play. Ultimately, Jorge Fernandez took his daughter out of the program, although amicably, he says.“I told them we would meet up again,” he explained, “and look, we have.”He continued: “It’s OK to have disagreements. We all wanted the same thing, which is for Leylah to be successful. We just had a different idea of how to do it, for a while. But they have been doing great work. I tip my hat to them with all the success they have had with so many Canadians going through the program.”Bianca Andreescu playing on Saturday.Justin Lane/EPA, via ShutterstockLeylah’s mother thought their daughter would be one of those successes, too. According to Jorge Fernandez, Exevea thought he was crazy to remove his daughter from a program that provided free coaching and more. But he was committed to doing it himself, so he and Leylah and her younger sister, Bianca Jolie, who is 17, continued to train on their own in Montreal. (The oldest, Jodeci, is a dentist in Ohio and did not play tennis competitively).That left the chief bread-winning duties to Exevea, who, unlike Jorge Fernandez, has a university degree. She moved to California so she could earn U.S. dollars and stayed there for three years while Jorge tapped into his knowledge as a former professional athlete to coach his daughters.“Those were difficult years, because they only saw their mother maybe two times a year,” Jorge said. “We finally decided to move to Florida. It’s the Mecca of tennis, and we could have the whole family together again.”To learn the art of tennis and coaching it, Jorge Fernandez immersed himself in the sport, reading texts and watching videos on the internet. His goal was to cultivate a balance between work and fun to ensure that Leylah never got burned out. He taught his daughter, who is 5 feet 6 inches, to study Justine Henin, who is listed at 5-6¾, because it seemed like an appropriate blueprint for success.Despite her size, Leylah Fernandez is a potent ball striker. Her father claims that, pound for pound, Leylah is “the best power hitter on the tour,” and she derives confidence from her strength. Even before she took the court against Osaka, she said she knew she could beat the four-time major champion.“From a very young age, I knew I was able to beat anyone,” she said Friday night, before noting that it was past her bedtime.When she won the French Open junior title in 2019, Leylah Fernandez asked her father if they could celebrate at McDonald’s. Always diligent about nutrition, and in a city known for its culinary expertise, Fernandez chose the fast food restaurant as a way to splurge. Her father agreed.“It was just the two of us,” Jorge said. “It was sweet, but at the same time, the whole family should have been there. It’s one of the difficult things of the tennis life, all the travel.”Jorge Fernandez could not attend his daughter’s victory over Osaka. He was in Florida attending to business. But before she took the court, Leylah called him for the strategic game plan, and he was true to his ethos.“He told me to go on the court, have fun,” she said, and she followed the advice perfectly, flashing a brilliant smile during a relaxed but exuberant speech after the match.For a time, her family had debated moving to Ecuador so that the girls could play for that country. Instead, they retained their loyalty to Canada, and Leylah Fernandez plays on the Canadian team for the Billie Jean King Cup. On Sunday, she will play No. 16 seed Angelique Kerber, a three-time Grand Slam tournament champion, for a spot in the quarterfinals.Already, she and her compatriots have helped raise the profile of Canadian tennis a notch higher.“Our goal here is just to have fun on court,” she said, “to do our best. Hopefully we can inspire kids in Canada to keep going.” More

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      How to Watch the U.S. Open on Saturday

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      Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty feature at Arthur Ashe Stadium as the third round of singles play concludes.How to watch: From 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN2; and streaming on the ESPN app. In Canada on TSN from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN app.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern Standard.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 2 p.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Kei NishikoriNovak Djokovic, on a quest for a career-defining Grand Slam, has not been kept out of the second week of a Grand Slam event since the 2017 Australian Open. The task of breaking that streak falls to Kei Nishikori, a finalist at the 2014 U.S. Open. Nishikori struggled with a wrist injury in 2017 and has more recently faced issues with his right shoulder. Although his game can now be inconsistent at times, Nishikori could push Djokovic to exert himself more seriously, or at the least provide some very entertaining tennis.Louis Armstrong STADIUM | 1 p.m.Belinda Bencic vs. Jessica PegulaBelinda Bencic, the 11th seed, won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in August, and has kept her foot on the pedal since. Bencic has lost only 16 games on her way to the third round, overwhelming her opponents with steady counterpunching on defense and acute shot making on offense.Jessica Pegula, the 23rd seed, has been similarly dominant in her past two matches. Following her run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in February, she will be looking to match her career result and push herself into the top 20. As these two hardcourt heavyweights meet, it’s hard to say which will persevere.Louis Armstrong STADIUM | 3 p.m.Gael Monfils vs. Jannik SinnerGael Monfils, the 17th seed, struggled at the beginning of 2021, losing in the first round at the Australian Open, but has found his form since then. Monfils recently recorded his 500th ATP Tour win, joining an exclusive club that only contains 10 other active members.On the other side of the net, the relative newcomer Jannik Sinner has only won 60 professional matches. However, Sinner has already made himself a mainstay near the top of the tour, reaching the finals at the Miami Open to break into the top 20.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Ashleigh Barty vs. Shelby RogersAshleigh Barty, the first seed, has followed an unusual pattern through the first two rounds of play. She has won the first set in both of her matches at ‘6-1’, while needing to win seven games to then finish off the second set and secure victory. Shelby Rogers, ranked No. 43, will need to start brightly in order to push back on the momentum that Barty has begun to build.Sleeper match of the day.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 6 a.m.Emma Raducanu vs. Sara Sorribes TormoEmma Raducanu was ranked No. 338 before this year’s Championships at Wimbledon. After receiving a wild-card into the main draw, the 18 year-old won three matches without dropping a set, catapulting herself up the rankings. Although her hard court preparation this summer was only at challenger level events, she played through the qualifying rounds and her first two matches at the U.S. Open without dropping a set once more, and will look to reach the second week of play on her first attempt at Flushing Meadows.Sara Sorribes Tormo upset the 22nd seed, Karolina Muchova, in the first round and then skated past Hsieh Su-wei in the second. Her powerful baseline shots are moderated by her clay-court upbringing, making it difficult for opponents to set themselves against a barrage of consistent, deep balls. More

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      Naomi Osaka Loses to Leylah Fernandez at the U.S. Open

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      In tears after the third-round match, the defending champion said, “I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while.”Naomi Osaka, the defending women’s singles champion, was upset, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4, in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday night by Leylah Annie Fernandez, an unseeded 18-year-old from Canada.During her post-match news conference Osaka was in tears.“I honestly don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match,” she said. “I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while.”She flashed two thumbs up and left the room crying.The 73rd-ranked Fernandez, a quick and dynamic left-hander, had never faced Osaka, but she did not appear intimidated, clenching her fist after winning key points and often dictating play with her topspin forehand.It was a memorable evening for teenagers in Arthur Ashe Stadium. In the preceding match, Carlos Alcaraz, a dynamic Spanish 18-year-old, eliminated the No. 3 men’s seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, in a momentum-shifting thriller that came down to a fifth-set tiebreaker. That was the final match of the day session, and when the arena had been cleared and the night-session crowd had taken their seats, Fernandez followed Alcaraz’s lead, rallying to defeat the third-seeded Osaka.The upset came on the same court where Osaka had become a global star by surprising Serena Williams to win the 2018 U.S. Open. Osaka has since won three more Grand Slam singles titles, including one at last year’s Open.Fernandez had never faced Osaka but did not appear intimidated.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesOsaka broke Fernandez’s serve at 5-5 in the second set with a backhand winner and then served for the match. She had not faced even a break point at that stage but was unable to close out the victory. Fernandez went on to win the first five points of the ensuing tiebreaker, prompting Osaka to hurl her racket to the court. Fernandez then evened the match at one set apiece.“I guess I wanted to stay on the court a little bit longer, and I wanted to put on a show for everybody here,” Fernandez said in her post-match interview. “One hour was just not enough for me on court.”Fernandez quickly took the lead in the third set by breaking Osaka’s serve again in the opening game, and though Osaka began to find her range in her own service games, she could not solve Fernandez’s slower left-handed serve.Osaka did not hide her frustration. After Fernandez hit a net-cord winner in the second game of the final set to go up, 40-15, Osaka took hold of the ball and smacked it high into the stands, receiving a code violation for ball abuse.Fernandez would face no break points on her serve in the final set, and when it came time to serve for the most significant victory of her career, she held at love. At 30-0, she hit a terrific backhand drop-shot winner, and on her first match point, Osaka misjudged a forehand and hit it wide.Osaka appeared to be frustrated in the final set, hitting a ball high into the stands.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesArms up and smiling, Fernandez jogged forward to the net for the handshake.“From the very beginning, right before the match, I knew I was able to win,” she said.Fernandez’s victory was the first major upset of the U.S. Open women’s tournament, which, despite the depth of talent in the women’s game, had largely respected the seedings in the first two rounds. But Friday’s result was the latest setback for Osaka, the biggest star in the women’s game after Serena Williams. Since winning the Australian Open in February, she has played sparingly and has not won another title or even reached another semifinal.Osaka withdrew from the French Open after winning one round after she was fined for declining to take part in the mandatory post-match news conference. Later she explained in a post on social media that she had experienced depression since winning the 2018 U.S. Open and had often found it difficult to face the news media. She returned to her home in Los Angeles and decided to skip Wimbledon but returned to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, where she became the first tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron but lost in the third round to Marketa Vondrousova.Fernadez’s parents, left, after the upset.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesShe was beaten in the round of 16 of the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati by Jil Teichmann in her only North American tournament before this year’s Open. After defeating Maria Bouzkova in straight sets in the first round in New York, she received a walkover in the second round when Olga Danilova withdrew because of illness.But because of her lack of recent match play, the unexpected break did not turn out to be an advantage. Fernandez, brimming with energy, was able to capitalize. More