The shocking removal of Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday and Novak Djokovic This Friday they leave the United States Open without their last two champions and in the men’s draw full of alternatives and in search of title favourites.
The Italian Jannik Sinner (number 1), the German Alexander Zverev (n.4), the Russian Daniel Medvedev (n.5 and winner in New York in 2021) or the Russian too Andrey Rublev (n.6) some of the candidates for the throne left empty by Djokovic (n.2) tonight, beaten by the Australian in the third round Alexei Popyrin (n.28) by 6-4, 6-4, 2-6 and 6-4 in three hours and 19 minutes.
Nole therefore fell short of her 25th title by a ‘great’ to break the tie with Margaret Court (24) as the tennis player with the most trophies in history.
The current New York grand slam champion will also end a year without winning a grand slam for the first time since 2017. Along with Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, 2024 will be the first since 2002 without a grand slam for the big three .
Djokovic just won gold at Paris 2024, but he arrived in the Big Apple with little energy and did not participate in any of the hard court tournaments on the North American tour.
The Olympic Games were successful because the gold (Djokovic), the silver (Alcaraz) and the bronze (the Italian Lorenzo Musetti, n.18) were all gone in the last ‘grand slam’ of the year.
It seems that the intense emotions reached their peak on Thursday with the fall of Alcaraz (n.3), but this Friday the US Open experienced a day full of shocks, surprises in the script, dangers for the favorites and tennis until dawn. in the morning
For example, Aryna Sabalenka (n.2) and Coco Gauff (n.3 and current tournament champion) had to come back from a set down to advance against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (n.31) and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (n. .28), respectively.
The match between Sabalenka and Alexandrova, which started at 12:08 am New York time, also broke the record for the match that started later in the history of the tournament.
Just 15 minutes away from another record was the match that Zverev won against Argentine Tomás Etcheverry in four sets and ended at 2:35 in the morning. There is only one more match in US Open history: the iconic 2022 quarterfinal match in which Alcaraz beat Sinner and finished at 2:50 am.
Another eventful Friday was Norwegian Casper Ruud (n.8), who had to turn around two sets down against Chinese Juncheng Shang (n.72) to reach the round of 16.
More explosive and sharp confrontations? The record of American Frances Tiafoe (n.20) against her compatriot Ben Shelton (n.13) after five sets and four hours of battle at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The Spanish Paula Badosa (n.29) also joined the epic with a happy ending: she raised a match point against the Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse (n.122) and won a long-lasting match inside by two hours and 32 minutes -6, 6-1 and 7-6(8).
The Catalan, who will be looking for a ticket to the Flushing Meadows quarterfinals against Chinese Yafan Wang (n.80), had an extra boost in tennis on Friday in his mixed doubles debut with his romantic partner, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
‘Tsitsidosa’ did not fare well, as they lost to Mexican doubles specialists Giuliana Olmos and Santiago González.
Source: La Verdad
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