The US Open has been WILD this year. Venus Williams came back at age 45, and though she lost in the first round of singles, she and Leylah Fernandez made it to the quarterfinals of the doubles and it was an absolute joy to see. Naomi Osaka’s resurgence and Amanda Anisimova’s rise were equally thrilling. A man took arguably the best tennis photo of all time. Carlos Alcaraz shaved his head.
But: A fan tried to grab Jannik Sinner’s bag. Karolina Muchova started crying in the middle of a match because she noticed an ex-boyfriend in the crowd whom she didn’t want there. Coco Gauff openly wept on-court during a bad run of serves, well aware that the media fervently covered the hiring of a new mechanics coach a week before the Open to try and fix her yips. Taylor Townsend played some of the sharpest singles of HER career, but had to spend the whole week answering questions about Jelena Ostapenko, who lost to Taylor and then jammed a finger in her face and said she had “no education” after Taylor did not apologize for a net cord that went her way (in Taylor’s defense, it was not the last shot of the point and sometimes people forget in that situation). And after Benjamin Bonzi had match point against Daniil Medvedev and netted his first serve, an overeager photographer ran onto the court, which led to the umpire stopping play to yell at him and then awarding Bonzi a clean slate of serves. Medvedev LOST HIS SHIT.
It was technically the correct call by the letter of the law, but not actually a necessary one, because Bonzi had not begun his service motion yet; the umpire neglected to explain this, and Medvedev caused a seven-minute delay by arguing, telling the camera the umpire “isn’t paid by the hour, just by the match, so he wants to go home,” and then stoking the drunk and fired-up crowd by making heart hands at them. Meddie probably should have been penalized a point — and thus lost the match — but inexplicably he was not. (This umpire is widely reviled.) Instead, Bonzi waited, and then had to serve through a hailstorm of boos (terrible tennis etiquette from the fans) despite NONE of this being his fault, and ended up losing that set and the next one before dueling back to take it in five.
The crowds were notably worse, and notably more proud of it. They seem to wear rowdiness like a badge of honor, but there’s a difference between loud cheers and atmosphere, and refusing to stop booing, or refusing to sit down and stop talking — I cannot count the number of times the ump had to tell everyone to knock off the noise because the players were ready. It was a PACKED two weeks. I can’t believe we’re done until January.
[Photos: Sarah Stier, Al Bello, Robert Prange, Clive Brunskill, Mike Stobe, Elsa, Matthew Stockman, Maddie Meyer, Jean Catuffe/Getty Images, Susan Mullane/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images, CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images]
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