Stability at the top: On the tennis and the U.S. Open

In current occasions, males’s tennis has had a heavy dose of predictability whereas the ladies’s recreation has been in a state of perpetual flux. If Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner cornered 11 of the 13 Majors beginning Wimbledon 2023, there have been 9 completely different winners amongst ladies in the identical interval. However on the lately concluded U.S. Open, this sample flipped. Alexander Zverev received his second males’s singles Slam trophy and first at Flushing Meadows after ending atop an ethereal discipline that misplaced Sinner earlier than the event and Alcaraz within the quarterfinal. Within the girls class, Elena Rybakina secured her third Main — additionally her first in New York — after beating prime seed and two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, and No. 4 and 2023 U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff, again to again. Among the many final 4 of Zverev, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Karen Khachanov, the tall German was the one one with Slam-winning expertise, having grabbed his maiden prime prize on the 2026 French Open, a equally open competitors the place Alcaraz was lacking and Sinner exited early. Alternatively, the WTA top-four reached the semifinals, and it was solely becoming that Rybakina’s splendid run ended along with her being topped the brand new World No. 1, ending Sabalenka’s reign of 99 straight weeks on the pinnacle.

The absence of a robust discipline, nevertheless, shouldn’t diminish Zverev’s accomplishment. Whereas it’s true that the 29-year-old confronted only one top-10 opponent — Shelton within the last on Sunday — throughout his two triumphs at Roland-Garros and the U.S. Open, he’s indisputably among the many three greatest gamers on this planet together with Alcaraz and Sinner. Sandwiched between his two title successes was a Wimbledon last look, the place he fought Sinner tooth and nail. In reality, Zverev’s ascent reinforces the thought of a brand new Huge Three in males’s tennis, and has neatly coincided with 24-time Main winner Novak Djokovic shedding within the first spherical and tumbling out of the ATP prime 10. For the primary time for the reason that early 2000s, none of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic — the earlier period’s Huge Three — is ranked within the prime 10, and the setback leaves the 39-year-old Serbian nice going through an existential menace. Sabalenka, regardless of being a worthy runner-up to Rybakina, would have additionally left the U.S. with extra questions than solutions. The 28-year-old Belarusian has misplaced 4 of her final 5 Slam finals, and all of them as World No. 1, calling into query her big-match temperament. Worryingly, she solely has a 50% success charge in all finals whereas being the top-ranked lady (7-7), an anomaly that requires a fast correction.