With Novak Djokovic Out, the U.S. Open Peeks at Tennis’s Future

As players that only hard-core tennis fans are familiar with duel in empty stadiums — Sunday afternoon featured round of 16 matches between Petra Martic of Croatia and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and Alejandro Fokino of Spain and Alexander Zverev of Germany — it is hard not to see the rows of unoccupied seats as an omen.

“Let’s hope it is just this one year,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, the chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals, which represents the male players and their tournaments.

Williams — a megastar without whom it would have been difficult to see the tournament happening at all — may yet win the title. The less well-known Sofia Kenin, 21, of the United States, won the Australian Open in January and barreled her way into the second week at the U.S. Open before losing, 6-3, 6-3, to the 16th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium. Naomi Osaka, the 2018 U.S. Open champion, has drawn significant attention both with her play and her persistence in speaking out against systemic racism.

Even with them at the top, the women’s tournament is basically a crapshoot. By Sunday evening the No. 23 and No. 28 seeded players in the women’s draw had booked spots in the quarterfinals, as did Shelby Rogers, ranked No. 93 in the world.

“The women’s game is so deep, anybody can win a major,” Jen Brady, 25, of the United States, declared Sunday after upsetting a former world No. 1, Angelique Kerber, to make her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

For years tennis relied on rivalries to sell itself. Judging from this year’s U.S. Open, that might not be possible in the near future, for the men and especially for the women.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/sports/tennis/us-open-tennis-future-novak-djokovic.html