The Difficulty of Winning the US Open: Exploring the Challenges Faced by Players

Faraj Benlahoucine, Media365: published on Sunday August 27, 2023 at 8:21 p.m.

On the eve of the launch of the 2023 edition of the US Open, we explain to you why, traditionally, the great players do not systematically manage to win the Grand Slam tournament in New York.

This Monday, the last Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season will begin in New York. Who will succeed Carlos Alcaraz, winner of Casper Ruud last year to also take the place of world No. 1? A particularly complicated question. Because unlike the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, the US Open is not owned by anyone. And this observation is not new. In the past five years, five different winners have lifted the winner’s trophy on Arthur Ashe Court. In the past, apart from Roger Federer between 2004 and 2008, no player has mastered all the parameters specific to this tournament.

Among the parameters to be mastered, there is physical freshness. In the second half of the season, especially after a grueling and often contested North American tour in oppressive heat, you also have to acclimatize to the capricious weather on the northeast coast of the United States. Sometimes rainy but generally humid and very hot, it can easily upset the most fragile organisms. Also, the Big Apple atmosphere is not to be overlooked. “At the US Open, it’s constant excitement, there is always a form of chaos, the public can go completely crazy… Honestly, it’s one of the hardest tournaments to win and especially for the younger ones.because there are also a lot of distractions in Manhattan” analyzed the former American tennis player Michael Chang tells us Eurosport.

The favorites have been struggling there for three years

The winner of Roland-Garros in 1989 mentioned Manhattan because the players (generally) stay in this district. Therefore, this separates them from the US Open courts by almost an hour’s journey. Even more depending on the traffic of the largest metropolis in the United States. All these aspects largely explain the failures of the favorites who never managed to make this very special tournament their backyard. Even more incredible, the final victory in the three previous editions did not go to a resident of the top 3 in the world. Dominic Thiem won an unprecedented 2020 final against Alexander Zverev. The following year, Daniil Medvedev deprived Novak Djokovic of the Grand Slam as Rod Laver had done in his time in 1969. In 2022, Carlos Alcaraz won his first major at 19. A feat that made him go down in tennis history by becoming the youngest world No. 1. Keeping his New York crown this year would therefore also be sublime.

2023-08-27 18:37:27
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