Here comes the US Open, the fourth and final tennis Grand Slam event for the year, starting Monday, August 26 at Flushing Meadow in New York. Of the Big Three who’ve dominated the sport for decades, Roger Federer has retired, Rafael Nadal is injured and may be done, and only Novak Djokovic remains. On the women’s side, the Williams sisters have left the building and no American women have come close to replacing them. And yet, the sport is more popular than ever and the U.S. National Tennis Center will be jam packed with tennis-loving funs for three weeks (including Fan Fest, already underway). Why the popularity without an array of transcendent stars? Â
To put it simply, winning a major tennis tournament is one of the hardest accomplishments in sports. And watching people accomplish that goal is consistently thrilling, even when—especially when—the matches last for hours.
Most Olympic sports typically require just seconds or minutes of perfect performance to triumph. But if you are going to win a tennis tournament, you have to be consistently outstanding for six matches over two weeks, and some of those matches could exceed five hours in the heat and humidity of a New York summer day.
Tennis may also be the most relatable of the professional sports. Most of us can’t golf or swim or run at a professional level, and few of us have the height and wingspan of an NBA player, but pretty much anybody can bang a tennis ball over the net. So we can see ourselves more easily in professional tennis players than perhaps in any sport.Â
On top of that, tennis players wear the least gear of any professional athletes this side of swim meets. No helmets, no shin guards, no visible protective gear of any kind. This creates a sense of humanity and vulnerability that you don’t get when athletes are wearing uniforms or protective gear.
Two men, or two women, facing off on a tennis court create a sense of gladiatorial combat that evokes some sort of ancient, visceral desire in us to see one person, to put it bluntly, beat the stuffing out of the other. Talk about being in the arena. Coaches can yell down encouragement or guidance, but in the competition itself, the player is all alone.
In addition to Djokovic, the star who stirs more mixed emotions than any athlete alive, tennis has a rising star in the form of Carlos Alcaraz, barely old enough to order a legal drink but already the possessor of four Grand Slam titles and most likely on his way to many more. He and Djokovic had a terrific summer, with Alcaraz bashing Djokovic in the Wimbledon finals and Djokovic returning the favor in Paris at the Olympics a few weeks later. If you are betting the chalk, you’ll be expecting those two to face off in the finals in New York.
But to get there, they will have to vanquish five competitors of varying degrees of worthiness. It is rare for a top player to drop a match, or even a set, to an early round contender. Those first couple of matches are typically hors d’oeuvres before the big meals to follow. But you never know. That is why the first week of the US Open will be just as packed with fans as the second week. And every match offers drama, thrills, spellbinding rallies, and heartbreak, the full gamut of human emotion.
The next generation of tennis stars has names that, if you drew those letters while playing Scrabble, you would toss them back in the bag. I’m looking at you, Kyrgios and Zverev. They and the other top flight players, Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Francis Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, to name a few, traverse the globe all year long, beating the tennis shorts off each other from Cincinnati to Beijing. But no one aside from Alcaraz really stands out. Once Djokovic retires, the question will arise: is there anyone who can consistently beat a maturing Carlos Alcaraz? So far, it doesn’t look that way.
On the women’s side, there are flashes of greatness but no one absolutely dominant, transcending the sport, like Venus and Serena or Martina and Chrissie back in the day. The top American women — Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka – can seldom sustain highest level play over six straight matches. These days, no American woman whose name non-tennis fans would recognize graces the courts at Flushing Meadow.
And yet. The level of competition is so high, and the serendipity of stumbling into a side court thriller is so much fun, that the US Open will dazzle its attendees, no matter whom they see play, no matter who wins. If you are going, be good to yourself and take public transportation. Flushing Meadow was simply not built for the onslaught of automobiles that seek to park nearby. The 7 train and the Long Island Railroad will whisk you practically to the Tennis Center gates.
If you have never been, go. You might not think of tennis as a blood sport. But it is, more than ever, as the players are stronger and more strategic than ever. Pack the sunscreen, bring a hat, tote a refillable water bottle, and bring lunch or dinner, because food and beverages at the venue cost a king’s ransom. Whatever the tickets cost, buy them.
Day or night, indoors at Arthur Ashe or outdoors on the most obscure side court, the US Open is simply the greatest show in town.
New York Times bestselling author Michael Levin runs www.MeaningBooks.com, the world’s most exclusive book ghostwriting firm.
