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The US Open at Flushing Meadows, the last of the Grand Slam events in tennis, commences on August 26 and ends on September 2 (Monday). The Open changed its surface from grass to clay in 1975 and to hard court in 1978. Jimmy Connors is the only player who won on grass, clay and hard courts in 1974, 1976 and 1978, respectively. Unlike in the other majors, there is tie-break in the last set.
For the players, the transition from grass at Wimbledon to the hard-courts of Flushing Meadows is not as disconcerting as the one from the slow clay in the French Open to the fast grass at Wimbledon. The hard-courts at Flushing Meadows are close to Wimbledon in the speed of play. Many hard-court tournaments are held in US before the Open, helping players to tune themselves to the Grand Slam event. That the road to Flushing Meadows from Wimbledon is easier to negotiate than in the other case is evident from the fact that there have been 19 back-to-back winners in the history of tennis between them in contrast to nine between the French Open and Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic was the last to achieve the feat at Flushing Meadows in 2011.
The Cincinnati ATP Masters 1000, the last of the pre-Open hard-court tournaments, is played on Decoturf - the same as at Flushing Meadows. Cincinnati is to Flushing Meadows what Rome is to Roland Garros and Queen's Club to Wimbledon. Since 2000, eight out of the 13 US Open champions have been from the finalists of the preceding Cincinnati event. This year in the final Rafael Nadal won a magnificent battle against John Isner, who had earlier defeated Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively.
Predicting the results in Grand Slam championships is increasingly becoming difficult in view of the abundance of talent in the circuit. We have seen the massacre in Wimbledon where both Nadal and Roger Federer were knocked out in the first and the second rounds, respectively. However, Nadal made a remarkable comeback with victories at Cincinnati and Montreal. He is the favourite to win the Open. Andy Murray, the defending champion, and Djokovic have had no major wins in the recent period.
Federer was out of competition in the second round at Wimbledon 2013, defeated by Sergiy Stakhovsky, who is ranked 116. Since then he has lost to very junior players like Federico Delbonis (59) and Daniel Brands (55), the latter happening in the second round, of all places, at the Swiss Open before his home crowd. After Wimbledon, Cincinnati was the only hard court event in which he participated where he lost to Nadal in the semi-finals. I think age is catching up with him. The potent instruments in his arsenal, like the tremendous aces delivered in difficult moments and vicious spins, both on forehand and backhand, seem to be not as effective as before. It is time that he considers retiring from the game without going through further ignominy by being defeated by sundry players. He has all the trophies in his bag with the exception of the calendar-year Grand Slam. Neither he nor anyone else is likely to achieve it in this decade. Unlike in the last two years, when the quartet of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray featured in the semi-finals of major tournaments, now we have Del Potro (US Open champion of 2009), Isner, David Ferrer, Nicolás Almagro and Milos Raonic, to mention a few, who can give the top four a run for their money. It is good for the sport to be freed from the oligopoly of the quartet.
On the women's side, Serena Williams, the defending champion, is likely to win despite her loss at Cincinnati to Victoria Azarenka. The latter is now 3-12 against the former. The Bryan Brothers may be expected to re-establish their dominance in the doubles.
