Why the U.S. Open Is the Hardest Main to Win

Coco Gauff faces Naomi Osaka in a marquee matchup on Monday.
Picture: Getty Photographs

The second act of Andrea Petkovic’s profession arrived when the wear and tear and tear {of professional} tennis collided with the worldwide pandemic in early 2020. Petkovic, a former world No. 9, was already sidelined with a left-knee harm that required surgical intervention. Her physician didn’t mince phrases. “He instructed me, ‘You’ll have two to 3 extra years in your knee for competitors after this, and for those who don’t wanna destroy your knee fully, then it’s best to most likely take into consideration [the end],’” she stated. Petkovic was already in her early 30s and wrestling with the existential query each participant grinding it out on tour finally contends with: How lengthy am I going to have the ability to do that? The finitude of her joints had spoken.

After a stint internet hosting a weekly sports activities tv present in Germany and enjoying on tour on the identical time, Petkovic hung up her racquet for good in 2022. When she did, the Tennis Channel requested her to do a trial week at its studios in Santa Monica. “I went there, and after 5 minutes, I used to be like, I used to be born for this,” she stated, laughing. “I noticed it was one thing the place I actually, really have deep information which you could solely collect for those who’ve achieved this on your total life.”

The telegenic Petkovic is now a commentator for the likes of ESPN, Sky Sports activities, and BBC Radio. She dons tailor-made cuts in a sea of salt-and-pepper blazers and is thought for her in-the-trenches specificity and evaluation. Her commentating model derives from what she claims she lacked throughout her years as a participant. “ I used to be not essentially the most gifted participant within the historical past of tennis, so I needed to make up for it with different issues,” she stated. “Considered one of this stuff was technique and techniques.”

On Sunday, Petkovic and I spoke concerning the highs and lows of the primary week of the U.S. Open, together with an unlucky spate of accidents, that incident with Jelena Ostapenko, and why this match is more durable to win than another main.

We’re halfway via the match. Who you bought?
Emma Radacanu and João Fonseca have been my darkish horses, and so they misplaced. However Iga Świątek and Carlos Alcaraz are nonetheless my picks to win, and they’re nonetheless alive.

Emma did very well, and Fonseca — actually, I’m type of glad that his rise goes slowly. I’ve seen teenage prodigies shoot as much as the highest earlier than, win a giant match, after which the whole lot type of collapses on them. That occurred to Emma, after she received the 2021 U.S. Open as a teenage qualifier. She is okay now, constructing her approach again up. However I believe it’s more healthy for João to have this sort of motion quite than profitable Wimbledon at 18. He has such star energy and in addition the Brazilian fan base. It’s so enjoyable.

This can be recency bias, however it appears like the quantity of accidents and variety of mid-tournament withdrawals at this yr’s U.S. Open is larger than common, together with Ben Shelton, Jack Draper, and Sebastian Korda. Do you suppose gamers are reaching a breaking level with the game’s new prolonged summer time schedule?
I haven’t regarded on the numbers statistically, however I believe there may be reality to it. I’ll use Alexander Zverev for example. He’s one of many guys who, fortunate for him, hardly ever will get injured. He’s one of many hardest-working dudes on the market. He has diabetes, so he needs to be very correct about how he prepares his physique, and that is the primary time I’ve heard him discuss being injured. He wasn’t terribly injured, however he had decrease again ache all through this whole match. That made me pause as a result of I’ve adopted his profession for years and I can not bear in mind, exterior of that terrible foot harm that occurred in the course of the 2022 French Open, him going right into a match and never feeling 100%.

The schedule has been tough — the longer Masters and WTA 1000 tournaments — and we’ve heard the gamers complain about it. You may simply inform, everybody confirmed up right here with one eye lacking and half a leg. The U.S. Open all the time felt like the toughest main to win as a result of everyone seems to be drained and you need to type of handle your vitality. After which there’s the chaos of New York itself — not everyone seems to be constructed out for it.

One other factor that has modified is the climate has gotten so much worse. After I began out on tour, the worst climate you bought was on the Australian Open. However this yr’s Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, and Toronto and Montreal —gamers have been already coming into that collection fairly exhausted after which the warmth and humidity simply sucks on the vitality ranges. Even Carlos Alcaraz needed to skip the Canadian Open to get well as a result of it adopted so intently to Wimbledon, and he’s nonetheless like 12 years previous. That’s when you need to ask your self, Is that this the precise method to transfer ahead?

Jannik Sinner having to cease his match and withdraw in the course of the remaining in Cincinnati was fairly stunning.
I don’t know for those who noticed his semifinal in Cincinnati, however he was so pale throughout it and simply had these enormous crimson dots subsequent to his eyes. I stated to Boris Becker — my podcast co-host and fellow redhead — we must always not let this ginger man play on this warmth.

Talking of Boris, in an older episode of your podcast with him, you talked about how after you performed a match towards a then–15-year-old Coco Gauff and misplaced, you knew it was time to retire.
What I noticed was that the subsequent technology was totally different; I used to be getting older; and, at that time, I already understood that Coco was a generational expertise.

That match we performed turned the primary title she received, the 2019 Linz Open in Austria. She had misplaced within the qualifiers and gotten in as a fortunate loser after which ended up profitable the title towards Jelena Ostapenko within the remaining. I used to be enjoying effectively in our match, and she or he beat me truthful and sq. as a result of she was higher. She was only a bit faster, only a bit stronger, and she or he was youthful. So, yeah, I retired rapidly after that.

Coco and Naomi Osaka are set to satisfy within the spherical of 16. Naomi has been outspoken about her psychological well being for some time, and Coco just lately talked about having what she felt was a panic assault on courtroom. Does it nonetheless really feel like a novelty when gamers communicate up about anxiousness, and panic, on tour?
Naomi was actually the trailblazer in talking overtly about psychological well being, and it began when she refused to do a press convention on the French Open in 2021. She received a variety of blowback. There may be nonetheless an previous guard in tennis, and that guard typically doesn’t perceive the brand new technology. And I’ll say that was my expertise, when Naomi first did that. I used to be like, Oh, we’ve all been there. Simply suck it up. That’s what you do once you’re a tennis participant. After which about six months later, I used to be recording a podcast for a German radio station, reviewing all the small print of that incident, and I noticed, Why did I believe like that? She shifted my mind-set. The following technology was making issues higher, not worse. And now, Casper Ruud has come ahead to speak about his psychological well being. And Andrey Rublev. And I believe Coco saying nonchalantly in an interview that she was simply feeling anxiousness and strain, and that’s why she was upset on courtroom throughout her match with Donna Vekic — all of it goes again to what Naomi began.

In German we’ve a pleasant saying: Und so schließt sich der Kreis. It’s an expression [that] interprets into “And now the circle has closed.” This upcoming fourth-round match between Naomi and Coco appears like that. Once they each began out, Naomi was on prime and went via struggles as Coco was rising via the ranks. They went via an analogous factor, the place Naomi was this celebrity at such a younger age — not simply as an emblem for gifted tennis gamers however hastily a type of a political determine who was anticipated to say all the precise issues at 18, 19 years previous. Now Naomi’s at a degree in her life the place she’s reached the second week of a significant match for the primary time since these struggles on the French Open. And Coco is on prime of her sport however in current months went via some strain moments. They usually’re about to satisfy at this juncture, so the circle has closed in a approach.

There have been a number of situations throughout this U.S. Open the place the problem of tennis’s “unwritten guidelines,” or etiquette, has taken middle stage. Ostapenko misplaced to Taylor Townsend and accused her of getting “no training and no class” for not apologizing to her for a web wire. Stefanos Tsitsipas hit a ball straight at Daniel Altmaier after Altmaier served underhanded. Do sure norms really feel like a part of that old-guard mentality?
I believe there are particular unwritten guidelines that you need to observe — effectively, truly, no, you don’t have to do something. There are guidelines that folks do observe. However in each conditions, it felt like these have been two bitter losers greedy at straws. Neither incident occurred on the very finish of the match or throughout an necessary level. They weren’t a decider of the result in any capability. The viewers is wise. The viewers is aware of once they’re listening to an excuse for why somebody’s offended about shedding. It could have been higher for Tsitsipas and Ostapenko to simply say, “Hear. I used to be freaking upset that I misplaced, and I took it out on the unsuitable individual.”

Previous to her loss within the fourth spherical, Taylor Townsend had an unimaginable singles run on the match, which appeared to shock lots of people.
She will all the time do harm at any massive match, and I believe individuals underestimate how troublesome it’s in [to manage] your vitality once you’re such a great doubles participant and need to play singles. While you’re inside tennis, you perceive all of the complexities of how that works, however exterior of it, individuals assume, “Oh, she’s not constant sufficient in her singles play.” After which the U.S. Open comes round and she or he performs so spectacularly, and everyone seems to be like, “The place has she been all my life?”

Okay, laborious pivot. You’re identified on your vogue style. What do you consider the brand new Adidas Y-3 collab with Yohji Yamamoto, which a lot of the gamers, like Jessica Pegula and Felix Auger-Aliassime, are sporting? In my tennis circles, there may be fierce debate as as to whether it’s a triumph or a tragedy.
Ha, I’m unsure, however what I do like is that each participant has their very own design on the kits they put on. It underlines their persona a bit. Oftentimes you see in a significant match 12 totally different gamers, typically enjoying one another, all sporting the very same factor. So for that reason, I give the collab a constructive.

Is there something you miss about being on tour?
The competitors. After I get to name a fantastic match on Arthur Ashe, and the entire crowd goes silent earlier than a giant second, and also you get goose bumps — that’s after I suppose, Ugh. I actually miss this. However then the subsequent day, I’ll see the gamers prepping for these sorts of matches on the follow courts or within the health club and the sensation of nostalgia instantly goes away. It’s like once you suppose again on a relationship that was good, and you may solely consider the nice issues and also you’re like, Oh, ought to I name my ex? Remembering how laborious all of it was heals me from these sorts of ideas.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.