2021 U. S. Open Tennis Championships...ATP 2000...New York, New York

[arturohernandez]

Good last game by Medvedev. Novak made him win it.

Disappointing match. Novak so poor physically today, moving much slower than usual. Whether that was nerves or fatigue, who knows. Nothing wrong with Medvedev's form today. He had a plan and stuck to it from start to finish.

He has gone through dips the last few years and overcome them. Not sure he will continue to do it. Winning 7 5-set matches is very tough. The young guard will be ready to send the old guard to the hall of fame.

[stotty]

He has gone through dips the last few years and overcome them. Not sure he will continue to do it. Winning 7 5-set matches is very tough. The young guard will be ready to send the old guard to the hall of fame.

You always seem keen to consign the Big 3 to the old age bin. Novak has won three slams this year and reach a final in another. Not too shoddy! And Roger is probably the best 40 year old player, outside of Pancho Gonzales, who has ever played, and his achievement is probably even greater when you consider how fast the game is now compared to the classic era.

Age catches up with all of us. With the Big 3 it's about eking as much out of themselves as they possibly can and the complete maximisation of their tennis careers. Enjoy it!

Novak had nothing in his legs and Daniil played a monster of a match. He will have to be more efficient in slams going forward. Dropping 6 sets and having a marathon semi-final kiboshed his chances this time round.

[jthb1021]

Medvedev had the dream draw en route to his first grand slam title. No doubt he earned it and is very deserving, he has obviously put in the work and hard yards so to speak. But I don’t think the draw could have been much more top heavy at the back end of the tournament. Congratulations to Daniil but I believe if they switched draws Novak would have made history yesterday.
Way too soon to call for a changing of the guard! Novak has got a couple good years left and you’d be crazy not to think he’s going to have a great 2022. He’s got the Austrailian Open where he always does well and at Wimbledon he’s by far the best grass court player in the world right now…barring injury you can go ahead and give him 2022 Wimbledon trophy right now. The only thing that might happen in 2022 is his streak and record of weeks at #1 may come to an end as he really gets selective about which events he plays. All the greats lately seem to relinquish that as they make the final push for more slams as they prolong their careers.

[arturohernandez]

You always seem keen to consign the Big 3 to the old age bin. Novak has won three slams this year and reach a final in another. Not too shoddy! And Roger is probably the best 40 year old player, outside of Pancho Gonzales, who has ever played, and his achievement is probably even greater when you consider how fast the game is now compared to the classic era.

Age catches up with all of us. With the Big 3 it's about eking as much out of themselves as they possibly can and the complete maximisation of their tennis careers. Enjoy it!

Novak had nothing in his legs and Daniil played a monster of a match. He will have to be more efficient in slams going forward. Dropping 6 sets and having a marathon semi-final kiboshed his chances this time round.

You would think that I am some young kid ready to give to the old guys. I have been thinking that these guys would finally wear out. And they keep surprising me. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the rivalries.

At the same time, you have to feel for the younger generation. I mean they keep knocking on the door and it just peaks open before closing again.

Maybe a better question is how do these guys keep doing it? It must be advances in training, nutrition and health science.

All 3 of them are heads and tails above any other generation. At 34 pretty much every other generation was done. A few players would hang in there for a while and make a run every so often.

But few were able to dominate at the slams for such a long time.

Okay, happier now. I'll pull them out of the dustbin. But the young guns must be hungry, starving even.

[jimlosaltos]

Of possible interest ... some things I read or collected or calculated. Sorry for formatting, but I'm too lazy to take it out

USO21 By the Numbers


142 mph, fastest serve of the event was hit not by one of the "giants" nor young guns but by 5 ft 10 in, 37 yo German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber. That's not a total outlier; PK often hit 135 mph when he was younger.


129 mph, fastest serve by a woman, from Alycia Parks is only a little over 1 mph below Sabine Lisicki's fastest ever by a woman. She's a 20 yo American 6 ft 1 in and ranked 320. Others in her vicinity include: Pera, Gauff, Rybakina and Badosa.

53 shot rally won by Zverev over Djokovic was the longest by far of the tournament. It followed rallies of 18, 32 and 12 shots won by Djokovic to get to triple set point. Zverev then survived rallies of 21 shots and the absurd 53 to save the first two. But not the last.

1-0 for Emma Raducanu, 1 - Grand Slam title, 0 - WTAs WTA tour event titles. Might as well start at the top if you can!
2 Through her Sakkari semi-final, Raducanu never missed two returns in a row.

68%, by Ivashka, was the highest percentage of second serve points won. Of the top 20 leaders in this supposedly crucial stat only Medevedev at 14th made the quarterfinals and a majority didn't make it out of the first week.

43 double faults by Sabalenka and 40 by FAA led the event.

7 semifinalists or better were among the "leaders" in double faults, including 3 of the finalists. Of course, they played more matches than many. Through the semifinals Djokovic had 26 double faults, 3 more than Zverev, for whom this is considered an achilles heel.


66 % is the number of points across every match that ended in an error on the men's side vs only 34% that were winners.


#

[stotty]

36 A total of 36 five-set matches were played, the most men’s singles matches to go the distance at a US Open.

[jimlosaltos]

36 A total of 36 five-set matches were played, the most men’s singles matches to go the distance at a US Open.

Did not catch that. Thanks. Across the board, many close matches, more so than among women. Perhaps logical with Thiem and Fedal out.

[glacierguy]

Great stats jimlosaltos, thanks. Particularly like PK's 142mph serve at 37yrs, and Raducanu's never missing 2 returns in succession. Both amazing.