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At the U.S. Open, to be or not to be battle-tested is the question
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- At the U.S. Open, to be or not to be battle-tested is the question
NEW YORK — Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton are one match away from what could be the men's matchup of the U.S. Open .
Alcaraz, probably the best tennis player on the planet, is a generational talent. He has mastered both artistry and power to become an all-time great at 23. He is also working his way back from a serious injury to his right wrist at the kind of warp speed that is rarely safely seen in sports.
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On the other side is Shelton, the biggest name in American men's tennis right now and likely his cohort's best hope for breaking a 23-year Grand Slam drought, with his fiery mix of power, athleticism and energy.
As the U.S. Open starts its second week, Shelton and Alcaraz also represent opposite journeys through the precarious first days of a Grand Slam. Is it best to conserve energy and strength in the legs while rolling over opponents, or to get pushed close to the limit once or twice, so that when the matches get harder and the pressure rises, the terrain is familiar?
Where Alcaraz has cruised, Shelton has clawed. The Spaniard has spent 7 hours and 22 minutes on court. He has played 10 sets and 89 games, winning nine of those 10 sets.
Shelton has spent 9 hours and 21 minutes on court. He has played 12 sets and 122 games, winning nine of those sets. He has also played four tiebreaks.
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His latest four-set win, over Canada's Denis Shapovalov stretched through Friday night and into Saturday morning, finishing at 2 a.m. ET.
Coming off the court, Shelton said in a hallway under Arthur Ashe Stadium that he wouldn't have it any other way. His other opponents — the freewheeling Tallon Griekspoor and the big-serving Hubert Hurkacz — had given him a rich palette from which to draw later in the tournament.
"This is a great way to start in terms of variety," Shelton said.
"I have dealt with a lefty, dealt with a big hitter, dealt with a feel guy, dealt with a massive server, dealt with a spot server, serve-and-volleyer. I feel well prepared for what's ahead."
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His next challenge is a revived Stefanos Tsitsipas, in the round of 16 Sunday night.
Alcaraz, and some other players in both draws, may want to have a word with Shelton, though he has plenty of company among those who are more reason by the day to believe in the beauty of battles. Looking at you, Naomi Osaka.
"I'm happy to play three-setters," Alcaraz said in a news conference Friday after his second straight-set win in three matches. "Less time you spend on the court, much better for the next round."
Tommy Paul, Alcaraz's next opponent, put it even more succinctly. "I want easy matches all the time," he said after climbing back from a set down to outlast Alexander Bublik in five sets on Friday.
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"You're going to get tough matches at some point in the tournament," Paul said.
"You know, if you actually want to win these tournaments, you have to beat the best players. My mindset is, it doesn't matter when. I mean, you just got to do it at some point."
That point can sometimes come out of nowhere. For Naomi Osaka, a semifinalist last year, it arrived from the jump. The two-time champion squeaked through her first round in two tiebreakers. She needed three sets to survive her second round against Katerina Siniakova. On Saturday night against the Belgian wall named Elyse Mertens, she stormed back from a break down in the third set, overcame tightness in her leg late, and found the courage to hit big shots in big moments at the end to get into the second week.
She needed a jumping backhand winner from the middle of the court to earn her fourth match point, then watched a last Mertens forehand sail wide for a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 triumph.
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"Honestly i can't believe I won this match," she said on the court when it was over. "I feel like i put my entire heart on the court."
Taylor Fritz met it Saturday, after playing the most efficient tennis of the first two rounds of the men's tournament. Fritz blitzed first his compatriot Darwin Blanch, and then Mattia Bellucci, losing just 11 games in six sets.
He liked how it had gone. For Fritz, a day off, which players get during Grand Slams most of the way, isn't enough to recover from a hard match.
"It is really important to not kill yourself in the first couple of matches, because you need to have the energy to potentially do that later in the week," Fritz said.
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Fritz was cruising once more Saturday, up two sets and a break against Francisco Cerúndolo, before it all went awry. His serve abandoned him. He lost his lead. Then Fritz let Cerúndolo off the hook late in the fifth set, and he was out of the tournament.
Alexander Zverev, the No. 1 seed, keeps running into tests in the middle of the night. He has been last on Arthur Ashe Stadium for all three his matches. That hasn't worked out so well for him so far, but maybe it will pay off.
He could end up being the poster child for players who like to steel themselves for the grist of the back end of a Grand Slam. His first two rounds involved 10 sets, three tiebreaks, and nearly 10 hours on the court. Any player, or medical professional, would also say Zverev is something other than battle tested. He's gone to sleep twice already somewhere around 5 a.m., just before sunrise. It's the sort of thing that can make 10 hours on the court feel more like 15. He did at least make quicker work of Chile's Alejandro Tabilo in the third round, getting on and off Arthur Ashe Stadium in two hours and 25 minutes.
After surviving Quentin Halys Thursday night and early Friday morning, Zverev said he felt fine physically and just hoped that at some point he would start playing better tennis. He often finds New York difficult, especially the wind that can kick up in the evenings.
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"I'm winning ugly right now," Zverev said. "It's also a skill to win ugly, when you're not playing great tennis. I think I've mastered that right now."
Winning ugly has long been Coco Gauff's specialty, though that has shifted this year as she has improved her serve and her forehand. Saturday's win over Cristina Bucșa of Spain was a bit of a regression. Gauff double-faulted six times, including twice in a row in one game. She had just 18 winners against 28 unforced errors. She still won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, but she was frustrated when it was over and didn't hide it. When she gave a break back at 4-3 in the second set, she smacked herself in the head with the ball repeatedly.
She was far more pleased with what her second-round match against Paula Badosa. She and Badosa pounded the ball at each other for two hours. Gauff won 6-4, 7-6(5) on a night when Badosa, who held a 5-3 edge in their head to head, had forced her to raise her level far higher than most players might want to in the second round.
"It's good to be battle-tested," Gauff said in a news conference afterward, noting that when she won her first Grand Slam title here in 2023, she played deciding third sets in five of her seven matches.
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"It's a good confidence booster knowing that I can get through these matches," she said. "Getting through in straight sets too makes a big difference. Yes, I was battle-tested, but I think it was a good battle where I wasn't out on the court for three hours."
Trouble is, tennis players generally don't get to choose whether they want to face an early test or cruise through. The opponent has plenty to say about that. So do the conditions, biorhythms and a whole variety of factors both controllable and not.
Being battle tested didn't do Madison Keys much good. On Thursday, she had saved five match points on her way back from a 5-2 deficit in the third set of her match against Anna Bondár.
On Saturday, she was up 5-0 in the third set and lost seven consecutive games to Zheng Qinwen to lose the match. Keys said she found herself unable to swing as her lead slipped away.
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Emma Navarro, the No. 26 seed, once scribbled "Me❤️3sets" on a camera lens after a three-set win. She has been up to some of her old tricks during this first week. She beat unseeded players in three sets in the first two rounds. Then she upset the No. 7 seed and Wimbledon finalist, Karolína Muchová, in straight sets.
Navarro said she likes the feeling of winning a three-set battle because she can call on the recent memory if her next match goes that long. She also likes winning quickly, which can boost confidence in other ways.
This is where the mind games come in. No matter how a player has reached the second week, the convince themselves that they have followed the best possible route toward what might lie ahead.
"You kind of make the most of the situation you're in and frame it in a positive way," Navarro said.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
Tennis, Women's Tennis
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