Quarter-final playlist quite the major letdown
NEW YORK— Can we have a Slam let?
As in replay the point. As in start the tournament over.
Because the Grand finale of the tennis season has turned into a holy dud at the quarter-pole.
Oh sure, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are still tracking on the GPS for a semifinal collision at Flushing Meadows where the current world No. 1 and No. 3 (soon No. 2) have weirdly never faced each other before. Assuming both win their matches on Wednesday with Federer having the tougher assignment against Juan Martin del Potro, who won the whole enchilada here in 2009, among the handful who’ve breached the Big Four domination at majors. Nadal gets upstart Russian teenager Andrey Rublev. That should be eye-candy for tennis fans.
But assumptions are a mug’s game at this wacky, wonky Open, one of the most misfiring majors in memory.
While the men’s side has been decimated by injuries and withdrawals, the women’s side saw eight of the top dozen seeds sent packing through the round of16. Plus diva attraction Maria Sharapova, who at least brought the Swarovski glitter.
Not a whole lot to get engaged about, unless you’re an American, and therefore thrilled about four red-white-and-blue ladies into the quarter-finals, for the first time in 15 years, each one emerging from a different quarter. And not a one of them named Serena.
At least so it stood as Tuesday dawned. A slightly different story before dusk descended on Queens, as pretty-in-pink Sloane Stephens, all jittery in her first ’final at the American Open, although she’d been down both the quarter (Wimbledon) and semi (Australian Open) aisle before, in her breakout 2013 season. Not long removed, however, from a year off rehabbing a fractured foot, most of it spent in a boot cast, able only to play balls on the practice court whilst sitting in a chair.
So grant the unseeded Stephens all of that, noting however that she’d been hanging 10 on a wave of self-confidence with back-to-back semis in Toronto and Cincinnati.
A peculiarly lethargic affair between Stephens and Latvian comeback player Anastasija Sevastova, who’d earlier taken Sharapova off the board. Both women looked a-tremble and gasp-y, as they split the first two sets 6-3. In the deciding frame, Stephens — with the Arthur Ashe crowd at her back — seemed to find inner resolve upon being broken early, holding with a fist-pump after twice staring at advantage Sevastova, then breaking back at 3-3.
Neither showed particular boldness or ferocity as the match proceeded to a tiebreak, though the Latvian certainly displayed a particular knack with her confounding drop shot. First tiebreak for both in this tournament and Stephens, scouring up some grit, prevailed as the 16th-seeded Sevastova was betrayed by a suddenly vulnerable serve, her Floridian opponent taking it with a backhand winner: 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4).
“Oh man, I’m getting teary-eyed,” the 24-year-old said immediately afterwards. “This is just incredible. Honestly, when I started my comeback at Wimbledon I could have never dreamed of something like this happening, making the semifinals at my home slam, my favourite tournament.”
The crowd certainly lapped that up. On tap Wednesday for Team USA, Madison Keys takes on qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, world ranked 418, while CoCo Vandeweghe drops the hard-serving gloves with world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic. As for the men . . . What can one say about the wasteland on the bottom half of the draw, denuded in the early rounds of Marin Cilic, Alexander Zverev, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Canadian sweetie Denis Shapovalov?
Here’s a factoid: Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman, had he won this major, would have become the shortest man to do since 2004. He’s five-foot-nine in a game of giants. Further factoid: While training in Florida prior to the U.S. Open, Schwartzman took a detour to the Universal Studios theme park at Orlando. “I’m a little bit scared with the roller-coaster.”
Final factoid: Ousted by Pablo Carreno Busta in the first quarters match Tuesday, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
The Spaniard thereby had already pulled off the unprecedented Slam trick of advancing to the quarters without confronting anything other than qualifiers. Four of them in a row, ranked 308th, 225th, 115th and No. 69 (Shapovalov).
At world No. 19 and seeded 12th, Carreno Busta is the highest ranked survivor in the low-ball bottom bracket. No ripper, this also-ran matchup. Schwartzman got off to a poor start, broken to love in the opening game of the first set, and to 15 six on.
Carreno Busta struck early in the second set as well, breaking to love in the third game, though the Argentine broke back with a massive backhand on his second break-point drive-by. Schwartzman found a handful of grit, working his way back to level but couldn’t stave off Carreno Busta’s methodical, quite eye-glazing style. Crucially, Schwartzman took only two of10 break points while Carreno Busta converted six of eight.
The Spaniard broke to open the third set and again in the seventh game before serving out for the victory after just an hour and 58 minutes.
Not a U.S. Open brevity record — the Sunday late-night cha-cha between American Sam Querrey and Mischa Zverev whipped by in a 2017 Open record 77 minutes.
But hell, it felt like forever.