At the US Open, Coco Gauff, Ben Shelton and Brandon Nakashima will provide the kind of things New York expects
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NEW YORK — A year ago, Ben Shelton began its US Open on Court 10, in the quasi-backcountry of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. To find it, you walk to the other side of the fountains, where a ball that flies over the fence is essentially gone for good.
A year later, on the first Monday, he had a different assignment: He had to open Arthur Ashe Stadium at noon to face Dominic Thiem, the 2020 champion and a player Shelton had watched with open mouth in his teenage years.
How much has Shelton’s life changed in a year?
“I just felt comfortable,” he said. “I was used to it. It felt like I had been there before.”
Indeed he had. The then 20-year-old played three matches in the biggest stadium in the sport last year, culminating in a semi-final with Novak Djokovic that ended with the 24-time Grand Slam champion mocking Shelton’s celebration of hanging up the phone, with Shelton staring at Djokovic during an icy handshake.
“After last year, the stage doesn’t get much bigger than that,” Shelton said.
Maybe. Or maybe.
For the first time since 1996, there are five U.S. men and five women in the top 20. With none of the men ranked higher than No. 12, these are hardly the glory days of Sampras, Agassi, Courier and Chang. No American man has won the event since Andy Roddick in 2003. But those top five women include Coco Gauff, the reigning champion, and four others ranked no lower than Madison Keys at No. 14.
The hope is palpable. The ground is packed with metal stands and concrete walkways of fields, filled with bodies, noise and anticipation.
US Open fans flocked to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with a sense of genuine hope. (Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)
Shelton was the leadoff batter for the bigger names in the top half of the draw, with Gauff coming in behind him. They couldn’t rely on the calm and comfort Shelton displayed as an opener before sliding through a fading Thiem 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Ben Shelton hopes to repeat his semifinal feat in 2023. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
The last time Gauff played a competitive match here, she finished it on her back, with tears streaming down her face and 24,000 delirious fans screaming for her and everything she meant.
The 20-year-old doesn’t like to wave to the crowd because she sees how many people are looking at her. It makes her nervous. But Shelton made a joke of it during a Fan Week charity match, so she waved on Monday. Here come the butterflies.
The warm-up calmed her down, but then she nearly lost her serve on her first two attempts. Then she calmed down and plowed through an even shakier Varvara Gracheva of France, 6-2, 6-0.
“I feel like I’m starting to find my game,” Gauff said afterwards.
She has been shaky since her French Open semifinal loss in June. Earlier losses than expected. On-court arguments with coaches over mistakes and with chair umpires over decisions. Her victories this summer have mostly come against players outside the top 50.
She’s number 2 in the world. She knows she should be better than that.
She also lost early in Cincinnati, but had a good week of training afterward, she said. At the time, she turned the scenario around in her mind, telling herself that the early loss in Ohio, where she was the reigning champion, had been a blessing in disguise. It gave her extra time to train, a bit of a flat track after the hamster wheel of the Olympics, Canada and Cincinnati.
Coco Gauff says she is back on her feet after a difficult period. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On Monday, she walked into Arthur Ashe with the idea that no matter the score, she could play her game.
“Of course it’s good to get through the first round like this,” she said. “I’ve learned that how you start a tournament doesn’t necessarily mean how you’re going to finish and vice versa.”
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That’s true, but the first step is to survive the start. Taylor Fritz knows this better than anyone. Two years ago, he arrived in New York thinking he could actually win.
Djokovic didn’t play because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Rafael Nadal played injured. Roger Federer was a month away from retirement. Carlos Alcaraz was just a man named Carlos Alcaraz, or as close to that as he ever was.
Fritz instead lost in the first round to a qualifier named Brandon Holt. Holt is best known as the son of Tracy Austin, a two-time champion a few generations back, and for beating Fritz at the 2022 U.S. Open when Fritz thought he had a chance to actually win it.
Taylor Fritz used the momentum of a thrilling first set to ease past his opponent, Camilo Ugo Carabelli. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Fritz will think about that loss, and the dual benefits of a home tournament, at every US Open and until his retirement.
“It’s great to play at your own Grand Slam with the crowd and everything that’s happening,” he said after a three-set win over Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
Keys, the 2017 runner-up behind another American, Sloane Stephens, joined the trio in taking care of business when she defeated Czech doubles star Katerina Siniakova. Emma Navarro defeated Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-1.
Stephens did her job well and led 6-0, 3-0 over France’s Clara Burel, but then lost 0-6, 7-5, 7-5.
There were a few better American surprises. In her first major match on the WTA Tour, 16-year-old wildcard Iva Jovic defeated Poland’s Magda Linette, who is twice her age and 347 spots higher.
Before the pandemic, Jovic played soccer and swam, an all-around athlete. But when COVID-19 hit, tennis was the only sport she could play because she didn’t have to be part of a team.
She is now the youngest American ever to win a main-draw match at the US Open.
Iva Jovic defeated Magda Linette, who is ranked 347 places above her. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)
Linette thought it would be a tall order, but Jovic had seen other juniors she had beaten solid tour players in recent months, and she convinced herself she had the level.
“I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it’s definitely fun that my first match is in New York,” said Jovic, who played in front of a packed house on Court 15 that could have turned other teenagers’ knees to slime.
And then there was Taylor Townsend, the Wimbledon doubles champion, who capitalized on her status as a left-handed singles nightmare.
“This didn’t just happen,” Townsend said after beating Italy’s Martina Trevisan.
“The success I had in doubles and the insight into myself is now translating into singles.”
Taylor Townsend’s best singles run in New York came in a fourth-round showing in 2019. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Another surprise? Brandon Nakashima beats No. 15 Holger Rune 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in a respectable hour and 55 minutes. Add to that Rune’s recent form and Nakashima’s tendency to lull opponents into mistakes, and it’s not exactly a big one.
Then came Frances Tiafoe, who had a night slot at Louis Armstrong Stadium. This is the tournament he counts the days for 50 weeks of the year, and he has said, with only a hint of sarcasm, that it is one of the two he really cares about.
The Citi Open in Washington, DC, is the other, but nothing compares to his home Grand Slam. That could be a double-edged sword, as far as Fritz is concerned.
“I’m so excited,” Tiafoe said last week. That too can have its pros and cons, and he knows it. New coach David Witt’s reputation as one of the more laid-back souls in the game is one reason Tiafoe hired him.
“I can go really high and really low, and he keeps me balanced,” he said. “He doesn’t let moments get bigger than they are, or as strenuous as I can make them sometimes.”
Frances Tiafoe is starting to look more like herself after a difficult first six months of the year. (Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images)
When it came time to show, Tiafoe did his thing, with plenty of the whipping and touch volleys that can make him a human highlight reel when he’s on. And on he was for most of the night, ending in a four-set victory over another American, Alex Kovacevic.
Tiafoe faltered a bit in the third set and failed to finish Kovacevic in the efficient manner he needs to return to the second week.
“It got pretty tough towards the end,” Tiafoe said.
On the always exciting opening night of the home tournament, it was enough to take care of business.
(Top photo of Brandon Nakashima: Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
