The Day That Shook the Earth

Day 5 of #USOpen play was absolutely ridiculous.

Recap the wild action 👇

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2021

There have, as always, been a lot of surprises at this year's U.S. Open. From veteran Peter Gojowczyk making the first Major fourth round of his career after a decade of attempts to young Emma Radancu conceivably reaching her second Slam second week in as many showings, there has been no shortage of shake-ups in either draw.

But perhaps no day has had as far reaching impact as yesterday, when some of the biggest contenders to not just go far, but to possibly win the title, were absolutely stunned on the biggest of courts.

Carlos Alcaraz d. Stefanos Tsitsipas (3): 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2), 0-6, 7-6(5)

It started in the early afternoon when 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz faced off against third seed and French Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. The young Spaniard has been on the radar for a while, winning his first tour title in Umag earlier this summer before reaching the semis in Winston-Salem. But in his previous three meetings against top-ten players, he had yet to win even a set.

Tsitsipas, meanwhile, found himself in a weird position. Suddenly cast as the villain of these games (but perhaps for the wrong reasons), he has kind of struggled since that Roland Garros loss. He was, of course, stunned in the first round at Wimbledon, and though he made the semis in both Toronto and Cincinnati, he needed five sets to get past Andy Murray in the first round here, and even dropped a set to Adrian Mannarino in the second.

Against Alcaraz, he found himself in a hole early. The world #55 got a set and two break lead on the heavy favorite before Tsitsipas started to fight back. He even dealt out a bagel in the fourth, something I didn't think someone so inexperienced would have been able to rally back from. But rally back he did -- in a decider with no breaks of serve, Alcaraz kept his cool and prevailed in the nearly four hour match, by far the biggest of his career.

Tsitsipas's elimination certainly opens up the bottom half of the draw, but it also gives a real opportunity to the young upstart. Alcaraz will next face Peter Gojowczyk, who as mentioned is also breaking new ground at the U.S. Open. The German has already spent some eight hours on court, so he's certainly not at his freshest. And if Alcaraz can manage the win to make the quarters, there's no telling what more he can do.

Frances Tiafoe d. Andrey Rublev (5): 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-1

The drama in the men's draw didn't stop there, of course. In the late-night match on Ashe last night -- literally, this one didn't end until 2am -- Frances Tiafoe, he of the aforementioned stunning of Tsitsipas at Wimbledon, looked for his second straight Major top-ten win against Russia's Andrey Rublev. The gritty American has been working hard this summer, taking out Denis Shapovalov as a lucky loser in Toronto and making the quarters in Winston-Salem.

Rublev's had his share of successes too -- a quarterfinalist here last year, he stunned world #2 Daniil Medvedev on his way to a runner-up finish in Cincy, the second Masters final of his career. And as the fifth seed in New York, he was expected to go far.

But Tiafoe had different plans. Though the two had never met on the ATP Tour, the 23-year-old underdog had scored a big win over the then-#1 seed in the 2014 U.S. Open Boys' quarterfinals. And though this match would take a little longer -- another 3:45 to be exact -- it would ultimately end with the same result. Big Foe dropped the first set, but fought back to take the next two and held tough in the decider to notch his third top-ten win of the year and to get to the second week for the second straight time.

Things won't get much easier from here though -- next up is another young upstart, twelfth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. But though the 21-year-old Canadian has scored wins over Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev this year, he is notoriously inconsistent and eminently beatable. If Tiafoe can pull it off, he's got a little more room to run -- Tsitsipas, of course, has already been eliminated, and while second seeded Medvedev certainly looms large, we've already learned that truly anything can happen here.

Leylah Fernandes d. Naomi Osaka (2): 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4

But perhaps the biggest wow moment from Friday came in the first night session match on Ashe. Defending champion Naomi Osaka was taking on Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez in her third round match and was looking to rebound from a summer that brought her more headlines off the court than on it. Since withdrawing from the French Open, she was stunned at her homeland Olympics and upset by a feisty Jil Teichmann in Cincy. Though she got a pass in her second round in New York when Olga Danilovic pulled out, she was looking in form to make a play for another title.

But she would be stopped in spectacular fashion by the world #72. It's not that we shouldn't have expected big things from Fernandez -- she was, after all, one of my players to watch, beating Belinda Bencic at Fed Cup in 2020 and capturing her first title this year in Monterrey. But she'd been frustratingly underwhelming at the Majors, winning just one match this year against a lower ranked opponent.

That was, of course, before the U.S. Open. She opened with an impressive win over dangerous qualifier Ana Konjuh and then took out Melbourne Cinderella Kaia Kanepi in straight sets. She dropped her first set to Osaka on Friday night, but as the former world #1 -- who'd won her last sixteen Slam matches -- was serving for a win in the second, Fernandez was able to break for the first time and barely looked back since.

The win earns Fernandez a fourth round date with another former champion, Angelique Kerber, who's been having a strong summer of tennis herself. It'll certainly be a challenge for the 18-year-old to pull off two straight wins against such high caliber opponents. But it wouldn't be the first time such a young talent took a tournament by storm. And why shouldn't we see it happen again?

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Of course, there are plenty of top tier stars still out there fighting for the titles here -- top seeds Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty have been so far pretty dominant in their wins. And it's not like these results came completely out of the blue -- all these victors had demonstrated their talents well before these big wins.

Still, the world looks a lot different than it did just 24 hours ago -- some of the favorites may be breathing a little easier as they see their draws open up, while a bunch of underdogs could start to believe they have a shot at pulling off their own monster upsets.

And as we get close to kicking off Week Two at the Open, we certainly have seen that anything is possible.

A Curse on the Big Courts

It's been two years since we last saw play at Wimbledon, and it seems like the goblins that lurk in the shadows of Wimbledon took it upon themselves to dole out punishments for that absense. In the first 48 hours of this year's event, we've already seen plenty of favorites get quite literally tripped up on the grass, some squeaking by the seat of their pants, and others not so lucky at all.

We're heartbroken for you, Serena.

Our seven-time singles champion is forced to retire from The Championships 2021 through injury#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/vpcW1UN78s

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 29, 2021

The big shocker, of course, came late today when seven-time champion Serena Williams was forced to retire in the seventh game of her first round match. She was playing well to start, but on a Centre Court that had already caused more slips and slides than we'd ever seen, she seemed to twist her knee while up an early break and never recovered. Though she returned from a medical time out, she was in tears trying to serve out her game and could barely move to the ball when returning. Within minutes she was at the net, ceding the win to world #100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Serena's exit means more than just another seed out of the Championships. While she may have only be seeded sixth, she was widely considered a favorite for the title. She had, after all, made at least the final here on her last four appearances, and with 98 match wins here, more than any woman other than Martina Navratilova, it seems clear she would add at least a little bit to her total. But instead she notched only her second first round loss at a Major and her first Slam retirement since 1998. And, of course, her four year pursuit of that record 24^th Big Title will continue at least a few more months. Did she just lose her best chance to get it? Well, it's probably too soon to say that, but you know chances are getting ever more remote these days.

As are the chances of Roger Federer, who survived his own set of trolls one match earlier on Centre Court. The eight-time champion was not playing his best against Adrian Mannarino in his opening round, getting out-served in the second and third set and finding himself in a deep hole early. But the Frenchman, who had only taken one set off the legend in their previous six meetings, also lost his footing deep in the fourth. He watched a couple balls whiz past him before retiring himself after losing the set, allowing Roger to book his ticket for the eighteenth straight time.

But the fact that he was tested suggests it's going to be a long road for the GOAT 🐐 contender to make it back to the final. Like Serena, he had good odds to win this title, but at a month away from 40, the window of opportunity to pick up Major #21 is closing quick. After a career where he saw thankfully few injuries for so long, he took more than a year off after losing in Australia in 2020 and hasn't been quite the force he traditionally was since his return. Hopefully, though, he'll be able to shake off the demons that plagued him in round one and make use of the opportunity that was given him.

Of course, for every favorite that was challenged, we have an underdog who got an opportunity. One-time U.S. Open champ Sloane Stephens, who's been mounting a nice comeback this summer, stunned two-time titleholder Petra Kvitova in straight sets on Monday. Andy Murray, playing at his first Wimbledon since 2017, shook off a seven-game losing streak in the third set to get the win over 24^th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili. And Frances Tiafoe dealt a massive blow to French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets, his first win over a top five player ever.

But there's a lot of play left to go at Wimbledon, and there's no telling who the gremlins will go after next. But hopefully they've got the worst out of their system, and we'll be in store for only good surprises from now on.

A Champion for a New Generation

After two of the strangest weeks we've seen in tennis -- and more than seven months since our last Major winner was crowned -- we finally have a new Grand Slam champion in Naomi Osaka, who came back from a set and a break down against Victoria Azarenka to claim the 2020 U.S. Open title.

Second #USOpen 🏆 vibes pic.twitter.com/LAvcN0vx6G

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 12, 2020

Maybe it's unfair to call Naomi a "new" champion -- the 22-year-old stunned the world two years ago when she took out Serena Williams in this final in straight sets. A couple months later she won her second crown in Melbourne, and with her victory today she become the first woman since Jennifer Capriati to go 3-for-3 in her first Major finals.

And what an exciting way in which to do it! Azarenka -- who had ended a year-long losing streak in a big way last month, winning the title in "Cincinatti", ironically when Osaka pulled out of the final with a hamstring injury -- was riding a ten-match winning streak coming into Saturday's championship round, capped by a glorious comeback against Serena in the semis, where she notched her first ever win over her long-time rival at a Major. She came out swinging in the final two, breaking Osaka three times to take the first set in 26 minutes and getting an early break to start the second.

But it was almost all Naomi after that. As she said after the match, it would have been embarassing to lose the match in under an hour so she fought her heart out, forced a decider and took the lead in that early. Serving it out at 5-3, she came out on top in what might have been the best point of the match, when Azarenka swiped a return into the net. And somehow, after nearly two hours, she was the one holding the trophy.

But it feels like the win meant so much more than the glory of the title -- over the last few months, Osaka has grown in to a true activist for causes well outside tennis. In June she quietly traveled to Minneapolis, the site of the murder of George Floyd, to show her support for those protesting police violence. At the Western & Southern Open, she withdrew from her semifinal to make a statement about the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin -- an act that caused the entire tournament to pause play in solidarity. And for each of her matches at the U.S. Open, she wore a mask bearing the name of a different Black man or woman killed by law enforcement.

It's a kind of advocacy we don't see from most players much older than Osaka, but she and the likes of Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe have done a lot to take up the cause, helping to bring a new generation of voices to light. What have these actions accomplished? Well, to hear Osaka tell it, at least they've gotten us talking -- and hopefully those conversations can effect real change. And as her platform keeps getting bigger, her impact can only grow.

A couple months ago, when the pandemic was just getting underway and lockdown was really taking hold, Osaka told CNN she was trying to get over her "crippling" shyness. Well, it seems clear over the last few months, that she has really found her voice.

And for the good of the sport -- and the good of the world, here's hoping she keeps using it.

And So It Begins...

Tomorrow marks the first day of main draw action at the retooled Western & Southern Open -- Cincy in NYC, it seems -- and the true kickoff of the abbreviated, and ultimately surreal, road to the U.S. Open. And while many of the sport's top players will be conspicuously missing from the draws over the next few weeks, there's plenty of opportunity for fireworks that could set the stage for an exciting slate of tennis. And we could see some of that right from the get-go.

Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Cincy anymore....#CInCyTennis pic.twitter.com/1X5oXmkKpf

— Western & Southern Open (@CincyTennis) August 21, 2020

The Qualies

It begins, of course, in the qualifiers, where a surprising number of former standouts have spent the last few days trying just for a chance to compete for the crown. Among the players contesting these pre-event matches: former world #6 Gilles Simon and doubles star Jeremy Chardy -- both of whom fell short in their matches -- as well as two-time Major finalist Vera Zvonareva, whose win this afternoon got her a spot in the main draw. But perhaps the more interesting names in the mix are the newer names who've been trying to make a name for themselves in these strange times.

On the men's side there's Sebastian Korda, who got the win over Simon today -- he's spent most of his time on the Challengers circuit over the years, but taking out the top seeded qualifier could give him some much-needed confidence. And then there's South Africa's Lloyd Harris, who seemed to me to come out of nowhere when he made the final in Adelaide. In #CiNYC he opened with a win over Mikael Ymer and followed it up by defeating Andrej Martin. But perhaps the qualifier to watch most closely is Marton Fucscovics, who made the fourth round of the Australian Open, even taking a set off Roger Federer in the process. After making it through these early rounds, he might get a bit of a breather in the main draw, opening against fellow qualifer Norbert Gombos first. But, if we know anything these days, it's that nothing is for certain.

Meanwhile, Lexington finalist Jil Teichmann faced off for a second straight week against Top Seed giant-killer Shelby Rogers and again came out on top. In her first round, she'll meet Danielle Collins, ranked just one spot ahead of her at #53 in the world, so certainly has room to keep her run going. Then there's young standout Leylah Fernandez, who not only beat Sloane Stephens last week, but made the final in Acapulco back in February. She might have a harder draw, opening against Ons Jabeur, so a continued run is no guarantee. But it could be a great opportunity for the teen to make a real mark for the year.

The Men

Of course the real drama will likely be reserved for the main draw, and with far fewer entrants this year than in seasons past, we could see a lot of that drama early on.

Surprise Auckland semifinalist Hubert Hurkacz is just barely unseeded at the W&S, and faces off in his first round against John Isner. The American won the pair's only previous meeting, but something tells me we could be in for an upset this time. Hurkacz notched wins over Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem at the ATP Cup to start the year and managed victories over Kei Nishikori and Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2019 before winning his maiden, and so far only, title in Winston-Salem. And while he doesn't quite yet have the ace power of Isner, at 6'5" Hurkacz certainly could become a force in that respect. And if he can figure out how to return the big man's serve, he might just be able to do something with it.

Speaking of big servers, you don't get much bigger than Sam Querrey and Milos Raonic, two powerful players who've been unfortunately sidelined on and off and so are both well off their best rankings. But it wasn't that long ago that either's stars were shining bright -- Raonic reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2016 and a handful of Slam quarters since, most recently in Melbourne this year, and Querrey stunned the world with a trip to the final four at the All England Club in 2017. The Canadian is still ranked higher than Sam, and has a 4-2 record, but if these two can channel what they're capable of, this could be a good one.

On the opposite end of the height spectrum is the match up between rising star Casper Ruud and ninth seed Diego Schwartzman, who stands a whopping 5'7" tall. But the Argentine has nevertheless been able to pull off some impressive shots and wins during his career, putting up a nice fight against Rafael Nadal in the U.S. Open quarters last year. He's got a 3-0 record against the young Norwegian, but all of those matches were played back in 2018, before Ruud really hit his stride. And at #36 in the world now, he could prove to be more of a test. I imagine we could get some really great tennis out of this one.

But perhaps the most first round star power will come from the showdown between Frances Tiafoe and three-time Major winner Andy Murray, both wildcards in #CiNYC. Tiafoe was one of my dark horse picks to win a Major this year, and we can all agree that's not happening. Nor is it likely he's going to move significantly higher up the rankings. But he is a talented player with a couple of top-ten wins under his belt. But Murray reminded us of what a force he is when he, recently back from hip surgery, won a title in Antwerp last year, beating Stan Wawrinka in the final. I imagine he's make quick work in this match too, but with a second round match against Alexander Zverev on the line, I sure would love to make this one a thing to remember.

The Women

There are some fun first rounders on the women's side too. While I was looking forward to seeing Kim Clijsters take on Lexington champ Jennifer Brady, the comeback queen put off her return a little while longer. Still there are plenty of games worth watching.

I'll start with another player I had high hopes for at the start of the year -- former world #1 and two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka, who starts her #CiNYC campaign against 15^th seed Donna Vekic. The Belorussian hasn't quite lived up to my expectations this year, and Vekic has won their two previous meetings. Still Vika has done well on these courts before, reaching the finals at the U.S. Open the same years she won her Majors in Melbourne, and she might just be hungry enough for an upset here.

Then there's Venus Williams, who came out the victor against Vika in their first round in Lexington earlier this month. She's the wildcard, on-paper underdog against 16^th seed Dayana Yastremska, who actually picked up three titles while I wasn't looking over the last couple years. The twenty-year-old Ukranian made the final in Adelaide this season and notched a win over Aussie champ Sofia Kenin in Doha, and is clearly a force on the court. Still, we've seen a lot of great ball from the veteran over the last few months, including a classic against her own sister last week. I wouldn't be surprised to see her pull through again here.

Meanwhile, one of the women who's been a thorn in Venus's side for the past year will look for another big win to add to her resume. Coco Gauff, fresh off a semifinal run in Lexington and at a career-high ranking of #50 in the world, will face world #21 Maria Sakkari. It would be far from the biggest win of Gauff's season -- she's already won battles against Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka in 2020 -- but it would put her in spitting distance of what would be a blockbuster: a potential third round against Serena Williams, what would be the first meeting between the two. Gauff is unlikely to be distracted by that possibility, though, and will remain focused on the task at hand, and there's no reason she shouldn't pull off another big win.

And then there are two ladies who quietly got off to some of the best starts of the year. Ekaterina Alexandrova, another one just out of seeding territory, won her maiden title in Shenzhen in January and then made the semis in St. Petersburg. She's had less success since lockdown, but nonetheless could be a threat. Her first round opponent Elena Rybakina, meanwhile, was on court practically nonstop before March, reaching four finals in five back-to-back events, winning a title in Hobart, before finally pulling out of the third round in Doha -- she's somehow already played 25 matches this year, impressive with only two and a half months of events! This is her first event back in action, but I'm hoping she can pick up where she left off and show us her performance this winter was no fluke.

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So the countdown is on to the first big tournament we've seen in a while, and it certainly seems like we have a lot to look forward to. If these matches live up to their potential, we might not even notice the big holes that seem to be in the draws. And all that could open the doors for some new blood when the stakes are even higher.

And at the end of the day, here's hoping we get some great tennis and a safe and healthy outcome.

Don't Stick to Sports

It's a popular refrain we hear whenever a notable sports figure deigns to go outside his or her supposed expertise and comment on a political or social issue consuming the world.

"Stick to sports."

After all, you're just here to entertain me. Your value is wholly in your performance on court or on the field. You're not paid to opine on topics outside your purview.

But if we've learned anything over the last few weeks, it's perhaps exactly when athletes don't do that that they have the most impact.

In a year that's already been rocked by so many tragedies, the tennis community has again come together in the days since the brutal death of George Floyd to make a statement.

Frances Tiafoe and college star Ayan Broomfield came together to put out a powerful video featuring the sport's biggest talents and a haunting message: "#RaquetsDownHandsUp"

View this post on Instagram

“Our Lives Begin To End The Day We Become Silent About Things That Matter” Martin Luther King Jr. Thank you to everyone that joined us in this, it starts with each and every one of us. • • @serenawilliams @iamgaelmonfils @katadams68 @malwashington @kgmontjane1 @zackeveee @k1ng_2._0 @heatherwatson92 @jarmere @naomiosaka @sloanestephens @tennisdarian @eastpoint_jenkins @tsongaofficiel @asia.muhammad @coacho.g @r_bizzeee @donaldyoungjr @mcneil8970 @coreygauff @haileybaptiste @ymerjr @philsbrainparade @thechandarubin @michaelmmoh @sachiavick @kamaumurray @cocogauff @garrisonzina #tennisforequality #lovewins #itisbiggerthantennis • • Song: Glory (@johnlegend @common) Thank you for creating such an impactful piece of art. Special thank you to Brian Tsao (@the_general_tsao ) for helping with edits. • • @wta @atp @espn @usta @itf__tennis @shaunking @bleacherreport @theshaderoom @octagon

A post shared by Frances Tiafoe (@bigfoe1998) on May 31, 2020 at 1:55pm PDT

Coco Gauff, all of sixteen years old, spoke to crowds in her hometown of Delray Beach with an eloquence that many politicians and most adults can't seem to muster for these trying times.

My speech at the peaceful protest in my hometown of Delray Beach, Florida. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/Jeyswzt7n5

— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) June 4, 2020

And Naomi Osaka, who just as lockdown was beginning made a vow to be less shy, has come out swinging in the fight for social justice and equality.

They're far from the only people trying to use their platforms to speak out. Martina Navratilova, Andy Roddick, Nicole Gibbs, and of course Serena Williams -- whose husband resigned from the board of the company he founded so a black director could take his place -- have all been huge advocates for the cause.

And why shouldn't they be?

The argument can't be that they have no base of knowledge to comment on the subject. It was just a few years ago that my dear James Blake was a victim himself, abused by police after being mistaken for a criminal. As he writes, if it weren't for the fact that another cop recognized him, he doesn't know what might have happened to him. That's a kind of fear that no one should have -- famous athlete or not.

And with their base of fans, athletes are arguably the best chance of spreading the message and affecting change that we have. And the more that sign on, the better -- Colin Kaepernick's been trying to make his point for years, and it was only after this latest movement that the NFL finally admitted that its treatment of player protestors was wrong. Whether that gets Kaps back on a roster remains to be seen, but it's a start.

Of course the "stick to sports" trope can be trotted out selectively. Laura Ingraham was quick to defend Drew Brees's respect of the U.S. flag while commanding LeBron James to "shut up and dribble." And I found myself with "stick-to-sports" feelings when Lisa Raymond tweeted (and subsequently seems to have removed) a post equating "bad apple" cops to "bad apple" protestors. But we need to hear their voices -- all their voices -- if we're going to be able to educate ourselves.

And hopefully, even when there are once again live sports to stick to, the voices calling for justice will continue to be heard far louder than anything that's happening on court.

My Dream Team

And so, it's official.

Tokyo and the IOC announced today that the 2020 Summer Olympics will be postponed, likely not happening until next year.

See you in 2021 !
🤷🏻‍♂️🥇💥🇯🇵 #olympics #greatmemories #goldmedal #seeyou #2021 #stayhome #staysafe pic.twitter.com/WV4cM1nSBt

— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) March 24, 2020

It's not a surprising move, given all the other cancellations we've already seen -- not to mention the fact that Japan was smack dab in the middle of the coronavirus crisis at the outset.

Still it throws yet another wrench into what's already been a tumultuous season for tennis, and how the Games are ultimately scheduled brings up a lot of questions for the sport, as Jon Wertheim lays out so well in this Sports Illustrated piece. After all, officials aren't planning according to the tennis calendar -- as much as I'd like to believe that this sport is the one around which all others revolve, they've got to plan for everyone participating, athletes and otherwise, and there's no guarantee that the same weeks between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open will work next year.

But all those issues aside, one opportunity the delay does provide is that players not quite in the running to make the team this year can put their nose to the grindstone and qualify in 2021 -- that, of course, assumes they have a chance to put their nose to the grindstone. So today I'm going to wildly speculate about a couple of people I'd like to see play in some sixteen months time -- and since I'm in New York, I'll focus on the home team.

Let's start with the men -- John Isner currently sits atop the Americans' singles rankings, and while he did make the quarters in London, he skipped the Rio Games in favor of Atlanta and was already leaning toward sitting out this one too. Still there are a host of other men who could fill his shoes. Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka have the ranking points, and Tennys Sandgren, after his stellar run in Melbourne, has (had?) the momentum that could propel him to the top shortly once we get back in action, and you know my heart had early on been set on a star turn from Frances Tiafoe.

Unfortunately, some of the younger players way down the rankings who could be hitting their prime next year, may not get enough match play in time to boost their stature -- teenagers like Brandon Nakashima and Sebastian Korda have both had some nice results recently, but sitting sub-200 they may be a little too long of a shot.

By the way, let's not forget doubles. The Bryan Brothers, long a staple on the American roster, are supposed to retire after the U.S. Open, which should have allowed them to raise the flag for their country one more time. Will they change their minds, or do we need to look for some other options? I'd love to see Rajeev Ram take the lead -- the Australian Open champ has been playing a lot with Britain's Joe Salisbury, but could be a good anchor for a U.S. pair.

And then there are the ladies, who are also in danger of seeing some of their most stalwart representatives passing the age sweet spot for the sport -- Serena Williams will be 39 and Venus could be 41. Sure there's a cadre of young talent in the mix, from Sofia Kenin to Alison Riske to Coco Gauff, who'll finally be free from restrictions at the ripe old age of 17 next summer.

But there are a couple other women who could also make the cut. Outside the highest-ranked players, there's Jennifer Brady, who beat Ashleigh Barty in Brisbane and Elina Svitolina in Dubai, and Jessica Pegula, who reached the final in Auckland. Either one may storm back on the scene and surprise us all. But let's also keep an eye on 18-year-old Caty McNally -- she's had most of her success on the doubles court and is far overshadowed by her compatriots, but she's still got a win over Sam Stosur this year and took a set off Serena in New York in 2019. We always like to find a few star to focus our attention on, and there's no reason she can't be the next one.

Of course, like so many things these days, all this prognostication is like spitting in the wind. Who knows when we'll be back on the tennis courts and how even the best players will fare after such a long gap between match play? Still with so much real uncertainty out there, why not create a little of a more frivolous sort?

And as we all wait for the one day when it's actually safe to #ReopenAmerica, I'll send you all a virtual hug and hope to see you on the courts soon.

Challenges at the Challengers

I don't often cover the Challenger Series events, but for a couple reasons, this year's action in Indian Wells before the main tournament kicks off next week is worth an extra look.

First let's start with the action on court, because we've already seen some stellar results.

On the men's side there's a lot at stake for fourteenth seed Marcos Giron, who currently sits atop the series' leaderboard -- the Americans who earn the most points during the four tournament stretch, which included events in New Haven, Houston and Newport Beach over the last few months, get an entry to the main draw next week. The twenty-six year old is currently ranked just outside the top hundred, so may need the extra boost to make the cut. He's currently on court with Britain's Ryan Peniston, in danger of being pushed to a third set, but could seal the deal soon. And then, of course, is Frances Tiafoe, who's my long (and getting longer) shot to make a big breakthrough this year. He, thankfully, won his first match against Michael Mmoh in a convincing two sets.

But perhaps the big story this week is Jack Sock, the one-time top ten player who now sits all the way down at #768 in the world. Before this week, he'd only won a single singles match in some eighteen months, crying in relief when he beat Radu Albot in Delray. But he may have found that spark again in Indian Wells. Against top seeded Ugo Humbert, who kicked off this year with his first career title in Auckland and then made the semis in Delray, Sock was able to score a straight set win in the second round and will now face Evgeny Donskoy for a spot in the quarter. A win there could set him on pace for even more success down the road.

The ladies' draw also has some interesting bright spots. While the series' leaders didn't fare quite so well -- both Madison Brengle and CoCo Vandeweghe both lost their opening rounds -- some others are nonetheless making nice comeback runs. First there's Yanina Wickmayer, who was once ranked #12 in the world but whose career was interrupted by everything from back injury to Lyme's disease. Now outside the top 150, she surged past wildcard Claire Liu and then battled Brengle in a two and a half hour match, where she avenged a loss from last month at an ITF event in Kentucky. A couple more wins like that could mean a lot for her as she looks to mount a comeback.

But my favorite story on the women's side is none other than Vera Zvonareva, a two-time Grand Slam finalist and former world #2, she too has been plagued by injury and actually used her time off tour to get a college degree. Now ranked at #319, she's had a couple wins in 2020, but it'd been a while since any real big heads. She may have turned the tide this week though, opening with a victory over Acapulco standout Xiyu Wang in her opener and then ending a streak of eight straight losses, which extended back to 2004, to Sam Stosur in her second round. Up next for the veteran Russian is top seed Katarina Siniakova, so the task only gets harder from here. But, if you know me at all, you know how much I love rooting for this feisty underdog.

Match results aside, though, there's another issue that seems to have come back into the forefront this week, and that's the one of player pay. It's long been a hot button topic in the sport, where the handful of lucky athletes who can win Grand Slams and other big events can earn millions of dollars, while the vast (vast) majority of players are making comparatively nothing -- paying to fly not only themselves around the world and board up at hotels, but for a team of coaches and physios too, all to make just a couple thousand dollars if they lose in an early round. And they're not making the same kind of dough the Serenas and Rafas of the world are in endorsements.

Darren Cahill most recently pointed out the huge discrepancy in prize money between someone who won just two matches in Dubai and someone who won just one match more. And as pointed out by Nicole Gibbs -- who earned a paltry $1,130 in her first round loss this week -- that hits players ranked as high as #31 in the world.

Let’s also take a moment to acknowledge that in this case “lower ranked” applies to the 31st ranked player in the world (the cut for that event).

Rest of us making pennies.

— Nicole Gibbs (@Gibbsyyyy) February 24, 2020

Borrowing a point made by the late David Foster Wallace in one of his many glorious essays on tennis, can you imaging being better than all but thirty people in the world at your chosen profession and not being able to make a living?

Yes, I realize that, in a world where income inequality is such a far-reaching problem, pointing out its impact on people who play a "game" may miss the forest for the trees, but you have to remember that this is people's livelihoods and one they won't be able to sustain as long as us normal people can stick with our own careers.

That's one of the big benefits of these Challenger Series events: giving players at lower ranks -- and again, by lower, we're often talking about low double-digit rankings -- an opportunity to play more matches, grab more ranking points, and eventually gain entry to the bigger tournaments, as Giron hopes to do. Still it would be great if some of those sky-high prices we pay for tickets to the U.S. Open and other events -- I don't even want to mention what grounds passes for middle Saturday cost me last year! -- went to increase payouts at these events.

The idea of upping purses for all players is one shared by those ranked high and low, and if we really want to keep the best talent coming to the sport, we're going to have to get something done about this soon.

2020 Vision: Just One More Thing...Or Four

Okay, I lied. I said yesterday would be the last in my series of 2020 outlook posts, but turns out I have a little more left in me. So I decided to kick off this year with a couple predictions -- some wild and outlandish, others more predictable...or at least attainable. And all are things I'm looking forward to big time in 2020. Sure, there's no reason any or all of them should come true. But if there's ever a time to declare with complete confidence something that may never happen, it's at the dawn of a brand new decade.

#1) Someone not named Rafa, Roger, or Novak wins a Major

To be fair I started laying the groundwork for this in my first post in this thread, so I might as well get the ball rolling on it. But instead of looking at some of the new hot shots on the scene -- the handful of youngsters in the top ten who've already made solid showings on the big stages. But instead, today, I'm going to look at a couple other contenders who, admittedly long shots, have the talent that can bring home the prize.

Let's start with Juan Martin Del Potro, who of course already knows what it's like to taste Grand Slam glory. But since that miraculous day in 2009, his career has had some real ups and down. Plagued by one injury after another, it feels like he's spent more time off the court than on in the past decade. Still, he always seems to claw his way back to the elite ranks -- the 31-year-old (when did he get that old?!) has fallen out of the top two hundred twice after being sidelined, even dropping to quadruple digit rankings in 2016, but plowed himself back into the top ten both times. During his comebacks he's picked up more than a few titles, even winning the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics and reaching the U.S. Open final in 2018. He's currently in recovery again, though -- a knee injury taking him out of action since this past June. We don't yet know when he'll get back to work, but when (if?!) he does, you can bet he'll come out fighting and could do some damage -- hopefully to the favorites, and not to his own body.

My other choice comes from the other end of the spectrum -- ten years younger, much less experience -- but scads of raw talent nonetheless. American Frances Tiafoe first hit my radar during the 2016 U.S. Open when, ranked #125 at the time, he took John Isner to five sets in the first round. Isner and five sets wasn't so much of a surprise -- he's gone the distance 30 times, and has lost most of them, which seems excessive -- but the then-teenager's shot-making was. And he's built on that strength in the years since. He picked up his maiden title in 2018 in Delray Beach and slugged his way to the quarters in Melbourne this past season, notching wins over Kevin Anderson, Andreas Seppi, and Grigor Dimitrov in the process. He's still on the outskirts of the sport's very best -- at #47 in the world, he's got some work to do to be seeded at the Majors -- but it's often this tier of players that can really break through. Maybe not in Melbourne, but something tells me we're going to be seeing a lot more of Tiafoe this year. And besides, it's about time an American brought back a title.

#2) Vika re-enters the top ten

These days, former world #1 Victoria Azarenka has been more of a force on the doubles court than in singles -- she made the final at the U.S. Open with Ashleigh Barty and claimed a title in Acapulco with Shuai Zheng -- but she's still out there fighting for solo glory. While she hasn't won a trophy since Miami in 2016, she had some solid wins this past season, beating the likes of Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, and Angelique Kerber, and made her way to the finals in Monterrey. She's currently ranked #50 in the world, about where she was at the start of the year, and she doesn't have a ton of points to defend in the early part of the season. And while she pulled out of the Australian Open for "personal reasons", sparking rumors of retirement, her camp insists she'll be back on court later in the year. So if she can get some momentum on her side early, there's no telling how high she can climb.

#3) The next big thing emerges

We had our share of youngsters crash the party this year -- from Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, to Bianca Andreescu and of course Coco Gauff -- reminding us of those days when teens ruled this sport. And as the field of veterans age it's only going to become more plausible for these guys and gals to take over. So let's look at some of the possibilities.

Nineteen-year-old Dayana Yastremska was the woman who made it highest up the rankings this year, thanks to titles in Strasbourg and Thailand. And those trophy runs were no walks in the park -- she beat Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka for the former, and Garbiñe Muguruza for the latter. She's even scored some wins at the Slams, reaching the fourth round in her first Wimbledon main draw. Now ranked #22 in the world, the Ukrainian is no longer the obvious underdog in her matches, and so may get the benefits that come with seeding. But she'll also be more in the spotlight so pressure will be on her to deliver. But a couple good performances could go a long way in establishing her spot in the top ranks.

Another teen who did a lot to prove her mettle in 2019 is American Amanda Anisimova, who won the U.S. Open as a junior in 2017. She also won her first WTA title this year, getting the trophy in Bogotá as the sixth seed, but she didn't have to face anyone ranked higher than #138 in the world. Her bigger successes, though, came on the bigger stages -- she took out Sabalenka and Lesia Tsurenko at the Australian Open and reached the semis at Roland Garros by beating Sabalenka again, as well as Simona Halep. The eighteen-year-old slowed down a bit towards the end of the season, only playing three events after Wimbledon and winning just two matches, so she's going to have to defend the majority of the points that got her to #24 in the world early on in the year.  Whether or not she can withstand the pressure, she certainly seems like she has what it takes to stick around for some time.

But my top pick to really upend the status quo may be the lowest ranked teen in the top hundred. Anastasia Potapova was once the top-ranked Juniors player and 2016 Wimbledon Girls' champ over Yastremska. Currently ranked in the nineties, and a bit off her career high of #64, she only played a handful of WTA-level main draws this year. But she shocked Angelique Kerber in the first round of the French Open, and while she lost her first match at the U.S. Open, she more than held her own -- and impressively kept her cool -- against technical underdog but clear crowd favorite Coco Gauff. She'll still to qualify for most of the big events, but given the way she's played under pressure, and the talent she's clearly shown, I imagine she'll earn her way into those draws in short order.

#4) A reckoning for John Isner

I mentioned above how we shouldn't be surprised to see John Isner be pushed to fifth sets by his opponents, but let's take it a step further. For a player who's so long been the top-ranked American in the sport -- he's closed out every year since 2011 in the top twenty -- he struggles to break serve of most players and contests tiebreaks in more sets than he should (more than 700!), especially given the fact that he's consistently one of the best servers out there. He has the highest career Serve Rating of any ATP player, has won more service games than anyone save Ivo Karlovic, and fires off an average of more than 18 aces per match (third all-time). But he's only won ten percent of his return games (Roger Federer, meanwhile has won 27% and Rafael Nadal 34%).  As far as the Majors go, his legacy will forever be that Wimbledon first round in 2010 and never his actual successes -- he's made only one Slam semifinal in 45 tries and, no surprise here, went 50 games in the deciding set, which this time he lost. His opponents, even the low-ranked ones, are slowly but surely figuring out how to play his game and take more points off his serve than they give up, and that will eventually catch up to him. And I wouldn't be surprised if that happens sooner rather than later.

Okay, now that's it, I promise. And just in time too -- the 2020 season officially kicks off tomorrow across Australia with the inaugural ATP Cup. And the first Grand Slam of the year is only a few weeks away, so keep coming back for coverage of all the action!