History, Rewritten

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— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 12, 2021

I'm sure most people thought they'd be writing hugely different articles today.

After all, the only thing anyone was talking about going into this year's U.S. Open was the chance Novak Djokovic had at making all kinds of history. The possibility of capturing the ever-so-rare Grand Slam. Perhaps the even more impressive opportunity of scoring a never-been-done-before 21^st Major title. The chance of cementing himself as the unequivocal #GOAT 🐐 in the sport, with plenty of time left to just add to his accomplishments. And as almost every promo airing on ESPN liked to remind you, he got one match away.

But, as we know, that history was not to be, and an entirely different story will go down in the record books.

Daniil Medvedev became the newest inductee into the Major championship club, stunning the world #1 in tonight's final in straight sets. There was almost never any question he was in control of the match, breaking in the very first game and pulling ahead two sets and two breaks to establish what would turn out to be an insurmountable lead. Even when he double faulted away championship point and was broken for the first time, trying to serve out the match, he was able to regroup and ultimately seal in the victory.

Of course we shouldn't be surprised that Medvedev was able to win a Major -- he came OHSOCLOSE to doing it two years ago on this stage against Rafael Nadal, and with a win in Toronto this year and titles in Paris and London to close out last season, he's certainly established himself as one of the best hardcourt players on tour.

But with his win today, he achieved something bigger. Medvedev became the first Next Gen player to beat one of the Big Three en route to the title -- remember Dominic Thiem got away without facing any of them last year in New York. And that could signal a real passing of the torch is underway, with the Russian taking up the mantle of leader of the pack -- a group he could lead for a long time.

So is it all over for Djokovic? Of course not -- he's still the #1 player in the world and playing at the top of his game. While he'll end the year tied with Rafa and Roger at 20 Majors apiece, the next slate of Grand Slams is just around the corner, and given his dominance in Melbourne, he could very well add #21 to his roster in a matter of months.

Going after the full Grand Slam again, that may be a little tougher, and for now Rod Laver's legacy remains intact. Come January 1, everyone starts at square one in their pursuit of that honor, and there's no reason to believe Djokovic won't give it another whirl.

But now, he's going to have at least one more player nipping at his heels and trying to put his own stamp on history.

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Rewriting History

We knew by the time this year's French Open final was over that history would be made, but at various points during the two-day long battle the version of history we'd get changed more than a few times.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal was going after his record seventh Roland Garros crown, hoping to break the Open Era tie he'd created with Bjorn Borg last year, and he was in good shape to do it. The clay court king had put together a 16-1 record on the surface this year, picking up titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome, and summarily worked through his first six matches in Paris without dropping a set -- his biggest challenge came from countryman Nicolas Almagro in the quarters, against whom he needed a full hour to close out the first set.

His opponent in the final was world #1 Novak Djokovic, playing in the championship match here for the first time in his career. The record-setting Serb was looking to complete his own career Grand Slam, something Roger Federer did in 2009 and Nadal accomplished about a year later. But having won the last three Majors as well, he'd be going for the cycle too, a feat no man had achieved since Rod Laver did it in 1969. He'd struggled in his later round matches this fortnight, coming back from deficits against both Andreas Seppi and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before sailing through his semi on Friday.

With so much on the line, the match-up seemed appropriate -- the pair had combined to win the last eight Slams and played the finals of the last three. They had wracked up a thirty-two match history, dating back to 2006, and the last nine meetings had been in a championship match. Djokovic, of course, had done a lot to even the score with his contemporary in the last eighteen months, wresting the #1 ranking from him and winning seven straight matches against the Spaniard, even besting him twice on his native clay last year. Rafa had ended the losing streak in Monaco, but he's still struggled in the Majors, and hasn't won a match at one since the 2010 U.S. Open.

Still at this Slam, on this surface, Nadal was probably still the odds-on favorite. He'd only lost one match ever at Roland Garros, and hadn't even lost a set to Djokovic here. And after his comparatively easy run to the final, it wasn't too surprising that he built a 3-0, two-break lead quickly to start. But Nole came back hitting hard, evening the score for a beat before Rafa closed out the first set. He stage another comeback after going down an early break in the second, too, but Nadal took another break just before play was suspended due to rain. When they resumed a little more than a half hour later and Rafa broke again for a two-set lead, it was looking like things would be over soon.

But things turned around again. Down another break in the third, Djokovic seemed to finally find his game and rallied off eight straight games, forcing a fourth set in the process and halting Nadal's dominating form just as he looked destined to top the record books. The Spaniard managed to finally stop the bleeding and get on the board when it started raining again and play was postponed until Monday. And when the players took to the court again, the tide turned once more with Nadal immediately breaking to kick play off. The match had the potential to end quickly after that, but Djokovic stayed as tough as he could, wilting under the pressure only when trying to serve for a tiebreak and double faulting on match point.



It's a little disheartening for Nole, of course -- the chances of him putting together another twenty-seven match win streak at the Majors are low, so this was likely his only chance for the Novak Slam, while Rafa probably has a couple more Roland Garros trophies left in him and could have surpassed Borg's record in any number of future years had he not done so today. But the win did more than cement him as the Greatest of All Time on clay -- it reversed a long streak of high-profile losses to a man who'd had his number for over a year and will hopefully give him the confidence that he hasn't lost his edge. It's a good time for Nadal to take the reins, too -- with Wimbledon just two weeks away and the Olympics not long after, there's more than a good chance he's put himself on track to climb back to the top of the sport and set himself a whole bunch of new records in the coming months.

For now, though, he'll have to settle for celebrating his Lucky #7 at the French Open -- one piece of history that will likely stand a very long time.

The Era of the Grand Slam

Is it just me, or have we been seeing a lot of career Grand Slams recently?

After a seven-year drought, first there was Roger Federer with the French in 2009, a little more than a year later, Rafael Nadal did it in New York. And now we have this.

I don't know that too many people expected a much different result from today's women's final in Paris. New #1 Maria Sharapova, three times a Major winner before, took on Italian Cinderella Sara Errani, who'd never made it past the third round of a Slam prior to this year. The scoreline was one-sided: Sharapova ran off with the first four games, won more than eighty percent of her first serves in the opening set, hit more than three times as many winners as her opponent, and despite an unflagging challenge from Errani was ultimately crowned the French Open champion.



Perhaps more important than the title itself is what Sharapova accomplished with the win -- her career Grand Slam, it turned out, was a long time in the making.

A breakout star with her astonishing 2004 run to the Wimbledon title, Maria went on to pick up the U.S. Open crown in 2006 and another in Australia in '08. She rose to #1 in the world, holding the position for seventeen weeks in total, but saw her career stall when a shoulder injury and subsequent surgery kept her out of the game for nine months. Her return was well-documented, but it took a while for her to really get her stride back -- at her first Slam post-injury, she battled to the Roland Garros quarters, but needed four three-setters to do it. It took another two years before she got past a Major fourth round, and her struggles made those first couple titles seem a few light years in the past.

But things started to turn around last year. She fought her way back to the Wimbledon final, albeit without facing an opponent ranked higher than she was, and kicked off 2012 with another runner-up showing in Melbourne. After going undefeated on the red clay this season, she proved she was truly one to watch in Paris and, though she avoided potential event-ending showdowns with Serena Williams or Caroline Wozniacki, she was able to live up to those high expectations.

At seven years and eleven months, hers was the longest length of time needed by man or woman to complete the career Slam -- Chris Evert needed two months less -- but the victory is just as sweet. I'm not sure many thought she'd be the next one to complete the feat, but now she joins an elite group of seventeen that includes the likes of Serena, Steffi Graf, and of course Rod Laver. And the better news is that this might be just the start of many more records to come -- with the Olympics just a few weeks away, she might have that elusive Golden Slam in her sights too.

Tomorrow Novak Djokovic will try to one-up even that. Currently reigning champion at three Majors, he has the opportunity to complete the Nole cycle Sunday, holding the title at every Slam at the same time -- something last done by Laver in 1962. Of course he'll have to go through clay court king Rafael Nadal to do it, but if he can pull off the upset -- yes, it'd be an upset despite the Serb's #1 ranking -- that would be four completed career Slams in three years, the most prolific period in history.



Of course that won't make the achievement any less prestigious, but it sure makes the divide between the sport's elite and everybody else that much greater. And with the latest entrants (or possible entrants) into the illustrious group separating themselves from the pack, they've put up notice for anyone who steps on court with them.