Full disclosure: I wasn't going to post about the U.S. Open until the weekend. I'm trying to finish this project and wanted to prioritize it, so I thought I would chill on the seed report, predictions and early observations. But why did the U.S. Open have to go ham, like, right out the chute? Let's start with ...
Messy Medvedev
Look, I know Daniil Medvedev does it for the drama, and by "it" that's anything. That is his bag. But Sunday night was another level. Honestly, I had turned my head for one second, listening from the other room for the start of the match point that Benjamin Bonzi had against Medvedev and all of a sudden, I heard booing and screaming. I came back in and literally had no idea what I was witnessing. Medvedev hyping the crowd, the crowd going insane, the umpire going "please" and this guy with a huge camera and a wry smile on his face. Yeah, buddy, it was you. You started it.
I say this every year -- New York fans at night are a dangerous crew. Not only are they drunk, but most of them came in with no advance knowledge of how tennis works anyway. Of course Bonzi should have gotten a first serve. I don't even get what Medvedev was going on about, but questioning the umpire's manliness and intentionally riling the crowd?
That's not even the worst of what he did. The other problem is that Medvedev had an opponent who was standing there trying to serve so he could win his match. Tennis is supposed to be played at the server's pace, but Medvedev kept inciting the chaos so they couldn't even play. And it didn't even change the call? AND the call to give him a first serve was 100 percent the right call!
Another thing I thought would happen Sunday night was that I would go to bed at a decent hour, but after that mess? I absolutely stayed up to watch Medvedev lose. Rest assured, had he won, I would have turned off the TV at match point. But truly, another low from Medvedev. Maybe his lowest. I was rooting for the umpire to not shake his hand. Livid, I was. Over tennis. Again. Help.
After the match, Medvedev snuck on his angel's wings and claimed ignorance, that he did nothing wrong in the moment, that he was just a little upset with the first-serve decision. You know whose perspective I'd like on that one is his wife, who left when he started beating up his racquet after his loss.
SIDEBAR: And by the way, when we try to accommodate non-fans of tennis, this is what we get. I'm not just talking about the half of the dunderhead crowd that got mad when the umpire did his job. The mixed doubles. I mean what are we doing. What we're doing is accommodating the people who know who Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu are, but not who Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac are. And instead of educating new fans (because that Siniakova/Machac story is something else), what do the tennis powers that be do? They rush the mixed draw and make it more like an exhibition instead of a legit part of the tournament -- and leaving doubles specialists high and dry so we can watch Jack Draper and Jess Pegula fart around on center court. Why do we always abandon what tennis is for the people who don't appreciate it? Tennis is the only sport willing to change its core identity for the sake of a few dollars and extra street cred. Anyone who mentions baseball: Look, that is a boring-ass sport to watch and they needed to do something about it. Tennis is not that. Sigh. End SIDEBAR.
It's a Game of Inches, But My God Clara Tauson
That's basically the whole point. In case you didn't catch this insane drama during the Tauson/Alexandra Eala match:
OK, so. I know there's money on the line here. So I can almost forgive Tauson wanting a closer look at this call to see if Eala made contact with the ball past the net into Tauson's court because you can't do that. This image shows that it's right there. OK. Move on, right. No! Shockingly, Tauson turned this into a five-minute debate with the umpire which in retrospect mainly served the purpose of throwing her own self off her game. Porque? To what end?
Probably the part of this interaction that made me cackle was when Eala just walked up like she was in the office: "Excuse me, what is the score?" I hollered.
Anyway, Tauson's young. Hopefully this was an expensive lesson learned.
Avoiding Chaos: Venus Williams
I have to acknowledge that I was a little afraid of watching the night match last night between Venus Williams and Karolina Muchova. First of all, I anticipated a shellacking and I hate to see the queen getting beat up like that. Second, as mentioned, I was convinced to the point of hyperventilating that she was going to retire at this tournament.
I'm pleased to report that neither happened. I gotta say, Venus looked better last night than she has in a minute. No one has seen her on court a lot, but I mean the way she was getting hang time on some of those ground strokes? Vintage, baby. Let's goooooo!
She was defending her second serve better than she has in a while, too. Yes, it's still a meatball, which I do not understand given her height and power, but she placed it better and although Muchova was able to take some of them for a ride, Venus stayed in it.
I really thought we were looking at an upset after she won the second set. But one thing you wouldn't have known from that crowd was how well Muchova was playing. She was hitting that serve in the corner pocket every time. She played smarter and cleaner tennis. And it's also a little eerie how much she looks like a young Chris Evert. That's not weird to anyone else?
Anyway. Obviously, we are on the tail end of an illustrious career and I really am going to try to settle down and just enjoy it.
The Hall of Fame Has Me LOLing
Last thing, I promise. Look, I'm not going to link to the post I wrote after I read about Maria Sharapova's drug suspension because that would open up the line of inquiry as to whether someone who has had a drug suspension should be in the Hall of Fame to begin with. Given today's climate, it would be a cold and empty place. But anyway.
Sharapova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame over the weekend before the start of the Open, and Serena Williams came out to introduce her. Look, if Serena can get over their non-rivalry being called a rivalry, I guess I should too. But still, I had to crack up when I saw this. She came out there like
