Like from the script (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

The disqualification of Novak Djokovic in the last 16 of the US Open was only the culmination of the chaos that made up the first week of the tournament. In times of epidemic and political crisis, who could have expected anything else in a sport that has seldom distinguished itself through organizational prudence.

One of the pertinent eccentric characters on the current ATP circuit is the Frenchman Benoît Paire, a long-bearded hipster with a spectacularly erratic style of play and an egomaniacal habitus. Paire was the first (and so far only) Covid-19 case in the field of participants at this US Open. In accordance with the quarantine rules, he was excluded from participation shortly before the start of the tournament. And what happened to the French and Belgian players with whom Paire had demonstrably closer contact in the “bubble” of the US Open? They were allowed to participate, but were placed in a prescribed special quarantine, in a “bubble within a bubble”.

The case of Adrian Mannarino, a player on Pairs’ »contact list«, almost turned into a state affair before his third-round encounter against Alexander Zverev. Whose law would Mannarino continue to play against?

The US Open takes place in the “Billie Jean King National Tennis Center” in Queens, within the city limits of New York, while the quarantine hotel, the “Bubble”, is located outside of it in New York State.

There is a state within the state, the USTA tennis state, and official ordinances from the municipality, city and country or the relevant institutions. In this case, the right state left five straight. The match was allowed to take place. Zverev won and will meet Pablo Carrena Busto in the semi-finals on Saturday, the player who immediately benefited from King Djokovic’s disqualification. Dominic Thiem and last year’s finalist Daniniil Medvedev contest the other semifinals.

Kiki Mladenvich, who compared the “bubble” to a prison, was also on Pairs’ contact list. In the second round, Mladenovic gave the most spectacular example of another leitmotif of the tournament, the “choke” (shock), the big lump in the throat caused by the notorious “fear of winning”. She led against Varvara Gratschowa 6: 1, 5: 1, missed four match points and lost 6: 1, 6: 7, 0: 6. In doubles with Timea Babos, she no longer competed.

Further »chokes« were delivered by Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round against Borna Coric (5-1 lead in the fourth set, six match points awarded, loss in the tie break of the fifth) and Petra Kvitova in the round of 16 against Shelby Rogers (four match points awarded, the last with double fault, lost 6: 7, 6: 3, 6: 7 with statistics that should actually make a defeat impossible, including ten percent more points gained than the opponent).

This opened up the possibility of improbable comebacks. Zwetana Pironkowa had not played a professional match for two years, made it sensationally to the quarter-finals against Serena Williams, won the first set, but lost 6: 3, 3: 6, 2: 6. Wiktoryja Asaranka had not won a single official match this season before the epidemic break. In New York, after triumphing in the preparatory tournament, the Western & Southern Open – her opponent Naomi Osaka did not play for the final due to an alleged injury – she now has a winning streak of eleven matches in a row and is in the semifinals against Williams, a revival the US Open Finals of 2012 and 2013, an encounter like out of the script.

In the other semifinals, Osaka and Jennifer Brady, who has risen this season, face each other.