BarcelonaSerbian Novak Djokovic is two games away from making the summit. After defeating Italian Matteo Berrettini in four sets, he will face German Alexander Zverev, his executioner in the semifinals of the Tokyo Games, in the semifinals of the US Open. Should he win the tournament, the Belgrade player would be the first to reach the 21 Grand Slam titles (right now he, Nadal and Federer have 20) and, incidentally, would be the first man to win all four Grand Slams in a calendar year during the 21st century. Before that, only Don Budge did it in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969. But Zverev had already defeated him in Tokyo, even though he had lost the first set 6-1, and left with a slap in the face. Serbian, who wanted to be the first man to win all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold the same year. Only one woman, Steffi Graff, succeeded in 1988.
Federer, 40, has not won a major tournament since the 2018 Australian Open. Nadal, 35, has a long season also affected by physical problems and his last major title was in 2020 at Roland Garros . It seems the end of an era in which Djokovic, 34, would emerge as the player with the most titles, as he still seems to have the ropes to face a new generation, led by Zverev, Berrettini and the Austrian Thiem, champion at the US Open a year ago. Or the young Murcian Carlos Alcaraz, who at the age of 18 has reached the quarterfinals, where he fell to the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, 21, coached by Toni Nadal.
Two names with a lot of future
If men’s tennis closes a golden age, women’s wonders what their future will be. Once the Williams sisters have stopped winning – this US Open is the first without their participation in 26 years – there is no dominator. Japan’s Naomi Osaka seemed the most prepared, but after winning four major tournaments she decided to take a break without competing to focus on her mental health. On his return to the courts he has yet to regain his best game. This will be the fifth season in which four different players have won all four Grand Slams. The last to win two in the same year was the German Angelique Kerber, in 2016. Beyond the 23 titles of a Serena Williams who at 39 years old suffers many injuries, the player on the circuit right now with more success in Grand Slams is Osaka, with 4 titles. In the last five years up to 9 players have been world number 1 in the ranking. And in this US Open none of the four semifinalists has ever won a major tournament.
The lack of dominance, however, brings excitement. And the US Open is seen as the start of a new era for the emergence of a promising batch of new players. 26-year-old Greek Maria Sakkari is the veteran of the four, and is reaching her second semifinals of a major tournament. The other three aspirants are the future. The Belarusian Arina Sabalenka is 23 years old, but the most striking are the British Emma Raducanu, 18, and the Canadian Leylah Fernández, 19.
Raducanu is the youngest semifinalist in the history of the US Open, despite having started in the preliminary round. Fernández, meanwhile, has eliminated world number 1 Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber. And Monday will be 19 years old. He aspires to do so after playing his first final, but will first have to defeat Sabalenka, while Raducanu will face Sakkari.
“We faced off for the first time at 11, I think,” Raducanu recalled these days talking about Fernandez. The two have been competing in children’s or youth tournaments for years and now want to follow in the footsteps of Serena Williams, who at her age won a big tournament for the first time, the 1999 US Open, when they had not yet been born. Williams is still active, by the way.
Raducanu and Fernández share a similar life journey in this globalized world. And in fact, both were born in Canada, even though Raducanu is British. Her father is Romanian and her mother Chinese, employees of a Canadian bank who left for London when she was little. After starting to play for fun, she was discovered by Scotsman Andy Murray’s work team, one of the figures who has cared for her the most since her brother-in-law, Nigel Spears, coached the young player. In fact, when Raducanu decided not to take part in the Wimbledon tournament a few months ago because she did not feel ready, the one who defended her the most from the attacks of an English press looking for a new heroine was Murray. “He has always had words to take care of me and show me the way,” explains Raducanu, who dropped out of school five months ago. With very good grades, by the way. “I’m still in WhatsApp groups, I like to talk to them, even though now it’s my new life,” he says. On top of planes, crossing the planet. Before flying to the United States he did selectivity. He passed it, but he knows he still doesn’t have to go to any university.
Leylah Fernández was also born in Canada. In his case his mother is Filipino and his father an Ecuadorian footballer who ended up playing in smaller clubs in Canada. After Fernández lost a scholarship to continue training, his father decided to coach him. “I didn’t know much about tennis, but for a few months I tried,” jokes Jorge Fernández. Born in Guayaquil, he still helps prepare a young woman who made her Grand Slam debut at the age of 16, even though she had never come this far. He now lives and trains in Florida. Hers is an amazing case, as she has not received all the support from the Canadian Federation, which has never bet on it. With a football-loving father analyzing how he could video rivals to help her, Fernandez has come a long way.
“I hope they have a long career, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that we have to protect talent. We have to ask ourselves why so many players with a future don’t make the leap, why they’re under so much pressure. We have to protect such talented players, “said Swiss Belinda Becic after being eliminated by Raducanu. At 18, the two young women still enjoy the sport. “And hopefully this will be the case for a long time, although sooner or later we will all face the pressure that everyone expects from you victories and they do not accept defeats,” Becic concludes.
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