The US Open begins: the presence of Rafa Nadal, the retirement of Serena Williams, the absences of Federer and Djokovic and everything there is to know

The fourth and last Grand Slam of the season begins at a steady pace. Is that Diego Schwartzman will lead the legion of the nine Argentine tennis players that they will play in New York a new edition of US Open. The tournament will have as its main attraction the Spanish Rafael Nadalwill not have the Serbian Novak Djokovic and will mark the farewell among the ladies of the American champion Serena Williams.

The contest that will be played in the complex Billie Jean King National Tennis, in the New York neighborhood of Queen’son a concrete surface, will have only one member of the Big Three: Rafael Nadalrecord holder for 22 Grand Slam titlessince they will not be Absentwho won 21, and neither did the Swiss Roger Federerthird with 20.

The path of the Spanish (3) will begin against the Australian Rinky Hijikata (198) and as the second seeded hopes to reach the final of a tournament that he won four times (2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019) for a hypothetical cross with the one who rules on the other side of the table, the Russian Daniil Medvedev (1), defender of the title and who will start his campaign against the American Stefan Kozlov (110).

In the absence of the Serbian, who also missed this year the Australian Open for his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, German is added Alexander Zverev (2), semifinalist last year and in full recovery from the injury he suffered at Roland Garros.

Among the ladies, the favorite is the Polish Every Swiatek (1), who will debut against the Italian Jasmine Paoline (57), while the defending champion is the British Emma Raducanu (11), which will start against the French Alize Cornet (37). In any case, the focus will be on Serena Williams, who will leave tennis at the age of 40 and with 23 Grand Slam titles in his backpack. The six-time US Open winner will debut against the Montenegrin Danka Kovinic (80).

As for the Argentines, the New York Grand Slam will raise the curtain this Monday and there will be a total of nine rackets, seven that entered directly and two that surpassed the classification.

In that sense, to Schwartzman they add up Francisco Cerúndolo, Sebastián Báez, Pedro Cachín, Federico Coria, Tomás Etcheverry, Federico Deblonis and Facundo Bagnisthe last two emerged from the “qualy”, plus the rosarina Nadia Podoroska, currently in box 190 but with a protected ranking for having been injured for almost a whole year.

Al little (16), with the background of his accesses to quarterfinals in the 2017 and 2019 editionswill face in the initial round the American server Jack Sock (108) and if he exceeds it, the Australian will touch him later Alexei Popyrin (82) or Chinese Chun Hsin Tseng (85).

Cerúndolo (27), champion this year in el Swedish ATP from Bastad, will debut against the British Andy Murray (49), former world number one and winner of the US Open and 2012, and if he passes it he will go in the next round against the Australian John Millman (104) or the American Emilio Nava (200).

Baez (37), champion this year in the Estoril Portuguese ATP, will play in the initial round against the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (4) and if he causes a surprise and defeats him, he will go after the Dutchman Tallon Greek Railway (46) or Rosario Federico Coria (78).

The Cordovan Cachín (66), in his best season as a professional with four Challenger tournaments (Madrid, Prague, Todi and Santo Domingo), will play against the Slovenian Aljaz Body (343), finalist of the Argentina Open in the 2018 edition, and if he wins, he will have an American tennis player in the second round: Taylor Fritz (12) o Brandon Holt (298).

Platense Etcheverry (86) will debut against the Spaniard Pablo Andujar (92) and if he overcomes it, the Chilean will later Nicholas Jarry (120) or el Italian Matteo Berrettini (fifteen). the azuleno Delbonis (136), after going through the classification will debut against the local John Isner (48) and if he beats him, he will then go against the Danish Holger Rune (32) or German Peter Gojowczyk (111). The Santa Fe Bagnis (100), also emerged from the “qualy”, will be measured with the American Sebastian Korda (52) and if he advances to the next round he will meet the local Tommy Paul (33) or Spanish Bernabe Zapata Miralles (79).

In ladies, the rosarina Podoroska (190) will have a difficult start against the Slovak Anna Karolína Schmiedlova (116) and if he wins he will go to the Chinese Shuai Zhang (35) or the Swiss Jil Teichmann (30).

The man from Mar del Plata will be in doubles Horace Zeballos with his Catalan partner Marcel Granollers and there will also be other Argentines like Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalezin a main draw that will be drawn during the week.

The US Open will distribute a record number of prizes between both ATP and WTA draws with a sum of $60,100,000. The US Open champions, both men’s and women’s, they will charge 2,600,000 dollarsfigure higher than what was delivered by the other three “majors”: the Australian Open awarded $2,071,064, Roland Garros $2,290,354 and Wimbledon $2,507,460 of US currency.

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