The US Open courts promise to be a challenge even for the best – NBC New York

Tennis fans who can’t decide who has the best chance at the US Open have company, as the final Grand Slam tournament of the year begins on Monday. Even the players themselves aren’t sure what to expect.

“We’ve had people surprise us every week, every tournament, every Grand Slam tournament. Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason why someone might do well,” said Jessica Pegula, who has reached the quarterfinals of a major tournament six times. “Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.”

The usual uncertainty is present in New York, given the vagaries of injuries and the rigors of a long season. An additional factor this time could be the many court changes: During the Summer Olympics, tennis was played on the courts of Roland Garros, the host venue for the French Open. So players went from clay in Paris to grass at Wimbledon, then back to clay again before moving to hard courts ahead of the US Open.

“It’s a strange year,” said British player Dan Evans. “That’s for sure.”

Pegula, for example, handled this final transition brilliantly, going from the Olympics to winning a title in Toronto and finishing second in Cincinnati. Her doubles partner in Paris, 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff, competed in three Olympic tournaments, exiting early each time and then losing her second match in Toronto and her first in Cincinnati.

“The change of surface is hard, not only physically but mentally. … But that’s part of the job and we’ll adapt,” said Tommy Paul, who won a bronze medal in doubles for the U.S. with Taylor Fritz in Paris and posted a 1-2 record in Montreal and Cincinnati. “There may be one or two players who are burned out by the (Olympic) experience. But other than that, most have adapted pretty well now.”

The woman who beat Pegula in the Cincinnati final, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, decided not to return to France for the 2024 Games, but said she was not entirely convinced that normal preparation – or not – would necessarily determine the results of the next two weeks.

“Everyone who came here thinks they’re ready to win. I think it’s not about who’s ready. You can be ‘more’ ready than the rest of the group,” said Sabalenka, a two-time Australian Open champion and runner-up to Gauff at last year’s US Open, “but at the end of the day it’s about how hard you’re willing to fight for it – especially on the days when you’re not feeling so good.”

Another player who did not compete in the Olympics, Frances Tiafoe, reached the title match at the Cincinnati Open before losing to No. 1 Jannik Sinner, whose two positive steroid tests in March came to light less than a week ago.

Tiafoe, a 26-year-old from Maryland, feels the home crowd and high attention at the US Open bring out his best, so he wanted to focus on preparing for the host of his first Grand Slam semifinal in 2022.

“It’s open for a lot of guys this year, for sure. … It’s always different at a Grand Slam tournament. The lights are a little brighter,” he said. “We’ll see what happens in the end. Personally, I just like where I am.”

And then there are those like reigning US Open champion Novak Djokovic, who won a gold medal at the Paris Games but did not play a single hard-court preparatory tournament, or Carlos Alcaraz, the silver medalist who lost his only recent hard-court match in Cincinnati.

“Obviously I would have liked to have played more matches on hard courts before the US Open,” said Alcaraz, who sprained his right ankle on Saturday but seemed OK during practice on Sunday. “But I mean, it doesn’t affect me at all.”

For someone like Gauff or Djokovic, this statistic may be more interesting: It has been at least a decade since a woman or man won two championships in a row at Flushing Meadows.

In general, some numerical predictions are difficult to make.

“Right now … on any given Sunday, anyone can win,” said Bianca Andreescu, who defeated Serena Williams to win the 2019 US Open. “That’s honestly the beauty of it, because it brings that variety.”

Recent Grand Slam results may not offer any clues, although the players who won trophies this season at the Australian Open (Sabalenka and Sinner), the French Open (No. 1 Iga Swiatek and Alcaraz) and at Wimbledon (Barbora Krejcikova and Alcaraz) certainly hope so.

“To be honest, I don’t really know where my level is,” said eighth-seeded Krejcikova, who has only competed in singles at the Olympic Games since her triumph at the All England Club.

The bottom line is that it seems everyone can only guess what will happen in New York.

“This (tournament) is a bit of an anomaly,” said Katie Boulter, who competed for Great Britain in the Summer Games. “You never know what can happen.”