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The United States Open singles competitions start Monday with neither the women’s nor the men’s reigning singles champion participating. Still, there are plenty of incredible competitors starting their quests for a Grand Slam title, including Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Robin Montgomery, 15, is making her debut in the main singles draw.
- Coco Gauff is eliminated in three sets.
- Alexander Zverev tops 2017 finalist Kevin Anderson.
- Diego Schwartzman falls in an early upset by Cameron Norrie.
- Only one word can describe this quiet Grand Slam atmosphere: bizarre.
- Karolina Pliskova feels more comfortable at Arthur Ashe Stadium — even without fans.
- Kristina Mladenovic wins after signing a new coronavirus protocol agreement.
Robin Montgomery, 15, is making her debut in the main singles draw.
After months of waiting for her big stage debut, what were 10 more hours to Robin Montgomery? After the third of three long men’s matches finally wrapped up on Court 5, it’s time for her debut.
The 15-year-old from Washington, D.C., was hoping to have a Coco Gauff-type run through this season on the WTA Tour, only for it to be sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic. She hasn’t had the prep she would have expected before her first U.S. Open main draw match, against 23rd-seeded Yulia Putintseva, but she arrives having used the time to work on her fitness and nutrition, and to further hone her powerful, lefty game.The youngest player in the U.S. Open has already been recognized by the elder stateswoman of the tour, Venus Williams, who practiced with her this summer in Washington.
“It feels like she’s got a bright future,” Williams, 40, said. “She looks like she’s got ease in the strokes and natural power coming along. All it takes is time and perseverance. There is no limit to what a person can achieve as long as they believe it. It’s all in the cards for her if she can make that happen.”
Coco Gauff is eliminated in three sets.
Coco Gauff, the American 16-year-old who generated buzz and roars by winning two rounds at last year’s United States Open, was defeated in the first round on Monday 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 amid the silence by Anastasija Sevastova.
Gauff was back in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the same show court where she defeated Anastasia Potapova and Timea Babos in 2019 before losing in the third round to No. 1 Naomi Osaka. But this year, with no fans allowed at the U.S. Open, Armstrong Stadium was all but empty as Gauff struggled to recapture the same form.
She double faulted 13 times and had her serve broken seven times against Sevastova, the No. 31 seed from Latvia. Though she avoided double faults in the final game of the third set, she was unable to avoid a series of forehand errors.
Sevastova is a crafty veteran who is adept at mixing spins and tactics and has an often-devastating backhand drop shot. Though she has struggled in 2020, both before and after the extended tour hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, she has had her best results at the U.S. Open, reaching the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2017 and the semifinals in 2018.
She battled herself mentally on Monday, surrendering a winning position with a 4-2 lead in the second set with a series of errors and frequently cast withering glances at Ronald Schmidt, her coach and boyfriend, who was sitting in the vacant stadium.
Gauff had internal tussles of her own, putting a hand to her head repeatedly after double faults. But both players stabilized in the final set with the final game providing the only break of serve.
Alexander Zverev tops 2017 finalist Kevin Anderson.
Alexander Zverev won the most high-profile first round match in the men’s draw to finish the day session at Arthur Ashe Stadium, beating 2017 finalist Kevin Anderson 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.
After the match, which was watched by many interested players from their suites inside the stadium, Zverev received a video message from his older brother, Mischa, a player who did not make the trip.
Zverev, who had lost his first match in the Western & Southern Open last week to Andy Murray, next faces American wild card Brandon Nakashima, who won in straight sets over Paolo Lorenzi.
Nakashima, 19, will break into the top 200 for the first time after reaching the second round. He is coached by Pat Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion.
Another American wild card, Maxime Cressy, also scored his first Grand Slam main draw win, beating Jozef Kovalik in four sets.
Diego Schwartzman falls in an early upset by Cameron Norrie.
No. 9 Diego Schwartzman became the highest seed to lose so far at the Open, falling 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 to 76th-ranked Cameron Norrie.
Schwartzman, a two-time quarterfinalist at the Open — including a loss to eventual champion Rafael Nadal last year — had two match points on his serve at 5-4 in the fifth set.
Schwartzman’s physical struggles, which included cramping, and the persistence of Norrie were ultimately his undoing. Norrie won nine points in a row to swing the match completely in his favor, and won when a Schwartzman forehand fell into the bottom of the net, ending the match one minute shy of four hours.
Schwartzman was the second seeded man to lose on Monday, following the four-set loss of No. 18 Dusan Lajovic to Egor Gerasimov.
Norrie next faces another Argentine: Federico Coria, a younger brother of 2004 French Open finalist Guillermo Coria, who won in five sets over Jason Jung. That match also featured physical struggles down the stretch, with Jung retiring two games into the fifth set.
Only one word can describe this quiet Grand Slam atmosphere: bizarre.
It was a few minutes after 11 when Angelique Kerber of Germany and Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia began the first match in a very big, nearly empty stadium at the 2020 United States Open.
Louis Armstrong Stadium seats roughly 14,000 people. There were roughly 14 there on Monday morning. They were treated to player introductions over the public address system, which fell, if not on deaf ears, then on very few ears at all.
An hour later, the women’s No. 1 seed, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, went through the same drill on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the cavernous 22,000-seat venue that is the largest stadium in the sport. There was booming music, and some brief piped in crowd noise, an attempt to deliver something of what might have greeted the top woman playing in the first match on the featured court.
Big screens that surround the court this year showed a grid view of fans cheering in small boxes, looking a bit like they were being held hostage and told to cheer on command.
The only word to describe this atmosphere on what is usually one of the busiest, buzziest, loudest, most crowded and most chaotic days in tennis, is bizarre. Nearly everything that makes the U.S. Open different from all the other Grand Slam tournaments — the noise, the chaos, the crowds, the New York energy — is missing. The usual quiet, which actually isn’t all that quiet compared with other tournaments, sounds so much different than the quiet of today.
And yet, by day’s end, 64 matches will likely have been completed, with players earning more than $60,000 just for showing up. It’s another day at the office, and like every other office these days, it feels so different than the one that existed the last time they were here.
“The first match I wondered if I should I cheer myself or be more calm,” Pliskova said after winning her match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0. “For sure I would prefer to have people here.”
Karolina Pliskova feels more comfortable at Arthur Ashe Stadium — even without fans.
Top-seeded Karolina Pliskova was the first winner in the empty Arthur Ashe Stadium, prevailing 6-4, 6-0 over Anhelina Kalinina in just over one hour.
Pliskova, who was also top seed at the Open in 2017 when she was world No. 1, had lost her first match last week at the Western & Southern Open, but said she felt more comfortable in Ashe, and with the experience of playing in the earlier tournament.
“The center court is a better place to play, no matter,” Pliskova said. “It’s still without people, but I just felt somehow a little better. And I had a lot of practices on this court, so I felt just quite used to it.” She added: “It quite helped me just to know how it feels.”
Pliskova said that the players who were hanging out in their allotted suites inside Ashe made it feel less desolate.
“It’s super huge and it still feels super empty, but I feel like there’s at least the player boxes where they stay,” she said. Pliskova next faces former top-five player Caroline Garcia of France.
“Very dangerous player, I think,” Pliskova said of Garcia. “Especially on these fast courts. I think she can play good tennis, she can serve quite well — but nothing unbeatable.”
Kristina Mladenovic wins after signing a new coronavirus protocol agreement.
Kristina Mladenovic, the No. 30 seed from France, was one of the early winners on Monday, defeating American 18-year-old Hailey Baptiste, 7-5, 6-2.
Mladenovic was in potential danger of being withdrawn from the United States Open after contact tracing conducted by tournament officials determined she had been in close recent contact with French compatriot Benoit Paire, who tested positive for the coronavirus in New York and was withdrawn from the men’s singles draw.
But Mladenovic signed a revised protocol agreement that accepts new restrictions on her movement at the player hotel and the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. She was on court 17 on Monday morning as part of the first wave of matches beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern.
“It was very emotional, lots of things going on,” she said in her post-match remarks on court. “I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say, and what I’m not.”
Angelique Kerber wins after deciding relatively late to enter the tournament.
Angelique Kerber, the 2016 U.S. Open champion, was an early winner Monday afternoon, booking her spot in the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the 59th-ranked Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia.
Kerber is a rare top player competing at the Open who did not compete in last week’s Western & Southern Open, arriving in New York late after announcing her decision to travel only nine days ago.
There are reasons for Kerber to be confident as she catches up to the pack: she has reunited with Torben Beltz, who coached her to the first two of her three previous Grand Slam titles in 2016, when she reached the No. 1 ranking. Additionally, courts in New York are playing more quickly than in recent years, which favors Kerber’s low, crouching style of play.
A positive coronavirus test prompts greater restrictions for some players.
After French player Benoit Paire tested positive for the coronavirus and was withdrawn from the United States Open, several other players in the field, including French doubles specialist Edouard Roger-Vasselin, have been found by tournament organizers to have had close contact with Paire.
But instead of being forced to withdraw, those players have been required to sign a revised agreement in order to remain in the U.S. Open. The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, requires players to submit to daily coronavirus testing. It also strictly limits their movements and behavior inside the controlled environment that has been established at the tournament site and player hotel — with even greater restrictions than those already imposed on all players.
Players who sign the new document are required to stay in their rooms at the hotel unless traveling to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and no longer have access to common areas. No visitors are permitted in their rooms. On site at the tennis center, access to locker rooms and dining areas is now prohibited and the group of players who sign the agreement now will be required to use separate fitness, training and warm-up areas and only by appointment.
They will still have access to their designated practice court or match court.
“To sum up, we are in the bubble within the bubble,” Roger-Vasselin said in an interview with L’Equipe, the French newspaper, that was published on Monday.
Though the names of the players in close contact with Paire in recent days have not been released publicly, the majority are French, according to a tennis official familiar with the list, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released.
The players who sign the revised protocol are also required to “strictly adhere” to the requirement to wear masks at all times “both indoors and outdoors, which also includes isolation areas.”
The decision to offer players the option to sign the revised agreement raises the question of why Guido Pella and Hugo Dellien were not offered the same option when their fitness trainer, Juan Manuel Galvan, tested positive for the coronavirus and was isolated before the start of the Western & Southern Open, a tournament that preceded the U.S. Open at the National Tennis Center.
Pella, an Argentine, was withdrawn from the main draw; Dellien, a Bolivian, from the qualifying tournament. Both were required to quarantine for 14 days at the player hotel. Neither tested positive for the virus before or during that period. They were gradually allowed more freedom of movement, including the ability to practice on court. Both are expected to play in the U.S. Open with Pella, the 29th seed, to face American J.J. Wolf in the first round, and Dellien to face Marton Fucsovics of Hungary. Both of those matches are scheduled for Tuesday.
Stacey Allaster, the U.S. Open tournament director, confirmed on Monday in an interview with Tennis Channel that a group of players in contact with Paire would be allowed to continue in the tournament.
“Contact tracing has been executed, decisions have been made and we’re continuing on to have those individuals in the competition based on the medical science and all of those facts,” Allaster said. “They will be in the competition starting this morning.”
The two reigning singles champions, Rafael Nadal and Bianca Andreescu, are missing.
Though there is still a depth of star power — future Hall-of-Famers Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have all entered the tournament — there are as many notable absences.
Both reigning champions, Rafael Nadal and Bianca Andreescu, chose not to attempt a repeat. Roger Federer has shut down his season because of injury. Fan favorite Gael Monfils, is, like the crowd that adores him, also absent. Six of the women’s top 10 are missing, including No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and No. 2 Simona Halep, leaving No. 3 Karolina Pliskova as the top seed.
With the lack of a qualifying draw this year, the entry cutoff for this year’s women’s singles draw was about 50 spots weaker than it was last year, in terms of ranking. There are still plenty of quality players in both singles tournaments, but its distribution is less even than usual because of the absences.
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2020 U.S. Open: Live Updates from Day 1 - The New York Times
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