"Grand Slam" for Djokovic

The 2021 US Open is doomed to the point that all talk about it will be reduced to Novak Djokovic. The Serbian athlete is on the verge of a great achievement for tennis - he can win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one season. In the Open Era, when these competitions became available to professionals, only three players managed to remain undefeated for a year. They were Rod Laver (1969), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graf (1988).

If Djokovic still gets his way, then his success will be even louder than all of the above legends.

He has a chance to become the first to win 28 matches for the Grand Slam.

In the days of Laver and Court, so many games were simply not held, and Graf was once lucky that Chris Evert refused to meet with her.

No one in the history of tennis has managed to win seven victories at each major, not on paper, but right on the court.

And the assembled “Grand Slam” is not the only thing that fans expect from Djokovic.

During his career, he won 20 Majors, which is exactly the same as the most titled tennis players in the history of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

In the eternal dispute over who is the greatest of them, an end can be put if on September 12 Djokovic raises the US Open trophy over his head.

However, precisely at this exciting moment for the whole tennis sport, the chances of the first racket of the world for the 21st triumph should be evaluated carefully. After all, since Djokovic won Wimbledon, he no longer delighted the fans. At the Tokyo Olympics, the Serb faced an outright failure when he was left without a single medal. After that, he no longer appeared on the court and preferred to rest, instead of participating in the American series of tournaments.

Djokovic himself is confident in his abilities and says that he is in good shape, but it is impossible to verify this until he starts the tournament with a match with the Dane Holger Rune.

But psychological preparation will be of much greater importance, for which, as the Olympic Games have shown, there can be even more serious questions.

And we must not forget that Djokovic will have to return to court, where a year ago he found himself at the center of the scandal with the hit of the line judge, which cost him disqualification from the tournament.

Bad memories of that episode can also leave a certain imprint on the player.

Medvedev and Zverev on the way

If Djokovic has problems during the US Open, then the first to take advantage of them will be Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev.

Two tennis players from Russia and Germany, the second and fourth rackets of the world, had phenomenal preparation for the last major of the season and can be considered the same main favorites as the Serbian tennis player.

After the Olympics, Medvedev managed to win the Masters series tournament in Toronto and reach the semifinals of a similar tournament in Cincinnati.

Zverev turned out to be the best there, adding this title to his Olympic gold.

For both tennis players, playing on the hard is real pleasure and allows you to fully develop, provided that both are well prepared both physically and mentally.

This is confirmed by their performances this season, and dry statistics. Medvedev is currently the season leader in hard wins, having won 28 matches. At the same time, he is also the best in victories over players from the top ten on hard surface. Zverev is second in this rating, and in terms of the total number of matches won, he is fourth, behind Andrei Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. True, if we take the success on hard as a percentage, then both Medvedev and Zverev are inferior to Djokovic, being in the list right behind him.

Medvedev will play at the US Open in the lower half of the bracket, while Djokovic and Zverev may face each other in the semifinals.

The Russian will start the tournament with a match with the Frenchman Richard Gasquet, and his first rival from the top eight seeded may be the Norwegian Kasper Ruud.

The draw for Medvedev can be assessed as good enough to at least repeat last year's exit to the semifinals.

Rublev's chance for a promotion

As a result of the US Open, a historic event may occur for Russian men's tennis.

Andrei Rublev has excellent chances to become the fifth representative of his country to be in the top five of the world ranking.

He can join this short list to Evgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Nikolai Davydenko and Medvedev.

At the same time, for the first time since 2002, two Russians will be in the top 5 at once.

Rublev, regardless of his performance, in two weeks will definitely overtake Rafael Nadal and Dominic Tim. The last two US Open champions will not compete this year and will lose a whopping 2,000 ranking points. Rublev will have to defend only the points for reaching the quarterfinals. Under certain conditions, he can even rise to fourth place, if, for example, he wins the title, and last year's finalist Alexander Zverev from Germany does not go beyond the semifinals.

However, the fifth place is not yet guaranteed to Rublev. The only tennis player who can move him lower is the Italian Matteo Berrettini. True, for this he must at least get to the final, and Rublev finish his performance at the tournament as early as possible. But the fact that the Russian will perform worse than the Italian is hard to believe. Berrettini this season on hard won only nine fights, while Rublev won 25 victories and is second only to Medvedev in this indicator.

After the Tokyo Olympics, which brought the Russian gold in mixed doubles, he successfully passed the American series of tournaments and reached the final in Cincinnati with a passing victory over Medvedev.

Rublev has never reached the semifinals of the Grand Slam tournaments yet, but right now he is in the best possible way to take a new height for himself.

Perhaps for this it will be necessary to beat the third racket of the world, Stefanos Tsitsipas, but the Greek since reaching the final of Roland Garros has not beat opponents with a high rating.

Tournament without masters

The current US Open, unfortunately, will turn out to be rather poor for big names in the list of participants. In addition to the already mentioned Nadal, Roger Federer and Serena Williams will not participate in the tournament. For the first time in 24 years, all three tennis icons will miss the upcoming Major, and fans are left wondering if any of them will be able to return to Flushing Madous or not.

They won 63 singles Grand Slam tournaments for three and topped the world rankings for 838 weeks.

Both Nadal and Federer and Williams cited health problems and various kinds of injuries as reasons for withdrawal from the tournament.

At the same time, it should be noted that the whole trio has not developed this season as well as they used to - Nadal did not win at Roland Garros, Williams won only 12 matches, and Federer even less.

Their absence, although it will upset many tennis fans, can no longer be considered a loss for sports.

Osaka is getting ready, Barty is coming

The main favorite of the women's tournament is the Japanese woman Naomi Osaka.

Of the last six Grand Slam tournaments on hard, she has won four - two each in Australia and the United States.

Only seven girls were more likely to win on hard surface in the Open Era.

The last to collect so many titles in Melbourne and New York was Serena Williams in 2005.

In Osaka's game, some decline can be noted, which does not quite correspond to her status.

After the success at the Australian Open, she won only seven matches, in which the most serious contender was the 17th racket of the world Eliza Mertens from Belgium.

The Japanese woman lost to girls with an even lower rating.

Remember, though, Osaka has never had long periods of stability that terrify other female tennis players.

So far, she has held only three titles in non-Grand Slam tournaments.

She won the last of them back in October 2019.

Osaka knows how to prepare specifically for the desired major, and therefore should not be written off from the accounts.

Ashley Barty will try to challenge the reigning US Open champion.

The first racket of the world, unlike Osaka, is just spending the season of dreams and literally blowing rivals out of its way.

This year, the Australian has lost just four games in which she did not have to experience any health problems.

Every year, Barty is progressing on hard, and since January, the ratio of her wins and losses on this surface is a fantastic 19-3.

This statistic she greatly improved at the tournament in Cincinnati, where she did not lose a single set.

The time has come for the leader of the WTA rankings to prove herself at the US Open, where she still has not gone beyond the fourth round.

By the way, Barty will start his performance with a match against Vera Zvonareva, whom she has never met before.

Of those who have the most chances to surprise, it is worth highlighting the Belarusian Arina Sobolenko, because it is no coincidence that she is the second racket of the world, and during this season she even headed the doubles rating.

Her relationship with the Grand Slam tournaments did not work out for a long time until she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals this season.

Pavlyuchenkova's fight for the Final tournament

For Russians, the US Open has traditionally been considered not a very successful tournament.

The last time one of them managed to get to the second week back in 2018, and this was Maria Sharapova, who ended her career.

Last season, only Varvara Gracheva managed to win two matches.

True, then Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was not announced, who will now be seeded under a rather high 14th number and should not experience serious problems with rivals until the fourth round.

For her, a successful performance in New York is especially important from the point of view of the struggle to get to the Final Tournament of the Year, where the Russians have not played for five years.

Now Pavlyuchenkova is in 11th place in the qualifying rating thanks to her reaching the final of Roland Garros. She is separated from the first eight by a little more than 300 points, which can be earned by reaching the quarterfinals. There are already very few major tournaments in the WTA calendar where you can improve your position, so the Olympic champion in mixed doubles should in no case miss her chance, even though due to visa problems she will be able to come to USA only at the last moment.

In addition to Pavlyuchenkova, Daria Kasatkina can prove herself at the US Open. The current season for her is developing much better than the previous ones. She won two titles at the beginning of the year and then reached the finals twice. Suffice it to say that the 24-year-old Russian won 19 matches on hard - only Spaniards Garbinier Mugurus and Sara Sorribes-Tormo, as well as Czech Barbara Kreichikova, won more victories. During the American series of tournaments, Kasatkina was noted for reaching the finals of the tournament in San Jose and the quarterfinals in Cleveland, which may indicate her good form. But already in the third round of the US Open she could get a very dangerous Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.