FLUSHING, NY—Rain interrupted much of Friday’s qualifying finals at Flushing Meadows, and 18 matches were forced to be played on Saturday, an unprecedented situation and the first time that matches were played during Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day since its inception.
That meant much bigger-than-normal crowds for the Saturday finalists and perhaps good experience for the winners as they were able to play in front of a more typical Round 1 crowd. Players were absolutely mobbed off-court in such a manner that typical mini- interviews were simply not available due to the fan mayhem from the court to the locker room. Players, as much as they love the attention, wanted to get out of sight and declined to stand outside even for another minute.
In addition to the usual contingent of fans cheering on their compatriots, there were obscure players getting deluged with fan requests as well. Kaja Juvan is from Slovenia and yet there were over a hundred fans lined up to congratulate her. For Sho Shimabukuro. there were 500. I remember the good old days where there might be 5 or 10 fans wanting a selfie with a Slovenian player. Those days are over. Juvan beat Pigossi in the first round and two Japanese players, Kaji and Sakatsume, in a row to qualify for the first US Open for the first time, having been granted direct entry in her other three attempts. She lost her father to cancer this year and took a break from tennis for a few months, hurting her ranking. It didn’t matter.
Juvan will face Elisabetta Cocciaretto today second on Court 4, and we have that one tipped for an upset.
Olivia Gadecki has had a tough couple of years. Allegedly, she was not a fan of vaccines and that cost her some trips abroad to showcase her craft in the sport. The statute of limitations on 2020 decisions has expired, so let’s not hold that against her anymore. Now that the pandemic has subsided, she won a doubles title in San Diego two weeks ago and looked in top form last week, as she breezed past two Americans (Chirico and Bektas) for her maiden entry to the US Open and the first grand slam for which she had to qualify. Like Juvan, the only celebrating she wanted to do on a New York Saturday night was sweet, sweet sleep. Gadecki’s first round match today will pit her against 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the last match on Court 15. Gadecki is a formidable underdog but should be able to win that match.
The 2023 qualifiers have been tested in unusual ways and they could produce some fantastic results. No, Emilio Nava probably won’t upset Casper Ruud today and Laura Siegemund will be unlikely to shock Coco Gauff tonight, but we have a high level of confidence that the qualifiers will go further at the US Open than the likes of Milos Raonic, for example.
There’s also much to be said for Yanina Wickmayer and Vera Zvonareva playing in qualifying last week. We’ve been pulling for supermoms for a couple of years now and it was nice to have a couple playing for Fan Week. While Wickmayer fell short, she became a lucky loser and Tuesday’s fans will be treated to a match between the two, on an outer court no less. Awesome.
And one more thing: Everyone Loves Chris. Chris Eubanks, that is. But given his media overexposure since Wimbledon, we fear he’s in for a jinxy meltdown. Don’t blame him. Blame the television media, which “discovered” him in July, many years after the fans did. We hope we’re wrong and he wins the 2023 men’s singles title here. But you’ve seen it before and you know what we mean.
It’s hard to complain when you’re at the biggest tennis tournament in the hemisphere, and main draw opening day is like Christmas morning to most of us, but the weather was a huge factor in New York for 3 days last week and it appears that tomorrow and Wednesday could be impacted. If it happens, it happens. Until then, let’s enjoy the greatest show on hard courts
Tennis Atlantic 
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