An Idiot’s Guide to the US Open

This is now a Leylah Fernandez Fan Blog

Hello friends! Are you a tennis fan? Neither am I! However, I am very blessed to have friends who do have an interest in tennis, and so I ended up on Sunday September 5 in Flushing for the US Open Round of 16.

If like me you are a tennis idiot, I highly recommend the experience! Watching tennis live is soooo much better than watching on TV. It’s possible to really see the entire court and appreciate the skill and athleticism of each of these players and the total silence while playing played is deeply weird, but also makes the game feel more intimate. It’s possible to pick up on little idioms and mannerisms of the players in a way that’s much more difficult for, say, a baseball game. Tennis is now my second-favorite sport to watch live (soccer remains first) — the pace of the game means there’s always something happening, but there are enough quick changeovers baked in that you don’t worry about missing the action when you leave your seat to get food/drink/bathroom.

For the US Open specifically, especially if you live in New York City it’s such a fun time. The grounds are fun to wander, it’s relatively convenient via public transit, and you get to see the best players in the world hit a ball very hard. Go do it, I highly recommend it!

On to the matches! Here are the matches I saw, with trenchant analysis from me, a person who knows very little about tennis! As always, if you disagree with something I said, you’re probably right because I don’t know what I’m talking about!

Elina Svitolina (#5) vs Simona Halep (#12)

Tennis is a brutal game. Maybe only soccer is as harsh and unforgiving in how much it demands of players, and how little it cares about how hard they play.

To wit, in Svitolina and Halep’s match the first set was tied 3–3. Then, in the seventh game, #12 Halep went up 15–40 on the serving #5 Svitolina. Halep was firing on her returns, her strokes were clean and all the momentum was with her. Halep and the crowd could smell a break coming, as well as the potential upset/drama this could foretell for Svitolina. Svitolina then calmly reached into her bag of tricks and dialed up four straight points. Game, Svitolina. Halep spiked her racket in frustration. Svitolina then immediately broke a clearly frazzled Halep, and polished off the first set with a clean service game to take a 6–3 first set.

The second set was more of the same — Halep continued to put up a fight, but once again a crack appeared in her defenses and Svitolina took game, set and match (6–3, 6–3). Halep is a former world #1, the 2018 French Open champion and the 2019 Wimbledon champion. And she had her window against Svitolina! But she wasn’t able to connect, so her prize is absolutely nothing. Absolutely brutal.

Match Rating: 7/10. Solid first match to start off the day and get into the groove of watching tennis live. Halep put up a fight, and watching Svitolina take care of business gave me a real appreciation for her game.

Daniil Medvedev (#2) vs Daniel Evans (#24)

Daniel Evans is extremely good at tennis. He is #27 in the world, he won the 2015 Davis Cup and he’s the best British men’s player currently on the tour. I say all that to preface this statement — Daniil Medvedev made Daniel Evans look like a man who does not know how to play tennis. The scoreline (6–3, 6–4, 6–3) honestly flatters Evans. At no point in the match did it look like Evans could even mildly inconvenience Medvedev.

Not that Evans played poorly! Evans would laser in a tight serve, then immediately approaching and closing down angles on a possible return. If Medvedev tried to lob him, Evans would backpedal, leap in the air and hook down an impressive smash. The 5'9" Evans looked very small on the court compared to the 6'6" Medvedev, but Evans gamely sprinted around, made Medvedev work hard and took advantage of any opening in the Russian’s defenses.

None of that matters, though. Because Evans would work his butt off to find the right angle, wearing down Medvedev until he could slip a shot through. And then Medvedev would yawn, reach back and laser four straight winners into different corners of the court because why not. This point is the best encapsulation of the match:

Evans hits an absolute bullet of a serve that is perfectly placed to the outside corner, a sure ace or at the very least a great setup for the point. Medvedev sprints towards it and somehow rips it back on an impossible angle for a return winner. He even turns to the fans afterwards as if to say “I mean come on, that was cool, right?” Medvedev hasn’t lost a set at the US Open so far, and watching him it’s not surprising! Poor Evans never had a chance.

Rating: 5/10 — look, this isn’t anyone’s fault. Evans did his best, and watching Medvedev is a delightful experience. But we left this match early because I’m not going to watch a cat play with its food for two hours.

Diego Schwartzman (#11) vs Botic van de Zandschulp (Unseeded)

I basically did not watch this match. Of the stadiums, Arthur Ashe is ticketed seats, but Louis Armstrong is not (except for the bottom section, which is full of people who are much richer than us). This leads to a very cool atmosphere, because it’s basically people organically sitting wherever they can find seats. However, it also means that if you leave the Medvedev-Evans execution in order to catch the fifth set of the van de Zandschulp-Schwartzman thriller, you end up in a line with every single person at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center waiting to hopefully grab one seat before giving up and watching the final set on a stadium TV. Oops.

Rating: N/A. Like I said, I did not watch this. But shoutout to my boy Botic, who had never been to the US before August and is now playing in the US Open Quarterfinals. Sick.

Angelique Kerber (#16) vs Leylah Fernandez (Unseeded)

You heard it here first — Leylah Fernandez is a star. The #77 ranked player in the world made an entrance to the world stage this weekend by upsetting Naomi Osaka in the third round. But would her Cinderella run continue in the fourth round?

Angelique Kerber is no stranger to Cinderella stories — she used to be one! In 2011 Kerber (then ranked #92) made it all the way to the semi-finals of the US Open. That launched Kerber into a distinguished career — she reached the #1 world ranking in 2016, and won the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open and Wimbledon 2018. Since then Kerber has been more inconsistent, but she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2021 and is currently ranked #17. She’s a savvy veteran player with a devastating lefty forehand and an excellent return game.

On the other side is a literal 18 year old (she turned 19 the day after the match), who is approximately the size of her racket bag. Leylah Fernandez was the younger and smaller player on the court by a large margin, but she was also the most charismatic — she has a sunny disposition and bright smile that’s immediately apparent.

Fernandez is also an electric shot maker, with an incredible lefty forehand (Kerber must have found it familiar) and a ruthless desire to laser the ball into the corner on each and every point. She plays with her heart on her sleeves, and between her youth, underdog status, charisma and exciting play, she had the entire crowd at Louis Armstrong stadium behind her.

Fernandez took this energy right out of the gate and ran with it! She ripped lefty forehand shots all across the court, firing away like a teenager without a care in the world. And it worked! She cruised to a 4–2 lead in the first set, up a break on the completely bewildered Kerber. The stadium was rocking, Fernandez was feeling it and the teenager looked ready to add Kerber’s name next to Osaka’s on her list of recent conquests.

Then the 18 year old’s inexperience started to show. Perhaps feeling the moment on her shoulders, Fernandez noticeably tightened up and started to double fault. Serve after serve went straight into the net, or past the box. At one point Fernandez faulted on six straight serves. The crowd started to quiet every time Fernandez had a service game, and you could feel the wince as she sent ball after ball into the net.

You can’t leave that opening against Kerber. The German immediately roared back, dropping her own lefty forehand dimes all over the court, hammering back the smaller Fernandez and keeping the pressure on. Every mistake Fernandez made, Kerber was there to take advantage. She played with the composure of a Grand Slam champion, and Fernandez looked like a teenager out of her depth. Kerber won four straight games to take the first set 6–4, at one point scoring fifteen straight points.

Kerber kept that momentum going into the second set, and took another break from Fernandez to go up 4–2 in the second. This is where I thought the match was heading — a (6–4, 6–4) victory for Kerber. The crowd was mostly starting to check out, disappointed at Fernandez’s collapse, but still politely applauding for Kerber’s dominance and Fernandez’s effort. I had already seen Halep, a much more pedigreed player, face a similar situation and take the glide path to the exits. I had the storyline written in my head — “Cinderella run ends against seasoned former champion.” Unfortunate to see an upset story fizzle out, but that’s how it goes.

And then Cinderella decided she wasn’t done dancing, because Fernandez went insane. Serving down 4–6, 2–4, Fernandez just…decided to win a game? She ripped shot after shot down the line, howling and pumping her fist after each winner. Somehow, she knew that she was going to win — and just like that, the Louis Armstrong crowd was back in it. 4–3 Kerber.

Kerber was then serving up 4–3. But she wasn’t facing the tentative, in-her-head Fernandez who had choked away three breaks. Instead she was facing a relentless dynamo of unstoppable energy with a lighting bolt in her left hand and killer instincts. Fernandez broke to get back to 4–4 and the crowd erupted.

Kerber didn’t go quietly — she clawed back every other break chance that Fernandez had, and the two held serve, leading to a 6–6 set, with tiebreaker to come. In the tiebreaker, the crowd started chanting “Let’s Go Leylah!” as the teenager raced to a 5–1 lead. Kerber battled back, but Fernandez crushed another forehand to win the tiebreaker and the set, and the stadium exploded.

The third set had its moments, but it was here that Fernandez’s quality really started to show. Kerber threatened to break up 2–1, but Fernandez held her off and then won the next four games. As Kerber’s last shot hit the net, Fernandez howled in triumph, Louis Armstrong stadium went nuts, and I think I legitimately went blind for a second. Final score, Fernandez (4–6, 7–6 [7–5], 6–2).

This cheerful, smiling child without a care in the world has now knocked off two US Open champions in the last two rounds. She next plays Elina Svitolina, the #5 seed who I watched dismantle Simona Halep earlier that day. Fernandez will be a massive underdog against Svitolina, and I am 100% certain that Fernandez does not care. My head says that Svitolina will dismantle the plucky upstart Cinderella — but my heart says that Fernandez is here to win the whole goddamn thing.

Rating: 12/10. Honestly, one of the coolest sports experiences I’ve ever had. Watching an underdog make a huge comeback against a more seasoned opponent is amazing. The narratives for this game write themselves (old vs young, the next generation passing the torch, old guard trying to stave off time as well as the hot new phenom). So hype even writing about it now. Leylah Fernandez for President!

Aryna Sabalenka (#2) vs Elise Mertens (#15)

I don’t know what a tennis ball ever did to Aryna Sabalenka but it must have been horrible because she is trying to murder the ball. Every stroke — thunderous serves, booming baseline strokes, fiery passing shots — is delivered with a full body violence that is terrifying to behold. She’s not just a masher (you don’t get to #2 in the world by being one-dimensional), but the core of her style is her ability to unleash the thunderbolts of Zeus from anywhere on the court.

None of this is new information to Elise Mertens! As Sabalenka’s former doubles partner, Mertens has seen how effective this power is, as the duo reached a #1 ranking, won the 2019 US Open and won the 2021 Australian Open.

Mertens knew exactly what she was facing, and it’s likely that Mertens saw a potential path to an upset. Mertens is one of the best defensive players on the tour. She has the length, athleticism and savvy to cover the court and take away easy winners, forcing her opponents to make more and more difficult shots until they make a mistake. It appears Mertens’ gameplan was to play to her strengths — absorb Sabalenka’s power, take away the easy shots, and force her former partner to rally over and over again. After all, the inverse of power is accuracy, and while Sabalenka’s power is terrifying, she also hits a lot of unforced errors and double faults.

And for the first set, it almost worked! Sabalenka’s aggression got her a break, but then she double faulted it right back to Mertens. Partway through the first set, the score was 4–4. Sabalenka was able to get another break to take the set 6–4, but there was probably reason for Mertens to feel like there was a path to victory.

But the problem with parrying thunderbolts over and over until one thunderbolt misses is you still have to parry a lot of thunderbolts. And partway through the second set it became very clear that hitting Sabalenka’s 100+mph strokes was taking a toll on Mertens. Mertens dropped deeper and deeper to return, lost a step and stopped putting as much pace on her returns. Sabalenka continued to hammer away with abandon, and more and more of her bombs started to break through Mertens’ defenses, leading to a (6–4, 6–2) victory.

Sabalenka is the highest seed left on the women’s side, and she is here to win it all. Whoever is facing her next should be prepared for 2–3 sets of high, unrelenting heat.

Rating: 7/10 — After the incredible hype of Fernandez-Kerber, anything would be a letdown. But despite that, still deeply entertaining to watch Sabalenka murder a tennis ball and watch Mertens try desperately to survive.

End of Blog

That is it! That is all the tennis that I saw, and it was as you can tell, a deeply enjoyable experience. Highly recommend the US Open, and watching sports that you don’t know that much about!

Leylah Fernandez For President,
Jefferson