Bill Simons
At the Open, we saw Aryna Sabalenka with her dog Ash on a leash, a $110,000 necklace around her neck, a tiger tattoo on her arm, and a problem on her hands.
Elena Rybakina.
Never mind that the Australian Open champion suffered an ankle injury in August and has never made it past the fourth round in the Big Apple in a decade.
Years ago, tennis named Tunisia’s often funny Ons Jabour as its Minister of Happiness. Rybakina is the Minister of Internal Affairs of WTA.
“He’s very quiet, very soft spoken,” Chris McKendree noted. “We don’t know much about him.” Lindsay Davenport observed. “He won’t let you in. We don’t know what he’s thinking.” Mary Carrillo quipped. “He’s not a New Yorker.”
New York is high. Elena is silent.
But his results at this year’s Open have been underwhelming. She has beaten four-time Slam winner Naomi Osaka, Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng and America’s favorite Coco Gauff. And, yes, by reaching the semifinals, she dethroned Sabalenka as world No. 1.
Arina was not satisfied. “How dare you?” he seemed to say. “I’ve been No. 1 for 99 weeks, I’m the best hard court player in the world. I’ve won the Open twice in a row. I’ll show you.”
But at first he didn’t.
Her concentration strong, Rybakina came out on fire and found herself in the zone. Flaming backhands? Yes! The first serves. Not so much. But he punished with his second serve.
Elena is an extraordinary ball striker. Clean strokes, easy power, excellent balance, small stuttering steps – simplicity and efficiency are his allies. She forced the first set, getting ahead of the towering Sabalenka.
As Brad Pitt looked on, Sabalenka was in the hole. Arms flailing, arms flailing, howling in frustration, he lobbed the ball into the stands and seemed close to exploding.
How could such an elite champion, the best hard court player of our era, be so out of place, off center?
Earlier this week, when Coco Gauff was struggling, she remarked: “I just have to tell the negativity to shut up.”
Sometimes Sabalenka seems to beat herself more than her enemies.
Arina lost the first set 6-4, and Rybakina got two early break points in the second set. All seemed lost. Rybakina, 27, could soon be leaving the Big Apple with a top ranking on her resume, a shiny title on her mantle and $5.5 million in her pocket.
But Sabalenka dug deep and showed her athleticism when she picked up a short volley and immediately changed her once-slack body language as she found her long-lost confidence, winning 12 straight points to take the second set 7-5.
With the match even in each set, the stat sheet showed us just how evenly matched these power hitters were; Headed 7-7 in their hard court matches, each had won 23 sets against the other and both had 71 points today. Amazing!
So close you can’t blink, but Arina did.
While an excited Jelena kept her game face on and lasered deep down the court, Sabalenka hesitated. His backhands sank into the net. He threw his racket on the ground, his level dropped. He crouched on the ground in agony. And again we saw a series of tortured expressions, such pain.
And as Rybakina’s pressure paid off, the Kazakh simply dominated. She broke twice in the third set and barely dropped a point in her improvement and punishing serve.
Accordingly, Elena shook off two double faults at the break before she hit an ace to win her third career Grand Slam 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. And while the gutted Sabalenka roared, smashed her racket and began to cry, something amazing happened.
The Home Secretary let us in. He raised his hands in gentle glee and offered two handsome fists and a sweet triumphant smile.
And we were sure that somewhere in Sousse, Tunisia, the Minister of Happiness was smiling.
NO PRESSURE, BEN. Argentina is fierce about football. Australia loves its sport. But come on, sports are a religion here in America. The Super Bowl is a billion-dollar spiritual experience. When the Knicks win, New York goes crazy. Give us Americans gold at the Olympics.
And our female tennis players, whether Billie Jean, Venus, Serena or Coco, helped create the most successful women’s sport on the planet.
So American men’s tennis, what’s up?
Twenty-three years without a Grand Slam title is enough. And guess what? We are tired of explanations. Of course, America has become a little soft. Yes, tennis is a bigger deal in Europe. Yes, the Big Three was a sports blitz. And who knew that in no time Alcaraz and The Sinner would take the European flag and maintain dominance?
So no pressure, Mr. Benjamin Todd Shelton. We’re not asking you to pull a rabbit out of your hat tomorrow. You’re not wearing a hat. We’re not saying you have to show us some special trick you’ve got up your sleeve. You have no wings.
All we’re saying is that the hopes of a tennis nation rest on your shoulders tomorrow. And trust us, we’re looking for any sign of hope.
After all, the last black American to reach a Grand Slam final was Malivai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996. the final was preceded, incredibly, by the only black player ever to run Center Court to a Slam final.
So Ben, run around Ash all you want tomorrow.
Just keep your clothes on and, pooh-lick, end the most humiliating streak in American sports.
TWO THINGS CAN BE TRUE. Something strange is happening at Wimbledon. In all its grandeur, it can get annoying after a while. It is so refined, so proper, so ordered. Each petunia is in its proper place. As the Russian Marat Safin used to say, “you must wear white, be nice and polite to people.”
Then, inevitably, Wimbledon provides the incredible drama that feeds tennis’ soul in a big way.
The US Open is just that, only more so. We’ve heard it all in three weeks. We’re becoming the Disneyland of tennis, with stratospheric ticket prices, an out-of-control “fork your $3,600” resale market, USTA empowering gambling outfits, night tennis that doesn’t know when to quit, too many influencers, and a few quick jabs at the media. Have an enjoyable fan experience.
Hundreds of thousands of people have said. “Hey, this is the gap. I’m going.”
Night tennis is its own animal. There is only one “Arthur Ashe” stadium.
So things are a bit complicated. The phrase “Two things can be true at the same time” comes to mind. As Shelton and Tiafoe lit up Ashe Stadium and New Yorkers howled, Chris Fowler observed: “No matter what you think of the US Open, only this place can create moments like this.”
For generations, people have been telling their friends. “May you live in interesting times.”
From the start, the Open, with Serena on court, Federer eulogizing, Djokovic trying to defy mortals, Wawrinka and Monfils bowing out, Alcaraz’s dazzling comeback and the Americans’ breathtaking surge certainly gave us exciting times, even at 3:30 in the morning.
THE SADNESS OF SABALENKA. After losing the Open years ago, Arina smashed her racket and threw it in the trash. He did it again today after his loss. In vain, in his presser, he talked about Rybakina, who said: “99 weeks (at No. 1), let’s see if Elena can beat that. If he keeps playing like that, yeah, I’m in trouble.”
RATING PRIVATENESS. Monday’s world rankings will look like this for America’s best: Ben Shelton, 4th, Frances Tiafoe, 8th, Taylor Fritz, 10th, Jessica Pegula, 3rd, Coco Gauff, 4th.
A GAME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES. We all know tennis is a game without borders, an international circus where foreigners are honored.
We were reminded this week that Frances Tiafoe’s parents came to America from war-torn Sierra Leone. One of our favorite international stories is about Cam Norrie, who was born in South Africa, raised in New Zealand, moved to Britain and traveled to Texas to play at TCU.
Thursday marked the retirement of double whammy Rajeev Ram, a man of Indian heritage who grew up in Indiana before living in Walnut Creek, California.
And there was a full-circle touch. Ram’s honor was given to new USTA head Craig Thile, the same man who recruited and coached him in Illinois.
Tiley, the only man to win two different Slams in the same year, is a very global figure. Born in South Africa, he became a champion college coach at Illinois, then left for Melbourne, where he hosted the Aussie Open for two decades and has just become a certified New Yorker.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Five people from four countries, including three commentators, two Hall of Famers and one Slam winner, were all in the same orbit as Mary Carrillo, Lindsey Davenport and Germany’s Andrea Petkovic called Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina a quarter-final victory over China’s Qinwen Zheng.
ARMENIAN TRAVELERS. Never before have two US Open women’s finalists been represented in countries so far from New York. Sabalenka’s hometown of Minsk, Belarus, is 4,438 miles from New York, and Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, which Rybakina represents, is 5,772 miles away. That’s a total of 10,210 miles, even farther than Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva met in the 2004 final.
Then, Sabalenka now lives in Miami, while Rybakina said that because she travels a lot, she doesn’t really have a permanent home.
IS 6′ 6″ THE NEW NORMAL? After 6′ 6″ Alexander Zverev defeated 6′ 6″ Karen Khachanov, she was interviewed by Sam Querrey, who is 6′ 6″.
TAYLOR’S GRAND SLAM. Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova defeated Ashlyn Kruger and Robin Montgomery 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 for the women’s doubles title. Townsend thus ended his Grand Slam career. Siniakova remarkably completed her second career Slam with a second partner.
FATHER KNOWS BEST. Shelton and Zverev are both coached by their fathers.
THIS COULD HAPPEN. Every time Aryna Sabalenka talks about her sweet dog Ash, she makes it sound like the pup is named Arthur Ash Stadium instead of Arthur.
GLORY TO THE ENEMY. Frances Tiafoe won the opening set of her semifinal against Shelton, but then lost the next three. However, he was a marvel on Louis Armstrong Court, where he now has a 10-0 record. He named the stadium “The People’s Court” and shared with Alex Michelsen one of the most touching hugs in men’s tennis since Yannick Neu gave his father a bear hug after winning the 1983 French Open.
LOST CHRISSY. The voice of grace and wisdom was missing from the broadcast booth. Unfortunately, for the first time since 1971, we had a US Open without Chris Evert. Just not the same, and the entire tennis world wishes her well in her ongoing battle with cancer. BTW. In 1971, as a 16-year-old amateur on a two-week break from high school, he reached the semifinals of the US Open, where he lost to No. 1 seed Billie Jean King.
