U.S. Open men’s quarterfinals will feature some great unknowns

By Chuck Culpepper,

Wait, who’s left? The draw sheet claims eight guys remain in the extraterrestrial 2020 U.S. Open. All boast rankings hard as hell to attain, but many would be unrecognizable to everyone but tennis nut cases. Some could walk the streets blissfully unbothered — especially in masks — except none of them can walk the streets this wretched year. Tournament organizers intend to give one of them a big trophy Sunday evening, an act of boldness given the ongoing violation of norms and commission of sacrileges.

They’re six guys from mighty Europe, one from Canada and one from Australia. They’re ranked Nos. 3, 5, 7, 14, 17, 27, 28 and 32, not an unseeded straggler in the bunch. Two Russians will play each other. One guy arrived in these funky quarterfinals by that most unconventional of means, when No. 1 Novak Djokovic struck a frustration ball that hit a lineswoman in the throat, causing default.

Six of the eight have ages between 21 and 24, a scandal, with men’s tennis long having harrumphed at such greenness. The last Grand Slam champion under 30 was Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2016, back when he was 29. The last U.S. Open without a quarterfinalist in his 30s came in 2010. The last first-time Grand Slam winner was Marin Cilic at the 2014 U.S. Open, 22 long Slams ago.

The words “the last” are all over the place.

[Novak Djokovic made a bizarre and uncomfortable exit from the U.S. Open. Of course he did.]

Some goober who just wandered in for kicks and food stands last year might retain a vague recognition of the 6-foot-6 guy with the lean frame rocketing groundstrokes of a gorgeous geometry. That’s Daniil Medvedev, who engaged Rafael Nadal in a five-set goose bump in the 2019 U.S. Open final, after which Nadal said, “The way that he fighted, the way that he played, is a champion way.”

Medvedev, still 24, has won all 12 of his U.S. Open sets without having to register even one “7” in the set scores. The last American back in the round of 16, Frances Tiafoe, has the inspiring story of his father, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, taking a job as a custodian at Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, whereupon the son started learning the game.

Inspiration, talent and work have brought Tiafoe to age 22, a ranking of No. 82 and the 2019 Australian Open quarterfinals, but inspiration can croak opposite Medvedev and his squeezing of opponents’ options. Medvedev blasted through their match, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0, on Monday night, as the hope and verve drained right out of Tiafoe, who managed seven points in the third set.

That meant fifth-ranked Medvedev, who on ESPN called it “maybe my best match,” will play fellow Russian Andrey Rublev, ranked No. 14. They’ve known each other forever, or as forever as people can get at 24 and 22, such that Rublev said, “He was always one of the best fighters I ever see in my life, since he was 7 years old.”

They and their six fellow quarterfinalists — third-ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria, No. 7 Alexander Zverev of Germany, No. 17 Denis Shapovalov of Canada, No. 27 Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain, No. 28 Alex de Minaur of Australia and No. 32 Borna Coric of Croatia — have combined for 10 previous quarterfinals, with Thiem accounting for six of those.

The U.S. Open quarterfinalists last year, for example, had combined for 124.

What a bale of freshness.

[Serena Williams overcomes her recent past, beats Maria Sakkari in U.S. Open’s fourth round]

Nobody has the surname “Federer,” “Nadal” or “Djokovic” for the first quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event since the French Open of 2004, when the last eight were Tim Henman (now 46), Carlos Moyá (44), Gustavo Kuerten (43), Gastón Gaudio (41), Juan Ignacio Chela (41), Lleyton Hewitt (39), David Nalbandian (38) and Guillermo Coria (38). None has won any Grand Slam tournament, a reality unseen since Wimbledon 2003, when the quarterfinalists were Henman, Alexander Popp (43), Mark Philippoussis (43), Sjeng Schalken (44), Sébastien Grosjean (42), Jonas Bjorkman (48), Federer (39 and still going) and Andy Roddick (38).

Some tennis neophytes might recognize Thiem from his three Grand Slam finals, when he lost twice in the French Open to Nadal (because that’s what people do in Paris) and once in the Australian Open to Djokovic (because that’s what people do in Melbourne). Now he’s in that ticklish spot where the monsters are gone and a chance shimmers up ahead, except that, “My focus or my concentration, it’s the same,” he said. It clearly bothered him terribly Monday, when he tried to help out the North American continent as it fends against clear Canadian takeover, seeing off the promising 20-year-old from Montreal, Félix Auger-Aliassime, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 6-1.

“Of course,” Thiem said, “it’s probably a little bit of a bigger chance for all of us to win the first Slam, but basically the things didn’t change that much, at least for myself.”

“He was playing good, heavy,” Auger-Aliassime said. “And I was just playing worse and worse.”

The same went for Tiafoe against Medvedev, who coursed not only toward a possible all-top-five, no-Big-Three semifinal with Thiem but a second straight second week here. He said on ESPN things change in the second week because, “There is less people,” meaning those who have lost go home, not that fans aren’t allowed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. By now, he knows such things, as do few around this bracket.

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