Recap: First Week of the US Open

Photo courtesy of US Open Media Services

 

By Noora Popal

BarnBurner.ca

 

Toronto. – The final Grand Slam of the year kicked off this Monday.

 

Women’s

 

The final Grand Slam of the year kicked off this Monday.

 

Canadian, Eugenie Bouchard, lost on the first day of the tournament to Anastasija Sevastova in straight sets, 3-6, 3-6. She has had struggles recently in competitions where she is unable to make it past the first few rounds. It has been disappointing for Canadian fans to watch a once-promising young athlete struggle so much.

 

Another young Canadian superstar, Bianca Andreescu, breezes through this tournament without losing any sets thus far. She beat Caroline Wozniacki on Saturday, 6-4, 6-4, and advanced to the Round of 16. She will continue her quest to win a Grand Slam on Monday as she is scheduled to face Taylor Townsend, who beat Simona Halep in the Second Round, at 9:00 pm at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

 

All eyes are on Serena Williams this tournament as she continues her fight to win her 24th Grand Slam Title. As usual, she managed to breeze through the first few rounds of the tournament, however, she did sustain an injury to her ankle when she rolled it during the Round of 16 match this Sunday against Petra Martić. Nonetheless, Williams carried on like the champ that she is and still managed to win the match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Serena Williams now advances to the quarterfinals where she will face Qiang Wang, who beat Ashleigh Barty, 6-2, 6-4.

 

Naomi Osaka has had quite an extraordinary journey through this tournament. She beat the young American player Cori Gauff, 6-3, 6-0, who is just 15 years old. She showed great sportsmanship as she comforted her after the game and invited her to do an on-court interview as well.

 

Men's

 

The men’s tournament took an unexpected turn when the world champion, Novak Djokovic, had to retire a match against Stan Wawrinka due to ongoing pain in his left shoulder.

 

Stan dominated the majority of the match and after 1 hour and 46 minutes, the Serbian was forced to stop the match during the 3rd set, 4-6, 5-7, 1-2.

 

Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger Aliassime faced each other in the First Round of the tournament. Shapovalov played spectacular tennis as he beat Felix, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.

 

Shapovalov, however, lost in an exhilarating Third-Round match against Gael Monfils, 6(5)-7, 7-6(4), 6-4,6(6)-7, 6-3. Though he lost the match in five sets Shapovalov said that "... the match today was just awesome".

 

Rafael Nadal is having a lot of success throughout the tournament, as expected after his win at the Rogers Cup.

 

The Spaniard beat Chung Hyeon on Saturday, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. This puts him through to the Round of 16 where he will now face Marin Cilic on Monday at 7:00 pm.

 

Roger Federer has moved on to the Quarter Finals once again, to no one’s surprise. Although he just turned 38 years old, you could never guess that from the way he plays. He has only lost two sets so far while beating all his opponents with ease.

 

On Sunday, Federer crushed David Goffin in three straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0.

 

The Swiss now awaits his Quarter-Finals match against Grigor Dimitrov.