It happens again 40 years later at the US Open: it’s a real war!
Nothing like this had been seen at the US Open since 1975, when the champion title was in the hands of the semifinalists Chris Evert (1), Virginia Wade (2), Martina Navratilova (3) and Evonne Goolagong (4). The four best in the world, winning the penultimate round in the last Grand Slam of the season.
Forty-one years later, a copy of this difficult situation. The top four in the world ranking, the last survivors. On this occasion they have coincided Aryna Sabalenka (1), Elena Rybakina (2), Jessica Pegula (3) and Coco Gauff (4). More similarities with the past. In the quartet, two Americans, one in each confrontation.
In 1975, USA tennis went blank. The Australian Evonne Goolagong He beat Chris Evert in the final. The Czech-American Martina Navratilova and the British Virginia Wade had been eliminated.
This Thursday, already early in the Spanish morning of Friday, double duel between USA and Europe. At one o’clock the double current champion will openthe Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, and her victim already in the 2024 final, the local Jessica Pegula. Next, the best of 2023, the American Coco Gauff, against whom she will be the new world number one on Monday, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina.
The path to the crown, which will just be decided on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. New York time, ten at night Spanish peninsular time, It is a real war. The level is very high.
The four main favorites, as had occurred in Wimbledon 2009 as the most recent precedent. Won Serena Williams (2)who dominated his sister Venus (4). Both They had qualified beating the Russians Elena Dementieva (3) and Dinara Safina (1), respectively.
Sabalenka, after knowing that she will hand over the No. 1 after 99 weeks in the position, wants a consecutive hat trick that they only achieved in New York Serena Williams and Chris Evert. Pegula is the only one of the four without a Grand Slam title, despite being the oldest (32 years old).
Gauff is on a roll, he has won eleven consecutive games, combining the Cincinnati title with his pass to the semifinals after overcoming two match points against the Russian Mirra Andreeva.
Rybakina needed to be in this round to be the thirtieth No. 1 in the history of women’s professional tennis. He far surpassed his barrier of reaching the round of 16 in this tournament, he already did his homework. He is going for the most succulent prize, a third Grand Slam after his Wimbledon in 2022 and the last Australian Open in 2026.
