US Open Recap: All the Champions’ Journeys to the Final Grand Slam Event Title of 2024
by Devesh Jaganath | by Devesh Jaganath
A total of 128 men and 128 women entered this prestigious tournament which was held at the iconic USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, along with 64 teams in each of the Men’s and Women’s Doubles and 32 in the Mixed Doubles competition.
After two full weeks of intense competition on either side of the Labor Day holiday in the US, the champions in each category were crowned, while we also saw a few notable shocks along the way. Here’s a round-up of how the 2024 Tennis US Open panned out.
Following the US Open, attention will turn to the WTA 500 event in Guadalajara, while the ATP Tour heads to China for the Chengdu Open, and SportyTrader’s tennis tipsters will be covering all the action from the courts with their expert Tennis predictions for the remainder of 2024!
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Sinner Surges to Second Grand Slam Event Title of 2024
While Novak Djokovic is still widely considered the greatest men's Singles player on the planet, at 37 years of age, the Olympic Gold medalist and 24-time Major winner has been surpassed this year by 23-year-old Jannik Sinner, who will almost certainly end the year atop the ATP Rankings.
The 2024 tennis season has been nothing short of incredible for the Italian and he made his intentions for this year clear at the very outset, winning his first-ever Major title at the Australian Open before notching up his second on Sunday night at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.
Sinner’s journey to the final saw him drop only two sets in his six preceding matches in the competition, making him the clear favourite heading into his encounter with hometown hero Taylor Fritz. Along the way, the 23-year-old overcame Mackenzie Mcdonald, Alex Michelsen, Christopher Oconnell and Tommy Paul in the first four rounds of competition.
In the quarter-final, he took down the dangerous number-five seed Daniil Medvedev, while defending champion Djokovic had already exited the tournament in the previous round to 28th-seed Alexei Popyrin, who was beaten by semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe the next day.
The world number one proceeded to display his dominance in the semi-final, dispatching Brit Jack Draper in straight sets (7-5 7-6 6-2) before a ruthless display against Fritz, despite a spirited performance by the San Diego native, particularly in the third set, when the 23,000+ capacity crowd at Flushing Meadows tried to spur the 26-year-old to a comeback.
Unfortunately for Fritz, who won over many fans in this tournament, Sinner was not for the catching and cleaned up the match, beating the American to the title in straight sets and just two hours and 15 minutes.
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Emotional Major Title Victory for Sabalenka
For Aryna Sabalenka, 2024 has been a year of personal difficulty which has turned into one of success. The Belarusian suffered the tragic passing of her boyfriend, former NHL star Konstantin Koltsov, who died from an apparent suicide at the age of 44 in March this year, but Sabalenka refused to let the devastation keep her down.
The US Open victory marked Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam event title since the tragedy, having only made it to the last-eight at Roland Garros and missing out on the grass at Wimbledon, where she was forced to forego the competition due to a should injury sustained in Berlin in June.
The 26-year-old’s run to the main stage at the US Open included victories over Priscilla Hon, Lucia Bronzetti, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Elise Mertens, Qinwen Zheng and Emma Navarro, dropping only a single set along the way.
The victory over Navarro also saw Sabalenka join an elite group of Women’s Singles players, which include Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Victoria Azarenka, to reach the finals at both the Australian Open and US Open in back-to-back seasons since the Melbourne tournament switched from the grass to the hardcourt back in 1988.
In the final, up against American Jessica Pegula, the Belarusian held her nerve and wrapped up the match in straight sets (7-5 7-5) and in just under two hours. An emotional Sabalenka dedicated the victory to her family who "never gave up on my dream" and she is hoping to catch world number one Iga Swiatek before the end of the WTA season.
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Doubles Delight for Kichenok/ Stapenko, Purcell/ Thompson and Errani/ Vavassori
Number seven seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko completed a flawless run at the US Open by clinching the Women’s Doubles title with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai in under an hour and a half. Following the victory, Kichenok revealed that she postponed her wedding to Ostapenko's coach Stas Kumarsky to participate in the tournament. The Ukrainian/ Latvian duo have now won three titles this year, following wins in Brisbane and Eastbourne.
Over in the Men’s Doubles final, another piece of history was made, as Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson became the first all-Australian team to win the US Open Men’s Doubles title in 28 years. The Aussie duo secured the trophy - their first Grand Slam title as a team - with a straight-sets 6-4 7-6(4) victory over 10th-seeded German pair Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz. Undoubtedly, the win goes a long way towards atoning for their heartbreaking loss in the grand final at Wimbledon, where they failed to convert three match points.
Finally, the Mixed Doubles competition at the 2024 US Open saw Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori rise to the summit, denying Taylor Townsend and Donald Young a title win on their home court, with the latter retiring from professional competition following the defeat. For 37-year-old Errani, it was her sixth Grand Slam Doubles event title but her first in a decade since winning the previous five with Roberta Vinci between 2012 and 2014. Vavassori, meanwhile, who was a beaten finalist this year at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros with Simone Boletti, can now call himself a Grand Slam event Champion.
