The late, late show

I've been too busy to write about the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which wraps up this weekend. But I haven't been too busy to watch it. It's been entertaining, particularly on the men's side.

You knew it wasn't going to be the usual fare when one of the top players, Jannik Sinner of Italy, was out of action due to injury, and his most capable nemesis, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, was coming back from a wrist injury, not having competed since April. That meant a likely open door for the rest of the male crew, particularly Sascha Zverev, the tortured soul from Germany who won the French Open this year, and Novak Djokovic, the legendary Serbian with more Grand Slam titles than any other man in history.

But old Father Time got the best of Djokovic, who was defeated by a relatively unknown Italian, Mariano Navone, in the first round. The Djoker was vomiting and moaning and being attended to by medical folks; he looked for all the world as though he's done winning tournaments. And Alcaraz, who was surprisingly spry despite his long layoff, wasn't defeated until an epic five-setter (with a match tiebreaker) against the American Ben Shelton in the Round of 8. Meanwhile, Zverev rolled through some lesser opponents, most of them unseeded, in a fairly easy draw.

The semi's boiled down to Shelton against fellow American Frances Tiafoe, and Zverev against Karen Khachanov of Russia. Neither match was all that close, leaving Shelton and Zverev to battle it out in front of the glittering Big Apple crowd tomorrow.

The joy of watching such high-level competition has been tempered by the obvious truth that the pro tennis season is too long, resulting in injuries and fatigue that now regularly sideline and hinder some of the sport's best athletes for long stretches. And in New York this year, the lust for the almighty dollar has made matters worse, with multiple matches being scheduled back to back at night. This in turn has led to some ridiculously late start times, and even more ludicrous ending times. The Shelton-Alcaraz match finished at 3:33 a.m. local time.

So far, Shelton has seemed up to the grueling task, remarkably focused and clearly advanced far beyond his college tennis days. He can launch serves of 140 miles per hour, and never seems to tire. But he's never beaten Zverev, and so despite having a rabid New York crowd behind him, Ben will be an underdog in the finals. 

For the women, an era of freewheeling successes and failures has given way to predictability at this year’s Open. The four top seeds made it to the semi's, and the two top seeds are in today's final match. It's Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus against Elena Rybakina, a Russia native who's migrated to Kazakhstan, where conditions are better, especially in the money department. Sabalenka beat American Jessica Pegula in the semi-final round; Rybakina eliminated another American, Coco Gauff.

The women's final is this afternoon, but I think I'll keep busy with football and just watch the highlights. I can think of countless more interesting matchups than Sabalenka, an obnoxious screamer, and Rybakina, a sphinx. I'd prefer to see the reserved person win, rather than the drama queen, but to me the match will resemble paint drying. And to watch it, I'd have to turn the sound off to mute all the screaming. I just can't.

I will definitely be popping in to see the men go at it tomorrow, though. Shelton is saying and doing all the right things in Flushing, and his performance has been his best ever. On the other side of the net, Zverev has had his troubles on and off the court over the years, but he seems like a reasonable guy, at least about tennis, and so seeing him take his second major tournament trophy wouldn't be the end of the world. And like Shelton, the German's been on his "A" game for most of the New York event, especially the later rounds.

Up in the stands, the tournament organizers made the mistake of giving hundreds of tickets to internet "influencers" who don't know anything about tennis. The invaders have been so busy shining ring lights on themselves for their TikTok videos or whatever, that they're creating distractions for the players. New Yorkers are traditionally slow to get to their seats and unwilling to shut up during play, but the Instagrammers have taken the rudeness to a new level. One hopes that the suits will heed the players' complaints and clean up the fans' act quite a bit next year.