The last Grand Slam of the year is over, and there were a lot of surprises at Flushing Meadows this year. Even though it started as a “sad” tournament, with the lack of a lot of big names, we can say that we had plenty of fun at the US Open.
From the surprising runner up Kevin Anderson to Juan Martin Del Potro’s fairy tale, from Nadal’s power to the NextGen talents who won important matches, this year’s Open confirmed its insecure expectations.
Of course there were up and downs for some players, and that’s what we’ll focus on in this article. Here is a list of players who underachieved in this US Open.
1. Alexander Zverev.
It’s impossible not to start with the 20-year-old German. The spotlight of the tournament was on the Washington and Montreal champion, who came after a very good post-Wimbledon period. “Sascha” was the #4 seed and had been included in the “weak” part of the draw, the one that suffered Andy Murray’s withdrawal and where Marin Cilic took his place. He could be considered as a possible finalist and a deep run wouldn’t have been surprising. The real surprise came in the second round, where Zverev lost to world #56 Borna Coric in four sets, after winning the first. The German has never won four matches in a row in a Grand Slam, and maybe the little experience hasn’t helped him in this case. In the end, this tough tournament doesn’t delete all the good results he had this year and surely won’t affect him in the final part of the season.
2. John Isner
Another disappointment, especially for the American crowd, came from John Isner. The 32-year-old had won both the Newport and Atlanta ATP 250 tournaments and pushed himself into the semifinal in Cincinnati Masters, losing to champion Grigor Dimitrov. He completely lost his rhythm in his home Slam and fell to Mischa Zverev, who already beat Murray at the Australian Open, in the third round. All American hopes where on Isner at the beginning of the US Open, but luckily Sam Querrey made them forget the early upset by reaching the quarterfinals.
3. Marin Cilic
Another early loss was the Cilic one. The 2014 champion and current Wimbledon finalist probably wasn’t completely fine after the injury he suffered in Wimbledon’s final that forced him to stay out for a month and a half. Cilic took Murray’s place in the draw and had a decent route to the semifinal, but he didn’t manage to live up to the expectations. In the first round, the Croatian had troubles against Tennys Sandgren but managed to win in four sets, then after a straight-set-win against Florian Mayer in the second round he fell to Diego Schwartzman.
4. Tomas Berdych
Tomas Berdych didn’t have a great hard court season after Wimbledon’s semifinal, but he could have been a player to watch at Flushing Meadows since his great serve makes him a tough player to face on these courts. Unfortunately, he was defeated by Alexandr Dolgopolov, another tricky player especially on hard courts, in the second round. After taking the first set, Berdych completely left the match and Dolgopolov won easily the following three sets.
5. Jack Sock
Last but not least there is another American on the least; it’s 24 years old Jack Sock. The #13 seed couldn’t confirm last year’s fourth round and surprisingly lost early in the opening round against world #70 Jordan Thompson. There were huge expectations on Sock but his tough draw didn’t help him. Thompson is a very tough player to face on hard courts, especially in the first round; they fought very hard for four hours playing great tennis, but in the end the Australian prevailed.
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