Sunday night is usually the calm before the storm at the U.S. Open.
This year, Sunday night was the tempest.
The first-ever Sunday start in tournament history featured a night session led by Novak Djokovic in Arthur Ashe Stadium and Daniil Medvedev in Louis Armstrong Stadium. It began with Djokovic winning but leaving more questions than answers. It ended with Medvedev losing in a fashion that even Hollywood couldn’t script.
Dealing with foot blisters and what also seemed to be general fatigue, Djokovic managed to defeat Learner Tien 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-2. The 38-year-old Serb prevailed in a more topsy-turvy fashion than two hours and 25 minutes would indicate.
Djokovic looked decent enough in the first and third sets, but the second was a struggle. The four-time U.S. Open champion frequently keeled over in between points and called for the trainer well before it ended, although he did not get looked until the break in between sets. Tien probably should have leveled things at a set apiece–but when he didn’t, it was all over for the 19-year-old American.
“It was a strange kind of match,” Djokovic said. “The first set was 20 minutes and then the second one was one hour and 20, so quite the opposite sets we played,It was key for me to hold my nerves in the second set and clinch it in a tiebreak.
“After that I started feeling better. I can always do better, but it’s a great way to start this year’s campaign.”
Medvedev’s campaign is over after what was an even stranger match against Benjamin Bonzi.
The Frenchman was seemingly on his way to a routine straight-set victory, holding a match point on his own serve late in the third. That’s when all hell broke loose, starting with a cameraman inexplicably darting onto the court after Bonzi missed his first serve on the match point. Long story short: Bonzi was given a first serve, Medvedev went crazy, the crowd went crazier, and there was a delay of more than five mets. The Russian ended up breaking serve to stay live, eventually won the set in a tiebreaker, and went on to force a fifth. When it was all said and done, Bonzi overcame leg cramps to triumph 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(5), 0-6, 6-4 after three hours and 45 minutes.
Medvedev was dealing with cramps of his own in his right hand, but it was working well enough for him to absolutely destroy a racket to smithereens on his bench before exiting stage right.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.