CNN — Defending champion Rafael Nadal will face English youngster Jack Draper in the opening round of the Australian Open in a bid to retain his 2022 crown and extend his grand
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Defending champion Rafael Nadal will face English youngster Jack Draper in the opening round of the Australian Open in a bid to retain his 2022 crown and extend his grand slam tally.
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz may be missing the tournament through injury, but with the return of Novak Djokovic to the competition, Nadal will be hard pushed to defend his title.
Thursday’s draw was not kind to the 22-time major winner: if he defeats the world No. 40 Draper, he potentially faces current Next Gen ATP Finals champion Brandon Nakashima.
Potentially awaiting the Spaniard later would be a quarterfinal against Daniil Medvedev, who was Nadal’s opponent in last year’s epic five-set final. Medvedev will be looking to make it a third consecutive finals appearance after losing to Djokovic in 2021 and to Nadal in 2022.
A rematch of the 2021 final is on the cards, with Djokovic in the opposite half from Nadal and Medvedev. The nine-time Australian Open champion faces another Spaniard, Roberto Carballes Baena, in the opening round and is on track to face home favorite Nick Kyrgios in the last eight.
The tournament comes 12 months after Djokovic was deported from Australia on the eve of the 2022 edition after former immigration minister Alex Hawke found the tennis star posed a risk to public health and order because, as a celebrity sportsman who had previously expressed opposition to people being compelled to get the Covid-19 vaccine, he could be seen as an “icon” for anti-vaxxers.
The minister’s decision to deport the former world No. 1 meant he was initially banned from reentry for three years.
Nineteenth-seeded Kyrgios is part of a thrilling section of the draw which includes Holger Rune, Dan Evans and Andrey Rublev.
Russian Rublev comes into the Australian Open as the fifth seed, but on Wednesday suffered a shock defeat to world No. 110 Thanasi Kokkinakis in the Adelaide 2. Rublev faces a blockbuster opening round match against former world No. 3 and 2020 Australian Open finalist Dominic Thiem.
Andy Murray features in the other pick of the round as he faces 13th-seeded Matteo Berrettini. The Italian beat the three-time grand slam winner in four sets at the 2022 US Open and has beaten the Scotsman three out of their four ATP meetings.
Following reigning champion Ashleigh Barty’s retirement from tennis last year, Iga Światek has dominated the sport and comes into the tournament as the top seed. The Pole opens against German Jule Niemeier but faces a tasty potential quarterfinal clash with American hot prospect Coco Gauff.
The 18-year-old superstar comes into the tournament in fine form, having won the ASB Classic without dropping a set and is looking to build on her excellent 2022 which saw her reach the Roland Garros final where she was beaten by Światek.
Ahead of any quarterfinal clash with the favorite though, Gauff faces a second round match against 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu who is in a race against time to recover from an ankle injury.
In the other half of the draw, second seed Ons Jabeur starts her 2023 trying to go one better than last year and win a grand slam. The Tunisian made both the Wimbledon and US Open finals but fell at the final hurdle in her pursuit to become the first Arab and North African woman to win a grand slam.
After missing the 2022 Open, Jabeur opens her 2023 account against Tamara Zidanšek and could face Aryna Sabalenka who is coming off the back of winning at Adelaide 1, her 11th career title and first in 19 months.
Elsewhere, American Jessica Pegula has been drawn in the same part of the draw as Maria Sakkari. Pegula recently led Team USA to victory in the inaugural United Cup, which featured a brilliant straight-set win over Światek. Having reached back-to-back quarterfinals in Melbourne and at the top of her game, she will be looking to set up a thrilling semifinal with her United Cup opponent.
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Frances Tiafoe’s run at the US Open ended Friday with a loss to No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals.
After being down in the match, Tiafoe had forced a fifth set, delighting the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd – which included Michelle Obama. But it was the 19-year-old and world No. 4 from Spain who pulled through, 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 in four hours, 19 minutes.
Alcaraz will face Norway’s Casper Ruud, the No. 5 seed, in Sunday’s final, and the stakes are high: The winner will rise to No. 1 in the world for the first time.
The No. 22 seed Tiafoe, 24, was seeking to become the first American grand slam men’s finalist since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009. Roddick was the last American man to reach the final at the US Open, in 2006, and is the last American man to win a major, which came at the US Open in 2003.
“Too good from Carlos tonight,” Tiafoe told ESPN in front of the crowd. “I gave everything I had. I gave everything I had the last two weeks. Honestly, I came here and wanted to win the US Open. I feel like I let you guys down. This one really hurts. This one really, really hurts.”
Alcaraz is “going to win a lot of grand slams,” Tiafoe told the teen phenom. “You’re a hell of a player, a hell of a person. I’m happy I got to share the court on such a big stage with you. I’m going to come back and I will win this thing one day. I’m sorry, guys.”
If Alcaraz wins the final, he will become the youngest world No. 1. Should he ascend to the top, he would tie Carlos Moya, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras for the biggest jumps to world No. 1 (from No. 4).
“It’s amazing to be able to fight for big things,” Alcaraz said to ESPN in an on-court interview. “First time in a final of a grand slam. I can see the No. 1 in the world, but at the same time, it’s so far away, you know? I have one more to go against a player who plays unbelievable. … I’m going to give everything that I have.”
Should Ruud, 23, win the title, he would make biggest jump to world No. 1 in men’s tennis history. He entered the US Open ranked seventh. He defeated Russian Karen Khachanov, the No. 27 seed, 7-6(5), 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in the earlier Friday semifinal.
“I think what’s most fair is if we both reach the final and whoever wins the final reaches the world No. 1,” Ruud told reporters as Alcaraz was playing in his semifinal. “That would be I think the ideal situation.”
This will be Ruud’s second grand slam final appearance, having lost in the French Open final earlier this year to Rafael Nadal. Nadal, who lost to Tiafoe in the round of 16, would have risen to No. 1 in the world if Ruud and Alcaraz had both lost in the US Open semifinals.
This will be Alcaraz’s first grand slam final.
This year there were four first-time US Open men’s semifinalists for the first time since the inaugural US Championships in 1881 (William Glyn, Robert Gould Shaw, Edward Gray, Richard Sears). Sears went on to win that title.
For years, tennis fans have been fearing the day the sport’s ‘Big Three’ all finally decide to hang up their rackets.
Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are unquestionably the three greatest players of all time – whichever order you have them in is down to personal preference – and their inevitable departures from the Tour will leave a hole no player will be able to fill.
However, the rise of youngsters such as Daniil Medvedev, Alex Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas in recent years has provided enough evidence to suggest that there will be no lack of entertainment and drama once the ‘Big Three’ do finally decide to call it quits.
This season, fans have seen another future superstar in Alcaraz emerge, while Tiafoe, now 24 years old, has finally come of age at the US Open and earned the breakthrough at a grand slam that many have been predicting for a couple of years now.
Hailing from the region of Murcia in Spain and being a clay court specialist, Alcaraz has naturally drawn comparisons to his compatriot and idol Nadal.
But while the 19-year-old has immense respect for the player he has looked up to during his childhood, Alcaraz has no desire to be dubbed “the next Nadal” or “mini Nadal,” as has happened on more than one occasion during his fledgling career.
Instead, as he told CNN Sport back in March, he wants to carve out his own legacy and be known only as Alcaraz.
He has certainly gone a long way towards achieving that already.
After winning his maiden ATP title in 2021, Alcaraz has flourished further in 2022, winning four titles – including two Masters 1000 tournaments – to rise up the rankings to No. 4 in the world.
“I mean, everything came so fast, two Masters 1000 titles – one on hard court, one on clay court,” he told CNN’s Don Riddell in May.
“So if at the beginning of the season, someone told me that I’m going to achieve these tournaments – Barcelona as well – I didn’t believe it, I didn’t believe him. For me, I don’t know what to say about an unbelievable month for me.
“It’s good that everyone’s talking about you and is going to watch your match. For me, it’s pretty good. But it gives me a lot of power to play in the best stadiums against the best players in the world. So for me, it’s quite cool.”
Carlos Alcaraz to CNN: ‘I’m playing unbelievable tennis’
He went into this year’s French Open in sensational form and was tipped by many to be among the favorites to win but lost in the quarterfinals to Zverev.
Now, in New York, he has reached the final of a grand slam for the first time and as the highest ranked man left in the draw will be the favorite to win.
Tiafoe, five years Alcaraz’s senior, won his maiden ATP title back in 2018 and many believed it would be a win that would spark a rapid rise to the top.
Though still touted as a rising star, that rise has been steady rather than meteoric. Last month, Tiafoe reached a career-high of No. 24 in the world – he’s currently 26th – and this year has shown flashes of the quality that many predicted would take him to the top.
But make no mistake, given Tiafoe’s disappointing form coming into the US Open, there was no indication that he would make a deep run in New York. However, the big-hitting Washington, D.C. native has mentioned on more than one occasion how the home support on Arthur Ashe has spurred him on to new heights.
In winning his quarterfinal, Tiafoe became the first Black American man to reach a US Open semifinal since Ashe in 1972.
His father, Constant Tiafoe, started working at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Washington back in 1999 and eventually moved into one of its vacant storage rooms while working around the clock.
READ: How Frances Tiafoe went from sleeping at a tennis center to the US Open semifinals
His two twin boys, Frances and Franklin, would sometimes stay with him, sleeping on a massage table, while their mother worked night shifts as a nurse.
The unusual gateway into the sport gave Tiafoe an opportunity to start developing his skills and, after beginning to train at the facility, he didn’t look back.
“Obviously, I wasn’t the wealthy kid or wasn’t having all the new stuff or whatever. But I was just living life. I could play tennis for free, the sport I loved,” he told CNN Sport back in 2015, adding that he wouldn’t change his upbringing for the world.
He was asked Wednesday what message people should draw from his story.
“I mean, anybody can do it, honestly,” he said, adding that his passion and obsession is tennis. “Obviously, that’s a cliché, but I think if you are really passionate about something… Everybody’s got a gift.”
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Polish tennis star Iga Swiatek defeated Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in straight sets in the US Open women’s singles final at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York.
This marks Swiatek’s third career grand slam, and her first outside of the French Open, which she won in 2020 and 2022.
Swiatek cemented her place atop the world rankings with the 6-2 7-6 (7-5) win over Jabeur, who is ranked fifth in the world, but is expected to ascend to world No. 2 when the new rankings are unveiled.
As she has been doing the last several months, Swiatek wore a ribbon on her hat in support of Ukraine during the final Saturday.
The 21-year-old is the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win two grand slam titles in the same calendar year, during which she embarked on a 37-match unbeaten run.
“For now, I’m just trying to do my best every day,” Swiatek told CNN Sport’s Carolyn Manno following the win against Jabeur. “It’s hard to step back and look at the whole journey at once because I’m still 21. I feel like with more life experience I’ll realize more what happened.”
Swiatek’s triumph makes her the first top-seeded woman to win the US Open since Serena Williams lifted the trophy in 2014, and the first woman to win seven titles in a season since Williams, also in 2014.
She has expertly adapted her game to the hard courts in 2022, winning four WTA 1000 events on the surface and becoming only the fourth woman in history to complete the “Sunshine Double” by winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back.
Those titles, as well as her second French Open crown, came during her remarkable unbeaten streak earlier in the season, which finally came to an end in the third round at Wimbledon.
However, Swiatek has certainly struggled to recapture that form during the second half of the season and her involvement in the US Open final was by no means a formality before the tournament started.
She struggled through her semifinal, too, fighting back from a set down and 4-2 down in the deciding set against sixth seed Aryna Sabalenka in a match that took more than two hours to complete.
“These two weeks were pretty crazy, I wasn’t expecting to be in that place,” said Swiatek. “I worked pretty hard every day to just get a better feeling on the court and I’m pretty happy that it clicked.
“I feel like I was improving, so that’s the best thing for me. I’m pretty happy that it ended like that.”
Swiatek raced into a 3-0 lead against Jabeur and needed just 30 minutes to wrap up the first set, during which she landed a remarkable 90% of her first serves.
The second set was a closer affair, even though Swiatek stormed into a 3-0 lead once again. Jabeur hit back with two breaks, sending the match to a tie break, but Swiatek ultimately proved too strong.
“She came off really strong and put a lot of pressure on me. That didn’t help,” Jabeur told reporters. “I was trying to get in the match. It was very tough. And she was playing really good at certain times.”
Jabeur, who became the first African woman to compete in a US Open final, reached the Wimbledon final just two months ago, but was surprisingly beaten by Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in three sets.
She has enjoyed a steady rise through the world rankings over the past two years, but a grand slam title continues to allude her.
“Definitely Wimbledon was tough. This one is going to be tough,” she said. “I struggled to win my first WTA title. It took me time. So I believe this will take me time. The most important thing is accepting it, learning from the finals that I lost.
“I’m not someone that’s going to give up. I am sure I’m going to be in the final again. I will try my best to win it.”
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Carlos Alcaraz is now the youngest world No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings after defeating Casper Ruud in the US Open Final on Sunday.
Alcaraz, 19, defeated 23-year-old Ruud 6-4 2-6 7-6(7-1) 6-3 in a match that took over three hours in New York.
He is the youngest world No. 1 since the ATP rankings began in 1973 – breaking the mark set by Lleyton Hewitt, who was 20 when he became number one in 2001 – and becomes the youngest men’s singles grand slam winner since compatriot Rafael Nadal, won the first of his major titles in June 2005.
“This is something I’ve dreamt of since I was a kid. To be No. 1 in the world, to be a champion,” Alcaraz said, adding he thought about some of his family members who couldn’t make it to watch him play.
“I always say it’s not time to be tired in the final round of the grand slam, you have to give everything you have inside,” he said.
Ruud, who was trying to become the first Norwegian to capture the top spot, said he’ll continue chasing the No. 1 spot. He will rise to second in the world from number seven.
“Today was a special day, both Carlos and I knew what we were playing for and both knew what was a stake,” Ruud said. “I’m disappointed of course that I’m not No. 1, but No. 2 isn’t so bad either.”
Alcaraz played three consecutive five-set matches on the way to the final, including the second-longest match in the history of the US Open when he overcame Jannik Sinner at 2:50 a.m. in the quarterfinals on Thursday – the tournament’s latest ever finish.
Throughout the US Open, the Spaniard enthralled crowds with his speed, athleticism and outrageous shot-making. This latest victory could be the first of many grand slam titles over the course of his career.
Alcaraz broke early in the first set but faltered in the second, before taking a tense third-set tiebreak after saving two set points in the final game of the set. Seven straight points moved the Spaniard to within a set from the trophy.
Ruud had no answer to his opponent’s crushing forehand and serves in the fourth set and, unburdened by the weight of history, Alvarez broke for a decisive 4-2 lead to see out a sensational win.
A clay court specialist, Alcaraz has drawn comparisons to 22-time grand slam champion Nadal and is just the second player in the Open Era to make the US Open final in his teens after Pete Sampras.
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