THE 2023 US Open provided plenty of highlights, saw a few records broken and produced some heartwarming stories.
But it also produced some unexpected events when players won against the odds or surprised tennis fans in one way or another. Here are five of the best.
Ruud awakening for World No 5 against Zhang
Though women’s tennis has produced Grand Slam winners in both the singles and doubles categories, men’s Chinese tennis has failed to reach those dizzy heights.
But in Zhang Zhizhen they had the first-ever Chinese man to break into the Top 100, the first to play at Wimbledon in the Open era and the first to reach a Masters 1000 quarter-final.
But going into the US Open ranked just 67 he wasn’t given much of a chance as per Unibet odds when up against Norwegian World Number 5 Casper Ruud, a player with 10 career titles and who has made three Grand Slam finals.
After a good start for Zhizhen in taking the first set, Ruud hit back and won the fourth set 6-0, carrying all the momentum into the decider.
But the Norwegian was broken straight away and then a second time allowing the Chinese 26-year-old a chance to serve out the match at 5-2. He did just that, causing one of the big upsets of the tournament, though he did lose in the next round.
Medvedev crashes the Djokovic/Alcaraz party
The 2023 US Open was seen by many as a Novak Djokovic v Carlos Alcaraz final in the waiting even before the tournament started.
This was looking even more likely when Djokovic cruised into the final, leaving Alcaraz to do his bit.
Alcaraz was well-fancied to win his semi against Daniil Medvedev, who went into the match as a big outsider on the Unibet Sportsbook, available at odds of around 5.0.
But third seed Medvedev hadn’t read the script and produced an outstanding display against World Number 1 Alcaraz, serving big and winning most of the key points.
In the end the Spaniard had no answers as the Russian won in four, denying fans the final they wanted while booking his own place in the final.
On the day Djokovic was too good for Medvedev and we’ll have to wait a bit longer for a repeat of youngster Alcaraz against veteran Djokovic in a big final.
Protest stops play
Tennis matches are sometimes interrupted by rain, poor light or in extreme cases, extreme heat.
But Coco Gauff’s semi-final against Karolina Muchova was interrupted for a very different reason as climate protesters wearing ‘End Fossil Fuels’ t-shirts disrupted the game with one of the protesters gluing their feet to the floor to make their removal more difficult.
Two of them were arrested as Gauff ate fruit, watched on and then hit a few practice serves, while Muchova got assistance from the trainer.
At the time of the interruption Gauff was 6-4 1-0 up but the pause in play didn’t seem to do her much harm as she eventually broke Muchova to take the second set 7-5.
Gauff then went on to win the final against Aryna Sabalenka, her first Grand Slam win.
Medvedev refuses Djokovic’s hand
There was an unexpected moment during the men’s final when Daniil Medvedev was chasing a drop shot from Novak Djokovic and fell close to the net, staying down for a few seconds.
Concerned with his opponent’s well-being, Djokovic took the rare step of jumping over the net into his opponent’s court to check that he was okay and offered him his hand to help him get up.
But Medvedev waved him away, stayed down for a few more seconds before eventually getting up and returning to the baseline to continue the match.
To many, it may have seemed a gesture of anti fair play given Djokovic’s Good Samaritan-like gesture towards the Russian, but the real explanation was probably a lot simpler than that: he was exhausted after a long rally in the middle of a gruelling match and just wanted a few more moments to catch his breath before resuming the contest.
Mixed Doubles winners were complete strangers
Playing doubles requires an excellent understanding of your partner’s game in terms of what their favourite shots are, where they stand on court and who should come to the net and when.
It sometimes takes years to master such a partnership, but no-one told that to Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan.
Heliovaara, whose best singles ranking was 194 and Danilina, who had been retired for four years and was working in an office, didn’t know each other before the tournament; in fact, they’d never even heard of each other.
Each lacking a partner, they both signed up for the tournament and ended up playing together. To add extra intrigue to her story, Danilina had spent the last four years earning a Master’s Degree and having two children in addition to her new day job; but obviously hadn’t lost her touch.
Danilina became the first Kazakhstani Major mixed doubles champion, and Heliövaara became the first Finnish US Open mixed doubles champion when they won the final in straight sets, all in all one of the more unexpected stories of this US Open.
