US Open Year Ago
I remember last year August uproar about many withdrawals before the US Open. The social media protests came in two waves. Firstly, before the tournament, when players announced their withdrawals due to different injuries. Then, the second wave of protests came during the tournament after retirements from a game. I needed help from Wikipedia to get the names right and surprisingly it seems there were not so many players who withdraw before and during the tournament.
US OPEN 2017 withdrawals (before the tournament): Murray, Wawrinka, Djokovic, Nishikori, Raonic
US OPEN 2017 retirements: Edmund, Giraldo, Haider-Maurer, Monfils, Pospisil, Tursunov
Maybe the names were the reason for such a heavy opinion storm. True is that three former Grand Slam Winners and two finalists had to finish the season earlier and left fans at US OPEN disappointed.
Tennis Column is irregular and biased opinion column written by Tennis Pro Guru about everything tennis related.
US OPEN 2018 expectations
Two weeks to US Open 2018 starting on August 27 and we can just guess how many players will have to withdraw. However, we definitely know that this season players are more cautious regarding the scheduling. (we picked „the rest“ as word of the season in our Bold Tennis Predictions 2018)
Just for illustration, DelPotro, and Murray withdrew from this week Rogers Cup in Toronto after exhausting performance week ago in Los Cabos and Washington. Roger Federer skipped Toronto and will play just one tournament in Cincinnati before the US Open. Rafael Nadal openly speaks about needing extra rest to get going.
Fatigue and cautious scheduling is the case of late summer and autumn tennis season. Elite players need to save strength for the finish of the season and therefore need to think twice about playing tournaments back to back.
So please, do not be too harsh on players withdrawing before the US Open. I believe (and every tennis fan should too) that every player would like to compete for as much as possible. And Grand Slam is so special occasion that nobody would withdraw without serious reason.
The race is wide open
I am not afraid that tennis at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will be not entertaining. It definitely will be and moreover, you can not be sure who will win it. This year the race for the title is probably the most open in last 10 years. So hope even with some big names not showing up, we all can enjoy it.
Check out who will win US Open 2018 according to our readers.
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