U.S. Open finals crown first-time men's and women's champions

The final grand slam of the 2021 season ended with more storylines than it started with. On Sunday, Sept. 12, the second-seeded Daniil Medvedev defeated the number one seeded Novak Djokovic in straight sets with scores of 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4, capturing his first career grand slam. Djokovic, on the cusp on history, was one match shy from completing the calendar-year Grand Slam after winning the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

Djokovic lost the opportunity to pass Rodger Federer and Rafael Nadal in career grand slams with 20. The Calendar Grand Slam has not occurred in men’s tennis since Rod Lavar in 1969.

The two hour and 16 minute final ended in dominating fashion for Medvedev, as he utilized his overpowering serve and used the entire court to his advantage. The four-inch height difference for Medvedev helped his game on Sunday afternoon, causing frustration for Djokovic and inciting him to slam a racket into the ground repeatedly during the second set.

Medvedev’s win marked a turning point in his career after losing to Djokovic in the Australian Open final in January. The pressure of winning the final match for the Calendar Grand Slam proved to be too much for Djokovic, who was brought to tears after his loss.

On the women’s side, two teenage phenoms faced off in the final. Emma Raducanu defeated Leylah Fernandez in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-3, becoming the first qualifier in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam. The women’s final was the first to feature two unseeded players facing off, and the first Open final to include two teenagers since the 1999 U.S. Open.

Raducanu and Fernandez entered the U.S. Open with world rankings of 125 and 73, respectively, and they’ve now climbed up the leaderboards to 23 and 28. Both moved up through the tournament by beating out top-ranked opponents. Fernandez defeated three top five-ranked opponents on her quest to the final, while celebrating her 18th birthday one day before her quarterfinal win over Elina Svitolina. Raducanu defeated Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic and the 17th ranked Maria Sakkari in her path to the final. The feat of going from qualifier to champion was made even more impressive as Raducanu did not drop a single set for the entire 10 matches in the tournament.  

Photo Courtesy of Seth Weing/Associated Press