This is no doubt that the US Open this year has a rather different look to it.
Arthur Ashe arena, the largest tennis stadium in the world but the scene of many storms—real and metaphorical—over the years, finally has its roof. And no half measures: there never are in New York. This is the biggest retractable roof over a tennis court in the world with an opening the size of a football field. Ironic then that, after torrential rains at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the US Open looks set to be hot and dry throughout.
There is a brand new—and rather beautiful—Grandstand stadium, complete with eating terraces, shade, and an avenue running past all the outer courts direct to its smaller sister, Court 17. In a second ironic twist, however, the old Grandstand, much loved for its intimacy, has been brought back into service while one of the outside courts is brought up to scratch.
Then there are some firsts of a different kind on court, too.
The five-time US champion Roger Federer will not play this year (knee injury) after 16 consecutive appearances; Tomas Berdych will miss the event (appendicitis) after 13 straight appearances; and two-time runner-up Victoria Azarenka will miss the tournament after 10 appearances in a row (pregnancy).
Yet this year’s Open will contain 49 over-30s in the men’s draw—the previous high was 40 last year—and 19 in the women’s, and Venus Williams will set a record in Open-era main-draw Grand Slam appearances this week with 72.
This year too, the field seems more open in both singles draws than at any time this millennium.
How often has there been a scenario where any of four women could end the tournament as No1? Yet that is the case for top seed Serena Williams and her pursuers Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska.
Are top men’s seed Novak Djokovic and No4 seed Rafael Nadal fully fit as each recovers from wrist injury, the Serb since before the Rio Olympics and the Spaniard since the French Open? And will the door open for Andy Murray to take the lead in the Race to London, which he could do by lifting his second US trophy?
And talking of wrists, can 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, who has missed years with wrist injuries, ride his regained form deep into the draw again?
Will Serena Williams, who fell at the final hurdle in her calendar Grand Slam assault here last year, at last put herself ahead of Steffi Graf’s 22 Major titles?
Perhaps New York will deem it time for a new star to be born on tennis’s biggest stage. This time last year, Briton Johanna Konta was ranked 97 and came through qualifying to reach her first Major fourth round: this year she is seeded 13 and has a Grand Slam semi and a first Premier title under her belt.
And this time last year, Alexander Zverev was ranked 82, also came through qualifying to lose a marathon five-set first round match. He arrives this week with back-to-back third round Major runs, two tour finals and as the youngest man in the top 30, seeded 27.
Madison Keys, age 21, has not lost before the fourth round of her last five Majors, and this year broke the top 10 with finals in Rome, Montreal, and Birmingham, plus a semi finish in Rio.
And 22-year-old Dominic Thiem has also had a breakthrough top-10 year of four titles and a semi-final run at the French Open. Perhaps he and Keys will be the del Potro and Muguruza of the tournament?
Many firsts, many questions, and many uncertainties, but here in a nutshell are some firm facts and figures that underpin the last Major of the year.
Former US Open champions and finalists
Women’s draw:
Serena Williams (six-time champion)
Venus Williams (two-time champion)
Svetlana Kuznetsova (2004 champion, 2007 finalist)
Sam Stosur (2011 champion)
Caroline Wozniacki (2009 and 2014 finalist)
Jelena Jankovic (2008 finalist)
Roberta Vinci (2015 finalist)
Men’s draw:
Novak Djokovic (two-time champion)
Rafael Nadal (two-time champion)
Marin Cilic (2014 champion)
Andy Murray (2012 champion)
Juan Martin del Potro (2009 champion)
Kei Nishikori (2014 finalist)
Champions at other Grand Slams
Women’s draw:
Serena Williams; Venus Williams; Kerber; Kuznetsova; Stosur; Petra Kvitova; Ana Ivanovic; Francesca Schiavone; Muguruza
Men’s draw:
Nadal; Djokovic; Wawrinka; Murray;
Leaders of US Open Series
The top three finishers all earn bonus prize money at the US Open, with the champions of the Series Bonus Challenge having the opportunity to win $1 million in bonus prize money.
Women’s draw:
1, Radwanska; 2, Konta; 3, Simona Halep
Men’s draw:
1, Nishikori; 2, Grigor Dimitrov; 3, Milos Raonic
Hard-court title winners since Wimbledon
Women’s draw:
Konta (Stanford); Yanina Wickmayer (Washington); Halep (Montreal); Irina-Camelia Begu (Florianopolis); Duan Ying-Ying (Nanchang); Monica Puig (Olympics); Karolina Pliskova (Cincinnati); Radwanska (New Haven).
Men’s draw:
Gael Monfils (Washington); Djokovic (Toronto); Nick Kyrgios (Atlanta); Ivo Karlovic (Los Cabos); Cilic (Cincinnati); Pablo Carreno Busta (Winston-Salem)
Facts and figures
· 15: the years between Serena Williams’ first and last US Open titles (1999 and 2014). In US Championships history, only she and Pete Sampras have won singles titles as teenagers and in their 30s
· 17: the years between Martina Hingis’s first and last doubles titles (1998 and 2015)
· 33: the age at which Flavia Pennetta won the US Open last year, the oldest woman in the Open era
· 72: record number of main-draw Grand Slam appearances in the Open era set by Venus Williams this week
· 115: Most aces hit at the 2015 US Open—by Cilic. But Sampras has the record with the 144 he hit during the 2002 tournament
· 129: mph of a Venus Williams serve at the 2007 US Open—the fastest-recorded serve ever hit by a woman in a main-draw match
· 254: number of ball people used at last year’s tournament
· 294: length in minutes of the joint-longest men’s final played by Murray and Djokovic in 2012 (the other was Mats Wilander over Ivan Lendl in 1988)
· 850: Calls challenged by singles players at the 2015 US Open
· 721,059: record attendance by fans, in 2009
· $3.5m: the record prize money for each singles champion (boosted by $1million if they also top the Series Challenge)