A Mid-Tourney Trend Report: the 2023 US Open Tennis Championships
Who's Trending Up & Trending Down at 2023's Final Grand Slam?
According to a spate of recent press releases, some of which may or may not have been written to facilitate a hostile takeover of professional tennis by the sovereign public wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the gate receipts at the 2023 US Open have been the highest in the tournament’s 142-year history, the overall attendance representing a 40% increase over last year’s totals. The reasons for this swell of interest in what is, at least in the United States, a peripheral sport for the wealthy and the elderly are easy to list if hard to confirm, and would include the Netflix series Break Point, the ascent of the generationally talented/marketable Carlos Alcaraz, and a post-pandemic consumer inclination towards live communal events primed to produce Instagram stories that connote disposable income and what can be best described as white American nonsense. (See also: the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, traveling to Japan.) Regardless of the forces behind its newfound semi-popularity, tennis is trending up, and it’s safe to say that this Substack has played no small part in its crossover moment. So let’s look at who else is trending up (and down) at the halfway-done US Open.
Mid-Tourney Trend Report: the 2023 US Open Tennis Championships
Trending Way Up: Jelena Ostapenko, Destroyer of Worlds
On Sunday night, Jelena Ostapenko, who won the 2017 French Open when she was only 17, beat the World #1 Iga Swiatek so convincingly that the reigning US Open champion may as well have been a ballgirl. Ostapenko is the size of a preschooler, has the fashion sense and temperament of a preschooler, but, in the few-and-far-between instances that she’s on, she strikes the ball with the force of a Mack truck running over a pup tent. Her groundstrokes are flat, overwhelming, one-of-a-kind, her forehand produced with the blase indifference of someone sweeping crumbs from a table. She’ll either lose her next match in 15 minutes or win the whole tournament.
Trending Down: Casper Ruud, Weeknd Roadie
After reaching (and losing) three Grand Slam finals in the past two years, Casper Ruud, of Norway, has made tennis a secondary concern to his true passion: seeing The Weeknd in concert. It is widely accepted that Ruud only played Wimbledon, the Grand Slam on his worst surface, grass, so he could fly to the singer’s concurrent shows around Europe and the United Kingdom. Casper Ruud’s thoughts on The Idol remain unknown.
Trending Up: Ons Jabeur, the Minister of Darkness
Once self-described as the “Minister of Happiness,” the Tunisian player Ons Jabeur has turned into the Joker after choking in two straight Wimbledon finals. (Famously, Jabeur has had the Wimbledon trophy as her iPhone lock-screen for several years—for inspiration and, considering her results now, for tragic irony.) Before she lost in the third round on Monday, she’d been dressing in all black at the US Open, and playing with an uncharacteristic edge (and COVID, seemingly).
Trending Slightly Down: New Balance Men’s Tennis Apparel
Aside from Francis Tiafoe’s trademark modified onesie, Tommy Paul had the flyest kit on the men’s side of the 2023 US Open. Unfortunately, my DMs to the social media intern at New Balance confirmed that Paul’s outfit wouldn’t be on sale until 2024. New Balance: Made in America, Sold Nowhere.
Trending Up: Daniil Medvedev Hating Alexander Zverev’s Guts
Though it is unlikely they will face each other at the Open, Daniil “The Octopus” Medvedev and Alexander “Sascha” Zverev will still hate each other. More specifically, Zverev will hate Medvedev for not wanting to be his friend. Back in April, Zverev accused Medvedev of being “the most unfair player in the world,” after some amusing on-court antics during their match. Medvedev responded, after his win, by telling Zverev to “look in the mirror.” He also reiterated that Zverev had not, despite claims to the contrary, been invited to his wife’s baby shower.
Trending Way, Way Up: Morgs, the New First Lady of Tennis
At Wimbledon, Taylor Fritz, the top-ranked American on the men’s tour, was unexpectedly upset in the second round. Fritz’s defeat would have been depressing enough on its own, but it took on an almost cruel resonance considering his girlfriend, the divisive vlogger Morgan “Morgs” Riddle, had been named the official Wimbledon fashion correspondent. The resulting situation found Morgs at Wimbledon every day, interviewing attendees about their clothes and pimm’s cups, while Fritz presumably putzed around their AirBnB in a ratty bathrobe, contemplating the meaning of it all. Morgs has since leveraged her Wimbledon fashion web-series into a growing social media following and a long-form profile in the New York Times. On their first date, she made Fritz watch MIDSOMMAR, a film about a young blonde woman who kills her boyfriend by burning him alive.