US Open [Men] 2026 - Grand Slam

Jelenafan

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Zed is definitely has played himself into the tournament.
You know, for me it’s one of those things you only figure out in hindsight.

I remember one year Boris Becker survived a 5 set, MP down thriller in an early round and went on to win his only USO. And who can forget Alcaraz going through like 3 (?)consecutive 5 set matches to win his first time Slam in NY, again MP down ( Sinner?) . OTOH, if Zverev comes out sluggish in his next match the argument will be he was overextended & exhausted & had nothing left in the tank.

To me you just don’t know.
 

Fiero425

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You know, for me it’s one of those things you only figure out in hindsight.

I remember one year Boris Becker survived a 5 set, MP down thriller in an early round and went on to win his only USO. And who can forget Alcaraz going through like 3 (?)consecutive 5 set matches to win his first time Slam in NY, again MP down ( Sinner?) . OTOH, if Zverev comes out sluggish in his next match the argument will be he was overextended & exhausted & had nothing left in the tank.

To me you just don’t know.

It was an early round of 1989 USO that Becker was down a MP to Derrick Rostagno IIRC! I recall the kid lived out of an RV! Becker was saved by a "net cord!" Lendl may very well have won that year giving him 4 of 8 instead of just 3 of the 8 finals he played! :astonished-face::yawningface::fearful-face::face-with-hand-over-mouth:
 
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Jelenafan

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Following the discussion of how match tough you need to be, Alcaraz just had a relatively easy 3rd round match versus Wu 3-4-1 straight setter. On the one hand, since he’s rusty maybe it’s good he’s not gotten into consecutive grueling tight matches, but how easy is *too* easy if suddenly he gets a much tougher opponent in the 4th or QTF or SF and he’s not up to it mentally?

On the flip side I remember Novak had a laughably easy path to a USO finals one year ( IIRC didn’t he have 2 walkovers or opponents retired?) and then was seemingly unprepared & looked sluggish vs a red hot Wawrinka in the final.
 
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