STORY AND PHOTOS BY FELICIA LAGUERRE OWENS
The US Open Championships are celebrating their 143rd Anniversary, having its inauguration in 1881. Now, its home is at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, Queens, with Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets close by. The quest for the multimillion dollar purses began Monday, August 26th.
The free-to-the-public, 7-day Fan Week concluded on Sunday, August 25th. This included a 128-man field and a 128-woman field of qualifiers who competed in three rounds, with the victors gaining entry into the main draw, whose first round purse is $100K. Fan Week also included the players practicing on the grounds in front of fans, several of whom took photos of their favorite players.
Defending champions Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic have tough roads back to the victory circle. Top contenders are vying for their crowns. Former women’s champ Naomi Osaka takes on Jelena Ostapenko in the first round. In the Men’s draw, fan favorite Ben Shelton takes on previous champ Dominic Theim.
Meanwhile, there will be some exciting matchups late in the draw. For example, #1 Jannik Sinner, #3 Carlos Alcaraz, and #4 Medvedev are all on the same side of the draw and are on a collision course in the later rounds.
Gauff is on a collision course with #2 seed Aryna Sabalenka. They are slated to meet in the semifinals, if everything holds up. The winner of the semifinals could possibly meet my pick for Women’s Champion, Elena Rybakina, in the finals.
The highly flavored popcorn match could come in the women’s 4th round, when Russian teenage sensation, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva, is slated to meet #1 seed Iga Swiatek, who hasn’t been at the top of her game. Don’t be surprised if Andreeva upsets Swiatek.
In other sports news, the team from Lake Mary, Florida won the Little League World Series in a 3-2 walkoff after Chinese Taipei had a throwing error on a bunt.
