Roger Federer, John Wortham, Emma Kanu discussed on Morning Edition

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I'm Noel King May Martinez. There were two remarkable story lines at the US Open this weekend. An 18 year old Britt Emma Kanu, who was qualifier and barely known, though before the tournament, won the woman's title in the men's draw, Novak Djokovic's hopes for a Grand slam that's winning all of the major tournaments in a calendar year, where ended by the Neil Medvedev. Sports Illustrated's Jon Wortham is always was following all the action. He's with us this morning, John let's begin with the men's final. How did Medvedev managed to rewrite that script and beat Djokovic? He out Djokovic Djokovic, the steadier player. He was sort of the lengthier sort of Djokovic with the rolling Can I mean sort of Djokovic plus a few extra inches, and he was Steady and crisp and precise and took advantage of a uncharacteristically nervous opponent on the other side of the net. I mean, part of the story was Medvedev. Part of the story was just Djokovic and his his flatness on the threshold of history. That always seems to work when you out them. The other brave that's always seems to work. Now they would follow up five cents. Were there signs of fatigue for Djokovic? Yeah, and and I think it was a question of how much of this was just cumulative physical fatigue. He'd spent far more time on court than his opponent. Several matches earlier in the tournament went quite long, including his semifinal that went to 25 cents, and I also suspect just the sheer weight of the occasion. Djokovic is 34. He's going for his. This was supposed to be his 21st major title plenty of experience, but he'd never been in the experience of being right there on the doorstep of this once in a generation achievement, and I think just the moment got to him a little bit. All right. Let's turn to the women's final remarkable journey for not only the winner Emma Kanu, but also the runner up Leila Fernandez, who's from Canada and a teenager herself. So what does it mean for the sport? Have These two make it to the final The U. S Open. It was great. It was completely unexpected and yet completely joyous storyline. The men featured number one versus number two, and the combined ranking of the two women was 223 Neither player in the top 50 Radical new 60 days ago. She wasn't even among the top 10 British players and you have this completely sort of whimsical final with these two teenagers. That was a nice reminder of why we like sports and their unpredictability into the bigger context. Here is Rafael Nadal wasn't here. Roger Federer wasn't at the US Open the Williams sisters Combined age of more than 80. They weren't there either. And there was sort of this existential question hovering over tennis. How is the sport going to move past These towering Stars these titans and we got a glimpse. It was really a refreshing final. As you say. It was completely two different days and two very different moods. These two teenagers sort of whimsically playing in the sunken final versus Djokovic going for history, but it was it was a strong event for the sport. Overall, I'm going to ask you the cliche sports question now, John when we have new fresh faces in a final are we looking at a new era of women's tennis? I asked as robotically as possible. That is the that is the inevitable question. And I think for sort of horrible craft, transactional purposes. A lot of people think so radical. New is, you know Chinese, and, uh, chief of Chinese and Romanian extraction. She's a British player. She speaks Mandarin. There's certainly a lot to like. There are a lot of young stars on the women's side. Some of them will undoubtedly offend higher than others. But again, I think tennis comes out of this very much. A win for the sport. John Wortham with Sports Illustrated,.

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