The 143rd United States Open Tennis Championships took place in New York City at the United States Tennis Association: Billie Jean King National Tennis Center from August 22nd to September 10th. A new record was made this year as 73,007 fans attended, beating the previous record of 72,957 set on August 28th. Over the 20-day-run, the attendance went up 8% from last year with 957,387 attendees. This year, there were many incredible talents on both the male and female side. 

In the men’s doubles match, Rajeev Ram of U.S. and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain beat the Indo-Australian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Edben to clinch their third straight title. 

“It’s something I never would have thought of in my wildest dreams,” said Ram at the doubles trophy presentation.

Despite struggling to find a rhythm at first, the duo (Ram and Salisbury) eventually got in sync and took the crown. 

In the men’s singles match, Novak Djokovic defeated Danill Medvedev in the final, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. This was Djokovic’s fourth U.S. Open title and record-extending 24th Men’s Singles Major title. If you were checking the odds, you would’ve clearly seen that Djokovic was the heavy favorite to win heading into the finals, and sure enough, he claimed victory. 

“I don’t know where to start. It obviously means the world to me. I’m really living my childhood dream to compete at the highest level in the sport, and it has given me and my family so much,” said Djokovic after winning the title. 

He was on stage speaking for close to seven minutes. Djokovic went into depth about the mountain of adversities you face when you love something and how you need to overcome those hurdles.  

“It was an amazing match and after hearing Djokovic’s speech, I’m a big fan of him now,” said Senior Jimmy Du.

He spoke about coming from very difficult circumstances and adversities during the 90s, and how home life for him was not always easy, having to face and push through multiple wars in his country. 

Djokovic praised his parents most as they “gave a lot of sacrifice.”

Djokovic explained the amount of money and time you must put into the sport and how he fell in love with the sport stating, “No one has played tennis in my family before, and so it was a choice, but through incredible resilience and belief from my parents and the people around me,

it was all made possible.” 

“While I wasn’t able to watch the entire US Open, I did watch some parts and found it very entertaining and definitely will be watching next year, ” said Sophomore Robert Zamacion.

The audience of the U.S. Open, while breaking records, has the potential to be even larger—fans are strongly recommended to watch next year’s exhilarating 2024 U.S. Open!

Photo courtesy of FORMICHE.NET