This isn’t your ancestors’ game of lawn tennis and this isn’t the U.S. Open on the grass courts of Forest Hills. For as great as they all were back in the day — and you can pick the day, any day — the sport has evolved into a grueling, punishing, physical test, with this tournament the epitome of the game’s evolution.
The Grand Slam cycle has become an obstacle course, as much about endurance and attrition as talent. Australia, Roland Garros and Wimbledon present their own unique challenges, but New York, the final major, is an island unto itself.
The Open is the tournament with matches ending as late as 2:26 in the morning. The Open is the one that takes place in unpredictable and increasingly severe climes. It’s the one with retractable roofs on Armstrong and Ashe that allow play to continue regardless of rain, sleet or snow but chokes off the air flow on courts that come to resemble saunas for much of the fortnight.
It is an exercise in survival of the fittest.
Four days after the stifling heat claimed Roger Federer as a fourth-round victim, Rafael Nadal was forced to retire in his semifinal match against Juan Martin del Potro, 7-6, 6-2 (ret), after a flaring case of his right knee tendinitis reduced the Spaniard to spectator status for most of the second set.