This year’s US Open featured an array of great matches from all ends of the tournament, but it was the men\u2019s singles in particular where the game of tennis had a major shift. The women\u2019s singles draw went as expected, with very little upset. While Americans Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova were the crowd’s choice,\u00a0 ultimately the Belarusian player, Aryna Sabalenka, took home the victory with a final score of\u00a0 6-3, 7-6 over Anisimova. Sabalenka was seeded first, and her win marked her fourth Grand Slam triumph of her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the men’s singles draw, however, the outcomes carried greater significance. 2025 marks the first year in 23 years that a member of the \u201cBig Four\u201d did not compete in a Grand Slam final. The \u201cBig Four\u201d was a term coined in the 2000s referring to the four men in tennis, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. These four men consistently beat everyone else around them, and at least one of them reached a Grand Slam final every single year since 2002 – that is until now. Out of the four, only Djokovic remains as an active player, even though he\u2019s struggled this year. In fact, every player has\u2014because they keep losing to the same two players: Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are two young rival players who\u2019ve been on the rise in the tennis world. This year, they faced each other in three out of the four Grand Slam finals. The two have split wins in Grand Slams this year with Alcaraz winning the US Open 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. This finals win for Alcaraz came after his semifinals win against Djokovic. In a moment that felt like a passing of the torch, Alcaraz swiftly defeated Djokovic in straight sets, only a few years after breaking onto the scene. Although he\u2019s previously stated that he wants to win a 25th Grand Slam title, there is much speculation about Djokovic\u2019s potential retirement. He is 38 years old and has faced multiple injuries over the past few years, leading to his withdrawal from several tournaments. To many, this US Open felt like Djokovic\u2019s last chance at a big win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaac Lefcourt (Form V) said that \u201cit disappoints me that I\u2019m not going to see [Nadal] and all the other players\u2026 but then on the other hand it also excites me because there\u2019s a whole new batch of talent that we get to see, especially from Sinner and Alcaraz.\u201d This mix of emotions seems to be a common theme among students, and one that makes sense, because no high school student has been alive when the Big Four weren\u2019t crushing in the tennis world. Nyle Patnaik (Form V) said that he has been a tennis fan all his life, and that \u201c[he] grew up watching Djokovic, Federer and Nadal, and tennis without them feels like watching a different sport.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the tennis world is transforming, it isn’t necessarily bad, and from what we\u2019ve seen out of the up-and-coming stars this year, they can put on some pretty spectacular performances. The Big Four have cemented their legacy, and it is okay to let them go. This stage is a great time for people who have never watched any tennis to start watching. Although it may be the instinct of many, now is not the time to step away from the world of tennis; now is a great opportunity to tune in and witness the evolution of a new wave of talent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year’s US Open featured an array of great matches from all ends of the tournament, but it was the men\u2019s singles in particular where the game of tennis had a major shift. The women\u2019s singles draw went as expected, with very little upset. While Americans Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova were the crowd’s choice,\u00a0 ultimately the Belarusian player, Aryna Sabalenka, took home the victory with a final score of\u00a0 6-3, 7-6 over Anisimova. Sabalenka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":12241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318,317],"tags":[],"coauthors":[697],"class_list":["post-12240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-3-e1760273945909.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12242,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240\/revisions\/12242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12240"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}