It was a US Open for the ages. The tale of two veterans against two upstarts. On the women’s side, Serena was unable to close. On the Men’s side, Medvedev gave Nadal quite a scare. Nevertheless, he was able to close when it mattered. Let’s start one of the best US Open men’s finals in recent memory.

Nadal overcame a monumental comeback from Medvedev and barely escaped to win his 19^th Grand Slam. The first two sets seemed routine and it looked like in the third Nadal was way on his way to a straight sets victory. This is when Medvedev started looking like Nadal and was getting the better of the long rallies. He was going from defense to offense, coming into the net at times, and being aggressive.

It paid off, he won the next two sets and was looking like the stronger player in the fifth. That is of course until Nadal took advantage of a lapse in concentration at 2-2 and broke Medvedev. He broke again to lead 5-2 and it looked like the match was over. It was not going to be so easy though. Medvedev mounted a last gasp comeback and even had a break point to even the set at 5-5. It was not to be though, and Nadal closed it out. Nadal escaped. All eyes will now be on Nadal as he tries to tie Roger Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slams. I’m betting he ties it at the French next year.

Meanwhile Medvedev showed all Next Gen players what it means to play with heart, guts, and passion. He dug deep and mounted a comeback for the ages. He had a heck of a summer, making it to four straight finals and winning Cincinnati. Kudos to him. If we see this Medvedev show up at Grand Slams, look out Australian Open 2020.

On to the women’s final. It is no surprise that Andreescu was in the final and that she won the US Open. She is the best player on a hard court in the WTA right now. The surprise was the fact that Serena was nowhere to be seen until trailing 5-1 and mounting an improbable comeback. It was too little too late. The margin for error coming back from 5-1 is too much.

This is the fourth time that Serena has been in a final since childbirth, and she has not been able to win her 24^th slam. It doesn’t seem to be because she doesn’t have the shots or the game anymore. This seems to be nerves and emotions. The weight of history seems to be too heavy of a burden. I don’t fault her, there was too much media hype around her potential victory in New York. This will not be the case in Australia, where she’ll be able to shut out much of the noise. Look for her to win the 2020 Australian Open.