As American sports fans, we are often wrapped up in the excitement of the playoff chase in MLB and the start of the NFL season. Therefore, tennis is often overlooked. I'm not saying that you all should become rampant Roger Federer fans and jet to France to go to the French Open. Well if you have the means to do that, please do, and bring me with you. Anyways, I simply just want to bring to everyone's attention that tennis is as relevant as professional baseball, football, and basketball. Specifically, regarding the 2017 U.S. Open, I must say that this year's tournament was extraordinary and I had the privilege to attend the tournament for the past four years.
Let's be honest, if you have not heard of the name Serena Williams, you've been living in a dark underwater volcano somewhere in the Pacific. Even my roommate who does not watch sports in any sense said "Oh Serena, I love her. She's badass." So what is tennis like with the face of the sport being away on maternity leave?
It was a pleasant surprise that at the last grand slam of the professional tennis season, The U.S. Open, for the first time in tennis history, three of the four finalists for women's singles were African Americans and ALL four athletes represented the United States. There hasn't been a time where American tennis has been so successful in decades (excluding Serena, yeah she's superhuman). So turn off the Yankees channel for one second and just watch a single game of a tennis match. I promise two things: First, you'll be surprised how fast-paced and enjoyable professional tennis is, especially when American women are stealing the world stage currently. Second, current tennis is not a slow-paced sport played exclusively at tennis clubs by rich white people: the sport itself has evolved into a more inclusive and high-energy one.
The current champion of the U.S. Open is Sloane Stephens, who won her first grand slam in her career on September 9, 2017 when she defeated fellow American, Madison Keys. Stephens has had a complicated career marked with extreme highs and extreme lows. In the fall of 2009, the day before the first round of the U.S. Open, Stephen's father was killed in a car accident. Since then, Stephen's well-rounded yet powerful tennis game has catapulted her in the tennis spotlight, as in the majors she made it to four, 4th round appearances, a semifinal, and a final. Last year, Stephens fractured her foot which ended her season abruptly. It seems that every time she got close to the ultimate victory, she fell short- until this September.
We also can't forget about the other three Americans who were all semifinalists at the 2017 U.S. Open. American women's tennis was previously one that was dominated by Serena in particular. With Serena's absence, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys have stepped up. Last but not least, Venus Williams was also a semifinalist and still has the power and grit needed to be among the top 10 ranked women tennis players.