Or: Why Andy Murray Is Almost but Not Quite An Asshole
One of Kevin Anderson, Pablo Carreno Busta, Diego Schwartzman and Sam Querrey is going to be a finalist at the US Open. They are fine players all, but a level below truly elite. In a normal year, reaching the quarterfinals would constitute a very solid Slam performance for any of them.
But this year, because of a field vastly depleted due to injuries and then the vagaries of the draw, most of the top players ended up in the top half of the draw. The primary exceptions were Sascha Zverev, who succumbed to the US Open's stupid scheduling; Marin Cilic, who lost in the third round to Diego Schwartzman, never quite match fit after his injury at Wimbledon and subsequent lay-off; and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who is consistently inconsistent and got his ass kicked by Denis Shapovalov.
And so: Anderson, Carreno Busta, Schwartzman and Querrey are the quarterfinalists in the bottom half of the draw.
Everybody's dream scenario prior to the draw was a Federer-Nadal final. It's one of the great rivalries of all time, and it took on new depth this year with Federer's win in the final of the Australian--an instant classic--followed by his subsequent beatdowns of Nadal at Indian Wells and Miami. And then Nadal owned the clay-court season. And then Federer won Wimbledon. They've been far-and-away the best two players this year. And they've never played each other at the Open.
But because Federer pulled out of Cincinnati with injury, he didn't pick up the ranking points to overtake Murray prior to the Open, which left Murray as the two seed, which meant it was 50-50 that Federer would draw into Nadal's half, which is what happened. And so the dream lost a little shine: a potential semi-final match-up isn't quite as sexy as one in the final.
It's looking increasingly likely that we're going to see that semi. Nadal is playing terrifically well, and his quarterfinal opponent, Andrey Rublev, is only 19 years old and isn't likely yet to have the tools to push Nadal on a stage this big. Federer seems to have hit his stride, having followed his straight-set victory against Feliciano Lopez with one against Philipp Kohlschreiber last night. Federer's quarterfinal opponent, Juan MartÃn Del Potro, spent everything in his five-set victory against Dominic Thiem yesterday and so is unlikely to be able to fully recover before Wednesday. Straight-set quarterfinal victories for both Federer and Nadal seem relatively probable, meaning both could be quite fresh for a Friday semi-final.
So the nightmare scenario is this: that Federer and Nadal beat the hell out of each other in some epic, classic five-setter. Then, in the other half of the draw, someone wins with relative ease. An exhausted Federer or Nadal plays that someone and loses the final. This would be a gross injustice.
And this all adds up to part of the reason why Andy Murray is almost an asshole. The draw was on Friday, August 25th. Murray withdrew the next day. I honestly cannot see the motivation for not withdrawing before the draw. Gee, Andy, did you really think that one extra day was going to make all the difference? So all you really did was create a chance that the best potential storyline for the tournament had a 50-50 chance of not happening, and that is in fact how the probability worked out. Way to make it about you, Andy.
But the other reason why Murray is almost but not quite an asshole is that I applied for a job writing for the ATP (the organization that run's the men's tour), and if I get anywhere with the application process, they're surely going to come here and read my writing, and I need to put my professionalism above my feelings as a fan, and that means I obviously can't be seen calling Andy Murray, one of the top players in the game, an asshole. So I'm not. I'm most definitely not calling Andy Murray an asshole.
But almost an asshole? Yes.
Better hope that either Federer or Nadal hoist that trophy, Andy. Otherwise I might be forced to go all the way.