Zverev & Rybakina are your US Open Champions! | US Open Something Major Finals | EP 215

Sam (0:00)

Welcome back to Something... No, sorry, that's not how we start. Let me start again. On today's episode of Something Major, we're recapping the US. Open final on the men's side of the women's side. Let's get going.

SPEAKER_2 (0:10)

Jack, John, Stevie and Sam got close a few times, never won a slam, nothing major.

Sam (0:16)

All right, welcome back. Got John, Stevie, myself. The suits at SIFT are here as well. The men's final just finished. The women's final was obviously yesterday.

We are going to start with the men's final. Zverev takes the title over Ben Shelton, 6'3, 7'6, 5'7, 6'2. Prematch, IBM likelihood to win was Zverev at 60%.

Felt about right. Stevie, I'm going to start with you first. Zverev breaks Shelton out of the gate. Obviously, that makes things a little more difficult for Shelton, who was the underdog, felt like he needed to hold out of the gate. But just what are your initial thoughts on the men's final?

Steve Johnson (0:56)

Yeah, I think the likelihood to win was pretty accurate. I mean, Sasha wasn't playing his best tennis. I mean, I think we all had talked about it for the last couple of weeks. He was just finding ways to win and then was just basically status quo. He was good from the ground. He beat everyone who was in front of him, but Ben was going to pack a different punch on the rest of the guys. But it was a bummer for Ben, came out a little bit nervous in that first game. Anytime you give your, well, at least it felt like he came out nervous, gave your opponent an early break. That settles the nerves for Sasha.

I thought Sasha didn't play his best tennis again, quite frankly. But when you get an early break and you serve as well as Sasha was serving, it's really tough to come back from. Then the first set goes as you would expect. Second set, much better from Ben. I thought the tennis was getting better and better. I thought he was outplaying Sasha a little bit and then just plays an absolutely poor tiebreaker right at the beginning. He just down 5-1, which is just brutal for Ben.

Sam (1:57)

I'll stop you there for one second. He actually got down 5-0.

Let me flip over to John. Zverev wins the first set, second set tiebreaker. Crowd is getting back into it. I felt like when Zverev went up 5-0, it just sucked the energy right back out of the stadium. Is that how you felt at that moment too?

John Isner (2:13)

Yeah, I did feel like that. I mean, the crowd never really... I mean, yeah, obviously in the third set, they got going, but from the very first point, they didn't have much to cheer about up until the beginning of the second set tiebreaker at 0-0. You know, when it's like, all right, we're starting this tiebreaker, big one here, clearly.

I disagree a little bit. I thought Zverev played really well. I mean, I thought he did what he needed to do. I mean, the whole game plan going into this match was to do what he does on serve and just play solid from the back, not give Ben much pace. I think he had a game plan and he executed it extremely well. And he had a few instances where he let go of the forehand in some pretty big moments that worked out in his favor. So I thought he played a great match and did what he needed to do to beat Ben in four sets. He didn't have to redline, clearly. Doesn't have to redline against anyone apart from Alcaraz and Sinner.

And didn't do that today. Tactically, super smart match and it paid off for him.

Sam (3:16)

And he had that quote going back to what you said on ESPN after, against Ben, you don't need to be aggressive all the time. The more pace you play to his backhand, the better he plays. So I think he was actually trying to make Ben be the aggressor and actually shape on the backhand and do something with it. Stevie, we're talking about the second set. The third set, Ben comes back, steals that third set, 7-5. It was a little bit, Zverev was serving 5-6, kind of four errors, if I'm not mistaken, maybe three errors. And then Ben, you know, behind the ear, kind of got the stadium rolling, but still after that third set, the IBM likelihood to win for Zverev was still 70%.

When Ben won that third set, Stevie, were you confident that like, oh, all right, maybe Ben's got this in five, or did you still feel like it was, you know what, I still like Zverev here. Because I still, because of how that last game when it was errors from Zverev, I kind of still felt like, I hate to say it, but I still like Zverev here. It wasn't like Ben came up with these like crazy passing shots or big moments to like hype up that third set.