Three Grand Slams played this year have produced three different champions. So far this season, we saw Garbine Muguruza win on the grass courts of Wimbledon. Prior to that, we saw the young, unseeded Jelena Ostapenko make a shocking run on the clay at Roland Garros to claim the French Open. And to start the year, Serena Williams won the Australian Open Down Under. The question is: who is going to capture the final grand slam of the season and win the 2017 U.S. Open?
The absence of Serena Williams means the women’s field is wide open. Victoria Azarenka is another big-name player absent from the tournament, but the USTA has granted Maria Sharapova a wild card and ensured that the event won’t be short on star power. Sharapova plays Simona Halep in round one, a blockbuster for the first night of the tournament. That should be very entertaining but one U.S. Open contender will get bounced before we’ve even gotten to the second day of action.
The competition in the 128-player main draw begins on Monday, August 28, in Flushing Meadows.
Event Details
Event: United States Open
Category: ITF (International Tennis Federation) Grand Slam
Date: August 28 – September 10, 2017
Location: The Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center – Flushing Meadows, New York
With a prize money allotment of just over $50 million for the whole tournament and nearly $25 million for each half of the tournament, the U.S. Open has increased its prize money by nearly nine percent over last year. The winner of the women’s singles tournament (like the men’s tournament) will win a whopping $3.7 million. WTA professionals know how much this tournament means in terms of being able to reach earnings goals for the year. First-round losers will
Points
Champion – 2,000
Runner-up – 1,300
Semifinal – 780
Quarterfinal – 430
Round of 16 – 240
Round of 32 – 130
Round of 64 – 70
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2016 – Angelique Kerber def. Karolina Pliskova – 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
2015 – Flavia Pennetta def. Roberta Vinci – 7-6, 6-2
2014 – Serena Williams def. Caroline Wozniacki – 6-3, 6-3
2013 – Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka – 7-5, 6-7, 6-1
2012 – Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka – 6-2, 2-6, 7-5
Player Info:
Karolina Pliskova is the top-ranked women’s player in the world and is the No. 1 seed in a Grand Slam event for the first time in her career. Pliskova showed us last year she can be a serious threat at the majors. She can be good, she can be bad, and she can be ugly. If Pliskova is good for two weeks, nobody is going to stop her from winning her maiden Grand Slam title.
Simona Halep made the semifinals two years ago and was a quarterfinalist last year at the U.S. Open. With Serena not present to halt her progress, Halep should believe in her chances. The Romanian was close to winning the French Open but lost a set-and-a-break lead to Jelena Ostapenko in the final. Last week, Halep was battered in the Cincinnati final by Garbine Muguruza and was deprived of the No. 1 ranking. She has entered three matches this season with a chance to snatch the No. 1 ranking but has lost each time.
Angelique Kerber is the defending champion but the German isn’t half the player she was last year. In 2016, Kerber went 24-9 against top-20 players but has taken a drastic fall this year– she has yet to register a win against top-20 opposition. 2016 seems like an aberration, not a pattern.
Chris Evert, who is a six-time U.S. Open champion thinks Kerber can turn things around in New York, but does Kerber think the same way?
Caroline Woznaicki has been one of the most consistent performers on the WTA circuit this season. Astonishingly, Wozniacki has yet to win a title this year despite appearing in six finals, but she’d forget everything if she triumphs in New York. Wozniacki loves the U.S. Open, where she has reached the finals twice in 2009 and 2014, and given her form, it wouldn’t be surprising if she matches her best result.
Garbine Muguruza won her second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon this year and it surely seems to have fueled her with abundant confidence. The Spaniard then went on to win the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati last week. Muguruza hasn’t only displayed talent but has looked composed in pressure situations. In the third round in Cincinnati, she was down three match points against Madison Keys but somehow she appeared composed, found self-belief and won. In the final, Muguruza dismantled Simona Halep in 56 minutes.
Muguruza will enter the U.S. Open as one of the most in form players– she has won 16 of past 18 matches. The Spaniard will be seeded third but she has not made it past the second round in four tries in the Big Apple. She finds the U.S. Open to be tricky – not because it hasn’t yielded desired results, but because of the enormity of the event.
If Muguruza shows the same composure she displayed at SW19, she’ll go very far in New York.
Seeded ninth, Venus Williams is the highest-ranked American in the draw. Venus is 37 years old but she doesn’t play like a normal 37-year-old. She made the final of the Australian Open and Wimbledon and proved that she can still compete for Grand Slam titles at a grand old age. Venus has won 49 titles and it would only be fitting if she celebrated her 50th at the U.S. Open.
The Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center
The U.S. Open has constantly suffered from rain delays over the years. The women’s semifinals were rained out on Thursday night two years ago. The men’s final was delayed roughly three hours in 2015. Now Arthur Ashe Stadium has a retractable roof. The USTA National Tennis Center debuted a new Grandstand court last year. This year will mark the final year for the original Louis Armstrong Stadium, which has undergone modifications in recent years but will get a fuller facelift for the 2018 U.S. Open.
Odds To Win 2017 U.S. Open
Garbine Muguruza +425
Karolina Pliskova +450
Maria Sharapova +1850
Angelique Kerber +1315
Simona Halep +915
Johanna Konta +1050
Petra Kvitova +1850
Elina Svitolina +1150
Venus Williams +1850
Jelena Ostapenko +2050
Madison Keys +1050
Coco Vandeweghe +1550
Caroline Wozniacki +1650
Agnieszka Radwanska +6550
Kristina Mladenovic +9050
Daria Kasatkina +8050
Svetlana Kuznetsova +6050
Dominika Cibulkova +9050
Belinda Bencic +14000
Sloane Stephens +2050
Anett Kontaveit +5050
Eugenie Bouchard +10000
Lucie Safarova +13000
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova +14000
Ana Konjuh +8050
Naomi Osaka +9050
Caroline Garcia +6550
Ekaterina Makarova +10000
Ashleigh Barty +12000
Marketa Vondrousova +13000
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