The U.S. Open will very possibly mark the final major tournament before Serena Williams returns. It is not official, but it is highly possible that Serena could return to the 2018 Australian Open and resume life on tour in the time she has left as an active tennis player. If that is the case, this is the last big chance for someone to slip through the cracks and gain a championship that, with Serena around, would have been a lot less likely. It is true that Serena has not won the U.S. Open since 2014, but even then, her presence in the field would have likely eliminated a number of contenders in her path. It also would have reshaped the field. No Serena means more of an opportunity. It also means a wide-open field.
If any of these struggling players want to turn around their careers in the next few weeks, here are a few of the more prominent examples:
Jo Konta
Magnificent at Wimbledon, where she made the semifinals, Konta fell back to earth – hard – in the summer, failing to do much of anything in either Toronto or Cincinnati. She made the quarterfinals in Cincinnati, but she played an overworked Simona Halep in the quarterfinals and put forth a poor performance, hitting a lot of errors both long and into the net. Konta looks like a player who has completely lost her sense of rhythm and timing. She needs a rebound in the worst way, and since she has never made the semifinals at the U.S. Open, she has something specific to prove in New York. This should be a successful tournament for her, but it hasn’t. Next year, it could be even more difficult for her to break through, so this is an important period for the best WTA tennis player in Great Britain.
Agnieszka Radwanska
The clock is ticking on this very successful athlete who has not won a major tournament. She reached a major final and a few semifinals but has not been able to take the final step. Now it appears that her lack of power is being exposed more fully, because Radwanska doesn’t have as much footspeed as she gets older. She has to find ways at the U.S. Open to compensate for that deficit. She needs to be even more determined to redirect the ball and take it early to rob opponents of time and get them on the run. She is in trouble, but a good draw might give her a chance to do something of note.
Angelique Kerber
Kerber just can’t seem to get over the hump. She played reasonably well at Wimbledon, where she made the fourth round, and it was reasonable to think that she was on the verge of turning the corner in her arduous 2017 season. However, she lost a long (13-11) third-set tiebreaker to Ekaterina Makarova in Cincinnati, missing a chance to advance deep into the tournament and get more match play. The U.S. Open is a tournament where she will be the defending champion. This was the tournament where she clinched the World No. 1 ranking a year ago. It’s a special event for her. Maybe that will rekindle a spark, but one should not expect a rebound for the German.
Venus Williams
The Wimbledon and Australian Open finalist this year figured to do well in Toronto and Cincinnati, but it just didn’t happen for the 37-year-old. Venus was flat in two early-round losses. Perhaps all the tennis she played earlier in the season caught up with her. Regardless, Venus has not played too much tennis over the past five weeks. That lack of activity could make her fresh for the U.S. Open, but one should bet that the inability to find rhythm will probably work against her, not for her, in New York.
On the season, Williams 29-10. She’s played well on clay (6-3) and grass (6-1), but her best surface hsa been the hard courts. She is 17-5 on that surface this year, so don’t count her out. However, things have not gone well for her recently.
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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