The final grand slam of the year culminated at Flushing Meadows with the Spaniard Rafael Nadal beating the top seed Novak Djokovic to win his 13th Grand Slam title. Serena Williams won the women’s singles title in a repeat of last year’s final.
The final grand slam of the year culminated at Flushing Meadows with the Spaniard Rafael Nadal beating the top seed Novak Djokovic to win his 13th Grand Slam title. Serena Williams won the women’s singles title in a repeat of last year’s final beating Victoria Azarenka. Here’s a look back at the 2013 US Open:
Leander does it Again!
Leander Paes proved again why age is just a number. Leander with his doubles partner Radek Stepanek won the men’s doubles title. The Indo-Czech duo had lost in the finals of the same event last year. They beat Peya and Soares comprehensively in straight sets. The biggest match for the pair was in the semi finals though, where they were pitted against the mighty Bryan Brothers who were looking to win a Calendar slam. The win gave Leander his 8th men’s doubles title and 14th Grand Slam title overall. The only trophy missing from his cabinet is the mixed doubles title of the French Open. He came very close in 2005 when he reached the mixed doubles finals in Paris. At 40, Leander also became the oldest men’s player to win a Grand slam event. This is yet another accomplishment for Leander who seems to go on and on with his love for the game. In addition to these grand slam titles, he had also won a bronze medal in men’s singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Leander Paes will surely go down in history as one of India’s best sportsman ever!
Mixed Results for other Indians
Mahesh Bhupathi was participating in his last US Open this year. He had a disappointing tournament as he lost in the first round of both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles events. Rohan Bopanna too had a disappointing tournament losing in the first round of the mixed doubles event. Rohan with his partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin ended their US Open men’s doubles campaign in round three. Apart from Leander, Bhupathi and Bopanna, India had another participant at the US Open men’s doubles event. Divij Sharan was partnering Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei and the pair reached the third round where they were beaten by Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer in a tough match. Sania Mirza lost in the first round of the mixed doubles event. However, she redeemed herself in the women’s doubles event by reaching the last four.
Serena’s dominating performance
Serena Williams was in dominating form at this year’s US Open. She did not drop a set on her way to the finals. She, in fact, lost only 13 games till the finals. She did find it tough against Victoria Azarenka in the first two sets of the finals losing the second set in a tie breaker. But she came back to her best in the final set winning it 6-1. Serena also had a good outing in the women’s doubles event, partnering with her sister Venus; they reached the semi finals of the event losing to eventual winners Hlavackova and Hradecka.
With this win, Serena has now won 17 Grand Slam singles titles. She has won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open five times each. In addition to this, she has also won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles. A gold medalist at the London Olympics last year in women’s singles, Serena has accomplished all the titles in tennis. Serena is now sixth in the list of most women singles Grand Slam titles with just one win away from equally Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert’s record of 18 titles. She will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time.
Rafa’s incredible comeback continues
Rafael Nadal struggled for the latter part of last year and slowly made a comeback from injury earlier this year. He won the French Open for an unprecedented 8 times but struggled at Wimbledon where he bowed out in the first round itself. Many believed that the ‘King of Clay’ will struggle at the US Open as well. However the Spaniard showed his class by winning his second US Open title triumphing over top seed Novak Djokovic. Djokovic has reached finals of three Grand Slams this year. He won the Australian Open but lost in the finals at Wimbledon to Andy Murray and now at the US Open to Rafael Nadal. Djokovic has retained his No. 1 ranking even though Nadal won the tournament. But Nadal will be looking to continue with the momentum and his eyes would now be set on becoming the Numero Uno of tennis once again.
Nadal now has 13 Grand Slam singles titles and stands third in the all time list with just one title win away of Pete Sampras’ 14 titles. Roger Federer leads the list with 17 Grand Slam titles. With age on his side, Nadal, in all likelihood will overtake Sampras soon. If Nadal can remain injury free, then he has a good chance to close in on Federer’s record as well but that’s easier said than done.
Upsets did happen at the US Open this year but the favorites were able to win it. With this, the Grand Slams of 2013 are over. Let’s see who finishes the year at No. 1 in both the men’s and women’s singles.
