4 Surprises at This Year's US Open

The 2021 US Open (one of the four Grand Slams) probably had the most open draw ever in recent history. This was due to strict covid rules in the US and personal reasons such as injury or not risking going to the United States. Therefore, most of the top seeds were not even playing, and even further down the US Open, it was always going to have a few upsets.

Biggest Surprise: Botic Van de Zandschulp

Botic Van de Zandschulp: The Shock

Botic Van de Zandschulp is a 26-year-old Dutch tennis player who, before the US Open, had never set foot in the USA nor got past the second round of a Grand Slam. However, what makes his eight-match run unique is not that he’s young or was always destined to make a name for himself. What made him special was nothing was utterly average, nothing special. Just your everyday qualifier. Then he Beat Seed No.8, Casper Ruud, beat Seed No.11 Diego Schwartzman and was the only player to give Daniel Medvedev (The eventual winner of the tournament) a run for his money. Causing him to become the only player to win a set against the No.2 Seed.

Carlos Alcaraz Garfia:

The Teen

Carlos Alcaraz is an 18-year-old Spanish tennis player who also got to the quarter-finals of the US Open before being forced to forfeit against the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. Being only 18, nobody ever suspected he would be able to hold out against the best fully grown men in the world. I don’t think that anybody in the world could’ve seen this coming. More recently he has won the U-21 Nitto finals in Milan and is now the youngest player in the top 100.

I spoke to Roberto Troian, who has been coaching this sport his whole life. After I asked him about this topic, he told me that Carlos Alcaraz could become ranked 1st in the world. But whether he stays out of injuries is another thing entirely.

Peter Gojowczyck: The Veteran

3. Peter Gojowczyck from Germany was a top 40 player winning multiple ATP titles before crashing out of the top 100. He stayed until the US Open. After defeating Henri Laaksonen to re-enter the top 100. The thing that shocked most people though was the fact that most experts had written him off as someone who would never return years ago making his US Open run even more surprising.

Henri Laaksonen: The Consistent

4. Henri Laaksonen from Switzerland has one thing that nobody else on this list has (yet): Consistency. After performing well in the Australian Open. He went on to beat Roberto Batista Agut in the Roland Garros. (who was a title candidate) before having to forfeit to Kei Nishikori in the third round after showing a promising start due to hip problems. In the US Open, he beat John Millman and the Chilean Seed No.16 Christian Garin. More recently, he won his sixth challenger tour title in d’Orleans to re-enter the top 100. Laaksonen had always been a force to reckon with even getting to the Semi Finals in the boys category of the Roland Garros. But after a two year slump due to a mysterious salmon allergy he has come back strong and will probably cause many more upsets for the rest of his career.

Due to the US Open having had so many top players missing, upsets were always guaranteed. It was certain that a few smaller unknown players would slip through the cracks and end up in the quarter-finals or round of 16.