The US Open, played at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, has been taking place in New York City, New York since 1981, and this year’s tournament has been full of uncertainties. Going into this tournament the heavy favorite for the men was Novak Djokovic, and the number one seed for the women was Karolina Pliskova. However, neither is still in the tournament in the quarterfinals. Tennis, just like all other sports that have been taking place this year,  have had no fans in the stands.

On the women’s side, there have been three Americans in the quarterfinals. and moving onto the semifinals assuming Serena Williams wins we will have two Americans left and a good shot at an American winning the US Open. The main challenger the American’s have in winning is Niomi Osaka from Japan, who is ranked 4th in the world and who has been playing great lately. A few surprises in this tournament is Venus Williams losing in the first round of the US Open for the first time ever. Many had her as a dark horse this year with many players opting not to play, but she was bounced early.  In the end, expect Osaka to win the US Open over American Serena Williams, who has struggled a bit during this tournament.

On the men’s side, it has been just as wild. The usual names like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Stan Wawrinka all decided not to play in this year’s US Open because of the coronavirus. There is also a possibility that they opted not to play because Djokovic would have been the heavy favorite. However, he ended up getting bounced in the round of 16 to Pablo Carreno Busta after getting defaulted in the first set. Djokovic angrily bounced the ball in frustration, but the problem is this that he ended up hitting a line judge. After consulting with the umpires, they decided that he would be defaulted, which means he was forced to concede and that he automatically lost. While according to the experts it was the correct call, it was unfortunate for the fans to see the best player in the world get defaulted. This likely leaves the men’s favorite Daniil Medvedev, as he is the only well-known player left in the tournament.

So far there has been a Williams sister loss in the first round and the best player in the world defaulted, but that leaves the remainder of the tournament wide open for anyone to win.