The men’s US Open final was yet another spectacle, with Carlos Alcaraz coming out on top against Jannik Sinner.
It marked the 15th iteration of this already great rivalry, with the Spaniard extending his winning record over the 24-year-old to ten wins and just five losses.
However, the match was somewhat marred by what was going on outside the Arthur Ashe Stadium both before and throughout the first set.
After all, whilst the top two-ranked players in the world did battle on the biggest stage in tennis, many ticket-holding fans were forced to wait outside, hampered by security measures put in place due to the presence of Donald Trump, the US president.
Whilst increased security was to be expected, it was made public that he would be attending days before the final. And yet, nothing was done to streamline the process, with the final start time delayed by 30 minutes on the day of.
US Open criticised for pre-final security measures
As such, this debacle was justifiably slammed on The Tennis Podcast, with Matt Roberts claiming: “It was always going to take much longer to get the people into the stadium than it normally would, and it did not seem like they had accounted for that. It was a mess.”
Catherine Whitaker then offered her verdict, taking over from her fellow pundit to add: “Thousands and thousands of people that had paid thousands and thousands of dollars missed at least a set. I went out and got a flavour of what was going on during the opening set here in the concourse, and it was pandemonium. It was a disaster, it was chanting, it was unrest, it was grim.
“It eased as the match went on, but at times in the build-up, it felt you could almost forget that there was a tennis match about to happen. It felt like a footnote to the circus.
Roberts then picked back up to conclude: “I think it was a massive embarrassment for the tournament having to move the start time of the final at extremely late notice.
“My heart was breaking for those fans stuck outside, you know, like, you might get one chance to come to a Grand Slam final, you know, like, I think we can probably be guilty of taking going to tennis for granted, but, you know, we hear a lot of stories of people who are here for the one time and something that they’ve been desperately looking forward to, and they’ve spent a lot of money on, and the experience was ruined.
“I’m sure Alcaraz and Sinner, when they got in their seats, they would have made up for it to some extent, but not fully. There is a lot of people there who had their day torpedoed by that.”
Whilst the president stayed to watch the bulk of the men’s final, he completely snubbed the women’s final, played the night before.
Aryna Sabalenka reacted to Trump’s decision not to watch her US Open final vs Amanda Anisimova.
US Open spokesperson reacts to fans not getting into the US Open men’s final
Brendan McIntyre, the spokesperson for the US Open, was the individual selected to emerge and offer justification for this mess.
“We understand the frustration of fans that were delayed in their entrance to Arthur Ashe Stadium,” he began. “The added security protocols were put in place by the United States Secret Service.”
From that short snippet, it feels as though they were almost absolving themselves of blame, inferring that the delay was due to matters outside of their control.
However, regardless of who instigated this last-minute, unprepared plan, it was a mess all around and ruined a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many fans.
