The Finals are set for this weekend and both finals are looking very interesting and hard to call.

I will start with the ladies semi-finals and the first ladies semi-final was between home favourite and 6th seed, Gauff and she was up against the 2023 French Open finalist, Muchova for a spot in Saturday’s final. Both ladies contributed to what was a great match to watch. They played the longest rally of the tournament so far in both mens and ladies which was 40 shots and that rally was near the end of the match as well so this proves that both ladies left it all out there. Gauff was the eventual winner in straight sets, 6-4; 7-5.

The 2nd semi-final was one match that won’t be forgotten in a while. The match was between 17th seed and another American, Keys, and she was up against the new world number 1 on Monday, Sabalenka. Keys destroyed Sabalenka in the 1st set to the surprise of many. Keys taking the set 6-0 and then led by a break and 5-3 in the 2nd set. However Sabalenka, the true champion she is never gave up and somehow forced a 2nd set tiebreak which she managed to take comfortably 7-1 to force a deciding set. Keys was once again a break up in the 3rd set 4-2 before Sabalenka leveled it at 4-4. The set ended up going to yet another tiebreak. Sabalenka once again was the better player in the tiebreaker and took the super-tiebreak 10-5 to book a spot in the final on Saturday against Gauff. Wow what a match and what a comeback.

The mens semi-finals was last night and some good tennis was on display. The first semi-final was between unseeded, 20 year old American, Shelton and he was up against Djokovic. Shelton unfortunately showed his inexperience during the match and the first 2 sets were pretty straight forward for the 23 time grand slam champion. The 3rd set was heading that way when Djokovic led by a break but well done to Shelton for fighting his way back to 5-5. Shelton was then broken but once again showed that he could be someone to watch in the future as he broke back to force a tiebreak. Djokovic however showed his class in the tiebreak, even though it was definitely not his best tiebreak ever. The 2nd seed is through to another grand slam final.

The 2nd semi-final was a bit more intrigueing as both players have won the US Open before. Alcaraz was up against Medvedev for a spot in the final against Djokovic. The first set is always important in a tight match which this looked like it could be on paper and it was Medvedev who took the opening set in a tiebreak (7-3). Medvedev then road that momentum and played an amazing 2nd set to take it 6-1 against the quality of Alcaraz. Alcaraz was never going to give up and fought back to take the 2nd set 6-3 but unfortunately he had left himself to much to do and it was Medvedev who took the 4th set 6-3 to book his spot in yet another US Open final. Sunday’s final will be a repeat of the 2021 final where it was Medvedev who was victorious over Djokovic 6-4; 6-4; 6-4. Will history repeat itself?

Onto the fantasy leaderboard and ‘PhenomeNOnadal’ remain in a comfortable lead of 15 points over ‘Dropshots’. ‘2nd’ remains in 3rd and ‘Hawks Hackers’ remain in 4th however they are not alone in 4th because ‘Stentastics’ have joined them in 4th. We lost 3 more teams during the semi-final action. ‘My Dream Team 2’, ‘NY Slice’ and ‘The Left Handed Journeymen’ were all eliminated on days 11 and 12.

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a fantasy organiser.