US Open 2021: Early Birds and an Agassi double
The qualification week, but also the first week of the tournament at the US Open, are mainly characterized by one thing: the great heat.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Aug 27, 2021, 04:09 am
By Jens Huiber from New York City
The insight may not be new, but it seems to have to be gained again and again: Anyone who leaves a well-tempered room in New York City towards the open sky at the end of August will be greeted by a stable wall of heat and moisture. It doesn't matter whether it's before six o'clock in the morning in Central Park. Or to the training sessions at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. There the concrete floor helps the circumstances just as little as in Manhattan. Just by the way.
Fortunately, Stephan Fehske is an early riser. Anyone who follows Philipp Kohlschreiber's coach and manager on Instagram (and this is absolutely recommended) knows: Fehske basically opens the gym of his choice every day. And that too before six o'clock. So it's no wonder that the small Kohlschreiber team took advantage of one of the first slots on the training grounds on Thursday. Not far from Cori Gauff, by the way, whose streaks of red in her hair may have given the notorious fashion freak Fehske (again: Insta!) Something to think about.
Happy meeting of the coaches
Ashleigh Barty wasn't in that much of a hurry, the world number one had fun with Petra Martic. Which is remarkable in two ways: While the men like to challenge each other in training (on Thursday, for example, the two Russian buddies Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettinin with Denis Shapovalov, Sebastian Korda with Félix Auger-Aliassime), many women do preferring a hitting partner. Second interesting aspect: Michael Geserer can be seen at the side of Martic these days, who coached Jennifer Brady in her first Grand Slam final in Australia at the beginning of the year.
Speaking of coaches: The TennisBase Oberhaching is represented in New York City with Lars Uebel and Lukas Wolff. The latter takes care of Yannick Hanfmann (in round one against Alexander Bublik), the former also enjoyed the second-round successes of Peter Gojowczyk and Oscar Otte on Thursday. Alexander Peya, in turn, took over Dirk Hordorff's job for a few days: not as DTB Vice President, but as coach of Ricardas Berankis.
And Günter Bresnik also arrived in New York, at the side of Gael Monfils. And with Richard Ruckelshausen, that young coach who has entrusted the old master Bresnik (who, by the way, is very deliberately not to be found on Instagram), the agendas of the tour coaching for Monfils.
JJ Wolf gives the Agassi double
However, Jurij Rodionov's almost opponent has to be recognized as an employee of Thursday: JJ Wolf. Actually, Nike had announced the Andre Agassi Revival days last year and pressed the gulf of the late 90s on the contract players. However, Wolf did not receive this memo. Probably because he's not under contract with Nike. For this, the American dragged the hairstyle of the early and the well-deserved belly of the already resigned grandmaster across Court 5. Kamil Majchzrak was briefly irritated. And still won in two sets.
In an early match, by the way. Oscar Otte had to answer a little later - and pay tribute to the heat again. As in the match against Renzo Olivo, the German vomited in the third set, again he won after defending a match point.
Here is the single tableau at the US Open 2021
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