She fully deserved her win and Emma Raducanu looks like someone who can be in amongst the elite of Women's tennis for years to come. The WTA Tour needs a consistent star, but there is still a feeling that the top of the sport remains wide open and I would expect to see more surprising winners of the Grand Slam events in 2022.
There have been plenty of those names winning those tournaments and every player on the WTA Tour should feel they are capable of getting into a hot streak at the right time to win a Grand Slam. Some are dealing with a lot more expectations than others and I do think that keeps the tournaments wide open with those top names struggling to deal with those pressures.
On Sunday it is the turn of the Men and I do think the Final between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev will be a good one- unlike the Women, the Men's tournaments have largely been dominated by the top names that most would have expected and it is up to the likes of Medvedev to break through the ceiling that is being held down by the Big Three.
Novak Djokovic-Daniil Medvedev over 37.5 games: History was made on Saturday as the first ever Qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament was confirmed when Emma Raducanu deservedly picked up the US Open title.
The top of the WTA Tour remains fluid, but that is not the case on the ATP Tour as another big moment is before us.
Novak Djokovic is looking to complete the calendar Grand Slam and surpass both his rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, in number of Grand Slam titles won. The World Number 1 is constantly setting new targets for himself and I have no doubt that he will be looking to surpass Margaret Court's 24 Grand Slams before his calls time on his career.
There is a huge amount of pressure that Novak Djokovic will be dealing with and this has been a tough tournament for him as he has dropped sets constantly on his way through to the Final. He has spent ten hours on the court to win his last three matches and Novak Djokovic was forced to dig very deep in seeing off Alexander Zverev in five sets on Friday night.
The scoreboard may not suggest it, but that was a match that could have easily gone the other way on the numbers and this is another big challenge for Novak Djokovic.
Some will point out the Australian Open Final as evidence of that not being the case, but Daniil Medvedev has admitted he was so short of his top game that day. I also think the conditions in New York City favour Daniil Medvedev more than in Melbourne and his progress through the draw has been very efficient.
The World Number 2 has not spent nearly as much time on the court as Novak Djokovic and his numbers have been strong throughout the week with the big serve working very well. Daniil Medvedev will be the first to admit he will need his 'A' game when it comes to the serve if he is going to beat Novak Djokovic, but he has done that before and this should be a highly competitive and very close match.
It is Novak Djokovic who leads the head to head, but it is not a dominant lead. He is 5-3 against Daniil Medvedev overall and 4-2 on the hard courts, but their sole match on a North American hard court was won by the Russian player. The strongest of the Novak Djokovic wins did come in the Australian Open Final, but in the three previous hard court matches it is Daniil Medvedev who has looked the more consistent returner, which is a remarkable thing to even write down.
His performances in this tournament and experiences of losing the Australian Open and US Open Finals before should really aid Daniil Medvedev, although the gut feeling is that Novak Djokovic will find a way to dig this out. It won't be easy though and I do think the performances of Daniil Medvedev makes it very hard to believe he will be blown away as he was in Melbourne back in February, while Novak Djokovic has to be feeling a little bit more fatigue than his opponent considering their exploits to reach this Final.
Something special may end up being produced by the current top two players in the World Rankings and I do think there will be at least four sets needed for the Champion to prevail. I am going to look for the match to go long and I will back the pair to surpass this total games line.
MY PICK: Novak Djokovic-Daniil Medvedev Over 37.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
US Open Update: 37-32, - 0.26 Units (137 Units Staked, - 0% Yield)
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