US OPEN 2025 WRAP-UP

This year’s rendition of the US Open tennis tournament was particularly juicy. I’ve already covered some of the fun, and especially the many controversies, in my previous columns, so now we’ll get to all my thoughts on everything else.

(If you’re a tad behind on all of it, and are curious as to exactly what has happened, you can still read about the star-studded Mixed Doubles here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/tennis-the-2025-us-open-began-yesterday, and here are the links to my articles about all of the interesting, and sort-of sad, issues with the proceedings: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/holiday-happy-labor-day-week-end-2025 and itsnotaboutme.tv/news/tennis-us-open-2025-controversies-so-far.)

Before anything fun, good, or interesting that I’m about to weigh-in on, I first must discuss the absolute hoggishness of hideous-in-every-way Orange Hitler, who showed-up to watch the Men’s Final. There were no Americans in it, he looked like he would much rather be on the golf course, (and cheating, of course,) and he showed-up to the US Open just for his own self-aggrandizement. (So what else is new?) That was so incredibly selfish and rude to the competitors who didn’t need that major distraction, and even moreso to the spectators, who were then delayed getting into the Final by first, increased traffic, and then subjected to longer security measures. The crowd, many of whom had paid thousands of dollars to see Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, missed much of the match because of Hitler’s extreme hubris. People sacrificed their time, money, and other events to attend this one, and I’m sure they all had looked forward to seeing it for a long time. But the Cheeto Satan cared about only himself. Truly disgusting.

Now on to happy topics.

I congratulate the two victors, Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz! I can’t believe that both of the people I rooted for won! Actually, I also triumphed with my choices for the Mixed Doubles from the start, and of the two duos in Women’s Doubles, I got that, too. (I still don’t even know who won the Men’s Doubles because ESPN didn’t show it and never mentioned the winners—nor even the two finalists!—of that discipline even once!!!)

There’s so much to say about Aryna’s and Carlos’ historic victories, but those cut-and-dry facts you can read in many other places. There’s so much else to cover that I have to leave the topic of winners at this. Except to ask—can you imagine if those two played Mixed Doubles together??? Boy, would I love to see that!

And now, here are my random thoughts on everything else. (In no particular order):

~ First and foremost, I give all of these players and coaches sooo much credit for speaking so well in English! It’s truly amazing and something that I feel that most of us in America take for granted.

~ In the second women’s semi-final between Naomi Osaka and Amanda Anisimova, ninety percent of the crowd from the earlier semi was gone! That was very strange because Amanda is American, and Osaka is a human oddity. Perhaps because it was after midnight on a weeknight, but it was Thursday, and on the holiday week, so I don’t get leaving an interesting and important match.

~ Both Women’s Doubles winners, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, congratulated the runners-up before even lauding each other! On the other hand, after declaring how classy she is all tournament long, runner-up Taylor Townsend didn’t even have the class to congratulate the winners at all! Her partner, Katerina Siniakova, did, but sort-of half-heartedly. What bad sportsmanship.

~ British commentator Jason Goodall, said of Tommy Paul’s recent engagement, “He’s got himself a decent Mixed Doubles partner now for life; let’s keep our fingers crossed there.” Ouch!

~ I occasionally wonder how people adjust to post-tennis-playing life. It has to be a total shock at first, but recent-players-now-turned-ESPN-commentators Sam Querry and John Isner are making me feel better about what I imagine. All of a sudden, those two became such grown-ups, in their suits and ties and interviewing other players, some whom they even played against!

I guess that ESPN really trusted that duo because Sam and John even did segments alone!!! And they were good! Sam hosted them, with his good voice, in just his first year with the network! Wow.

And it appears that John has even been working on lessening his lisp! And it’s fun to have some younger commentators. It was amusing to hear the two of them discuss if Italian player Lorenzo Sonego looks more like Luigi of the Mario Brothers or the Karate Kid! (John said, “He’s the Karate Kid to a tee!”) They even started calling him “Ralph Macchio” during their coverage of his match!

~ American player, (and heiress—her fam owns the Buffalo Bills and Sabres!,) Jessica Pegula is the most honest, normal-talker perhaps ever in tennis. I hope she becomes a commentator when she’s done playing.

~ In the first round, Coco Gauff and Ajla Tomljanovic had the most very long rallies I saw during the entire tournament! I could not believe what I was seeing. Their match went almost three and half hours! It was good of Ajla to hang in there so well with World #3 Coco.

~ The commentators barely even mentioned the Mixed Doubles during the two weeks of the rest of the tourney, after all the fuss they made about it the week before!

~ Taylor Fritz always has the creepiest group of people in his box, especially his fake-faced girlfriend and her chubby, duck-lipped mother. Ugh.

~ Why can’t ESPN mix the sound better??? The whoosh of the crowd on the two main courts at night was dreadful! At times we couldn’t make out a word they were saying, especially Jason Goodall who whispers to begin with!!!

~ Tommy Paul’s outfit is the neatest, (in terms of looks, not like the beatnik “cool.”)

~ Someone has to be the one to say this, so it may as well be me: Those hideous Y-3 outfits that a lot of the players wore looked like a white bedsheet right after a heavy flow during a woman’s “time of the month.”

~ I’m thrilled that someone finally said a word right! Mary Jo Fernandez said that someone played “aggressiveLY,” as opposed to the stupid, (and unfortunately, usual, for all the commentators,) “aggressive!”

~ But the poor vocabulary continued for the rest of them. New commentator Coco Vandeweghe, who seems to think she’s all that and a bag of chips, keeps saying “prefala” for “plethora.” OMG! She shouldn’t be using a word when she has no idea what it is!!! You know how stupidity like that chaps my hide. (On a side note, a few hours later, out of the blue, Mr. X said, “Vandeweghe—that chick can rap!” I love that assessment!)

~ And then Sloane Stephens, Sam Querry, and John McEnroe, along with some others, need to learn how to say the simple name “Naomi!” They all pronounce it “Niomi” with an “i” instead of an “a”! That is so illiterate of them. How does no one correct them? At the very least, Naomi Osaka herself should! It’s infuriating for all normal-brained people listening to it. I was so thrilled that ESPN got rid of Alexandra Stephenson, who always did that mispronunciation, too, this year. It’s maddening.

~ And all of them were absent the day they taught kids the difference between “fewer” and “less,” and “number” and “amount.” (So that you guys don’t sound really dumb, too, here’s the difference: “fewer” and “number” are for things that can be counted, such as points, dishes, shirts. “Less” and “amount” are for situations that cannot be counted. Things like water.)

~ Tommy Paul’s coach, Paul Stine, and Pam Shriver, (who should have really known better,) both said, “hyperbolic chamber,” instead of the correct “hyperbaric!” Even Mr. X noticed it!!! (In case you want to be more intelligent than they are, “hyperbolic” means exaggerating the truth for emphasis or impressive effect, such as, “I haven’t done that in a zillion years!,” whereas “hyperbaric” means “of or involving a gas at a pressure greater than normal,” usually used about hyperbaric chambers.)

~ Actually, the organizers need to go back to school for a grammar lesson because they keep billing tennis, in general, as “the healthiest sport in the world!” That statement actually means that the health of tennis itself is the best. What they mean is that tennis is the most healthful sport, meaning that it gives health to the people who engage in it. Things and concepts can’t be healthy—only living entities can; situations and things can provide good health to people, animals, plants. (I think I need to start tutoring bigwigs, don’t you?)

~ Everyone should be as classy as Carolina Muchova when she takes her bow after a win. No fuss, nor screaming, no even really making it about herself! Just a simple wave of the arm.

~ The very new Women’s Doubles team, Leylah Fernandez and the newly-returned Venus Williams, seemed to be the happiest people there! They either tied the Italian team of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paulino in the elation category, or perhaps they even had more fun than those two adorbs munchkins!

~ All the ESPN commentators kept trying to make like Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka are such good friends, and constantly declared Naomi to be Coco’s “mentor.” In an on-court interview after a win, Naomi even said of Coco, “I kind of still see her as a little sister.” But, in a press conference, Coco set it all straight by saying, “We aren’t super close or anything, but we are friendly with each other.” But commentators just ignored that honesty because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

~ Speaking of Naomi Osaka, here are a couple of reasons that I find her totally annoying: 1) She has to start every sentence with “Um.” And I’m not exaggerating, even one little bit! 2) Another annoyance is that she thinks she’s a fashionista, but looks like an idiot!!! Even Mr. X said, “How stupid an outfit!” And several people on-line said things like, “I didn’t realize that bloomers were back!”

~ Carlos Alcaraz is just adorable! He always answers every question, and with no bullshit, to boot. His replies are thoughtful, and he explains his innermost thoughts. And he does it all with excellent English vocabulary! I love him.

~ The crowd was so rude to everyone who played Taylor Townsend. I was rooting against them as much as I was Taylor!

~ To end with something totally positive, this was adorable: Lin-Manuel Miranda and his wife were in the first row at one end of a Carlos Alcaraz match, and as Carlos was being interviewed post-match, the Mirandas saw themselves on the big screen, and Lin took a pic of them. (I’m assuming that this is what happened by the visuals.) He excitedly showed it to his wife and they had a really big laugh about it. That was so regular-person of them! Loving it.