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Image Credit - Times of India[/caption]There has always been a perennial challenge about the men’s field at any of the competitions of the Grand Slam that has been taking down on any of the dominant players from the ‘Big Three’, but for those players who are left at this year’s US Open, it is nothing but all about tamping down the inevitable pressure of playing at one of the semifinal shorn of the titans of tennis.
The player might adopt a nothing-to-lose and aggressive mentality as they will be gazing across the net at players like Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokovic who happen to be the world number one as it will no longer apply in the Flushing Meadows.
With both Federer and Nadal skipping the tournament, the sensational exit of Djokovic on Sunday after a line judge was hit by him on the throat with a ball has opened up the field literally for the young cohort of players.
In the last four encounters, Alexander Zverev of Germany faces Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and Dominic Thiem of Austria takes on Daniil Medvedev of Russia as they will take on each other in the respective matches as all of them are seeking to secure their maiden singles title in Grand Slam.
Zverev, who is the fifth seed, and is going to clash with Carreno Busta on Friday said that all of them were shocked by the Novak news, and obviously, for the younger guys this is a massive opportunity but one has to put his head down and carry on with the job and the focus has to be on themselves.
Thiem, who is the second seed and was beaten by the number 1 ranked Djokovic in the Australian Open final this year and Medvedev who is the third seed and lost the US Open decider to Nadal last year will look for taming the jitters that are going to come when they face off with added expectation on Friday.
The 12th seed Denis Shapovalov from Canada said that he does not think players are in this situation very often. But he said that Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem may be in this kind of situation more often. The Canadian lost his first bid in the title of Grand Slam has ended in the quarter-finals at the hand of Carreno Busta.
He further went on to add there are a lot of dark horses out in the middle. The slam could be taken by anybody. This is going to be exciting stuff for tennis. A lot of nervous matches are caused because of this.
Thiem has added that he is not going to underestimate the challenges that are presented by the other competitors.
He added that although there is no Novak, Rafa, or Roger (Big Three) but Pablo, Sascha and Daniill are all amazing and deserve the major title.
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