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US Open 2088: Championship Week
All of the drama surrounded one player in the conclusion of the year's final Slam event. Polychroniadis over Papadias in straight sets. Same for Reimann against Bardales, and Xanthos against Weigle. And then there was Renke Cananis against Ben Faille, who keep getting drawn against each other early much to French phenom's dismay. They were in the same quarter in Canada also, and the same half in Wimbledon and Cincinatti. Quite weird.
Anyway, the situation was again Faille rising, with better prep, but Cananis being a strong enough player to just barely negate that. It was quite a match and I managed to catch a good part of it live; when the German uncharacteristically double-faulted on match point in the second set and was broken early in the third, it looked like Faille would take it. But he rallied, and at 4-all in the 5th the younger player cracked, losing eight of the last nine points to give Cananis the victory. Final scoreline was 6-4, 6-7(5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
In the semis, Renke started to see worse effects of overplaying, and Themis Xanthos was the latest to not be able to take advantage. This went the distance as well, with the same result. Meanwhile Alexander Reimann played his part dutifully, meekly departing after winning eight total games from Leon Polychroniadis. The Greek champion would take advantage of the worn-down husk of his opponent in the final to win that in straight sets as well; he didn't drop a set the entire event, claiming his 6th Slam and second straight US Open.
His grip on the #1 overall ranking spot still diminished; Cananis actually had a chance to take the throne if he had won here. More on that when we look at the latest rankings.
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