US Open 2024, We All Want Our Day On Center Court, Here Is To Four Who Made It

October 7, 2024,

There is an expression that, in life, we will all have our 15 minutes of fame.

Is that the same as, in life, at least once, we should all be on center court?

No, it is not the same.

The first one could come about by accident. By circumstances beyond our control but for the moment, we are in the news or interviewed on TV.

For the moment.

And then it is gone.

Getting to center court?

That we have to earn.

During the 2024 US Open, there are several players who have had their day in the sun, and made it to center court and earned headlines.

Let’s meet them.

In the third round, Belgium’s Elise Mertens defeated the heavy favorite in America’s Madison Keys. As often the case, at the Grand Slams, a top player and highly ranked star like Madison receives the questions, like, can she go all the way.

Typically Elise does not. Typically.

Madison made it to the 2017 finals at the mighty US Open, so going into this match, ranked 14 in the world, Madison was favored to win over Elise.

But she didn’t.

Elise Mertens is a professional tennis player who has made over 15 million dollars in prize money.

Have that thought with a Belgium waffle. Maybe several.

Our luminary reached world No. 1 in doubles on May 10, 2021, the third Belgian to hold the top ranking in either singles or doubles after Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.

Quite impressive.

Elise is a four-time major champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering with Aryna Sabalenka, and the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and 2024 Australian Open with Hsieh Su-wei.

There’s more.

She also finished runner-up at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships with Zhang Shuai and at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Storm Hunter.

Ms. Mertens is also a successful singles player, and reached a major semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open, followed by two US Open quarterfinals in 2019 and 2020.

Mertens achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in November 2018, and has won eight WTA Tour titles, including two at the WTA 500 level.

At the 2024 US Open, on a major court, in front of a global audience, she defeated super star Madison Keys.

To some, it was not a major upset but a pattern of behavior for Madison.

Time to meet another star who had her day on a major court.

Y.F. Wang defeated the powerful experienced war horse, Viktoria Azarenka in the third round.

As you might guess, that got a lot of attention.

Her full name, Wang Yafan is a Chinese tennis player.

On October 7, 2019, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 47. She peaked at No. 49 in the doubles rankings on February 15, 2016.

In her career, she has won one singles title, so going into her math against Viktoria, she was a major underdog.  Playing for the China Fed Cup team, Ms. Wang has a win–loss record of 9–3, as of July 2024.

When it came time for day on the court, in the sun, before a global audience, she sure made the most of it.

The girl that defeated her in the next round is Paula Badosa.

It was time for her day in the sun.

Paula is more of a household name.

Paula Badosa is a Spanish professional tennis player.

She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles by the WTA and No. 124 in doubles achieved on April 15, 2022.

She has won four WTA Tour singles titles, and produced her best performance at a Grand Slam by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open.

Later that year, she won the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells, her biggest career title to date.

Incredible resume.

As a junior, Paula was ranked as high as No. 8 in the world and was the 2015 French Open girls’ singles champion. As a professional, she broke into the top 100 in 2019, after making her second consecutive WTA Tour semifinal at the Karlsruhe Open.

The next year, she reached the fourth round at the French Open, her furthest round at a major thus far, and emerged into the top 70.

We love watching her play.

Paula is an aggressive baseliner, whose game style is centered around her big serve and groundstrokes. They can come in like missiles. Our luminary possesses one of the fastest serves on tour, allowing her to dictate rallies, but she is also an athletic counterpuncher, whose defense has enabled her to reach drop shots and cover all angles on the court.

All of those skills were on display, before a global audience, when Paula had her day in the sun.

Liudmila Samsonova made it to the round of 16. Major applause there. She finally met up with the number one player in the world in Iga Swiatek and was defeated. No shame there.

Liudmila Samsonova is an Eastern European professional tennis player. Get this, she also competed for Italy from 2014 to 2018.

Ms. Samsonova has career-high WTA rankings of No. 12 in singles and No. 40 in doubles.

Splendid.

She won her first WTA Tour title at the 2021 German Open, a WTA 500 title, and has overall won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour.

She has also won a total of eight singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

To get to the round of 16, at the mighty US Open is an incredible achievement. Liudmila had her day on center court, her day in the sun, and made the most of it.

Paula is a popular Spanish professional tennis player.

Ms. Badosa is an aggressive baseliner, whose game style is centered around her big serve and groundstrokes.

She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles by the WTA and No. 124 in doubles achieved on April 25, 2022.

She has won four WTA Tour singles titles, and produced her best performance at a Grand Slam by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open. Later that year, she won the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells, her biggest career title to date.

Making it to the quarter finals at the mighty 2024 US Open is absolutely a show of having your day on Center Court.

In this short life, most of us want our day to shine and symbolically be on Center Court.

Until we do, we certainly can admire the female tennis players who have.

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OPENING PHOTO Shutterstock-Bukharev-Oleg-photo-credit-Editorial-usefcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elise_Mertens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Yafan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Badosa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liudmila_Samsonova

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Badosa 

https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com

https://femcompetitor.com/

https://grapplingstars.com/

https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/

https://fciwomenswrestling.com/