How to watch: From noon to 2 p.m. on ESPN2 and from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on ESPN; and streaming on the ESPN app.
On Friday, the men’s semifinals will be contested by the next generation of champions. Daniil Medvedev will face Dominic Thiem in a battle of different styles, while Pablo Carreño Busta and Alexander Zverev will mostly be looking to see who can outlast the other. But first, at noon, will be the women’s doubles final between teams of experienced players who were not expected to make a deep run this year.
Here are the top matches of the day.
All times are Eastern.
Arthur Ashe Stadium | 4 p.m.
Alexander Zverev vs. Pablo Carreño Busta
Zverev, the fifth seed, has sometimes struggled with consistency in the past few years, particularly on his serve. The 23-year-old German tends to go through slumps that turn his serve into a pale imitation of what a professional can manage. But when Zverev is playing his best, he looks like a world-beater, as he did on the way to an ATP Tour Finals victory in 2018 and to the semifinals of this year’s Australian Open. Now Zverev has another chance to reach his first Grand Slam final.
In his quarterfinal matchup against Borna Coric, Zverev’s inconsistency showed. Favored to win the match, he lost the first set, 6-1, and was trailing a break in the second.
As the favorite on Friday night, Zverev may again feel pressure to rise to expectations, and find those expectations difficult to manage.
Carreño Busta, the 20th seed, reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open once before, in 2017, losing to Kevin Anderson. Although Carreño Busta has not reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal since then, he has been a consistent threat on the ATP Tour, winning the Chengdu Open on hardcourts in 2019.
In his five-set quarterfinal victory on Tuesday against Denis Shapovalov, the 12th seed, Carreño Busta demonstrated his main strength — consistency. He does not allow his opponents to wait for him to beat himself, actively making it clear that they have to force him into errors.
Even for the best players in the world, that can be an insurmountable challenge. In his only meeting with Carreño Busta, at the 2018 Miami Open, Zverev was able to surmount the challenge. But now, with a heavy weight of expectations on him, the challenge will be all the more difficult.
Arthur Ashe Stadium | Approximately 7 p.m.
Daniil Medvedev vs. Dominic Thiem
Since the beginning of 2019, only two players outside the so-called Big Three of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have reached a Grand Slam men’s singles final — Medvedev at the 2019 U.S. Open, and Thiem at the 2019 French Open and the 2020 Australian Open. With Djokovic’s disqualification, the survivor of this semifinal will be considered the clear favorite to win the championship on Sunday.
The second-seeded Thiem, a defensive baseliner whose major successes have come on clay, often looks out of place on hardcourts. He stands far behind the baseline on returns of serve, even against the most conservative servers. Thiem will run himself ragged, picking out angles until, with one flattened shot, he decides to hit a winner from a position where that seems infeasible.
Medvedev, the third seed, is entirely at home on the fast-paced hardcourts of the U.S. Open. He hugs the baseline during rallies and loves to come to the net, using his lanky frame to control the space. His groundstrokes can seem disjointed, the shortened swing making it unclear exactly which way his shots are going. This helps him pull players around the court; without anticipation, there are no easy balls.
Both players are often praised for their stamina in long matches, and it’s possible they could end up draining each other in a way that harms the title chances of the victor.
Arthur Ashe Stadium | Noon
Xu Yifan/Nicole Melichar vs. Laura Siegemund/Vera Zvonareva
Zvonareva, a former world No. 2 in singles, has not been to a major doubles final since a 2012 win at the Australian Open. Her partner, Siegemund, who won the mixed doubles title at the 2016 U.S. Open, will be in her first women’s doubles Grand Slam final. This new pairing has surprised everyone by beating two vaunted doubles teams on the way to the final, Victoria Azarenka and Sofia Kenin, as well as Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka.
Xu and Melichar, who joined forces at the beginning of the year, have never won a women’s Grand Slam title. The pair scrapped their way into this final with some particularly close matches, including a two-tiebreaker victory over Coco Gauff and Caty McNally and a third-set tiebreaker win over Taylor Townsend and Asia Muhammad in the semifinals.
Although Zvonareva and Siegemund are the more experienced pair, Xu and Melichar have shown cool heads under pressure against energetic opponents.
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September 11, 2020 at 01:30PM
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2020 U.S. Open: What to Watch on Friday - The New York Times
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