Don’t be fooled by the relatively lopsided, seemingly foregone conclusion that was the men’s singles final on Sunday afternoon. The 2024 U.S. Open was epic.
It produced worthy champions in top-ranked Jannik Sinner on the men’s side and now three-time Grand Slam winner Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s competition. The men’s event delivered the longest match in U.S. Open history, as Dan Evans came back from 0-4, 15-40 down in the fifth set to win a first-round marathon over Karen Khachanov in five hours and 35 minutes. There were plenty of other incredible matches, as well: Frances Tiafoe vs. Ben Shelton, Lorenzo Musetti vs. Miomir Kecmanovic, Jessica Pegula vs. Karolina Muchova in the semis, and Sabalenka vs. Pegula in the final, among others.
The host nation thoroughly enjoyed the fortnight, too. Taylor Fritz became the first American man to reach the singles final at Flushing Meadows since 2006 and the first to reach any Grand Slam singles final since 2009 (Fritz lost to Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-5). Tiafoe made a return trip to the semifinals, while Tommy Paul and Brandon Nakashima advanced to the fourth round. Emma Navarro upset defending champion Coco Gauf in an all-American thriller on the 23-year-old’s way to her first slam semi. In mixed doubles, Taylor Townsend and the retiring Donald Young made an improbable run to the title match.
For a full 14 days there was entertainment all around the hallowed grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. And a whole host of patrons were there to witness it all.
Opening Day of the 2024 U.S. Open drew the biggest single-day crowd in event history at 74,641. The day-session crowd of 42,886 was the second-highest day-session attendance of all time, while the night-session crowd of 31,775 set a new record. For the tournament as a whole, it surpassed one million attendees for the first time ever. The 1,048,669 total marked an eight-percent increase from 2023.
Those thousands—er, millions—of fans were blessed with amazing weather basically from start to finish. The first 12 days of the tournament were rain free and—by the usual standards of late August and early September in New York—pleasant in temperature. It didn’t start raining until the final weekend, and by then the only matches being played were on courts with a roof.
Aside from Pegula and Fritz each coming up just one match short, the USTA surely could not be happier with the event it put on over the past fortnight. The 2024 U.S. Open was a memorable one, capping off the 2024 Grand Slam season in style.
