Welcome to the US Open briefing, where The Athletics will tell the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.

On Day 12 of the 2024 US Open, the strangest moment of the tournament: success for the British juniors and a shock at the Paralympic Games.

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How Jannik Sinner and Jack Draper scored the strangest point of the tournament

Jannik Sinner was doubled over and clutching his left wrist. Jack Draper was using his racket for support, barely off his crouch.

Arthur Ashe Stadium was turned upside down.

At 4-4, 40-15 in the second set of their US Open semi-final, the world No. 1 and the 25th-seeded Briton scored a point that turned from the most exciting point of the tournament so far into the strangest.

Draper slid a serve down the T, came behind it and hit a diagonal forehand volley into the front of the ad-court. Sinner pounced and slid a diagonal backhand almost horizontally toward the net, forcing Draper to run across the court. He was already on his way, coming over the T to hit another forehand deep into the deuce corner.

Sinner somehow managed to get back, lobbing high into the air as he looked toward the back wall of the court, preparing to turn and see what Draper had in store for him.

Then things got weird.

As he tried to get out of the slide that had put him in position to hit the lob, Sinner jumped off the ground, twisted in the air, and landed awkwardly on his left wrist. He immediately stood up. But instead of an overhead whistling past his ear, nothing happened; he had lobbed the ball so high that it hadn’t even come down. Draper was there, just waiting.

When it finally bounced, Sinner shook his left wrist free before doing a split step—the little toe-hop tennis players do to explode in both directions—as Draper sent a slightly self-satisfied smash into play. Sinner found out from behind it and lasered a forehand winner right through Draper. As the crowd cheered, Sinner took a few furtive steps forward before stepping to the side and holding his wrist.

A few points later, Draper won the game and both players received medical treatment on the side of the field.

James Hansen

Britain’s first US Open girls’ champion in 15 years, at 15?

Fifteen-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic has reached the US Open singles final without dropping a set, including a win over Australia’s Emerson Jones, the world’s No. 2 junior.

In the first set of her semi-final, Stojsavljevic defeated American Iva Jovic 6-0.

Jovic, 16, played in the singles and defeated Poland’s Magda Linette, who is twice her age and 347 places higher than her. Jovic then came within a game or so of knocking out 29th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova. She is not an easy one to knock out and she came back in the second set to level the match. But Stojsavljevic, who developed as a player at Ealing Lawn Tennis Club in west London, kept her composure in the third set to win it 6-3 and advance to the final against Japan’s Wakana Sonobe.

James Hansen

Dominant but defeated, a Paralympic legend is only human after all

Diede de Groot has won everything in wheelchair tennis.

Three consecutive Grand Slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) from 2021 to 2023; most wheelchair women’s singles titles in history (23); the Golden Slam three years ago – the four Grand Slam titles, plus gold at the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Paralympic Games, where she defeated Japan’s Yui Kamiji 6-3 7-6(1).

During the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, De Groot would face Kamiji twice. She won 29-0 against her former doubles partner.

She would not win either match. Read more below.

GALLING DEEPER

From dominant to defeated, Diede de Groot is only human after all

Charlotte Harpur

How is the crowd?

The US Open is trying to be more tolerant of fans this year, and rightly so, with ticket prices and Honey Deuce prices up, and bigger crowds thanks to a parade of day and night sessions.

Perhaps the biggest change is that fans will be allowed to take – and leave – their seats not only during the changing of the guard, but also during breaks in the game.

This has led to some strange interactions between ushers and fans, especially on the outer courts with more open seating. There has also been some awkward jostling in the aisles during the shorter breaks in evenly matched games, when players stay on the same side and quickly get back into action.

Jannik Sinner was clearly struggling when he won the semi-final against Jack Draper on Friday. He begged the chair umpire, Marijana Veljovic, to do something about the crowd milling around him when he tried to serve at 6-5 in the first set.

Jannik Sinner’s biggest fans, the Carota Boys, were present at the final stages (Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images)

Veljovic was already unhappy with the fans. She had just reprimanded them for shouting during the points. “It’s very disruptive when you make such a noise during the rally,” she said. “Please keep quiet.”

Of course, at just the right moment after she spoke, the cries of a crying baby rang through the stadium and a cell phone rang loud enough to be heard in the vast octagonal stands.

The noises briefly deterred Draper from serving.

Some fans were laughing at Veljovic’s rejection. And many others voiced their complaints “down in front” during all the semi-finals about the annoyingly blocked view.

All of this underscored how tennis is markedly different in fan sensitivities than many other popular professional spectator sports in the United States. Tennis has a louder tone and less strict rules about movement in the booth.

Oscar Garcia

A big day for Kichenok, instead of the big day

Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko became Grand Slam singles and doubles champion on Friday after teaming up with Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok to win the US Open women’s doubles title.

The duo reached the final of the Australian Open in January and did even better in New York, beating Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic and Chinese Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-3.

For Kichenok, the run to the final had broader implications. She has been engaged to Stas Khmarskiy, a Ukrainian colleague (and Ostapenko’s coach) for about a year, and they decided upon arriving in New York that they would marry on Wednesday.

Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko won a title ahead of Kichenok’s wedding (Luke Hales/Getty Images)

However, the progress of Kichenok and Ostapenko meant they had to quickly restructure.

“I think it’s a good excuse to postpone it a little bit longer,” Ostapenko said at the awards ceremony.

Kichenok did not seem too disappointed by the delay and dedicated the victory to her home country.

“They are fighting very hard for our freedom right now and I hope I can give them some courage,” she said.

“My heart is with them.”

Charlie Eccleshare

Recommended reading

US Open Men’s Draw 2024

US Open Women’s Draw 2024

Tell us what you noticed on the twelfth day…

(Top photo of Jannik Sinner: Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press; Design: Eamonn Dalton and Megan McMillan; Development by Alyssa Lum, Eric Mier and Tani Robinson; Design direction by Amy Cavenaile)