Back in 2016, Stan Wawrinka went on completing another dream run translated into his third Grand Slam singles title and the first win at the US Open. Fast forward, and the current edition presents a good opportunity for another first-timer at Flushing Meadows. The upper half of the draw still has Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the leading names while del Potro ( 2009 US Open champion) and Dominic Thiem are occupying the second row. But, taking a short glance at the bottom half of the draw will cause some strange emotions. As the tournament went deeper, the top-seeded players were ousted pretty quickly.
Currently, Pablo Carreno-Busta (19 ATP) is the highest ranked player from this half of men's draw. The other three surviving names are Sam Querrey (21 ATP), Kevin Anderson (32 ATP), and Diego Schwartzman (33 ATP).
One of these four players will be in his first Grand Slam final
The bottom half of the draw will feature two interesting encounters as Pablo Carreno-Busta will take on Diego Schwartzman, while Sam Querrey will face Kevin Anderson. Among all these four Grand Slam glory seekers, Sam Querrey is the one with the upper hand as he is a 2017 Wimbledon Championships semi-finalist.
Sam Querrey and Kevin Anderson will produce a powerful display as both are well known for their huge serves. Some on-the-edge sets of tennis are on the table with these two guys.
On the other side, Schwartzman delivered two upsets in a row, getting past Marin Cilic ( 2014 US Open winner and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up) in the third round, while in the previous match he outplayed Lucas Pouille, the young ATP star from France.
Although he had to deal with some low-ranked players in the first three rounds, Carreno-Busta gets all the credits for ending Denis Shapovalov's bid at the end of three-highly-disputed sets that all went into a decisive tie-break.
The twelve seed in New York, the 26-year-old bears the Spaniard's hopes on this side of the board while, Nadal is holding the headlines of the upper half.
The bottom line is that the 2017 Us Open Tennis Championships will have an unlikely candidate in the final act. It won't be Alexander Zverev or Marin Cilic as the initial predictions had anticipated.
Nadal and Federer are aware of the huge chance they got
All of a sudden either Nadal or Federer is heading to another Grand Slam final. With Federer winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon and Nadal prevailing at the French Open, the last Major of the year may go in one of these two guys' pockets as well. They are on a collision course for the semis and have the possibility to face a first-time finalist in the 2017 US Open.
