Life at a Grand Slam: What You Don’t See on TV on the U.S. Open

When Mackenzie McDonald dueled Félix Auger-Aliassime for 3 and a half hours within the opening spherical of the U.S. Open, followers have been solely seeing a glimpse of the time McDonald put in towards his shock win on Monday.

For each gamers, and a whole lot of others on the sprawling event, a match day extends effectively past a warm-up and the competition itself. The preparation, in fact, takes weeks and months, with the grueling males’s and ladies’s skilled tennis excursions pushing gamers to hunt greater rankings to realize a extra favorable path on the Grand Slam tournaments.

And as soon as they arrive in Queens, a brand new sequence of obstacles emerges as gamers adapt to the texture of the courts, the atmosphere of New York and the calls for of one of many world’s largest sporting occasions.

For McDonald, the 28-year-old American who broke into the highest 50 of the singles rankings in 2022 and upset Rafael Nadal within the second spherical of this 12 months’s Australian Open, the preparation for the U.S. Open started on Aug. 22 when he arrived in New York. McDonald, who’s scheduled to play Borna Gojo of Croatia within the second spherical on Wednesday, stated he educated laborious for his first few days, then tapered a bit to get well earlier than his four-set duel in opposition to Auger-Aliassime.

Those practices, together with the journey, can turn out to be repetitive. Jessica Pegula, the American ranked third in girls’s singles, final week in contrast the routine on tour to “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 movie wherein a person relives sooner or later many times. McDonald echoed that sentiment.

“Things can get monotonous week after week, locker room after locker room, hotel after hotel,” McDonald stated. “It’s good to have those small goals or little things that drive you that make you believe that you can get better.”

Two Days Out

Two days earlier than his opening match, McDonald couldn’t focus solely on his play. Before working towards on Saturday, he needed to cease by a fan occasion placed on by Wilson, his racket sponsor.

His day started at about 8:45 a.m. as he made his manner right down to the foyer of his lodge in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. A driver and S.U.V. have been already ready for him, his girlfriend and his coach as they walked out of the lodge.

On a standard day, the drive from the east aspect of Manhattan to Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park can take as much as an hour in heavy site visitors.

“It’s never easy,” McDonald stated of the commute to Queens. “Day after day, it definitely adds up.”

But on a Saturday morning, with little site visitors and an assertive driver conversant in shortcuts, the experience was a brisk 21 minutes 16 seconds.

The fast experience afforded McDonald some additional time to drop off his luggage earlier than heading to the Wilson occasion, the place he spent about half an hour volleying with youngsters, then posed for footage and movies.

With that dedication crammed, McDonald might concentrate on extra intense tennis for the remainder of his day, beginning by working with a physiotherapist and discovering time to eat, and following that with two hours of apply.

McDonald’s first hour of apply was scheduled at midday in opposition to Marcos Giron, one other American participant, on Court 4 close to Arthur Ashe Stadium. As McDonald and Giron hit backwards and forwards and performed out factors, dozens of followers stopped by to observe them. As their apply drew to a detailed, a number of of these followers started to collect courtside in hopes of an autograph or an image. But McDonald had no time.

After shaking palms with Giron and his coach, McDonald shortly grabbed his luggage, and scurried off for his subsequent apply on a courtroom on the other finish of the tennis heart, practically half a mile away.

To keep away from having gamers stroll that distance by way of a sea of followers, the U.S. Open has vans that shuttle them and their trainers out to the farthest apply courts. McDonald and his coach hopped in a van, however the driver needed to remain just a few extra minutes to see if every other gamers would come.

Already delayed, McDonald politely requested the driving force if they might go away with out ready. In the early rounds of the event, when a whole lot of gamers must apply, courtroom time is valuable.

“They definitely show the glamour of the sport on TV,” McDonald stated. “It is all the behind the scenes, it is the day to day and the around-the-year tournaments that we play that really get us to these moments.”

By the time McDonald arrived to his subsequent apply courtroom, it was simply after 2 p.m., and the solar was beaming down with temperatures within the 80s. He educated for an additional hour earlier than lastly cooling down and heading again to his lodge to relaxation.

Last Practice

On Sunday, McDonald needed to reduce his workload to solely an hour of tennis, so he may very well be more energizing for his match the following day. He nonetheless didn’t know his precise enjoying time, however as a result of it will seemingly be within the afternoon, McDonald stated he hoped to have a day courtroom slot on Sunday.

He was scheduled for 4 p.m. in opposition to Lloyd Harris of South Africa on Court 5, the place McDonald was scheduled to play the following day.

“Way more of a chiller day for me,” McDonald stated, including that the remainder of his Sunday can be spent resting, hydrating and taking “my mind off of tennis for a bit.”

But even when he’s not coaching, McDonald stated there’s different preparation that goes into enjoying a match, together with making a recreation plan and searching over analytics.

“The mental preparation for my match on Monday started once that draw came out,” he stated.

Match Day

Before McDonald’s match on Monday, there have been three others scheduled on Court 5, beginning at 11 a.m. Being scheduled later within the day typically leaves gamers making an attempt to determine how lengthy every of these matches will final to allow them to plan an excellent time to go away their lodge.

But making an attempt to make these predictions generally is a gamble when rain or a prolonged five-set males’s match can delay one other match’s begin time. At majors, McDonald stated that he likes to reach 4 hours earlier than a match to be handled by a physiotherapist, hit with a associate for half an hour, have lunch after which put together his sports activities drinks and rackets.

“There’s definitely a lot of little nuances that go in part of each day that you’re really submerged in,” he stated. “Everything’s invested toward what’s going to prepare me best to play this match today.”

McDonald and Auger-Aliassime lastly took Court 5 round 5:45 p.m., and after a fast warm-up, it was 5:51 p.m. when the umpire, Jaume Campistol, stated: “Ready? Play.”

From the start, it regarded just like the match was going to be an extended duel. It took an hour and 9 minutes for McDonald to win the primary set on a tiebreaker.

Auger-Aliassime took the second set, however after that McDonald settled in. As McDonald and Auger-Aliassime performed on, cheers from Arthur Ashe Stadium overflowed out of the venue, and so they may very well be heard on Court 5. At one level within the fourth set, Auger-Aliassime appeared to complain to the chair umpire concerning the noise coming from Ashe.

Eventually, after greater than three hours on the courtroom, McDonald prevailed, profitable the final 5 factors of the fourth set to win, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, and advance to the second spherical.

Before his win, McDonald stated that every incremental victory is what motivates him on tour. The drive to advance, he stated, pushes him by way of lengthy practices, commutes and in depth journey.

“I want to win a title so bad,” stated McDonald, who has made one singles closing in his profession, shedding to Jannik Sinner of Italy on the 2021 Citi Open in Washington, D.C. “I always find that each week, your opportunity each week, can be that week that can shift things, and I think that dream is what we’re all chasing.”

And after he beat Auger-Aliassime, the routine of psychological and bodily preparation started once more for Round 2.