Analysis: Which players hit the wall at the US Open?

Hitting a wall is an interesting concept in sports, implying that a player kind of got to a point where he can’t advance further. It’s not a well-defined phenomenon, so it’s applicable in a wide array of scenarios. It’s not as common of a talking point in tennis because the sport is very up and down in nature.

It basically never stops, so players go through cycles when they play better and cycles when they play worse. Those who are capable of having more good ones than bad ones are generally the top players in the world because the sport rewards consistency through its rankings system.

Hitting a wall in tennis would imply that a player failed to meet expectations because those are set by the performances players have in the past. If you’re winning all the time, you’re expected to win again, and if you don’t, you can be considered as someone who hit a wall, so let’s take a look at which players kind of hit a wall at this year’s US Open.

The US Open came and went, and Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka were crowned champions. These players certainly didn’t hit a wall at the event because both were expected to go deep, and they did as they ended up with the trophy. Some other players did, though, and we’re going to go over them below in this analysis.

Alcaraz is certainly the textbook example of a hitting-the-wall experience, which he endured at the US Open. The Spaniard was the number one dominant force in tennis over the summer, winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon back to back. That doesn’t happen by chance, and it didn’t because he was simply the best player out of all players during that stretch.

With performances like that, he was certainly expected to do well at the Olympics and also the US Open. He did do well at the Olympics but suffered a pretty upsetting loss in the final. The US Open series didn’t go much better as he bombed in Cincinnati but also in New York. The way he lost that match is the most worrying part. Losing early isn’t that shocking with the summer he’s had, but he looked completely out of it by the end of that match, and that’s worrisome.

He certainly hit the wall physically. That much was evident early in the match because he didn’t have the bounce he generally has. Alcaraz would admit recently that he indeed is feeling tired, and it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, it was evident in New York. Hitting the wall tennis-wise doesn’t seem likely for Alcaraz, but so much of what he does on the court depends on him feeling bouncy and energetic, so when he doesn’t have that, it’s just not the same.

He clearly wasn’t at his best in New York, but it could very well be because he’s hitting a wall both physically and tennis-wise.

It's a name that might surprise some people, but Holger Rune has been technically hitting the wall for a long time now. One just has to look at his results to see how, and while a 34-18 record for the year looks fine on paper, there is a bit more to it than that.

If we go back to Roland Garros and observe his results, we’ll see he made the 4th round in Paris.

He followed that up with a 4th-round run at Wimbledon, a quarter-final in Hamburg, and a 3rd-round finish in Montreal. He made the semi-final in Cincinnati but then bombed out in the 1st round of the US Open. You might ask yourself what’s wrong with those results, and you’d be right. Those results are not spectacularly wrong, but that’s the point.

He’s not playing dreadful tennis, not earlier this year and certainly not now, but he’s not playing as well as he could be. He’s hit the wall, as the title implies.

Rune was a player who spent much of last year in the Top 10 with some very notable results. He won 50 matches in 2022 and 45 in 2021. While he’s also going to win north of 40 this year, it’s not been the same. He won 3 trophies in 2022 and played in two more finals.

In 2023 Rune won one trophy and played in two more finals. This year, he has only one final, which happened in the season's first week. That’s just not good enough, and he’s been trending downward for a long time. He’s hit the wall, and he can’t seem to find a way to get past that to return to his former Top 10 days.

Another player who might surprise you on this list is former world number-one Daniil Medvedev. He’s not been hitting the wall for a very long time, but more recently, and it’s still something we need to explore briefly. The Russian did really well at Wimbledon, beating Jannik Sinner there, but he couldn’t do the same against Carlos Alcaraz. That loss wasn’t as terrible as he lost to him the year before, but since then, he’s been unable to find his best tennis.

The US Open series has traditionally been a part of the season where the Russian plays solid tennis. He’s stood in the US Open final three times, winning it once to deny Djokovic the calendar grand slam famously. So how does the wall look for Daniil Medvedev? Well, consider him a player that was doing well in this part of the year.

He’s generally considered one of the best hard court players out there, and failing to do much this year compared to last year is certainly notable. He’s generally been kind of unable to assert himself again ever since Sinner emerged. Before Sinner emerged as the best player in the world, it was Medvedev towards whom many looked to do really well on hard courts.

Since this year, it’s been mostly Sinner. He’s been utterly spectacular on hard courts this year, beating the Russian in a couple of big matches. He bested him in the Australian Open final, he’s beaten him in Miami, and while the Russian did win the one at Wimbledon, Sinner pulled it back to his side at the recently concluded US Open. It’s pretty clear that he’s failed to assert himself on top, and it’s been particularly evident recently when his performances dropped even lower than they were at the start of the year.

On the women’s side, we have to mention Iga Swiatek, and while that might be somewhat surprising, we have to observe things in context. She’s been amazing for the past couple of years. This year has been pretty good as well, as she once again dominated the clay season, even before that, with the Indian Wells triumph.

She bested Sabalenka in Rome and Madrid to win those trophies and then added another Grand Slam trophy. More recently, though, things haven’t looked as great. It all started with a huge disappointment in Paris, where she lost to Qinwen Zheng. It doesn’t seem like she’s been able to shake that loss since then, as her level has been good but a far cry from where it can be. She’s failed to impress since then, but we’ll see if she can finish the year as strongly as she did last year. She must if she wants to keep her number one rank, which is under assault from Aryna Sabalenka.

Finally, we have to mention Coco Gauff and her hitting the wall. She’s been in that funk for a while but more notably since Roland Garros, as her performances haven’t been outstanding since then. It’s a pretty beaten-down story, but the problem is rather simple.

She’s not improving as much as she needs to be to keep up with some of the best players in the world. The forehand has been wonky for a long time, and she’s yet to address it meaningfully. The serve has now crept up as a problem area, though it’s been somewhat shaky in the past as well.

Overall, she’s not improving as much as you’d hoped, and that’s a problem. It’s a textbook definition of hitting the wall because it can become a long-term problem if she doesn’t address it. She’s at least recognized it as a problem and has promised to work on it, but ultimately, time will tell. The way she’s trending won’t be beneficial for her career long-term, which is a shame because the potential is there. She’s just not fully utilizing it yet.