The mix of summer and early fall weather, the intensity of the bright lights and nearby big city in Flushing Meadows, the fans who love an underdog story, and the best players on the planet.

The U.S. Open is the fourth and final grand slam tournament on the tennis calendar and as such it always seems to be a special event.

The five setters that feel like they will never end, the crowd going wild when an underdog is on the verge of a historic upset, the unlikely runs by relatively (or at least previously) unheralded players, and the night time tennis matches that link up with our time zone.

There have been the huge runs of consecutive titles by some of the greatest to swing a racquet: Serena Williams (the G.O.A.T. of women’s tennis . . . period) won three straight between 2012 and 2014.

Roger Federer, who is considered by many to be the greatest player ever (sorry not sorry, it’s Novak Djokovic in my humble opinion), won five straight titles between 2004 and 2008.

Those are the favourites doing what they should be doing and putting on performances for the ages.

But, how about those underdog runs that no one saw coming. Canadian Bianca Andreescu’s 6–3, 7–5 title clinching win over Williams in 2019; Naomi Osaka doing almost the same to Williams the year before; the all-Italian women’s final between Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci in 2015 (Pennetta won).

Even those who didn’t win, like Canadian Leylah Fernandez bursting onto the scene with a fabulous run to the 2021 final only to be upended by another upstart Emma Raducanu.

Also, just prior to winning three straight U.S. Opens, Williams was beaten by Samantha Stosur from Australia in the 2011 final.

On the men’s side, the 2009 marathon where Argentine Juan Martin del Potro stopped the Federer streak (against Federer in the final) with a five set thriller that will live forever in legend.

Or the five set tie-break in 2020 where Dominic Thiem topped Alexander Zverev.

Then the were those on the losing side of the final match like South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in 2017. Seeded 28 and ranked 32 in the world at the time, Anderson somehow made it to the final by not having to play any of the top 10 seeds before before finally succumbing to the greatness of Number-1 Seed Rafa Nadal.

How about the lovable and uber-talented Stan Wawrinka? He was supposed to have a brilliant and successful career, but it was cut short by a slew of unfortunate injuries.

Wawrinka won the 2016 title over the number-one player in the world at the time, Djokovic, in four sets. It was his third career major title and all three times he beat the world number-one in the final.

That brings us to this year where on the men’s side we should all be cheering for Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz in a grand slam final for the third time this year. Alcaraz won the French Open final, Sinner won Wimbledon (and the Aussie Open, but didn’t face Alcaraz that tournament).

Sinner is the defending US Open champion, while Alcaraz won in 2022.

And there is still Djokovic, chasing a fifth title at this event as well as a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam win, which is definitely a reason to cheer for the Serbian Sensation.

On the women’s side, defending champion Aryna Sabalenka is favoured with Iga Swiatek (2022 champion) right behind her . . . but there are the home favourites Coco Gauff (champion in 2023) and Jessica Pegula (losing finalist last year) to consider.

What about the up-and-coming Canadian Victoria Mboko? Could she make a deep run?

Then there are Osaka, Raducanu, and the joyful Italian Jasmine Paolini (who has a proven ability to make deep tournament runs and is due for a big performance this year).

Of course, it’s the US Open and strange things can happen when you least expect it. Maybe someone not even on the radar will make a fantastic run all the way to the final – or even to the semi-finals – to really throw everyone for a loop.

For me, I’ll be cheering for all the Canadians and Italians to do well, as the tournament (which started Sunday, August 24) works it’s way down to the men’s and women’s finals. You can watch it on TSN and TSN+.

That’s it for me! Ciao For Now!