If the opening day had the air of an exhibition at certain times, the finals night immediately felt like business.<\/p>\n
From the start it brought the feel of a traditional US Open showpiece event, with a patriotic rendition of the national anthem and a group of US Marine Corps standing with an unfurled Stars and Stripes flag providing pomp.<\/p>\n
Many feel the overhaul has devalued the mixed doubles as a major title. Some are even putting asterisks next to the champions.<\/p>\n
Given that, the stadium announcer outlining what winning the title would mean for each player’s Grand Slam r\u00e9sum\u00e9 felt like an attempt to add legitimacy. <\/p>\n
The opening semi-final was played at a ferocious intensity – not surprising given the will-to-win of the characters involved – while Ruud calling for a VAR-style check on a Pegula shot was another indication of how seriously it was being taken. <\/p>\n
At 3-3 30-30, the umpire confirmed the American had not reached over the net – following fervent discussion between the opposing players – with Pegula and Draper using the momentum to win the opening set.<\/p>\n
But Pegula’s clasp of her head after they blew an 8-4 lead in the first-to-10 match tie-break summed up their bitter disappointment at missing a shot for the trophy.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Errani and Vavassori were also seriously pumped up.<\/p>\n
The duo mirroring Hulk Hogan-style underarm bicep flexes after winning their semi-final was one of the defining images.<\/p>\n
While the energy on court ramped up, the emphasis on providing entertainment for those watching in the stands remained.<\/p>\n
A pair of DJs were perched behind courtside decks, tasked with whipping up the crowd through a New York-inspired playlist including Jay-Z, Cyndi Lauper and the Friends theme tune, while the familiar sight of Celeb Cam and Dance Cam added to the party atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Fashion icon Anna Wintour, who recently stepped back from her role as Vogue editor-in-chief, added further star-dust in a near-full capacity crowd.<\/p>\n
Thousands stayed late until the end and were rewarded with a fine finale to a transformative tournament which looks destined to stay in the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the opening day had the air of an exhibition at certain times, the finals night immediately felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-98570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}