By: Emily Bevelhymer

The 50th anniversary of the US Open tennis tournament was held this September in New York City with an upset win from Naomi Osaka against Serena Williams. Novak Djokovic also won his 14th major title against Juan Martin del Potro.

The women’s semifinals were held on September 6 with Naomi Osaka playing Madison Keys and Serena Williams playing Anastasija Sevastova. Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams were the champions of their matches and would move on to compete against each other in the finals on September 8. Naomi Osaka is a 20-year-old from the United States who has dual citizenship in Japan. The match concluded 6-2 6-4 with a win for Osaka.

During the match, Williams was given three code violations for slamming her racket, coaching, and verbally abusing the umpire. At the end of the match, Naomi Osaka faced boos from the crowd but celebrated her victory of winning the US Open and being the first Japanese person to win a major singles title.

The men’s semi finals were held on September 7 with Kei Nishikori playing Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal playing Juan Martin del Potro. Novak Djokovic won against Kei Nishikori and Juan Martin del Potro won after Rafael Nadal retired from complications involving pain in his knee. The men’s finals were held on September 9. The match concluded 6-1, 7-6, 6-3 with a win for Djokovic.

Juan Martin del Potro is from Argentina and had the crowd behind him hoping for a win. Del Potro only has one major title which he won in 2009 at the US Open. After having complications and undergoing multiple surgeries, Del Potro returned to tennis and at the 2018 US Open rose to his career high as 3rd in the world. Novak Djokovic, a Serbian, won his fourteenth major title and his second this year after winning Wimbledon earlier this summer. Novak Djokovic has now moved from 6th in the world to 3rd. After having elbow surgery and facing losses last year and earlier this year, Djokovic has made a comeback.