To think there were thousands of supporters who rocked up late for Tuesday’s evening session on Arthur Ashe.
Perhaps they thought yet another long evening lay in store. Perhaps they were primed for a legend’s last stand and another exhibition from the new king of these parts.
Well, the show court certainly witnessed some drama a few slices of history: Venus Williams‘ heaviest US Open defeat; Carlos Alcaraz’s first Grand Slam match as defending champion.
All this crowd missed out on? A competitive tennis match. You have to feel for the supporters, for Alcaraz and for his opponent Dominik Koepfer.
Their night was over by 10pm and any grains of hope the German had of upsetting the world No 1, of writing his name into US Open folklore, were extinguished within the first game of Tuesday’s headliner.
Carlos Alcaraz began his US Open title defense with an easy win over injured Dominik Koepfer
Koepfer has his foot wrapped by a medical attendent after taking an injury time out
During the sixth point of the match, he lined up a backhand, only to roll his left ankle.
The pain was written on his face immediately. He called for the trainer, the message between him and his corner was: it is ‘done.’
‘As soon as I did I was like: ”Oh, that’s it,” he said. ‘But when you get to play in front of 30,000 people, against No 1 in the world, first time on Ashe, there is no way you’re going to just [give up],’ Koepfer said. ‘I wanted to see if it would get better. It got worse the more I served, the more I pushed off. I tore my front ligament, there’s no point making it worse.
‘When I walked to the towel bin, I was like: ”Oh, damn, it’s not good,”’ he continued. ‘It got taped and then every time I sat down at the changeover and it stiffened up, the swelling got bigger and bigger and then pushing off on the serve just made it worse.’
Credit the German – he limped on and a few games later, he told the umpire he didn’t want to retire after 20 minutes when there were 20,000 paying customers.
But by then, this first-round match had been reduced to a formality. There were some boos when the end came after an hour, with Alcaraz leading by a set and a break – 6-2 3-2.
‘That’s probably the biggest match I’ve played so far in my tennis career – I’ve played four years in college, six years on the tour and it’s by far the coolest experience I’ve had – up to deuce in the first game,’ Koepfer added. ‘It didn’t last long but still you want to soak those moments up… I can’t say I didn’t try: I took painkillers, I got it taped and it got worse and worse. There is no point ruining the rest of the year.’
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain waits for Dominik Koepfer of Germany to get his ankle wrapped
Dominik Koepfer of Germany walks off the court after retiring during the second set
Koepfer has rolled his ankle only once before – when he was about 13 years old, playing on clay in Germany. The 29 hadn’t had any problems with it since.
The Spaniard won his first major here last year and remains on a collision course with the returning Novak Djokovic.
He tried his best to give the crowd some belated entertainment, belting out a few lines of a Spanish song down the microphone.
The 20-year-old’s next chance to wow this place will come against South Africa’s Lloyd Harris in round two.
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