Why the 2025 US Open was a truly unique experience!

New York Post

Watch Why the 2025 US Open was a truly unique experience! - New York Post on Dailymotion

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00:00Irena Sabalenka and Carlos Alcarez take a bow.

00:03You two dominated the courts en route to your US Open title.

00:07So let's talk about the competition, the vibes and all the storylines to put the Open to

00:11bed with courtside Les, tennis player, podcaster, content creator.

00:16She does it all.

00:17Les, thanks for hopping on with us.

00:18How are you feeling today?

00:19You good?

00:20I'm amazing.

00:21It was such an incredible day yesterday and Saturday.

00:25So I actually was in New York on Saturday.

00:28I didn't get to go to the US Open, but I was in the atmosphere and it was amazing.

00:32So I'm feeling great.

00:33All right, let's talk about it and break this thing down because I'm a little upset

00:36this morning that I couldn't start my morning off with one or two honey do's.

00:40But I did read somewhere that fans were saying the vibes of the US Open were more

00:46like Coachella than a traditional tennis tournament.

00:49We saw the blue carpets, influencers, celebrities.

00:52We saw it all.

00:53So as someone who's involved in both the actual sport and the lifestyle of the sport,

00:58what's your take on this year's atmosphere?

01:01I think it was great.

01:02I'm very glad that tennis is getting this kind of exposure because to me it felt like

01:06it was a Super Bowl vibe, right?

01:08You know, we're seeing the prices that are going to $10,000 to $11,000 per seat,

01:12which is absolutely insane.

01:14We're seeing a lot of people showing up, celebrities.

01:17You know, there's a lot of influence.

01:18Now, the only concern that I had, for example, I didn't get invited to go to the US Open because

01:23I understand, you know, a lot of brands bring people out there.

01:26But, you know, when I'm seeing a makeup influencer sitting courtside and watching tennis,

01:31who knows nothing about tennis?

01:32I kind of felt some type of way.

01:34You know, I wish I could go there.

01:36I tried to go, but the tickets were sold out on Saturday.

01:39So I was in New York on Saturday.

01:40I was actually working with a different tennis brand that flew me out to New York.

01:44And I wanted to go see Sabalenka play because Sabalenka is from Belarus, which is I'm from

01:51Russia.

01:51So I kind of consider that home and I didn't get to see that.

01:54So it was kind of sad.

01:55So the fact that there was a makeup influencer there, not someone who knows like the sport,

02:01you think that's kind of watering down the sport in the tournament itself in terms of

02:06on the court production?

02:07I think it's creating this gap between tennis and access to tennis, right?

02:15I actually had a conversation with somebody who doesn't know tennis, but they did get a chance

02:19to go to the US Open and they called it a very posh event, which again, tennis has notoriously

02:24been considered a very expensive sport, sport that you can't really get access to.

02:29And so now with having all this influence out there, I feel like we're just widening that

02:33gap between the community and tennis between bringing people into playing tennis with, you

02:38know, this like unreachable event now, like it's becoming something that you can get into.

02:43Yeah.

02:43You can go the first week, you can go watch people practice, which is, which is great.

02:46I love that.

02:47But what they've created with the finals and, you know, towards the end of the tournament,

02:53tennis people are always saying, don't go there.

02:55Cause it's not about tennis at that point.

02:57It's literally about, you know, the crowd it's all about the influence.

03:00It's all about the brands presenting themselves.

03:02So we're kind of like, we don't even want to go there at that point.

03:06Right.

03:06We want to go in the beginning.

03:07We want to get, cause for us, for tennis players, we want to be involved.

03:11Like I'm here to watch tennis.

03:12I'm not here to, you know, go look at a different influencer or a celebrity or star.

03:17I can do that on my computer.

03:19You know, I can do it on, on the TV screen.

03:21I want to watch, I want to hear the, you know, I want to see that, that impact that the tennis

03:26ball is making.

03:27I want to see how they're hitting that ball.

03:28You know, I want to see that power in real life.

03:30Like seeing Alcaraz serve 130 miles an hour.

03:33How does that even sound like, cause I've never seen that before.

03:36So, you know, to me, that's what I want to see.

03:38Okay.

03:39Well, football fans, we share the same sentiment because the Swifties have taken over the NFL.

03:44So, you know, I guess it's just something that we're going to have to get used to because

03:49this is the future of sport, but let's talk about on the court.

03:53You know, me and you were athletes.

03:54Let's talk about the nitty and gritty.

03:56I will start with the men's final.

03:58I guess what stood out to you most in the men's final and kind of walk us through that

04:02turning point that told you that, uh oh, Alcaraz is about to win his second straight open.

04:08I am a huge fan of Alcaraz.

04:10Okay.

04:10I will tell you one thing that stood out to me the most was his athleticism.

04:16How do you get some of those balls back?

04:18How do you return those balls?

04:20How do you redirect the ball with such power?

04:22That's something that I was sitting here and I was like, well, this is mind blowing that

04:27this is even humanly possible.

04:29Sometimes you would see Sinner hitting that forehand cross court and with so much power,

04:33like the amount of his hip rotation, everything I was, there's no way.

04:37And Alcaraz gets it back and he gets it back and he's doing so many different spins.

04:42And you know, the level of tennis that we've seen with men's finals was incredible.

04:47I honestly don't think I've ever seen anything of a kind before the power that we saw on there,

04:52you know, the spin that we saw on the ball, the movement that we saw there, that was just

04:56absolutely incredible.

04:58And again, the turning point for me was when Alcaraz got the third set 6-1,

05:03we kind of knew that the crowd is on his side and there is, there's no turning point.

05:08He was so hungry for it and the way he stayed in it mentally, I think that's what broke Sinner

05:13down.

05:13And you know, I'm very impressed with Sinner. I think Sinner is one of the most phenomenal

05:17tennis players, but he just didn't have it in him. And I feel like he's frankly getting tired.

05:22So Alcaraz just took over and I like, I was sitting there, I was like,

05:25please, can we just get to the fifth set? I kind of want to have a fifth set

05:28because I just want to see this tennis continue. That's how impressed I was with that final.

05:33Well, I was impressed with Sabalenko on the women's final side and how she was easily

05:38able to defend her title by defeating American Amanda Anasimova. Sabalenko only dropped one

05:46set the entire final. So were you surprised that she was able to win it all without even,

05:51I guess, breaking a sweat?

05:52No, she definitely broke a sweat. I think she was sweating. In the beginning,

05:56she was sweating. She was sweating a lot. And what Sabalenko did incredible,

06:02in the second set, she stayed level-headed. You know, with Sabalenko, she gets in her head a lot.

06:08So, and that's what happens with a lot of tennis players, because imagine the pressure. The pressure

06:11of you winning is harder than the pressure of you losing, right? So they got to the second set

06:16at 6-6. You could see Sabalenko is breathing and she's so present in the game. She's there.

06:22She's, and she's not giving up. Like, she's not thinking, oh, I won or I lost. You could,

06:26like, her eyes were telling me that this is it. This is hers. This is, I could, like,

06:30I literally predicted that. I was like, this is happening. She's about to get the title.

06:34And Anissimo, she got a little bit in her head, just a little bit. But I got to say,

06:38I'm sorry, but I'm so impressed with Amanda. I think she did a phenomenal job.

06:43Back-to-back finals. That is incredible. That is impressive. And you know, I got to say about

06:48the women's finals, those both women are so resilient. The way that they played tennis was

06:55something that, you know, I think we've all prayed for, because after watching the Wimbledon finals,

06:59that was a little bit upsetting. And you see this level of tennis and you're just like, wow,

07:04is this what we actually get to witness? Anissimo was power. How? I mean, she's such a phenomenal

07:10tennis player. And another thing about both of those women is their stories. They have a very

07:15similar story with losing their dads and, you know, taking some time off tennis, especially

07:19Anissimo. She was, she was in qualifiers last year. And now this year, she is number four in the world.

07:25Like, we got to give her her flowers too. But Sabalenka, that's, I mean, she is one of my

07:30favorite tennis players. I love the way that she plays. I love her power. I love her passion for

07:34tennis. And I love her emotions, frankly. I love that she's so emotional on the tennis court.

07:39And, you know, because Anissimova, she's also born to Russian parents. So that's why I'm like,

07:44I love them both. I couldn't even, I couldn't even choose, but I was so happy for both of them. I think

07:48it was a phenomenal level of tennis. Honestly, I don't think we've seen that kind of level of

07:54tennis before, especially in the finals. That was, you know, that was kind of like Madison

07:58Keys all over in the Australian Open. Sabalenka, and she did it. And I just think it's amazing.

08:04And she deserved it. She deserved it so much. Okay, she definitely gets her flowers. All right,

08:09Les, let's wrap up this interview in around three or so weeks of nonstop tennis action.

08:14I'm gonna put you on the spot here. If you were to sum up this year's US Open in one single phrase,

08:20what would it be and why? Go. The US Open was the most phenomenal tournament of this year. And

08:27I think that we have faith that tennis is the sport that we are all excited about yet again.

08:34All right, Les, thanks for hopping on with us. Thank you so much for having me.

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