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Welcome to the US Open briefing, where The athlete will explain the stories behind the stories on each tournament day.

On day seven of the 2024 US Open, the results gave us a trash talk derby, the late-night matches continued, and the US Open’s scariest omen returned.

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What will trigger the handshake between Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev?

Some tennis players can barely pay attention to what their opponents say about them in the press. It’s just noise; life goes on.

Taylor Fritz is not one of them. He proved that this year at Wimbledon when he attacked Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech. In a pre-tournament interview, Rinderknech criticized Fritz for silencing a violent crowd after their match there in 2023.

When Fritz defeated Rinderknech in the second round at Wimbledon – as he had done at the French Open – he shook his hand and wished him a “safe flight home”.

Rinderknech replied that he played doubles.

At this point Fritz said, “Oh, congratulations, good for you.”

So what will Fritz do if he beats Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals of the US Open, even though this was Zverev at Wimbledon after Fritz beat him from two sets down?

“First of all, it’s great that he has made up a two-set deficit. Respect,” said Zverev.

Then he basically said that Fritz only won because he was injured. “I was on one leg today,” said the German, who also denounced people in Fritz’s box who were “not from the tennis world.” In the box were Fritz’s team, which is entirely from the tennis world, his father, who was a tennis player, and his influencer girlfriend Morgan Riddle.

Fritz did not agree to this on Sunday after he had already faced Zverev in the quarterfinals.

“We kind of go back and forth. I feel like the last five or six times we’ve played, it’s been like this: I win once, he wins once, and so on. It can go either way.

“A lot depends on the serve. If one of us doesn’t serve well or the other returns really well, that always makes the difference in the end.”

Forget the serve. Focus on the handshake.

Matt Futterman

How long does a late finish policy last?

They say the first step to solving a problem is to admit you have one.

The USTA, at least judging by its actions, is not there yet.

For the second time in three nights, a US Open match didn’t start until around midnight in a nearly empty stadium in front of a nearly empty television audience – and this was at a tournament that this year implemented an official late-finish policy to prevent all of these things.

GO DEEPER

Aryna Sabalenka starts her US Open match after midnight in the first year of the late finish rule

This time Donna Vekic and Zheng Qinwen were the players, replacing Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova, but the same series of events repeated itself. Long day session. Late start of play in the evening.

Three-hour match on Arthur Ashe Court. Organizers decided to play the fourth match of the day in the same time slot rather than moving it to an open court and starting a little earlier, taking into account the pace of play and length of sets in Frances Tiafoe’s match against Alexei Popyrin, as well as “weather conditions, fan accommodation and time considerations.”

Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic played one of the tournament’s matches after midnight. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

The big losers? Vekic and Zheng, who played a repeat of their Olympic final and delivered a spectacular match in front of a modest crowd. It ended at 2:15 a.m., the latest women’s match in the history of the tournament.

Matt Futterman

How long can Nuno Borges and Jordan Thompson play together?

Since the doubles are in a permanent existential crisis, the presence of leading singles players in the tournament is one of the biggest problems.

It has become common practice, particularly among men, for players to drop out of doubles if they do well in singles. This is hardly a clear sign of the importance of doubles.

So it was a big boost for the format when Jordan Thompson and Nuno Borges both played in foursomes on Sunday, ahead of their fourth-round matches on Monday.

This is only the second time either of them has reached the round of 16 of a major, and it would not have been a surprise if one or both of them had dropped out.

Nuno Borges can now concentrate on the singles. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)

Maybe it didn’t happen because they actually played each other, as Wimbledon runners-up Thompson and Max Purcell beat Borges and Francisco Cabral in straight sets. Thompson and Borges could meet again in singles if they make it to the semifinals. If that happens and Thompson advances in doubles, then he will really have a decision to make.

Charlie Eccleshar

Beware of jumbo tennis ball ideas?

It happened again, as it has happened all tournament long. The scoreboard shows that a player in a match won’t be much longer in this year’s US Open. Little feet trample down stairs and very large, very yellow tennis balls roll down the aisles.

When Coco Gauff stepped to the line, down 5-3 against Emma Navarro, she probably wasn’t happy about the number of children flocking to the front seats. They just wanted autographs, and the ushers in the crowd intervened, albeit belatedly, and restored some order. But the last thing anyone needs after making double-digit double faults in a Grand Slam tennis match is a portent of tennis’s doom, even if it is kind of cute.

GO DEEPER

How the giant tennis ball of the US Open became the cute yellow harbinger of doom

Shot of the day

It’s a flex.

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Tell us what you noticed on the seventh day…

(Top photo by Taylor Fritz: / Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton)