Jessica Pegula, the all-American girl from Buffalo, N.Y., now a young woman of 30 and a model of persistence, work ethic, and the cool style in American manners (“I had a good tournament? eh, whatever … “), lost a hard-fought two-set match in the women’s singles finals of the U.S. Open, closing a brilliant week on a disappointment that soon enough she will put in perspective as she tries again for the ultimate prize.
However, they applauded and at the end they cheered, wildly and truly, for Aryna.
Indeed, she can look to her nemesis, the all-Russian girl from Minsk, who got to the final last year, on the court in this stadium named for Arthur Ashe, and walked off it with the same bitter taste in her mouth after a three-set loss to the young star Coco Gauff despite a dominant first. This time, Aryna Sabalenka kept her Dostoevskian (wildly fluctuating) emotions in check to hold off Miss Pegulia’s Emersonian (ever-positive) surge in the second set to claim her first, long-sought U.S. Open trophy, the dream of a lifetime, she said (without disrespect to the Australian Open, which she has won twice including this year.)
Minsk is the capital of Bielorussia, which is not Russia, no, but they are neighbors and about as close as can be in culture and language, certainly Dostoevsky thought so. The tyrant Lubachenko sides with the tyrant Putin in the war of aggression against Ukraine. These are terrible evils, but they are not burdens that should be borne by young athletes, and there is something phony about the sports world’s banning their countries’ names and flags even as they themselves are allowed to compete. What good are gestures meant to punish tyrants who could not care less, other than humiliate individuals whose virtues sport celebrates?
The crowd at Ashe, I would like to think, understands this. They know Aryna, for having seen her here before, but cheer Jessica their neighbor, who never before has got past a quarter-final in a major, and rightly so. But it is not nice to cheer when the tall Slav misses. The New York fans do this.
However, they applauded and at the end they cheered, wildly and truly, for Aryna and for her shots that flew to the baselines and sidelines and the big overhead smashes and the shrewd drop shots that she followed to the net for volleyed put-aways, should Jessica win a race to reach them and manage to send them back. They cheered for her smile, well-earned, her tears, deep-felt. And of course, they cheered Jessica too, the tenacious, shrewd shot maker who had a sensational run, whose grace in a match against a stronger player (“best hard court player in the world,” she herself noted) was apparent to all, even when she gave points away at the worst moments, double faulting on game point.
Graceful young women, blessings in a time when grace is in short supply.
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