Nadal, Andreescu and the Rest of the 2019 U.S. Open

On the latest edition of the Beyond the Baseline Podcast, host Jon Wertheim is joined by SI's Daniel Rapaport to wrap up a thoroughly entertaining 2019 U.S. Open. The two hit on all the main storylines and go in-depth on Bianca Andreescu's star-is-born moment, another Grand Slam final defeat for Serena Williams, a 19th Grand Slam for Rafael Nadal and the emergence of Daniil Medvedev.

Listen to the Beyond the Baseline podcast here and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher. The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

SI answers is our AI answer engine trained on human-created content.

Jon Wertheim: 24 hours ago, we didn't have an obvious successor. For a lot of players—and I don't know if they would admit this publicly—I would love to truth serum some of these players and ask them honestly, how many of you are just kind of waiting for these guys to retire?

Daniel Rapaport: And that's what I think was so compelling about last night. Medvedev didn't wait. He's the first one of that generation to look one of these guys in the face, on the biggest stage in the sport, down two sets and a break and say 'I'm not quitting. I know who you are. I'm not quitting. I'm here, and I'm gonna play you every last point.'

Jon Wertheim: Go ahead and beat me.

Daniel Rapaport: He's down two breaks in the final set, Nadal is serving for the match, and he breaks him the first time. And he gets a break point in the second! It was an unbelievable truth-to-power moment.

Jon Wertheim: Jim Courier made this point: You don't think the other players in the locker room take note? You don't think that was a huge moment for Medvedev, now, when he's on the other side of the net?

Daniel Rapaport: He's surpassed Zverev and Tsitsipas. He's now the leader of that 20-24 generation.

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