(Editor's note: Howard Bryant is spending Monday on the new Grandstand court at the US Open. Below are his rapid reactions to the day's events.)
Match 1
Caroline Wozniacki def. Taylor Townsend 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Wozniacki-Townsend was a harsh reminder that maybe all the hype and attention that comes when players suddenly burst forward isn't the sweet nectar it appears to be. In the case of these two, for whom so much had been forecast, perhaps the expectations should have come with a warning label.
Townsend lost a winnable match, growing too impatient and too nervous as the finish line neared in a tense third set. Wozniacki survived, but it was impossible to look at her résumé at the same time as her groundstrokes -- 23 singles titles, two-time US Open finalist, world No. 1 for 67 weeks -- and not wonder how her game, which now seems so pedestrian, could have catapulted her to being the best in the world for so long.
Townsend, meanwhile, has it all: beautiful hands, the tricky lefty serve, a clear feel for how to construct points, a fighting spirit. She's too talented to live in the rankings hinterlands.
"This is one of those wins -- or losses -- that really stings," Townsend said. "I had so many chances."
Yet everything about Townsend's game is so tied up in everything else: the huge accomplishments as the top junior in the world; the cold war between her and the USTA over her development; and the questions regarding her conditioning and true commitment as a professional athlete. Whether it is tough love or raw criticism, fair or unfair, Townsend's weight in the eyes of executives and coaches has been tied to her results. On Monday, though, when she played 2 hours, 12 minutes in 91 degree heat and stood tall against a former world No. 1, it was nerves, not her body, that gave out.
And so they fought -- themselves, each other and the expectations:
Wozniacki, still only 25 years old but still just too underpowered, just not quite offensive enough, hitting too few winners to return to the heights of the game. Townsend, just 20 years old and in striking distance of the top 100, wanting to prove that her way is the right way.
The overwhelmingly pro-American crowd at the Grandstand court wanted nothing more.
Match 2
John Isner def. Frances Tiafoe 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (3)
When Tiafoe closes his 18-year-old eyes tonight, tomorrow and maybe for the rest of his life, three images will slice sharply, mercilessly into his skull.
The forehand he sailed wide that would have given him a match point in the third-set tiebreak.
The 30-40 forehand he drilled into the net that would have gotten him back to deuce after falling behind love-40 while serving for the match up 5-3 in the fifth.
The double fault he tossed into the net serving 1-2 in the fifth-set tiebreak after being down 2-0.
Each image represented his margin of defeat. Tiafoe won 149 total points. Isner, who banged 35 aces, won 148. Those three points might have been the most important.
A theme in men's tennis has been the end of the Big Four era. Roger Federer is out with a knee injury. Rafael Nadal hasn't gotten as far as the semifinals of a major since he won the 2014 French Open. Novak Djokovic is still the best player in the world, but losses to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon and Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympics have given him a sense of vulnerability that didn't exist eight weeks ago.
Tiafoe represented another example in America too, though far less majestically, of the old order giving way. Isner, who took over for Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish as the nation's top male player years ago, relinquished that title to Steve Johnson last week, only to yank it back right before the US Open by a mere 10 rankings points. Still, the ranking is less prestigious. Isner was once a top-10 player. Now, he and Johnson entered their home Slam ranked Nos. 21 and 22, respectively.
Tiafoe had the match, which would have been the biggest win of his career, but Isner took it and moved on to the second round. It was a back-to-school lesson Tiafoe would have rather missed.