On an upset-filled opening day of the U.S. Open, it was J.J. Wolf who set the tone. The American wild card knocked off 16th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, before a partisan crowd.
The 23-year-old from Ohio fed off the energetic, packed crowd on Court 5, aggressively taking the game to Agut and taking out the Spaniard.
“I grew up as a team-sport guy, so I feed off the energy of others very well,” said Wolf, who played basketball, soccer, baseball and gymnastics before focusing on tennis.
“[Monday] was so much fun; 2020 I did pretty well here as well, but it wasn’t the same without the energy from the crowd that New York is famous for.”
Wolf pulled out the whole arsenal to keep the 2019 Wimbledon semifinalist scrambling all over the court. He hit 46 winners and put on a hard-court clinic.
With the third set deadlocked at 1-all, Agut was up, 40-15, on his serve, but Wolf fought him off to break and go up 2-1. Then the former Buckeye breezed through the next game at love to take a 3-1 cushion.
American J.J. Wolf celebrates his win at the U.S. Open on Monday. Corey Sipkin “He’s played so many matches and come from behind many times; I never took it for granted,” Wolf said. “Once I got the break in the third, I wasn’t like ‘Oh, this is over.’ I’ve got to still play every point as hard as I can because he’s capable of coming back and winning, no matter what, until you’re shaking his hand.”
Facing break points while serving up, 4-3, in the third, chants of “Let’s go J.J.!” buoyed Wolf. He held, and then he won the game with a love hold — the exclamation point a blistering ace, his 14th of the day.
Wolf leapt in the air and celebrated with a fist pump.
“Thought I was going to get broken that game,” said Wolf, who turned pro in 2019. “I didn’t want it to be because I didn’t go after it and play how I played every other point in the match.”
In the next round, Wolf plays Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, who beat Pole Kamil Majchrzak, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1.
J.J. Wolf leaps for joy after his upset win at the U.S. Open on Monday. AP
J.J. Wolf returns a shot by Roberto Bautista. Corey Sipkin The victory was as auspicious as how fit and athletic Wolf looked. After missing eight months due to two hernia operations — and an auto accident the day after the first one — he made his comeback a year ago last month. He said he wasn’t able to “engage your abs or your core for it was originally supposed to only be a four-month recovery.” The second surgery came after the original did not turn out as planned.
Wolf said it set him back, but he’s spent the past year honing his body.
“When I was supposed to start playing again, I was like, Is it supposed to be hurting this badly?” Wolf said. “They were like, ‘No, you’re not supposed to have any pain.’ I went and got it checked out and they’re like ‘Yeah, this wasn’t done right.’ So I had to have someone go back in and completely redo it.”
