With a two-sets-to-love lead over Alexander Zverev during Friday’s first men’s singles semifinal, Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta was so close to the realization of a lifelong dream he could taste it. Clicking on all cylinders, he was in complete control as a fumbling Zverev searched frantically for his missing game. A few hours later he was sitting behind a microphone in a press conference with a long look on his face, trying to make sense of what went wrong.
Tennis can be so cruel.
Lost to Carreno Busta as he spoke to reporters was the tremendous tennis he had played since restarting the season. He had triumphed on the doubles court at the Western & Southern Open, winning the title with Alex de Minaur, then he powered to two grueling five-set victories as he mounted an improbable march to his second career Grand Slam semifinal.
But in a matter of a few hours, his great opportunity had morphed into opportunity lost, a puff of smoke vanishing into a crowdless Arthur Ashe Stadium, as Zverev raised his arms in triumph, his comeback from the brink complete.
“Well, it’s tough to say something positive after losing this match, after losing this opportunity,” a dejected Carreno Busta offered as he sat behind the podium, trying to see the bright side of a long journey but only able to contemplate its abrupt ending.
His dejected visage is understandable. The 29-year-old, a veteran of 26 Grand Slam main draws, might never see a better shot to win a major title. He was a witness at the scene of Novak Djokovic’s shocking default in the Round of 16, benefitting from the Serb’s transgressions as he rode into the quarterfinals with fresh legs and a new lease on life.
He used those fresh legs to outlast electrifying Canadian Denis Shapovalov in five tough sets—another reason to believe the gods of tennis were shining on him. Into the great wide open of a wide-open draw galloped the Spaniard, thinking: maybe I could be the chosen one.
Friday in the semifinals, he was in complete command against Zverev and closing in on the victory. The dominoes were falling, but Zverev had other ideas.
“I needed to play better, start something new,” Zverev said of his fightback. “I thought, ‘OK, I'm going to go set by set, we'll see how far I can get.’ It turned out well in the end.”
Carreno Busta believes his chances were there in the third set, but by the fourth and the fifth, he had let the lion out of the cage, and his fate was no longer truly in his hands.
“In this moment with two sets up is when you need to win the match, when you need to go for it, to try to do it, to continue playing aggressively,” Carreno Busta said. “Maybe I didn't do it. That was the problem for me.”
To be one of the four men still in contention on the final Friday of the US Open is a great achievement, and in time the Spaniard will see this. Perhaps he’ll even view it as a sign that his best tennis may indeed be years in front of him. At 29, he’s got a beautiful, well-balanced game and a weaponized forehand that makes him elite. There’s a reason he is a former Top-10 player, let’s put it that way.
But before he begins to pick up the pieces of a shattered dream, he’ll need time to feel shattered.
“I think that now it's not enough that we reached the semifinals again,” he said. “It was a good opportunity to continue winning the matches, to try to win the title. With two-sets-to-zero up, it's tough to lose, no?”
If there is a silver lining it is that Carreno Busta got a glimpse of tennis without the Big Three, and in that glimpse, he was one of the players that came so very close to the title. There are plenty of positives to take with him back to Europe, even if he doesn’t realize it right now.
“Of course I have time,” concluded Carreno Busta, when asked about his future. “Today is tough to think about it. Today it is easier to think that I lost a big opportunity. I know that I need to continue, but maybe tomorrow.”
