With tens of thousands of fans attending the 2024 US Open every day, it’s hard to imagine that just four years ago, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was completely void of fans, and all the players existed within a “secure bubble,” confined to hotel rooms when they weren’t on court.
Yet the tourament went on. Dominic Thiem defeated Alexander Zverev in the men's final, and Naomi Osaka beat Victoria Azarenka to win the women’s singles title.
This month, all four players returned to Flushing Meadows, and a new documentary about the 2020 US Open made its world premiere in New York City. The film, called “Love, 2020,” was written and directed by Jacqueline Joseph a former player-turned-filmmaker who also produced “Winning” in 2016.
Largely shot on cell phones and taken from Skype calls, it featured players including American Frances Tiafoe (a 2022 US Open semifinalist), doubles greats Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Rohan Bopanna of India, as well as wheelchair aces Stephane Houdet of France and Diede de Groot of the Netherlands, the last of whom is a winner of 42 wheelchair Grand Slam titles including three true Grand Slams in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The film also interweaves the surge in global social activism that emerged during COVID-19, putting it into both a historical and sporting context.
USOpen.org chatted with Joseph (pictured below) during the first week of the 2024 US Open about the process of making the film.
Q: How and when did you get the idea to make this film?
Jacqueline Joseph: I came back from the Australian Open in February 2020 and, within a couple weeks, New York City locked down. By the spring, Roland Garros was canceled. Then Wimbledon was canceled. A debate started: was the US Open going to be held? Should it be held? I followed that debate, trying to figure out what might happen if it did take place. I knew there were bubbles for the NBA and other sports, but this was going to be very different because it was in New York City, the epicenter of COVID-19, and you had players coming in from all over the world. About a month before players arrived, I decided, "OK, let's try to do this."
Q: Was it hard to get people to talk?
JJ: I was looking for a very international cast of players. It wasn't meant to be stars. It was more about their experiences and backstories. I was pretty excited by the ones who were in the film.
Q: When did filming start and how long did it take?
JJ: We [the filmmakers] weren't allowed in the bubble so we had to find out what the restrictions were on the players and give them an assignment with their iPhones. So I was following the tournament from New York, but I was not on-site. I didn't interview the players until after the US Open, because I wanted to hear about their experience after the fact.
Q: Besides the physical disconnect, what was the biggest obstacle?
JJ: Pulling it all together very quickly, right before, during, and after the US Open in terms of getting the players involved and what we were trying to obtain from them. Then editing became a huge challenge because the 2020 US Open became about so much more than just players competing inside a secure bubble. It was the Grand Slam with the most activism. The Black Lives Matter protests started and the support for social justice issues [spread worldwide]. People think about Tommie Smith raising his arm [on the 1968 Olympic podium] and Colin Kaepernick [taking a knee during the national anthem at a NFL 2016 preseason game] but to me, this felt like something different. This was not just a tennis story, a sports story, or a US Open story. In parallel, we were also trying to illustrate what was happening with New York and how the US Open taking place successfully sent this very positive message about the role and power of sports during unprecedented times.
Q: Why did you release it now, four years later?
JJ: Wth time, the story will resonate even more. But after four years, it does revisit things that a lot of people have forgotten, especially in this moment where we are trying to sort of get back to normal.
Q: What’s the one thing you want people to take away from the film?
JJ: Ultimately, it's a story about hope. When people think about 2020, so many are like, "Horrible year, don't want to go back." But to me, this was a really positive moment in the midst of the darkness. It was positive spiritually in terms of what was being expressed by the players who were competing in this unique moment. There are always positive lights in difficult moments. If you find them, they can inspire and lift people up and help people navigate through those moments. Maybe it motivates some people to get involved in ways that they wouldn't normally, because they end up feeling passionate.
“Love, 2020” is currently available on Amazon Prime Video.
Top photo: Former tennis player Bradley Klahn, Joseph, US Open Tournament Director Stacey Allaster, and USTA Chairman of the Board and President Brian Hainline. In-story photo: Joseph and former USTA President and Chairman of the Board Katrina Adams.
