2020 US Open Champion*

For anyone to win a slam in men’s tennis, he must play his best against the worst of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the three kings who monopolize the game for almost two decades now. But as fate would have it, the vaccine against corona is overtaken by antidote to boredom. This year’s US Open will have a new champion.

Not Federer who decided to deal with his injury. Neither Nadal, who opted not to defend his crown to avoid the other crown. Could have been Djokovic, until his fourth round match where he was defaulted for intentionally swiping a ball that recklessly rammed the throat of a line judge. This after Djokovic hit the ball backwards in frustration for losing his serve against eventual winner by default, Pablo Carreno Busta, the Spanish perennial slam hopeful. Yes, there are tennis players from Spain other than the mud king.

Aside from his shock disqualification, Novak loses all ranking points earned in the tournament and forfeits all prize money. Too harsh for an offense he did not intend, some protest. Clearly, Novak did not mean to hit the liner, especially in that delicate area. But he was punished for hitting a ball with negligent disregard of what happens next. He knew a line judge or a ball kid was behind him. He should have known too his weak mindless strike is strong enough to hurt someone. Muscle memory.

In this year’s Australian Open, Nadal also accidentally hit the forehead of 13-year old ball girl Anita. Worried his wild forehand return must have hurt her bad, Nadal immediately checked out on her and apologized. After being assured with a cute smile she bucked the impact of a wayward ball, Rafa kissed the courageous teenager on her cheek. All other ball girls must have wished they collided with one of Nadal’s balls. The tennis ball.

Unlike Djokovic, Nadal was not disqualified. It was clearly unintended too, but the ball was on play and it sailed out. Exactly why it hit little Anita. No one hits the ball long or wide on purpose unless he wants to lose the point. Unlike Novak, Rafa was not reckless, the kind that would have replaced intent in criminal law to incur liability just the same. Pure accident, chargeable to experience. It happens.

Had he marched on, Djokovic would have raised his 18th trophy on Sunday. But I’d rather this happened, not because I don’t want him to inch dangerously close to Nadal’s 19, but because it would have been a hollow victory if neither Nadal nor Federer stood in the way. A victory with an asterisk. Aledel Gonzalez-Cuizon, another tennis enthusiast whose writing skills make mine look amateurish than it already is, says it better. In the same way, whoever triumphs is marked down in history to have won by default of the big three, the triumvirate bar of slam supremacy. The question forever haunts, what if?

  But credit Djokovic, who is more funny than nice, for instantly apologizing and showing genuine concern for the choking woman. But the slam rulebook is clear as daylight, no need for that breakthrough hawk eye review. He should be taken out of the tournament, a stringent rule against court misdemeanor that may never find its way into a country where rules are bendable. It can’t even jail those who plunder and instead reward them with power.