On Sunday, September 9, 2001, Lleyton Hewitt stood inside Arthur Ashe Stadium with the US Open trophy in his hands.
Two days later, the world outside the stadium was unrecognizable.
The September 11 attacks did not stop the 2001 US Open. They came almost immediately after it.
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The women’s final had been played on Saturday night, September 8, when Venus Williams defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the first Grand Slam women’s singles final scheduled for American prime-time television. Hewitt followed on Sunday, beating Pete Sampras 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-1 for his first major singles title.
The tournament officially wrapped up on September 9 — two days before the World Trade Center was attacked in Lower Manhattan.
What had been an historic weekend for tennis was suddenly reduced to something very different: a memory of New York immediately before everything changed.
Venus and Serena Made History on Saturday Night
There had been no sense of what was coming when Venus and Serena Williams walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 8.
It was already an important night.
The US Open had moved the women’s final into prime time, becoming the first Grand Slam tournament to do so, and the Williams sisters became the first sisters to contest the US Open singles final.
The audience reflected the scale of the occasion. The USTA says 22.7 million people watched Venus defeat Serena for her second consecutive US Open title.
Venus won in 69 minutes.
Twenty-four hours later, it was Hewitt’s turn.
The 20-year-old Australian dismantled Sampras after taking a close opening set, winning 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-1 and becoming a Grand Slam singles champion for the first time.
Tennis had just completed one of its biggest annual events. Players, journalists and tournament staff began leaving New York.
September 10 was the Monday after the US Open.
Hewitt was still there.
Hewitt Left New York on September 10
As the newly crowned men’s champion, Hewitt spent Monday carrying out the usual post-title obligations: interviews, photographs and media appearances.
Then he headed for the airport.
He had little time to linger. Australia was preparing for a Davis Cup semifinal against Sweden, and Hewitt needed to get home. He took a 5 p.m. flight out of New York on September 10, travelling through Los Angeles toward Sydney.
He was still in the air when the attacks began the following morning.
Hewitt later recalled noticing flight attendants crying during the journey. The passengers did not yet understand what had happened.
When the plane reached Sydney, they were initially kept on board. Australian federal police came onto the aircraft and asked passengers whether they had noticed anything unusual at the New York airport before leaving.
Only then did the scale of what had happened become clear.
“One minute I had left New York the night before and Manhattan was so peaceful, and now the world had been tipped upside down.”
(Lleyton Hewitt, quoted by Steve Flink in: tennis.com)
Hewitt’s planned celebratory press conference at Sydney airport was cancelled.
Only two days earlier, he had produced perhaps the most important performance of his career. Now he found himself worrying about friends and acquaintances who had remained behind in Manhattan after the tournament.
His perspective on the title changed almost instantly.
“There were a lot more things going on in the world that were so much more important than me winning a tennis tournament.”
Tennis Was Gone From New York, but Not From the Consequences
The timing meant there was no question of suspending play at Flushing Meadows.
There was no play left to suspend.
Had the attacks taken place only a few days earlier, one of the world’s largest sporting events would have been operating only miles from the World Trade Center.
Instead, the 2001 US Open had escaped that decision by little more than a day.
The tennis season did not escape the consequences.
A UPI review of the 2001 season reported that three events were cancelled following September 11, including the men’s doubles championship in India. The Davis Cup World Group qualifying tie between the United States and India was postponed for a month.
The attacks also disrupted the women’s tour. UPI reported that players including Venus and Serena Williams stayed home with their families, while security concerns affected the United States’ participation in the Fed Cup.
“The events of Sept. 11 also hurt the tour,” UPI wrote in its year-end assessment.
The US Open Returned to a Different New York
When the tournament returned to Flushing Meadows in 2002, there was no separating the US Open from what the city had lived through during the previous 12 months.
The USTA made remembrance part of the tournament.
Opening night included a “Salute to Heroes,” with NYPD, FDNY and Port Authority color guards receiving standing ovations inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. The Ground Zero “Heroes Flag” was unfurled, Tony Bennett performed “America the Beautiful,” and Queen Latifah sang the national anthem.
Tributes continued during the tournament.
The USTA later described the unofficial theme of the 2002 US Open as welcoming the world back to New York City.
It was a relationship between the tournament and the city that would continue.
On the tenth anniversary in 2011, “9-11-01” was painted beside the Arthur Ashe Stadium court for the closing stages of the US Open. Novak Djokovic walked onto court for the men’s final wearing an FDNY cap.
And in 2021, exactly 20 years after the attacks, Leylah Fernandez finished runner-up in the women’s final and addressed New York directly during the trophy ceremony.
“I hope I can be as strong and resilient as New York has been the last 20 years.”
The Last US Open Before September 11
Looking back, the final weekend of the 2001 US Open occupies an unusual place in tennis history.
Tennis writers who had covered the tournament later remembered how quickly everything that had seemed important at Flushing Meadows disappeared from conversation. One Tennis Magazine editor recalled that the women’s prime-time final and Hewitt’s victory over Sampras were “immediately obliterated in our minds” by what they were witnessing in Manhattan.
That may be the clearest way to understand the connection between the 2001 US Open and September 11.
The attacks never reached the tournament schedule.
They arrived just after it.
Close enough that the newly crowned US Open champion had left New York only hours before the city changed forever.