Who made the grade, and who came up short? Handing out our U.S. Open assessments

No Federer in the men’s draw, no Serena in the women’s final? Neither was a problem for the 2016 U.S. Open. This Grand Slam, which produced must-see matches on a near-daily basis and ended with two very fine finals, was a victory for tennis as a whole. Even in celebrity-saturated New York, the sport doesn’t need stars to keep fans on the edges of their seats.

Now that the tennis circus has passed through the Big Apple, here’s a look at which of its performers made the grade, and which ones came up short.

Angelique Kerber

In baseball, they say you don’t hit home runs by swinging for the fences; you do it by trying for line drives and hoping the ball sails into the seats of its own volition. That’s the analogy that came to mind when I listened to Kerber talk about how she had hit such a towering home run—two Grand Slams, in fact—in 2016. She said she started the year simply trying to improve her game. She and her coach, Torben Beltz, vowed to add some punch to her traditional counter-punch; after all, Kerber played offensively in practice, so why couldn’t she do it in matches? When she made it work at the Australian Open, her confidence and momentum took off from there.

Should we be surprised by Kerber’s rise to No. 1, and her second major title? Yes. Should we be stunned? No. She has always been a world-class athlete, but as a tennis player she was defensive-minded. In women’s tennis, defense doesn’t win you big championships, the way it does in football. Kerber found that out again in the Olympic gold-medal match and the Cincinnati final; both times she let a younger, lower-ranked player push her around the court and beat her. But Kerber learned her lesson, and didn’t let it happen again in New York. The moral of her story isn’t that you can change your game or your mindset at 28. It’s that you can find a way to win with the game you knew you had all along. That forever-to-be-famous forehand winner that Kerber hit at 3-3 in the third set of the final? It has always been her best shot. A+

Stan Wawrinka

Wawrinka has been a highlight-reel hitter for years. At 31, he has turned himself into a complete player and competitor. Starting with his third-round comeback win over Daniel Evans, there was something about the way he carried himself, about the way he yelled and fist pumped and sweated and stalked the court, never seeming shaken when behind. You could see he was on another Grand Slam mission, and even a case of early stage fright against Novak Djokovic in the final didn’t stop him from accomplishing it. Wawrinka says he has learned from the Big Four, and he played like it. While he did his share of gasp-worthy ball bashing in the final, he won the crucial third set the same way Djokovic always has: by scrapping, defending, surviving and, at the end, making a quick surprise strike. Then he clinched it with a couple of stomach-churning holds in the fourth—the way champs do.

The Big Four is dead; long live the Big Five. After 12 years on tour, Stan is a man, and player, in full. A+

Karolina Pliskova

The sound of her shots, perfectly timed, was worth the price of admission. So was the no-wasted-motion efficiency of her service motion. And the effortless way she rocketed the ball into the corner, with little knee bend and only slightly more margin for error. I felt sorry for anyone trying to deal with Pliskova’s backhand return; that thing is on top of you in a hurry. In beating Venus and Serena Williams, and the 46,000 people in their corners, Pliskova showed grit and determination that I didn’t think this casual-looking player owned. I thought she was going to show it again in the third set of the final; but perhaps Kerber made her hit one too many perfect shots, or maybe, after such a remarkable run, her self-belief left her one step short.

It shouldn’t. Pliskova is now No. 6 in the world, and she has more room to improve than any other top player. You only had to hear how awed the audience in Ashe was by her winners—and how completely she silenced them against the Williams sisters—to know how good Pliskova could be for the game. A!

Kei Nishikori

He stood up to one of the Big Five, upsetting Andy Murray, but couldn’t do it twice. A-

Caroline Wozniacki

Kerber said this was Caro’s home, and she was right. Ranked 74th before the tournament, she beat two Top 10 seeds on her way to the semis. A-

Novak Djokovic

Injuries, personal issues, a couple of losses at majors, a 30th birthday next spring: The man that some have labeled a tennis machine has shown a human side this summer. It will be interesting to see how he does in the fall, a time of year he has historically dominated. For now, one thing is for sure: With two major titles and a third final in 2016, he’s still the best tennis player in the world. B+

Serena Williams

Injured or tired or both, Serena was a step short, and too many errors long, against Pliskova. B+

!Simona Halep

If only she could play on U.S. hard courts all the time. The Romanian’s successful summer in the States came to a premature end in the quarters against Serena. But her uphill battle was fun to watch while it lasted. B+

Anastasija Sevastova

The Latvian’s quarterfinal run was cut short in nightmarish fashion; in her first night match in Ashe, she turned her ankle and struggled to move after that. But nothing could make her effortless game look bad. B+

Venus Williams

If your career is still filled with what-ifs at the age of 36, you’re not doing too badly. This time, in the fourth round, Venus had a match point on the eventual runner-up, Pliskova. When it was over, Venus didn’t waste any time talking about what she needed to do to get better. That’s called doing it right. B+

Juan Martin del Potro

Hearing his name chanted in Ashe was a fitting finale to Delpo’s summer-long, smash-hit revival show. B+

Daniel Evans

Does the Brit always play the entertaining brand of attacking tennis he used to nearly knock off Wawrinka? If so, how can we see more of him? B+

Lucas Pouille

His personality, under the hat and beard, may not be distinctive, but his headlong attack against Nadal certainly was. B+

Jared Donaldson

No U.S. men survived past the fourth round, but another 18-year-old put his name and his whippy, athletic game on the host nation’s radar screen. Donaldson won five matches: three in qualifying, two in the main draw. And he won at least one press conference with his upbeat attitude. B+

Ryan Harrison

After a lot of tough losses, it was good to see the 24-year-old get a tough win, over Raonic, and show that he may be able to play at this level after all. B+

Naomi Osaka

She blew a 5-1 lead in the third to Madison Keys, but it was exciting to watch this huge-hitting, risk-loving teenager get that far in Ashe. B

Andy Murray

After his blowout fourth-round win over Grigor Dimitrov, Murray was the favorite to win the tournament in many people’s eyes. Did that make him tight against Nishikori, in the match forever to be known as the Gong Show? Or was it just one of those days? Even a butterfly escaped his racquet’s wrath. Whatever the reason, Murray kept handing back leads to Nishikori. After a long and successful summer, he ran out of grit. B

CiCi Bellis

It was exciting to see this still-17-year-old Californian win two main-draw matches after qualifying, and bring a contagious energy to the court while doing it. It was sobering to see how far out of Kerber’s league she was in the third round. B

Gael Monfils

Anyone—and this includes me—who feared that the sport’s freest spirit was in danger of becoming too conventional must feel foolish now. Right on cue, the new Monfils turned back into the old Monfils in his first U.S. Open semifinal. But this time he was doing his act in front of a bigger audience, and one that, as the Frenchman admitted, didn’t want to see it. In retrospect, if he had played the conventional power-baseline game he had been using all summer, he would have had a chance against Djokovic, who wasn’t at his best in New York. Afterward, La Monf’s press conference was must-see TV; if only he had shown the same kind of fire on court. B-

!Rafael Nadal

He still has the spectacular shots, but once again, in his loss to Pouille, he couldn’t find one when he needed it most. B-

Marin Cilic

The flavor of the summer melted in a hurry when he was faced with Jack Sock and a Labor Day Weekend crowd in Armstrong. His early loss, and virtually nonexistent performance, may have been the surprise of the men’s side. C-

Milos Raonic

After his Wimbledon run, Raonic had sky-high hopes for Flushing Meadows; he even skipped the Olympics to try to make them a reality. Were his hopes a little too high? Raonic didn’t deny it; he blamed his exhaustion in his second-round loss to Harrison on “mental over-exuberance.” In the Canadian’s long-running, stop-and-start climb up the ATP ladder, this was another stop. C-

Garbiñe Muguruza

For the second straight Slam, the No. 3 seed went out in the second round. Looking back on it, the woman who beat her, Sevastova, didn’t even sound all that thrilled with the way she played. C-