By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — So often in life, the mundane and the extraordinary exist side-by-side. The day of the US Open final can change a tennis player’s life, ending with a confetti-soaked celebration or lonely commiseration. Much of it is watched by the thousands inside Arthur Ashe Stadium and millions more on TV.

But off the court, the day is like any other at a grand slam tournament, governed by routines.

On a day so outside the ordinary, routines take on an added importance. Despite the stakes involved, the day of a US Open final isn’t hugely different from the day of any other grand slam match, said seven-time grand slam winner Mats Wilander. The routine is the same.

“One big difference is you know what time you’re playing,” Wilander, who reached 11 grand slam finals and won the 1988 US Open, told CNN Sports. “Usually, it’s a good time in the afternoon or early evening.”

Inevitably, different players have different routines, different responsibilities, different ways of keeping themselves occupied.

The day before Novak Djokovic won his record-breaking 23rd grand slam title at the 2023 French Open, he had “parental duties” and was spending time in nature with his two children, he told reporters afterward. Coco Gauff spent the night before she won her first grand slam title at the 2023 US Open calling her boyfriend, just to take her mind off the enormity of the occasion, she said.

Snippets like this appear on the short-lived Netflix show “Break Point” too. In one moment on the morning of the 2023 Wimbledon final, Nick Kyrgios’ dad makes his son breakfast.

Still, there are commonalities for all the players. Both mind and body have to be prepared and kept in check. Three or four hours before the match, players will practice for around 45 minutes, with and without their racket, said Wilander.

They will probably spend some time on a stationary bike, eat some sort of carbohydrate for lunch like pasta or rice, and then warm up again about an hour before they take to the court.

In between, players will often do something “mindless” like playing cards or doing drills that involve catching or juggling tennis balls to “get the mind started,” he added. Any tactical analysis of the other player’s game is likely to have happened already.

Focusing “happens kind of automatically,” Wilander said. “You start going through your routines in terms of warming up, and your brain starts focusing in on the process of playing the match. And it’s the same process before the match, you’re doing exactly the same thing before the finals.”

By the time the match actually starts, most players just can’t wait to get on to the court. “You are waiting for it, you can’t wait to start,” three-time grand slam winner Aryna Sabalenka said after she won the 2023 Australian Open. “You’re super excited … As soon as I step in on the court, I felt like, ‘OK, I think I’m in control and I’m … emotionally ready for it.’”

Until this point, the two finalists have likely had similar days, but as they play their experiences, of course, start diverging. For one of them, it will be one of the best days of their life; for the other, it will be one of the most agonizing.

Almost every minute of their next few hours is broadcast to millions worldwide and soundtracked by the raucous crowd inside a cauldron-like Arthur Ashe Stadium.

And immediately after the match, there is the post-match interview on court, the trophy presentation, as well as news conferences for both the winner and loser where the contrasting emotions are on display.

“If you win, the next hour is probably one of the best hours that you have in your life as a tennis player because you’re on such a high,” Wilander said. “You can’t go to sleep or anything for four or five hours.

“If you’ve lost, its back to the drawing board … losing is kind of rough … you might as well have lost earlier in the tournament is what it feels like.”

After the 2023 US Open women’s final, the Netflix cameras followed newly crowned champion Gauff off the court into the locker room where she bounced around, trophy in hand, filming the newly engraved wall of winners with her phone.

Runner-up Sabalenka, meanwhile, retreated to another area, smashed her racket until the frame buckled and sat with her back against the wall, next to the scratch marks left on the floor.

The-CNN-Wire
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