Coco Gauff has tough competition to fend off at 2024 U.S. Open

we have ourselves a lot of action going down both on and off the court here at the 2024 US Open I'm Brandon London let's talk tennis with NBC's Julia Alaba uh I guess we can start talking about well the $23 honey Dees that's one thing I didn't know the price was going to go up but the crowds every time the US Open is a Vibe here does it shock you that each year so many people continue to turnout it is truly remarkable the turnout we've had record set numbers and I think honestly that's a product of just American tennis on the rise obviously last year we saw Coco golf win the US Open but this year you have players like Tommy Paul Ben Shelton Taylor Fritz that are really you know performing well feeding off that Electric New York crowd I think the fans love that you mentioned some of those names it feels like this could be anyone's US Open last night uh Francis tafo won Novak jokovic show why he has a gold medal uh has there anything kind of that shocked you in the first round both from the men's and women's side you know I was really looking at how jokovic was going to play in the first round because a lot of what happens in the tournament is based on how he's performing if you really look at that draw it's jokovic on one end and then you got danal meddev Yanik cner and alcarez all on the other so I'm like so jokovic just needs to stay steady not get hurt and and he can easily make it to the final and those those three guys have to grind it out to you know get a spot to play jokovic in the final so you know I'm thinking that like I can see jokovic in the final against my pick would be alcarez but you never know those Americans as I mentioned can really sneak up on us and uh pull through a lot of competition in this tournament and uh in in that playoff bracket on the men's side Let's cross over to the women I just watched uh Naomi Osaka come I guess continue on her comeback tour were you surprised that she looks so good she dominated she was look good feel good I don't know if you saw that Alit she was rocking this Japanese inspired green bow outfit and the internet is divided over that but that's another story for another day um I'm not overly surprised but it's good for her she's had a shaky year since she you know coming back having a child but it's good to see her playing as well as we know she can uh on the women's side can I just go into the pics go ahead go right into it all right I'm just going to go right in here unfortunately for the Americans I'm not feeling too good about Coco golf uh oh you're going to get some backlash on Twitter X whatever you want to call it why you know what I again another player that's had a shaky summer emotional summer um she's just not playing as well as EA shiant who was our bronze medalist in pairs and then Arena sabalenka who I think will ultimately hoist that trophy so you think the emotions of the summer can kind of get in the way of some of women's tennis best players I think so women in general are emotional but as a former player I know when you mix tennis emotion she has a title to defend she actually said her new motto of this summer was if you if you have something to defend it means you won something before so that already you can tell that she's trying to take that pressure off a little bit um she's a performer though and when that New York crowd is behind her which they will be it could be a different story but tennis wise sabalenka javant final is my pick all right from the both men's and women's side who are some names that we should kind of keep an eye out on that can surprise us maybe even make Sports Center yeah uh on the women's side uh I mean it's not a huge surprise but Jasmine palini the Italian she made it to the final of the French Open and Wimbledon this year so back-to-back tournaments playing unbelievable I could see her having another Deep Run and on the men's side we can see an American do well uh Tommy Paul Taylor Fritz Ben Shelton those are my surprise people Ashera so what are you looking forward to most for throughout the rest of the week what's your week like oo I'm just excited to feel the Vibes the crowds the atmosphere this is my favorite grand slam of the year uh hopefully people don't go broke on honey deuces but other than that just uh some great tennis ahead hopefully doesn't get too hot out here keep players healthy last year was very hot players were dropping like flies so hopefully that's not the case this year yeah I hope I don't go broke off those honey Deuces cuz you can't expense those when we're here at work but Julia thanks for hanging out with us uh that was completely awesome thank you so much we'll be back