Tennis super fan Mark Steinberg has been to 50 U.S. Opens and counting.

His first was back in 1973, when the tournament was held at Forest Hills Stadium, about a mile from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the event’s current home. He said each year brings something new to love.

“You’ve got joy, you’ve got challenge, you’ve got heartbreak, you’ve got opportunity to wind up having great achievement,” Steinberg said.

This year’s U.S. Open is no different, with young talents proving themselves worthy opponents to some of the biggest names in the game. Steinberg described it as a transition period in the sport.

“There is going to be a changing of the guard; a lot of the old stars are going to be moving on, and the young stars are up and coming and are going to be trying to grab the mantle from the established stars,” he said.

Two American women are among the favorites at this year’s Open: Coco Gauff, who just came off her first Women’s Tennis Association series win in Cincinnati, and Jessica Pegula, who defeated U.S. Open defending champ Iga Świątek in a WTA match earlier in the summer.

It is the first time since 2004 that two American women have swept the series.

Danny Zausner, chief operation officer of the USTA National Tennis Center, said that competition will be on full display for the next two weeks.

“The tournaments leading up to the Open have showed us some incredible tennis, so I know that will be coming our way,” he said.

On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic will be back at the Open this year, his first time since 2021, when he lost in the final match.

Djokovic will return to the court to try to defeat defending champion and current top player Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz won this year’s Wimbledon final over Djokovic, but Djokovic defeated him in a nearly four-hour match earlier this month in Cincinnati.

“There is no question that the energy on the court and the excitement on what is going on throughout the grounds of the tennis center is electric,” Zausner said.