That’s it for the Slams this year. That US Open did not quite leave us with a long list of classic matches. I wish all of the visibly exhausted players out there some peace. I know indoor hard-court season technically exists, but I also know the vast majority of these players won’t be fully dialed-in again until they’re back on court in January. So with the year in Slams wrapped, and with some Open memories fresh in mind, here, in no particular order, are a few things I’d like to see at next year’s Slams.

1. More of this Jasmine Paolini. Doesn’t get much better than this: a 28-year-old who’d never gone past the second round of a Slam abruptly becoming one of the most consistent big-match players on tour. She never disappointed. Fourth round in Australia, back-to-back Slam finals at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, another fourth round at the Open. It is one of the most baffling leaps I can remember any player taking, and I could not recommend the in-person Paolini experience more highly. Her first-round US Open match against Bianca Andreescu—bizarrely, the third matchup between these two players in the past three Slams—was some of the most fun I had all fortnight. There were tense, varied rallies, and as the 5-foot-4 Paolini tackled Andreescu’s loopy shoulder-height balls and outright moon balls with footwork and speed, her singular athleticism shone. Tennis won’t be the same without Diego Schwartzman in it, but it’s a good time to double down on support for our vertically limited players. They add so much thrill and variety to the game.

2. Brandon Nakashima getting in the U.S. mix. In an American hard-court season characterized by widespread success from the American men, it was this 23-year-old, finding his game again after a knee injury, who caught my eye. He picked off top-ranked U.S. men Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz in consecutive tournaments. He beat an off-kilter Holger Rune so thoroughly that the Dane penned several essays on the subject. He upset Lorenzo Musett, one of the summer’s winningest players. After stealing one set against Sascha Zverev, the Nakashima show met its quick and severe end. His baseline game was always formidable, but I’ve been particularly impressed by his serving this summer, which could elevate him into this new cohort of high-ranked countrymen.

3. A rare, healthy Karolina Muchova. We covered this more extensively last week, but a win for Muchova is a win for tennis and for pure intuition. I’ll keep my demands modest: How about no surgeries in 2024? Let’s start with that and see how much noise she can make.

4. Daniil Medvedev, holding the hardware again. This dude is way too talented to end his career with one Slam to his name. I get that he has had to play out his career while pinned between generational talent—Novak and Rafa on the one side, Carlos and Jannik on the other—but I also think that the man who is so often hailed as a brilliant tactician needs to start finding a way through these younger foes. He should take some wisdom from his three Slam matchups with Sinner this year. The ultra-aggro game plan in the first two sets of the Australian Open final could be something to explore further, a way to shock opponents who have game-planned for the torturous long-rally version of Medvedev. The Wimbledon quarterfinal showed he could take down the best even off of his beloved hard courts—another encouraging step. But a no-show in the quarterfinal on Arthur Ashe was a puzzling step backwards.

5. Alexei Popyrin, reborn? The Aussie was ranked No. 62 when he won a Masters 1000; then a few weeks later he beat Novak Djokovic at the US Open. There are some qualifiers one could apply here: a somewhat depleted post-Olympics field in Montreal, and a somewhat depleted post-Olympics Novak Djokovic (by his own admission). But those are still intriguing accomplishments from a 25-year-old with obvious weapons, if, perhaps, an uneven history of self-actualization. When his game is humming, it is terrifying serve-and-forehand fare. Consistency has been the elusive part. But he has very few points to defend next year and will suddenly be seeded at Slams.

6. Iva Jovic playing the big events. As a reward for winning the U18 National Championships, this 16-year-old junior was given a wild card for the US Open. As the youngest player in the women’s draw, she nearly made it to the third round. I was on Court 12 as she tried to solve the tricky, hard-hitting Ekaterina Alexandrova, who gives even veteran players very little rhythm to work with. Alexandrova had lined up three match points while serving at 5–4, 40–0 in the third, and when she got a little nervy, Jovic surged. She almost bent the match back in her favor before fizzling out at 7–5 in the third. Still, Jovic left the tournament as the youngest American woman to pull off a main-draw win at the Open since 2000. Her smooth all-court game looks like the foundation of a dangerous pro, surely deserving of a wild card somewhere next year if she doesn’t make a rankings leap.

7. Iga Swiatek’s change of pace. It’s hard to be critical of a world No. 1 who’s already assembled a Hall of Fame body of work at age 23, but watching Swiatek in her quarterfinal at the Open, I couldn’t help but think that there were even more levels of tennis for her to unlock. Her loss against Jess Pegula was a frustrating watch, as Swiatek never found her range on her high-spin, high-pace ground strokes but kept ripping away and spraying errors for two sets. I get why Swiatek is committed to this particular approach; it got her to the top of the sport. But I suspect you could count on one hand the drop shots she attempted all tournament. Earlier in her career she was praised for her feel, and it’s time to start folding that back into her game, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.