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Credit...Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

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Credit...Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

For years, tennis has been asking itself how it will move on as its biggest stars head for the exits.

If the first week of the U.S. Open is any indication, it just might be with three 18-year-olds named Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez who have barged in where they don’t yet belong, but clearly do.

With howls of “Vamonos!” coursing through the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday, Alcaraz of Spain pulled off the upset of the tournament in knocking off Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, winning a five-set classic, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 0-6, 7-6(5).

When Alcaraz was done, Leylah Fernandez stepped into the spotlight.

Fernandez, the product of an Ecuadorian father and a Filipino mother who was raised in Canada, went toe-to-toe with the defending champion, Naomi Osaka, and outlasted the four-time Grand Slam winner to win 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4 in front of a raucous night crowd that largely expected to see Osaka put on a clinic against a teenager ranked No. 73 in the world who had never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam.