A closer look at the Unisphere and one of the Observatories that make their home in Queens. You could just see it from the top of Louis Armstrong stadium in Flushing Meadows.
So you all know that I have attended a lot sporting events.......ok mostly baseball but there were a few hockey games and a basketball game as well. Anyway, it is a given that while I am here in NYC I had to spend at least one day at the US Open. In case you weren't sure.......that's a tennis tournament and one of the 4 majors (the others being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and The French Open). Of course Sunday would have been the best day to go but it was sold out. The fact that both Williams sisters and Rafael Nadal were playing and it was the Sunday of the long weekend may have had something to do with it. It also would have meant I missed the Brazilian street festival so I decided to go on Monday instead.
This is as close as I got to actually seeing Serena Williams today. This is the US Open trophy. Serena has won the tournament 3 times.
The only real big tennis name playing that day was Federer (and yeah he really is the biggest) but he played in Arthur Ashe Stadium and I couldn't get tickets for that stadium and being new to this whole live tennis thing I wasn't sure what to get. My choices were a general grounds pass or a Louis Armstrong tickets. The difference being that the Louis Armstrong ticket gave me a reserved seat in the stadium for the day versus only having first come first serve access to the other seats. It wasn't much more money so I figured a reserved seat would take the stress out of things.
Me in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Anyway, my day started familiar enough......on the good ol' 7 train to Queens. I even got off at the Mets Stadium subway stop but this time I walked the other way towards Flushing Meadows. I got through security, scanned my ticket, walked through the gate and to......well I didn't know where to go. Unlike anything else I have been to there is no focused location here. There were tennis matches going on on like 18 different courts and I had access to all but one of them (that being Arthur Ashe which is the big main stadium on the site).
A quick shot from the train. It was pretty early and a holiday so the train was pretty empty.
The gates opened at 1000 but the matches didn't start until 1100 so I decided I would just walk around a bit. There were players on almost every court just warming up or practicing and all that kind of thing. You could get your picture taken with giant tennis rackets (I didn't) or the tennis ball coloured Mini-cooper (I didn't). You can drink grey goose vodka (I didn't), Heineken (I didn't), eat some crepes (I didn't) or tacos (I didn't) and I am pretty sure I saw some sushi (I didn't) . Ok there are a lot of things I didn't do but like I said, tennis is new to me so I did a lot of observing.
Anyone need a drink? I kind of felt that 1000 was too early for some Grey Goose but that didn't seem to be stopping people.
Anyway, I eventually went into the stadiums to check some stuff out. I think I was very lucky that I visited during the second week because there were a lot less matches going on (most of the outer courts had juniors playing) so I was able to focus my attention on 2 courts (which are beside each other) and the matches they were hosting.
That's John McEnroe in the light coloured jacket. The guy in the dark jacket is also a former player but I am not sure which one.
I started out in Louis Armstrong Stadium (which use to be the main stadium) to watch a men's singles match between Robin Soderling and Nikolay Davydenko (yeah I don't really know who they are either). I didn't sit in my seats right away but instead decided to watch the game from a different vantage point. Eventually I went over to my seats and I must say I enjoyed the view from there much better.
The view from my seat. It actually was a lot closer than it looks from this picture.
Nikolay Davydenko....he eventually retired in the match due to an injury so I am glad I did not stay to watch the whole thing.
After the second set of the men's match I decided to head over to the Grandstand Stadium to watch some men's doubles. Daniel Nestor (of Canada.....yeah you know I am all about my Canadian content) and his partner Nenad Zimonjic (of Serbia) played Robert Kendrick of the US and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Now the Grandstand is a little small and I was pretty close to the action and I have to say.......doubles is really exciting to watch. It does not get nearly enough TV time. It is really fast, lots of things going on the court and it was just really fun. The players seem to really enjoy their time on the court too. I guess everyone just seemed less uptight and serious than during singles matches.
This is the Grandstand Stadium where I watched the doubles match.
My view of the court. No reserved sitting in this stadium except right next to the court. Most of the people there are season ticket holders (who knew you could get seasons tickets) or family, friends and coaching staff of the players.
Once Nester and Zimonjic won, I headed back to Louis Armstrong to watch the end of the women's match between Petra Kvitova and Yanina Wickmayer. It was also pretty exciting as Wickmayer lost the first set, was down in the second and eventually came back to win the match.
That's Wickmayer in the blue and Kvitova in the far court.
After the women played I stayed for the men's match between Fernando Verdasco of Spain and John Isner of the US. Now I had also not really heard of these guy except that Isner was the last US man in the draw and had recently knocked Andy Roddick (the highest ranked and most popular US male tennis player) out of the tournament. I knew the crowd would be pretty jacked up and I wasn't wrong. Isner lost but there was some good tennis so I enjoyed it. I apparently enjoyed it so much that I simply put my camera away because I don't have any good pictures from this match.
The chair umpire during the men's match. He was actually pretty funny and let the crowd make a little bit of extra noise. I learned very quickly that you are only allowed to make noise during certain times during a match.
This looks like a fun job doesn't it? They switched off every couple games. I guess you can only sit following the ball with a giant microphone for so long before your arm gets sore.
My final match of the day was a mixed doubles match. Yeah that's right.....mixed doubles. I can't lie, I only stayed for the first set (because I was tired and needed to go grocery shopping) but it was pretty good. Not too many people stayed to see it so most of who remained moved down very close to watch the action.
In the far court you see Liezel Huber and Mahesh Bhupathi and in the near court you you see Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Nenad Zimonjic (yes I got to watch him twice today because he played men's doubles and mixed doubles the same day).
So all in all my day at the US Open was a complete success. In all I saw about 10 hours of tennis (give or take) and managed to see everything except women's doubles (next time). And next time maybe I will even par-take in a few more of the things that tennis people seem to par-take in. As always if you ever get a chance to check out some live tennis....you really should. It is a great way to spend a day.
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment