I'm a member of the USTA (United States Tennis Association), mainly so I can get a subscription to Tennis magazine and also so I can have access to early-bird tickets for the US Open. USTA members can get two-for-one tickets for the first two night sessions, so I go with a group of friends to check out the action. We just have a good time, eating fried foods, drinking overpriced drinks, watching tennis, and enjoying each other's company. One year we were rained out, but we had fun anyway! I'll include pictures from past Coterie Nights at the Open at the bottom of this post. Anyway, during the early bird ticket access, I buy our group's tickets and I also get myself a ticket for sometime during the Labor Day weekend. Buying tickets in April makes the anticipation grow through the summer, though buying tickets so early can't take into effect how I'm going to feel all those months later...You've read the saga of my tooth issues. Of course, they had to happen during the US Open. But since Roger Federer, my absolute superduper uber-favorite, was scheduled to play last Tuesday night, and since I didn't want to miss one minute of spending time with my friends, I took my swollen face and toothache-ridden self to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. I took along a care package of a pain pill, an antibiotic, crackers and tepid water, along with my huge hat to try to hide my face. Of course, I also forgot to take my camera, so no really good pictures of my Roger. :(
Everything worked out fine, though I did leave before the second match, unfortunately. I would've loved to have watched Serena Williams take on young Taylor Townsend, but I needed to get back into bed, plus taking another antibiotic would've made me a bit nauseated, so I wanted to get home before that. But for the match I did see, I was thrilled. My beautiful gal pal was my designated cheerer, since I could barely open my mouth. There were lots of fist pumps and arms raised by me, though, since Roger played a superb match. His opponent, Marinko Matosevic from Australia, played valiantly, and seems to be quite a character, but Roger was sharp from the get go. He floated atop the court and showed us his full arsenal, moving forward to the net quite a bit, and even hit a tweener, which comically hit his opponent in the back (accidentally). Even Roger had to laugh. Michael Jordan and Anna Wintour were two of the celebs sitting in Roger's player's box, and everything went according to plan. Well, until Roger got broken in the third set and I thought to myself, 'if you lose this set, I'm coming down there to knock you upside the head'! Of course, he righted the ship and won. I guess maybe I scared him. : )
My solo US Open ticket was for last Saturday night - when I saw the program, I wasn't thrilled. The first match was the new sensation, Eugenie Bouchard from Canada, playing Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova from the Czech Republic. I haven't quite gotten on the Bouchard bandwagon - I find her game rather ungainly to watch (at least on tv), though I do admire her grit. I will admit that watching her live is a more pleasant experience than watching her on tv. She is lightning-fast around the court, and she moves very smoothly, though the way she sort of unhinges at the waist to bend forward and throws herself into hitting the ball just isn't aesthetically pleasing to me. Her opponent was also playing well and they had some really good rallies and there was a lot of tension in the match. There also was a lot of mind-blowingly bad unforced errors throughout the match, but the wind in the stadium was a big factor in that. My hair was blowing all over and I wasn't even that close to the court (though closer than I've ever been before!). Zahlavova-Strycova had many chances to put the match away and just couldn't do it. Bouchard is extremely strong mentally and just waited for her opportunity to win. You can't really teach that quality. So while I still think Bouchard is overly-hyped at the moment, I could see more of her appeal as a tennis player after watching her match. I didn't quite get the same enjoyment out of what I saw of the second match.Oh, before I go on, I want to say that the little girl who sang "America the Beautiful" between matches had a gorgeous voice and I was so happy she chose to sing the song as written, without embellishment. Thumbs up from me. OK, moving on. I previously mentioned that I saw the Aussie teen Nick Kyrgios practice for a bit last week during the qualifying tournament and that I was a bit put off by his swagger. His match was second up last Saturday, so I watched him take on Tommy Robredo. Well, I saw the first set of the match with Tommy Robredo. I didn't plan my pill-popping very well and had to leave early to get home in time to take my next antibiotic. Dumb. I don't know why I thought I'd be there for less than six hours. But I digress...
Nick Kyrgios started the match like a hurricane, blasting poor Tommy off the court, though Tommy did break back to at least make things interesting at the end of the first set. The crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium loved the kid, but I was just still turned off by the swagger and the showboating; I have to keep reminding myself, he is just 19. I left after the first set, thinking I could just watch the rest of the match from the comfort of my couch. I was surprised when I got home that Robredo had turned the match around, using his guile and experience, over the brash ball-bashing inexperience of his opponent. I was happy to see Robredo come through the match and maybe teach the Aussie a little lesson. We'll see if I warm to Kyrgios as his career progresses - I'm sure he'll be a part of the tennis conversation for years to come. He has a lot of talent, but that doesn't mean he'll ever be one of my favorites.
I can't believe the summer went so quickly and my US Open live viewing is over already. One of the only good things about staying home last week with toothache trauma was that I could have my tv on in the background and I could keep up with the matches during my drug-induced/pain-induced hazes. So I'm a little surly that I can't really watch anything while I'm at work. I'm sure my office mates haven't noticed... :)
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