Tennis Week 2015 - part two

After getting my mom onto a plane Thursday morning, I went back to my favorite spot, the US Open qualifying tournament.  I read recently that attendance records were broken this year - I can believe it.  Over the past ten or twelve years I've been going, each year there are bigger and bigger crowds.  It used to be a rather low-key event for tennis fans and now it's more of a destination.  I guess the crowds didn't bother me much, except for a moment on Friday.  I'll get to that later...

When I arrived at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center Thursday, there was quite a line at the front gates.  They've installed metal detectors, so the lines take a little longer, but I've never seen such a crowd gathered there before.  I wonder if there had been a big group or something that slowed everyone behind them down.  Hmm.  Anyway, for me, first up was Court 11, where there is a wall to lean on and a tiny bit of shade to squeeze into.  I really wanted to watch American Noah Rubin again, but since he was second up, I had to watch another CiCi Bellis match first.  Actually, this match with Bellis was much better than Tuesday's.  She should've beaten her opponent much more handily, but she did come through in the end, 7-5 7-5.  So I didn't have to wait long to watch Rubin.

Noah was playing the third seed in the qualifying tournament, Guido Pella from Argentina.  I'd never seen him play before.  Noah was up a break in the first set and really should've capitalized on more break points, but he didn't and then he lost the thread of the match.  Pella broke Noah twice to win the first set.  He broke Noah early in the second set, too, but Noah broke back when Pella was serving for the match, which got the crowd excited, and then they played a tiebreak, which Noah unfortunately lost.  Darn.  But I do think his game has tremendous upside.

Even though I again was regretful to leave my shady/leaning seat, after that second match I decided to get some lunch and head to the Grandstand to watch some practicing.  I was able to watch Andrea Petkovic practice again, which was fun.  I really like her, she has a great, upbeat attitude and her game is sharp.  She was practicing against Sara Errani from Italy, who isn't my favorite, but she hits the ball much harder and cleaner that it appears on tv.  They had a good practice.  Then, one of my uber-favorites came in to practice - Tommy Haas!  Squee!  I love me some Tommy Haas.  He's been injured for much of the last year, so it was nice to see him come in and practice hard.  That backhand...wow.  I don't know who he was practicing with, but the kid had game, too.  It was a nice lively practice.

Thanks to the wonderful US Open phone app, I could keep up on scores and the other matches going on around the grounds.  I saw that my mom's (and my) new boyfriend, Marius Copil, was going to be playing his second round match on Court 5, so I made my way over there.  I found a good seat, in front of a group of people who made some shade for me.  Thank you, group of people.  Unfortunately, Marius was not having a good day.  He started off very well, serving big and getting a lot of break points, but he could never convert.  The first set was very close and he got broken at the end of it to lose the set 7-5.  He began to get a little crankypants after that, asking for the chair umpire and line judges to remove their sunglasses because they were missing calls (uh, huh?) and he also broke a racket.  Normally, I'm not a fan of temper on court, but it was hot and his frustration wasn't ugly or external, just internal, so I forgave him.  I'm sorry he didn't end up coming back to win the match, but I will definitely keep an eye on what he's up to.

After that match, I wanted to run over and catch the end of the Jurgen Melzer (Austria) v Alexander Kudryavtsev (Russia).  Melzer was up a set and a break when I got there, but maybe I jinxed him, because he ended up losing the second set.  But I was happy to get to see more tennis, especially under the lights.  Melzer has been ranked as high as eight in the world, but he's coming back from injury and trying to rebuild his ranking.  He has a nice lefty serve and volley game.  I've seen Kudryavtsev before, too.  He's the wackadoodle who refused to sit in his chair during the changeovers a few years ago because he didn't like the chair umpire.  He would sit on the court between games.  Wacky.  It's too bad, because he has a really nice game.  Very easy power on both sides with a deceptive serve.  But his brain cramps constantly and he gets in his own way.  He held it together well to take the second set tiebreak, but couldn't maintain his sanity and ended up losing in the third set.  Melzer was quite relieved to have gotten through.

Friday, I made sure to get there early so I could see the one match I really wanted to see, which just happened to be first up on Court 4:  Paul-Henri Mathieu of France v Alejandro Falla from Columbia.  Both gents have been ranked in the top 50 before (I think Mathieu has been in the top 20 in the past) and both are coming back from injury.  I've watched them both on tv before, so I didn't want to miss my chance to see them live.  It was a strange, up-and-down match.  The first set was all Mathieu, the second set was all Falla, the third set was all Mathieu.  It would've been nice if they could've both played well at the same time, but...c'est la vie.  I enjoyed the match, there were a lot of stylish rallies and good shotmaking, so I'm glad I made the effort to get there early.

Since Court 4 has no shade, I was pretty hot at the end of that three set match, so I went straight to the Grandstand.  There was a loud buzzing sound and a little bit of pandemonium, so I should've figured a big star was practicing.  And there was!  Rafael Nadal was practicing with Tommy Robredo.  Those Spaniards enjoy their own company.  I felt bad that my mom missed seeing Nadal because he's her absolute favorite, so I tried to take some photos, but it was not easy.  There were people standing around all over the place, waiting to get his autograph/photo.  It was a crazy, loud scene and I don't know how he or Robredo could concentrate on practicing.  I only saw them play for about fifteen minutes before their practice was over and the vultures descended on them.  I felt sorry for the next guy coming out to practice: the defending champ, Marin Cilic from Croatia.  No one paid any attention to him, poor thing.  I enjoyed watching him practice, though.  I also enjoyed watching his coach, a longtime favorite of my past, Goran Ivanisevic.  Goran had a smile on his face the entire time and played to the crowd while also offering advice and feedback to Cilic.  It was a fun practice to watch. 

After that, I decided to head back to Court 11 for some leaning and some shade.  I got there in time to watch the match between Kyle Edmund (Great Britain) and Yoshihito Nishioka (Japan).  Both of these gents were seeded in the qualifying draw so I thought it would be a good match.  Well, the first set was not so good.  Neither guy could hit the ball in the court and there were several breaks of serve.  Nishioka won the first set handily, though not very attractively, but then he fell apart in the second set.  I began to get restless and thought I'd maybe head to Court 13 for another interesting-looking match.  So I walked over there and it was so full, the security guards weren't letting any more people in to the stands.  And the match hadn't even started yet!  That's where the big crowds annoyed me.  I've never been denied seeing a match before!  Grrrr. 

Looking at the schedule, I knew that Jurgen Melzer was playing a match on Court 17 once a ladies match finished.  I thought, oh, how long can that last, this girl is up a set and a break?  Oh.My.God.  These gals were not playing well.  Even taking into account that they were nervous because they so wanted to make the main draw, their playing was...not good.  Breaks of serve abounded.  The second set lasted way longer than it should've, but finally a girl won.  [interesting side note: the girl who won this match then lost her first round match in the main draw.  the girl who LOST this match got into the main draw anyway as a lucky loser and she has won her first two matches!  who knew?!]

Finally, Melzer came on and came up against a young fireball named Kimmer Coppejans from Belgium.  He had a large contingent of fans and he could not miss in the first set.  Everything he hit was a winner.  Melzer was getting frustrated, but knew that there was a long way to go before the match was over.  Melzer lost the first set, but steadied himself and soon was winning.  Coppejans stopped hitting everything in and he started getting a little frustrated himself.  This was an excellent match, from a spectator's point of view, and I really enjoyed watching it.  Coppejans definitely made a fan out of me, not only from his good play, but from his polite demeanor on the court.  He constantly said 'towel please' to the ballkids, which was very nice to hear.  So I'll be keeping an eye on him.  But Melzer's wily veteran moves kept him in the match and he eventually won in the third.  It was another huge relief for him, you could tell, and he was thrilled to get in to the main draw. 

All in all, it was a fantastic Tennis Week and I'm sorry it's over for another year.  The weather was beautiful (although a little too warm at times) and I saw some great tennis.  I also had a terrifically fun Tennis Night With Pals!  I'll blog that out in a later post.  Enjoy the US Open, everyone!