The US Open at Night!

For the past ten or so years, I've been going to the second night of the US Open with friends and then going back sometime over the Labor Day weekend.  This year, I'll be out of town over Labor Day and the ticket prices are ASTRONOMICAL for the sessions after that, so I opted for two nights in a row - Opening Night by myself and then the second night with my chums.  Two nights in a row are a bit tiring, I must admit...

Opening Night was fun - I skipped out of the office a little early so I could catch the Long Island Railroad out to Flushing Meadows.  It's only a fifteen minute train ride, as opposed to riding home and then riding the 7 out there.  Of course, I didn't skip out of work quite early enough, so I barely made it to Penn Station to get on the train.  I figured I would just pay for my ticket onboard.  The train left a little late though and while I was waiting for it to leave, I noticed a sign for a new ticketing app where I could buy my train ticket online!  So I did, right then and there!  I'm sure I saved a little bit of money since they charge an extra fee when you pay cash on the train.  Score!

The line to get into the tennis center was really long; even though the afternoon match on Ashe ended early, for some reason, they didn't open the gates on time, so tons of people were just standing around, waiting to be let in.  Once they finally opened the gates, I guess the lines moved pretty quickly. After finally getting in, I went to the hospitality center and picked up my USTA free stuff - a cool towel, a poster, a program and a t-shirt!  Fun!  I have to admit: I love free stuff.

Once I got into the stadium, I noticed that all the doors were closed.  It didn't even occur to me why the doors were closed until I was seated for a bit - the roof was closed and the air conditioning was on!  Neat!  The roof is quite spectacular from the inside, I must admit, though the increase in ticket prices to pay for the roof is less so.  I was hoping to get some of the new pizza they were serving in the outside food court inside the stadium, but no, it was the same old untasty pizza.  Oh well.  I'll know better for next time.  My seat was really good (it should've been, for the cost, even with my USTA discount) and I enjoyed looking around at all the lighting equipment and theatrical haze.

My row was actually pretty empty, happily, except for the very nice couple to my left. They said 'good evening' when they arrived, offered me some fries, asked me questions about the roof and were generally pleasant.  Though one or the other got up approximately every ten minutes. Actually, that was better than the two guys in front of me - they either climbed down from the row above, or up from the row below, to their seats, often holding multiple glasses of wine.  I figured they were a disaster waiting to happen, but surprisingly, no one fell and broke a limb, even after they were pretty toasted.

Before the matches got underway, we had a cool introduction with Billie Jean King, Katrina Adams from the USTA and mayor Bill di Blasio (who got rowdily and soundly booed throughout the stadium), then we had a great mini-concert with Phil Collins (and the roof grandly opened during his first number; all I could think of was how much money they were wasting by letting all that air conditioning go to waste by floating out of the roof) and then Leslie Odom Jr (Tony-winning actor from Hamilton) came out to duet with Collins on one number and then do the national anthem.  All in all, it was quite a fun opening ceremony, though it did mean the tennis got started about 90 minutes later than usual, which means I got home much later than usual, which means I'm still tired...

Sadly for me, the first match featured my least-favorite player, Novak Djokovic, vs a past wackadoo, Jerzy Janowicz from Poland. Actually, it was a pretty good match, and Janowicz had plenty of chances.  In fact, it seemed to me as if Djokovic was just looking for an excuse to lose, but Janowicz could never capitalize.  And he just gave up in the fourth set.  But there were some entertaining rallies, I have to admit.  And I got a kick out of the fact that the closed caption operator had a hard time distinguishing between Djokovic and Janowicz when typing their names.  Though, if there were deaf people at the match, they were probably totally confused...

I thought about leaving right after that match, but I really wanted to see American Madison Keys, who was playing the second match. I figured I could at least stay and watch a few games.  It was after 11pm when they started (and the people now sitting next to me thanks to people from the nosebleed seats moving down were eating a hamburger and hot dog EACH, which was a little gross at that time of night), so I only stayed for the first three games.  Good thing I left - I read the next day that the match lasted until nearly 2am!  Wow!  I wonder how many people were left in the stands...

Then, Tuesday night was tennis night with my chums. There were fewer chums this year, thanks to budgets and/or vacations, but we all still had a good time.  We met, as usual, at the bottom of the boardwalk between Shea Stadium and the tennis center.  Normally, we take a little peekaloo at the fancy cars displayed there. Much to our surprise, this year - no cars!  Is it because Roger isn't playing the Open this year?  Hmmmmm.  I again took the LIRR and again used their new app to buy tickets.  Word of warning: don't activiate your ticket too far before getting on the train.  By the time I got to the tennis, my phone app said "ticket already used."  Thankfully, the ticket taker at the stadium was kind and let me through, after I showed him the original purchase time.  I love a good app, but they should be more specific about how many minutes before boarding the train you should activate your ticket.

After standing in another exceedingly long line, we finally made it onto the grounds and went directly to the food court.  Thankfully, we found a table quickly; since there were only three of us, we shared with a couple of nice ladies originally from Ohio (a happy coincidence).  While my pals were getting some food, I chatted with the ladies about Ohio, tennis and LaGuardia airport, not necessarily in that order.  I had had a late lunch, so I just snacked a little on my friends' fries and didn't need a dinner myself.  Since the day session had lasted so long, we had plenty of time to enjoy the weather and catch up on what's been happening in our lives.  Our upcoming trip to Italy may also have been briefly discussed.

When we made it into Ashe stadium, the match between Serena Williams and Ekaterina Makarova had already started.  Once we hiked the million miles up to our relatively-affordable seats, we sat down and realized we wouldn't be able to see one.darn.thing from where we were seated.  A few rows in front of us was a couple who found the seats a little too small for their comfort, so they decided to sit on top of their seats. I can understand the discomfort of not being a petite person, because I am rather unpetite myself, and I certainly sympathized with their discomfort, but all of us behind them paid for our tickets too and deserved to be able to see!  It was a little frustrating, to say the least.  After a bit, the folks sitting next to us left so my friends and I moved over for a better view.  But it did cause some annoyance at the top of the match.

Makarova has beaten Serena before, so Serena was sharp from the start.  She was hitting the ball hard and deep in the court and had no real problem winning.  The match barely lasted an hour, though it did have some excellent rallies and Serena's serving was terrific. All in all, it was a fine first match.  The second match was Andy Murray against Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic.  Andy was also pretty sharp from the top of the match, but these guys had some terrific rallies and all-court moves.  There were a lot of exciting moments and some gasp-inducing shots, which was cool. Murray didn't really have a problem coming through in straight sets, though.  We actually left at the end of the second set, knowing that Murray would be winning, and trying to get home at a reasonable hour.  But it was again an excellent Tennis Night with friends!

A few notes about the new roof over Ashe stadium: when I went to the matches on Monday night, my seat was in the promenade and I had no problem hearing the sound system and the air circulation was good. Tuesday, when we sat upstairs in the nosebleed seats, the sound system was all garbled and we couldn't understand a thing so sometimes we had to check out the closed captioning on the scoreboard (and the closed caption person was having a harder time than they did Monday night - my friends and I constantly giggled at the mistakes they were making!).  The chair umpire kept telling people to be quiet because their voices were being amplified onto the court - I think the sound is bouncing funny because of the roof.  Also, it is really hot and humid up there where it's closest to the roof. The air doesn't move and there's no breeze.  So my friends were definitely feeling 'thumbs down' about the roof, whereas I didn't have as big a problem with it when my seats were closer.  It will be interesting to see how it works out long-term.  Of course everyone will love it when tennis can still be played in the rain, but the rest of the time?  Time will tell. I'm just depressed that I'm going to have to wait a whole year to see more tennis!  Lottery winnings request, please...