Magical MissTari Tour: A Night at the 2017 US Open

Hi all! Last tennis post for this year, I promise! Well, at least the last US Open post. After last night's disappointing result, I am less invested. In the men's draw, anyway. I am quite thrilled about the US ladies stepping up to the plate and am looking forward to their semifinals tonight. But let me tell you about my Labor Day-weekend evening at the Open...

Long back story: because I'm a crazy person, I joined the USTA (the national tennis association) so I could get their magazine and so I could be a part of the ticket pre-sale that they did every year. For maybe the last ten or so years, I've been buying tickets to the first or second night of the Open, in a 'buy one, get one free' promotion they always have, then I would buy a slightly more expensive ticket in a lower section for myself during the first week. The tickets in the 'buy one, get one' promotion were always in the upper section, but I would go with a group of pals and we would have an uber-fun time. And I was happy to spend a little more money to treat myself to a closer seat at least once during the tournament. Oh, those happy days of the past. This year, I got an email saying that the USTA was no longer doing the pre-sale, but AMEX would be. Well, ok, I got an AMEX last year before my Italy trip (a just-in-case sort of thing, because I don't like using credit cards, but I figured better safe than sorry when overseas), so I thought I could just use it for this new pre-sale in the same way.

line to get in

Sad face. No. They DID offer two-for-one tickets in the AMEX pre-sale, but they were twice as expensive and in the last three rows of Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is basically like watching a tennis match from the far side of the moon. So no tennis night with a group of pals this year, darn it. But I still wanted to take myself to another session and was willing to pay extra extra, since I would only be going once. But AMEX wouldn't even LET me buy tickets in one of the lower sections, no matter how much I was willing to pay, because you had to have a special code! A special code only given to people with fancy American Express cards, not we plebes who have the learner's permit American Express cards that have a tiny credit limit! Grrrrrr. So I spent more money than usual for a worse seat.

lights and fog!

Ugh. Sorry, that's a lot of complaining. Last Friday was the fateful night and I started off well - even though the line to get in was horribly long, it moved relatively quickly and painlessly and it was a gorgeous night. I did get a few free things from the USTA for being a member (a nice hat, a tshirt and a $10-off coupon for merch), and I also took advantage of the free little radios AMEX passes out to their guests. I guess all would've turned out well if I hadn't been in the section I ended up in. I have it written down so I will NEVER SIT THERE AGAIN. Here is a public service announcement: never sit in a section that has two staircases immediately on either side, and never sit in the first few rows. My view for most of the evening was of people coming up or going down the stairs. Or of people just standing there, either looking for their seats or looking at the tennis. After awhile, no amount of "DOWN IN FRONT" works. I mean, when I first got to my seat, I was kind of excited about the location, because I was near some spotlights and the smoke machine, which made me giggle, but the giggle didn't last long. You'll see my view in the photos below...

So the fact that I was in a pricey seat and yet I still couldn't see made me crabby. I was also crabby because there were so many people who decided to just sit wherever the hell they wanted, as opposed to the seat location on their ticket. There were two guys who started in the front row and just kept moving back every time the rightful seat owners arrived. They ended up next to me and I tried to tell them that a father/daughter combo was sitting there and were coming back, but they said "We don't care," and sat down. I think the father/daughter combo just left when they saw their seats were now occupied. Steam was practically coming out of my ears. The US Open is a costly event, I get that. And now they have two new stadiums and a roof to pay for, so I'm guessing the price is going to just keep going up. But the sense of entitlement is WAY out of control. This was the first year I have ever felt that being there might not have been worth it. And I hate that I had that feeling. Of course, the tennis on the program also might've had something to do with it...

Isner

I was excited that the first match on Ashe would be American John Isner v German Mischa Zverev. Both players have good backstories, and I'm especially fond of Isner. There really isn't any reason he should've lost that match, but lose it, he did. It can be frustrating to be an Isner fan - for some reason, he doesn't seem to be able to kick things up a notch when he needs to. Of course, Zverev had something to do with it. He was playing at a really high level and just kept hitting the lines all over the place. He had a great match and Isner had a crappy one, which isn't a good combination. The match was over pretty quickly, which meant the next match up came too soon.

look at all that fog!

I was really irked when I found out that the second night match would be Maria Sharapova. I believe that I've mentioned before that she's not my favorite player. Talk about sense of entitlement. I get that she's a brand and famous and blonde and all that, but I don't think that means she should get all the primo matches on Ashe. There were other compelling match-ups that would've been great to see, but no. The USTA has no imagination when it comes to scheduling a women's match on Ashe, so I had to sit through a Sharapova match. Again. To be honest, I only stayed for the first three games, which Sharapova won. Loudly. I left, went to the merchandise booth and used my $10 coupon on a cute t-shirt. So that was fun, as was the saxophone player on the boardwalk between the tennis center and the subway - he was playing the theme song from Dynasty. Who knows why? But he made me smile. I saw on my phone, as I was waiting on the subway platform, that Sharapova's opponent, a young American girl named Sofia Kenin, had come back to tie up the first set. That's good, the gal apparently fought hard, but Sharapova still came out on top. I made it home in time to see the end of the match, so...that's how my US Open ended this year. With a whimper, not a bang. Well, I whimpered. Sharapova shrieked. Again. Whatever. I guess I'm going to have to re-find my joy before next year. But, seriously, if you go to the US Open, don't sit in Section 318...