Wednesday, back we went to the tennis center. We were excited because the new Louis Armstrong stadium was going to be dedicated. I was afraid it would be even more packed than usual on the grounds, but it wasn't too bad. They actually started checking bags and letting people go through the metal detectors a little early, though the gates didn't open until exactly 10am. I told Mom it was too bad they didn't the gate opening like they do at Disney, with songs and characters. I would've appreciated some sort of tennis song and a guy dressed up as a tennis ball. Oh well.
We went straight to Armstrong to get a good seat near the back and on the aisle. There's a nice breeze in the stadium when you're in the back and an aisle seat (near the ladies room) is always a good idea for me. We had about an hour to wait before the ceremonies began, but it was nice to relax there. They did a little rehearsing of the upcoming ceremony, which was fun. I'll try to attach a video somewhere. When they finally started, it was nice to hear from Katrina Adams, John McEnroe, David Dinkins and Wynton Marsalis, along with a gent who actually knew Louis Armstrong! There was music and dancing kids, then we saw a bit of an exhibition doubles match between John & Patrick McEnroe versus James Blake/Michael Chang. Mom and I would've enjoyed that match a great deal if we hadn't been sitting in front of one of the most obnoxious men in the world. He knew everything, about everything, and he had to tell everyone in the loudest voice about his know-everythingness. We couldn't take it anymore, so we left after the first set and went to watch a match.
I decided I wanted to watch the match featuring Marco Trungelliti from Argentina. If you follow tennis at all, you may remember Trungelliti's name from the French Open. He's the player who had to drive all night from Spain because a space opened up in the draw. If he could make it back to Paris by a certain time, he could be in the tournament. He drove all night with his brother and grandmother, documenting their trip on social media all the way. He then happened to win his first round match, and won more money in that one match than he had won all year! It was a sweet story and he was adorable when all the news outlets interviewed him. I was happy to watch him play. His opponent was Daniel Gimeno-Traver from Spain. He's been ranked in the top 50 before and he's on the comeback trail. Oh, and I want to mention something else: there has been controversy at the Open this year because a female tennis player was given a code violation for changing her shirt on court. Which is ridiculous, because men do it all the time. But at this men's qualifying match, I saw something I had never seen before: Gimeno-Traver changed his SHORTS on court. He was sitting, and it was casual, but still. He changed his shorts with no mention of a violation of any kind. Sexism at its best. OK. Moving on.
This match wasn't very good at first - neither guy could hold serve. But it became a good match, plus it was shady in our seats, so we actually stayed for the whole thing. I enjoyed watching Trungelliti play - he's got some good shots and a bit of joie de vivre around him, so it was fun. He finally won the third set and we were happy. I was starting to feel the first twinges of being a little unwell, though, for some reason. Unfortunately, it would get worse. Before that, though, Mom and I went to check out another veteran on the comeback trail - Ivo Karlovic from Croatia. Ivo is nearly seven feet tall with a huge serve. If I recall correctly, he may have the most aces ever hit in a career. Though I may be remembering incorrectly. Anyway, we watched a few games of his match - boy, is he tall! And is his serve big! That's about all I got from the match. Because his limbs are so long, his game is rather ungainly, but he gets the job done. We then decided to head to Louis Armstrong one more time before heading home. We watched former champ Marin Cilic practice. The practice started oddly - he sort of stood there while a guy was taking photos, then he did some sort of weird running drill. I don't know, maybe it was for his clothing sponsor? It was just really odd. Then once his coach stood in front of him, tossing balls at Cilic to hit (also looked odd), we decided to leave.
My unwellness only increased and overnight it got worse. All I wanted to do the next day (Thursday) was stay in bed, but since there would be no water in my apartment (and therefore no bathroom, if you're understanding my subtext), I tried to use a new app where you can rent a hotel room just for the daytime. Unfortunately, all of the hotels in my area denied my request to stay there. I guess they were all filled with tennis fans. So my mom and I did the dumbest thing imaginable - we went back to the mall. There are seats there, air conditioning, and lots of bathrooms. So, yes, we went to the mall and spent the day of unwellness. So dumb. But my mom and I made the best of it. We even went to the new location of her favorite diner: when we got off the subway and walked past it, this time I looked at the sign on the door, which had the address of the new location. It was only a few blocks from the old location, so we went there. My mom got some soup, I got some toast, and it was fine. What a vacation.
Friday, I sucked it up and we went back to the tennis. Mom and I have watched American Donald Young many times over the years and he was playing first up on our Court 11, so we went right over there. He has a nice game, but I don't know, his career has just never come together. He's got talent, but I guess that's not enough. He's 29 years old already, which isn't old, but I think he turned pro at 15. Anyway, we enjoyed watching the first set of the match - even though he lost control of his lead, he came back to win the set. Mom and I were really hot from sitting in the sun, though, so we went off to the Grandstand, where there's shade, and we watched Americans John Isner and Mackenzie McDonald practice. They were practicing very energetically and it was pleasant to watch them. I did run over to see Tommy Roberdo and Nicolas Mahut, though. I wanted to see their third round match, but it was packed and the sun was so hot. After a day of unwellness, I was still feeling a little weak, so I only watched a few games. They were great fun, though. I wished both of them could win! When I went back to meet Mom (she had stayed to watch the practice), we stayed a little longer to watch Richard Gasquet again. Then we decided to just head back to my apartment, hoping the stupid construction could be done for the day. All in all, it was a grand Tennis Week, though getting up so early every day to beat the water turn-off got really old! Fingers crossed that will never happen again! And now I'm already counting the minutes until Tennis Week next year...
And now for the best part of Tennis Week - the tennis!! Tuesday, Mom and I headed out to Flushing to check out the US Open qualifying tournament. Due to the stupid water turn-off, we decided to leave early and go sit in Flushing Meadows park before going into the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. We stopped at my favorite bagel place on the way to the subway, picked up breakfast to go with all our Trader Joe's snacks, and off we went.
When I looked at the US Open app before leaving, two names just jumped off the page for me and I told Mom we HAD to watch them play: Tommy Robredo (Spain) and Ernests Gulbis (Latvia). They're both coming back from injury so their rankings are really low at the moment. They had to go through qualifying to try to get back into the main draw. I've just been a big fan of both of theirs over the years, even though they've both beaten my Roger at Grand Slams before. My grudge-holding is very random.
The lines were pretty long to get in, which surprised me for the first day of qualifying. They moved the metal detectors pretty far up, which was interesting. I guess they were trying to make more room between the searches and the actual gates. Getting in went relatively smoothly for us all week, which was a relief. I had a moment of terror when I realized I forgot to remove a glass perfume rollerball in my bag - I thought for sure they'd find it and take it away from me, but somehow the gal missed it and I got that contraband onto the grounds. I made sure to remove it the instant we got home that night.
On our way to watch matches, we stopped in the new Louis Armstrong stadium to see what it looked like. We watched Grigor Dimitrov practice for a few minutes before heading out to see Tommy Robredo. His was the first match we went to, on our old reliable standby Court 11. He was playing Henri Laaksonen from Switzerland. I've always liked Tommy and his game - they are both quite handsome. He struggled a little bit in the first set, but did pull it out with a late break at the end of the set, then he won the second set comfortably. Mom and I then wandered over to watch Andy Murray practice with Richard Gasquet in the new Grandstand - Murray has been injured for about a year, so it was nice to see him back on the court. He wasn't too crankypants, which was nice, though he wasn't exactly playing all full out, either. And Gasquet's hair was shockingly bleached blonde, with tickled my mom and me.
After watching the practice for a bit, we went over to the food court for a little lunch. Fries were needed. I was unhappy to again be iced tea-less at the Open. I think I need to send a strongly worded letter. I ran over to see Sabine Lisicki play for a few minutes - she was a Wimbledon finalist just a few years ago and is now in qualifying. There wasn't a place to sit, though, so I only watched for a few. I went back to get Mom because I wanted to get back over to Court 11 to see Ernests Gulbis play. I don't know why I like him so much, he's a complete and utter wackadoodle and hasn't lived up to expectations. But when his game is on, it's quite exciting. Unfortunately, it's not on very often. And I think the qualifying match he played against Christian Harrison of the US sort of sums up his career. He was up, he was down, he was wackadoodle. He kept getting frustrated by people talking in the crowd (he would turn to people and yell at them to shut up), he was confused about the shot clock and being able to talk to his coach during the match. He called for an injury timeout and he, at times, played brilliantly. He's just really a ton of fun to watch. And, of course, he lost. In the first round of qualifying. Sigh. Harrison really just needed to be steady and withstand the flashes of brilliance and just let Gulbis wackadoodle himself right out of the Open, which he did. Again, sigh. I hope he can get his head screwed back on and start over with a clean slate next year. I do so enjoy watching him play. The antics...not so much.
After Gulbis lost, and sitting for three sets, we needed some shade. On our way over to the Grandstand to watch the new Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber practice, we wandered through the practice courts and I got a funny shot of Canadian Denis Shapovalov. They really need to do something about the chain link fence. How can I get good photos?! I got this shot by putting my phone through a rip in the fence and tarp. But I like it! We didn't watch Kerber practice for long, though, because we wanted to get over to see Aussies Bernard Tomic and Thanassi Kokkinakis play. Speaking of wackadoodles. Just Google their names and enjoy the weirdness. Mom and I only stayed for the first set because we were approaching end-of-all-day-sun tiredness. Tomic easily won the first set and it struck me how easy he can make playing tennis look. It's free and loose and natural, plus he can hit any shot in the book. He easily won the first set but ended up losing the match. It's sad that his brain gets in his own way. After a happy look at Serena Williams' handsome coach (see photo below), Mom and I decided we needed to get back to my apartment and put our feet up, though we did stop into the new Louis Armstrong stadium on our way out to watch Alexander Zverev practice for a few minutes before leaving for ice cream. It was a good first day - I'll try to cram the other days into the next post. But thanks for reading!
Howdy! Another Tennis Week with my mom has come and gone and we had a ton of fun, as usual. I swear, sometimes we can just look at each other and start laughing about something without having to say what we're laughing at. I just love her to pieces. I will say that this year, Tennis Week DID have its challenges, but it was mostly a great time. As always, these posts will be a bit long because I just don't know how to self-edit...
A tiny bit of backstory: a few days before my mom was supposed to arrive, a notice was posted all over my building, saying that there would be construction and a new water main installed on my street, so the water would be turned off, every weekday, for two weeks. Wait, WHAT?!?! I wait for this vacation for an entire year and now there would be no water in my apartment?!?! Ugh. To say this put a crimp on some things is an understatement. Sometimes I think the universe is trying to get me. Though I am grateful that the weather was pleasant when my mom was here (if it had been as hot as it is this week, she and I would've been in a world of trouble, I think)...
Mom arrived on Sunday morning - we decided we'd go out to our favorite diner in Elmhurst and check out the mall. I know, going to a mall during vacation is doofy, but that's what my family does now and then. It's a midwest thing, I'm thinking. We got off the subway and walked toward our diner and I started to feel dismay: I could see that it was all boarded up and the sign seemed like it was missing something. Like the sign. We were really disappointed to see that the diner was closed up. In my discombobulated state, I didn't read the sign on the front door. I should have. This will come into play later in the trip.
We decided to go to the food court at the mall so Mom could get some Nathan's french fries. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I won't be partaking of any of Nathan's products anymore, since the owner has come out as a big supporter of the awful man who lives in the White House. I try not to impose my boycotts on anyone else, though, so off we went. To my (concealed) delight, Nathan's is no longer in the food court! Awkward situation resolved! We got some Starbucks breakfast snacks instead. While we were sitting, I was looking at my phone to see where the nearest Traders Joe's was.
Mom and I like several Trader Joe's snacks, so it's a tradition that we take them with us to the tennis. Originally, I had in on my unofficial itinerary that we would go on Monday, when we would be in Manhattan, but I noticed on my phone that there was a Trader Joe's relatively nearby! The map said it was about a 30-minute walk. Mom thought that sounded reasonable (ha ha), so we decided to give it a try.
We hadn't walked very far when we started to second-guess our decision. After all, a 30-minute walk there meant a 30-minute walk back. With bags. It was a nice day, but it's a really congested area to try to walk in. Luckily, my phone's GPS also had the bus route to get there and the bus was right across the street! So Mom and I had a mini-adventure and took the express bus to Trader Joe's.
It's a nice store, but oh my gosh, it was crowded! It was Sunday, after all. We didn't do a lot of meandering in the store, we just sort of picked out the things we knew we wanted so we could get in the really long line. I guess it wasn't very relaxing, but we did get some tasty snacks and I did discover a Trader Joe's in Queens. When we came out of the store, though, it was raining. So we stood under the awning and had fun watching the crazy people pulling in and out of that tiny, awkwardly-placed parking lot. I told Mom we should do a podcast or something of our doing commentary, like a sporting event, of the people trying to park. We got a giggle out of that. The rain let up and we went back to the bus stop and made it home.
After sitting for a bit in my apartment, and watching a little bit of tennis in Cincinnati, we went back out to wander around my neighborhood. We ended up at Ample Hills, a great ice cream place that has opened up a new shop near my apartment. Yum. I wish we could've gone there every day because I want to try all the flavors! Mom got the peanut butter and I got the limoncello sorbet. Delicious.
Monday, we got up early so we could do all the things that girls need to do in the morning that require water. I loathe getting up early when I'm on vacation, but so be it. I had an appointment for us to go to the Downton Abbey exhibition at 11am, but since my water was being turned off at 8:30am, we left early and walked through Central Park beforehand. It was nice and quiet in the park, though of course it started to rain again. Sigh. We wandered into the Plaza Hotel and their downstairs food court to escape the rain for a bit before walking over to Downton Abbey.
I've already told you about my birthday trip to the exhibition, so I won't go into details about it again. I'll just say it was great to see it again - Mom loved it and I loved it again, especially since there were WAY fewer people than there were in March, so I could get much better photos and take my time reading the placards that are scattered around. We were there for a couple of hours and it was grand. I'm so glad we went. After that, we were a little peckish (though not a lot; I was having stomach issues most of the week, which will come into play later in the week). We stopped at a nearby grocery store and picked up some yogurt and fruit for Mom and a ginger tea for me, then walked back to the park to enjoy it. Mom needed her Nathan's fries, though, since she didn't get them the day before, so I found a kiosk that sold them. I just yelled at the owner in my head.
After we finished eating, we hopped onto the Fifth Avenue bus (Mom has discovered a love of a NY bus - you can see where you're going and you don't have to walk up and down subway stairs) and went to Chelsea. I wanted to go to several shops around there, so we had a good time wandering around, popping into shops, buying a few fun things, then sitting in Madison Square Park for a bit. We finally ended up in Union Square, wandered through the greenmarket, then went back to my apartment. It was a day of lots of walking. Our feet were tired! Happily, by the time we got back to the apartment, the water had been turned back on for the night. And it was Judy Garland day on Turner Classic Movies, which made us doubly glad to be back (and with water). So ends part one of our trip report. Tennis will be discussed in part two...
