The U.S. Open tennis tournament has become one of my favourite sporting events, at least when I can afford it. Two years ago, tickets were incredibly cheap on the secondary market, even for the men's and women's finals, and I attended five times. Last year was far more expensive and I didn't go once, while this year had enough cheap (and free) days that I again went five times: once for qualifying and then four times during the tournament proper.
Despite visiting so often, I saw few matches start to finish, with matches taking quite long and access to courts limited due to the large number of fans in attendance. I went on the first Thursday hoping to see Naomi Osaka (the eventual champion, but more on that later), but she dominated her match against Julia Glushko so completely that it was long finished before I arrived. The following match between bad boy Nick Kyrgios and Pierre-Hugues Hebert made news for the umpire leaving his chair to encourage Kyrgios, and I reached Court 17 just as that was finishing up. This allowed me to move into the second row for the following match between Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Marketa Vondrousova from Czechia. They appeared wearing identical outfits (above) as both are sponsored by Nike, who seem to have limited clothing options for unseeded players. This fashion faux pas resulted in some snickering from the crowd, but did not bother Vondrousova, who beat Genie (below) 6-4, 6-3.
I spent the next couple of hours wandering from court to court, checking out the Grandstand where 17th-seed Lucas Pouille was battling Marcos Baghdatis (serving below). I watched the third set which Pouille won to take a 2-1 lead. Then the new extreme heat rules kicked in - the players got a 10-minute break and retreated to the dressing room to cool down.
Rather than sit around baking on the metal benches, I decided to head over to the newly rebuilt Louis Armstrong court to watch 21st-seed Kei Nishikori against Gael Monfils, the opening match of the night session. The upper deck here is open to all, and I wanted to arrive early to get a decent seat, finding one along the baseline (view below). The match was quite disappointing as Monfils retired down 6-2, 5-4.
Before leaving, I made one final tour of the grounds, and stopped at Court 5, where 26th-seed Richard Gasquet (below) was facing Laslo Djere. Despite the late hour and rather pedestrian matchup (Gasquet won in straight sets), there were no seats here as you can see in the photo below. This was the main difference from my previous visits, where I found that smaller matches generally were not well attended. Now you better arrive well before the match you want to see if you want to sit in a good location. I also noticed that many of the fans seem to be tourists are not accustomed to tennis etiquette, including a couple of boneheads who walked across a court that was not in use.
The next day I returned with my buddy Andrew, who drove up from Philadelphia. After a stop at Mikkeler in Citi Field, we found someone who got us grounds passes for $50, half of face value. I was really only interested in the match between #5 seed Kevin Anderson and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, seeded 28th. That was the last match on Armstrong for the day session, so with a couple of hours to wait, we went to the grandstand, which was ridiculously crowded for a match between #9 Dominic Thiem and American Taylor Fritz. After watching a couple of games, we made our way over to Court 5, where a women's doubles match was taking place. Second seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic (below) were up against Americans Nicole Gibbs and Sabrina Santamaria. Doubles matches are not as popular as singles, so we were able to get a first row bench near the corner, which is a fantastic angle to watch serves coming in. Babos/Mladenovic won 6-0, 6-2 and as they went to the net for the handshake, sent the balls back in our direction. Andrew picked one up for his kids, a nice souvenir of his trip.
With that done, we went to Armstrong. Along the way, I found a ticket for the lower level that allowed us to sit close for the first couple of sets. Shapovalov (below) won the first set, but lost the next two, after which I had to leave. After forcing a 5th set, the Canadian lost, but he is only 19 and will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.
The following week, I went to see some quarterfinal action at Arthur Ashe Stadium. My wife is a fan of Juan Del Potro (seeded 3rd), so she planned to come later to see his match against John Isner (11th). I went early and watched as defending champion Sloane Stephens (3) was upset by Anastasija Sevastova (19). After that, I again found a ticket on the ground for Armstrong, this one in the front row. Because the Open uses mobile ticketing, fans are handed a seat locator to show to ushers. This is just as important as a hard ticket and so I was able to watch some doubles quarterfinals matches from the front row, including Babos/Mladenovic as they won again on their way to the finals. When my wife arrived, I took over baby duties so did not pay much attention to Del Potro's 4-set victory over Isner.
My final visit was on Thursday, which offered free admission to see all four doubles semifinals. There were wheelchair matches scheduled on Ashe, but due to the extreme heat, they were suspended. This did allow me to get a rare picture of the stadium completely empty.
Below are the seats that regularly go for over $1,000 near the end of the tournament. I hope I can sit here once.
The doubles semifinals were held on Armstrong and despite it being free, few fans were out early. I was hoping to see the Babos/Mladenovic team again, but their match was fourth on the docket. The first match between Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo (7) and Radu Albot/Malek Jaziri took 2:46 with what seemed like an infinite number of deuces, with Kubot/Melo winning to advance to the final. I sat behind the baseline in the shade, which I find a better view as you can see the lines clearly and you don't have to move your head back and forth on every shot.
I stayed for the next match, which featured Wimbledon champs #3 Mike Bryan and Jack Sock against #5 Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah. This was a lot of fun to watch, and when Sock blew a chance at a match point, a third set resulted, extending the match by another 40 minutes. The Americans won that to advance but the entire match took over 2 hours. That's five hours for just two matches, and enough for me. Rather than stay for the women's matches, I headed home with enough tennis to keep me satisfied for another year.
The Controversy
A quick word on the Serena Williams controversy. Having lived in Japan, I pay attention to Japanese players and knew about Naomi Osaka from a couple of years ago. So I was excited to see her in the final. Unfortunately, her win was overshadowed by mistakes made by three people: Serena, her coach, and the umpire.
Mistake one was the coach signaling to Serena, for which the umpire rightly issued a code violation. Serena missed the point about cheating; the rule does not consider whether the player saw the signal, just whether it was made. Tennis should consider punishing the coach by ejecting him from the venue rather than the player for something she did not do. Anyway, that code violation upset Serena, who had been thoroughly outplayed in the first set, and when she double-faulted in the second set, she smashed her racket. This was mistake two and earned Serena a second violation, which is a point penalty. This set her off even more and, unable to control herself, she called the umpire a thief and a liar during a changeover, down 4-3.
This is where the umpire should have let it slide (mistake three). With Osaka leading and Serena clearly off her game, he should have realized that a third code violation and the resulting game penalty would be the dominant story, rather than Osaka's incredible play. Instead, he issued the violation and after a lengthy delay during which Serena talked to tournament officials, Serena served down 5-3 without Osaka serving. Although Serena held, Osaka served out the match and won her first Grand Slam championship. The trophy presentation was marred by boos from the fans and tears from the players.
I don't know if it was sexism on the part of the umpire or not, but it was poor judgment on the part of all three participants that marred the first Grand Slam title by a Japanese. I hope tennis is able to change some of the rules and give the umpires some leeway so a similar incident does not happen again.
Best,
Sean
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