US Open: check!
On Thursday, I hopped on the subway and took the 7 train to Flushing Meadows for a day at the US Open. All matches were cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the rain, so I totally lucked out and was able to see way more tennis than I bargained for. Several of the men's and women's quarterfinals matches were supposed to have finished up on those days so I got to see them on Thursday. It was AWESOME!!
Arthur Ashe Stadium - tennis mecca!
My neighbor in Columbia has been to the Open twice. She told me I HAD to start my day with a Honey Deuce, the unofficial drink of the US Open. It came in a collector cup, so it seemed pretty official to me ... and it was tasty!
After I did my shopping (had to buy new sunglasses because I forgot to switch them over when I changed bags), I headed straight for the Grandstand to see the Murray v. Young match. Donald Young was the up-and-comer from Atlanta. He had a great first two rounds, but kind of caved once he met up with Murray. Even still, he kept his cool and made the US proud. Murray, on the other hand, ended up showing himself later on in the tournament. I'm just not a big fan of his. Check out how close I was ... first row!
There he is ... Donald Young. See how empty the stadium was at the start of the match? It did end up filling up some, but this was the first match of the day and I guess some folks just weren't as up and at 'em as I was.
There I am ... front row seat! How do you like my shades? (Most expensive pair of sunglasses I've ever owned!)
Once I realized Murray was going to win the match in the Grandstand, I headed over to Court #17 to watch John Isner. He's the American who had the longest tennis match ever at Wimbledon in 2010. The last set alone lasted 8 hours! He was fun to watch and it was amazing to see him in person. He's HUGE - his wingspan must have taken up 3/4 of the court.
Per instructions from my neighbor who was texting me from home, I booked it over to Court #13 to try to see the Roddick v. Ferrer match. It was supposed to be at Louis Armstrong Stadium, but there was a crack in the court and water was bubbling up right at the baseline so it wasn't safe to play. That stadium holds just over 10,000 while Court #13 only seats about 500. There were some really unhappy campers. I managed to get a few good shots of Roddick through all of the people in front of me but then decided to move on since I knew I wasn't going to get any closer.
I went over to check out my seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium. You have to be a ticket holder to get into Ashe. That place is HUGE! But, I thought I had a great seat. I was up in the corner on the top row of the section just above the boxes and the sun was behind me. I saw the quarterfinal matches between Serena Williams and Pavlyuchenkova and Djokovic (the ultimate winner) and Tipsaravic.
Serena warming up. (This was before she lost her cool with the umpire so the crowd was still on her side.)
Djokovic was playing a fellow Serb. It was a great match because both guys kept coming up to play the net. It made for a lot of fun points.
Will and I met up back at the hotel and walked to dinner at Keen's Steakhouse. They have the largest collection of clay pipes in the world. It was a really cool place and the steaks were great.
We walked home through Rockefeller Plaza and Will let me take a quick picture.
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