Great watching the 2021 US Open with friends
It was wonderful spending time with these great friends; I hadn't seen David Romero in many years and we also visited with Jason Coronado who was working at the US Open (he's taking time away from teaching at the moment)
The most exciting tennis I saw was from Spanish teen Carlos Alcaraz who defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in a thriller; Alcaraz displayed a fierce baseline game similar to Nadal's but at times his youth and inexperience crept in, but a great tournament for him
Coco Gauff had already lost in singles so I caught her first doubles match with partner Caty McNally (17 and 19 years old respectively); they defeated a veteran pair and ultimately made it the finals before falling in a three set match
Our group arrived Wednesday before remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded NYC (and 100s of cars at the US Open) that night; play had to be stopped on Armstrong Stadium (which had the roof closed) due to rain blowing in through the sides of the structure
We watched Novak Djokovic practice but given the fact that he chose to conduct a tournament during the pandemic with no restrictions in place (resulting in many players getting sick) and his strong anti-vaccine opinions, I rooted against him
Jannik Sinner is only 20 years old with a ranking of 14 in the world; I watched him beat a relatively unknown American; Sinner grew up in northern Italy and played very few tennis events as a junior including none of the junior Grand Slam tournaments
Arthur Ashe Stadium, with a capacity of 22771, is the largest tennis arena in the world (the 16,100 seat Indian Wells Stadium is second); our group visited for the Thursday and Friday day sessions the first week of the tournament
I hadn't realized that former world no. 1 Garbine Muguruza was born in Venezuela before moving to Spain when she was 6; despite success at other Grand Slam tournaments, she's never made it past the fourth round here
The Grandstand Court (seats 8125) is just about the perfect size with every seat giving you a good view of the action; this year all calls were made electronically with no actual linespeople
Taylor Fritz, who captured the US Open boy's title in 2015, has never gone beyond the third round of a Grand Slam tournament; his mother played pro tennis and her family founded May Department Stores which ultimately merged with Macy's
Denis Shapovalov rose to prominence by reaching the semifinals at the 2017 Canadian Open as an 18-year-old, beating Juan Martín del Potro and Rafael Nadal; he was ranked 10 in the world last year but has never done very well at the majors
This year, spectators had to be vaccinated to attend but the glances given vaccine cards was cursory at best; since 1978, the tournament has been played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Park, Queens
Former world number 3, Sloane Stephens had a couple of good wins (Keys and Gauff) before falling to Angelique Kerber in the third round; I never knew that she dated Jack Sock for more than a year earlier in their careers
There are separate tickets to the night sessions which start at 7pm on the two largest stadium courts (with the biggest names playing); the day session matches often run long so you can stay and watch past 7pm on all courts except those two stadium courts
Victoria Azarenka is a three-time finalist at the US Open, finishing runner-up to Serena Williams in both 2012 and 2013 and to Naomi Osaka in 2020 (after defeating Serena in the semis); we watched her fall to Muguruza in the 3rd round
We watched an aggressive Jenson Brooksby, coming off an excellent summer hard court season, defeat Taylor Fritz; he became the youngest American (he's 20) to reach the US Open fourth round since a then 20-year-old Andy Roddick did so in 2002
As much as I love his backhand, the strong anti-vaccine stance taken by Stefanos Tsitsipas had me cheering for Carlos Alcaraz when we saw them compete; I first watched Tsitsipas at Indian Wells a few years ago and recognized the great potential he had