A Day Off at the US Open

“I want to wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep. And find I’m king of the hill; top of the heap.”

Come marathon day, I will be waking up in a city that doesn’t sleep. 

As far as the “king of the hill, top of the heap” lyric is concerned.. Well, that will probably be someone from Kenya or Ethiopia wrecking me by well over an hour. I’ll be happy to just be a respectable part of the hill or heap on November 3.

You’re probably wondering what the point is to this well known lyric from “New York, New York,” which Frank Sinatra (and my good buddy James DeFrances) crooned with passion and fervor all over the world.

These words are on display at the players entrance of Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center in New York, greeting each incoming player with a big, bold homage to New York City while simultaneously serving as inspirational message; emblazoned in their minds throughout the 2 week tournament.

I spent my day off of training here at the USTA National Tennis Center with my dad and brother to enjoy some world class tennis action at the US Open. 

We got grounds passes, which enabled us to enjoy matches at 2 of the showcase courts, as well as all of the side courts. The only thing we missed out on were tickets to the cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium, which quite frankly, I’m not too fond of during the day in the early rounds.

As an avid tennis fan, I’d much rather watch 2 hungry qualifiers gut it out in a knock down, drag out 5 set grunt fest on court 17 than watch a far-away pin sized Novak Djokovic put the beat down of some poor dirt-balling qualifier from Argentina from the upper deck of the cavernous, windy confines of Arthur Ashe stadium: A stadium where they showcase the cream of the crop each day and night.

Upon arrival (and thanks to me being on the marathon team), we received an all access tour of the facility. We got to check out the media room, the player lounge, the player cafeteria, and more. When the tour started, our guide said “don’t take pictures of the players, don’t touch the players, don’t talk to the players.” I felt prematurely star struck at the mere notion of spotting Federer or Nadal or anyone else I recognized for that matter.

I didn’t see Nole, Fed or Rafa, but I spotted Chris Evert walking through our tour exclaiming “well, I won 6 majors,” while our tour guide was talking about past champions,  Paul Annacone (Federer’s coach), Alexandr Dolgopolov, Xavier Malisse, Chanda Rubin, Andrea Hlavackova (Czech doubles superstar), Richard Gasquet immersed in a French conversation on his cell phone, Gael Monfils returning from a hitting session, and the seemingly fratty Jack Sock shaking hands and paling around with his chauffeur.

Here’s a picture of my brother and I at the front of the VIP area.

The rest of the day was filled with fantastic tennis action, overpriced food, entertaining people watching, and beautiful weather. We got to watch 10^th ranked Milos Raonic crank out his trademark 150 MPH serves. We watched the beautiful, talented Serb Ana Ivanovic put the beat down on Georgian Ana Tatashvili. We watched Jerzy Janowicz’s powerful yet overly erroneous display in an upset loss to the Argentinian qualifier, Maximo Gonzalez. We watched a squirrel frantically sprint around the court and cause a slight delay in the match between Lukasz Kubot and Jarko Nieminen.

Later in the day, we met with Elaine from the USTA Serves Charity who bought us all ice cream to say thank you for being a part of the charity marathon team. A brownie sundae sure was a great thing to eat while training! 

As the afternoon kicked into full gear, we settled into the grandstand and watched American John Isner crack ace after ace after winner after winner in his one sided victory over the Italian, Filipo Volandri, who has lost 20 straight hard court matches. After that, we checked out the charismatic, freakishly athletic Frenchman, Gael Monfils, only to notice that he barely had to try in his quick dismissal of Adrian Ungur, who looked like the nightlife of New York City got the best of him the night before.

The side courts are host to some of the most incredible tennis in the world during these first 2 rounds. Here, I watched Jeremy Chardy of France gut out a 5 set victory over Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine. After the match, my brother felt a sweaty arm rub up against him. Just an exhausted Jeremy Chardy navigating through the crowd and making his way back to the locker room.

The side court, gut-checking battle of the day would have to go to Rogerio Dutra Silva who saved 7 match points in a 5 set, heavily attended victory over the up and coming Canadian, Vasek Pospisil. Both men were covered in sweat, pumping themselves up in their respective languages, and playing with the kind of tenacity that really draws the crowds in. “One more point!....Uno!!!” yelled an American fan cheering for Dutra Silva of Brazil.

After a controversial line call which infuriated Pospisil, Dutra Silva toughed it out in a fifth set tiebreak to a sea of cheers towards the players and boos toward the chair umpire. Security guards raced towards the court. I joked that they’ll probably have to escort the umpire out so he doesn’t get hurt. The security guard scoffed, laughed, and shook his head.

We watched Federer and Azarenka practice while simultaneously watching a racquet-smashing Nicolas Almagro bow out to the unseeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. We watched an up and coming young girl from Pennsylvania take out a decent Bulgarian player. We watched on the screen as the 17 year old Victoria Duval went stroke for stroke with former champion Samantha Stosur of Australia, later earning the win.

I was exhausted, sunburnt, and rocking my brand new Roger Federer shirt! But it was time to go home after nearly 9 straight hours of outdoor tennis action.

When I talk about tennis, I tend to ramble a lot, but the bottom line is, this was a great day off of training and a great time at one of my favorite places in the world. Taking days off are important while training, and if you’re able to coordinate them around doing things that you enjoy, then more power to you.

As I train, I’ll remember the wise words of old blue eyes: “If I can make it here, I’ll make it anywhere; its up to you, New York, New Yoooooooork" (hold that note out Frankie)