September 11, 2010

Welcome to the US Open

After killing our feet, legs and backs pounding the pavement in New York, we are now sitting and watching others pound the pavement at the US Open.   It's fantastic.  The US Open is one of four yearly grand slam tournaments and Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open is the largest stadium in the world.

Day 1: 32C and clear skies!  
You can't imagine a finer day for tennis AND somebody is celebrating a birthday:)   We get there and find out we are watching Djokovic vs Monfils at Arthur Ashe!  For those of you that didn't watch the match it was close in the first 10 games.  After that, Nole kicked some serious ass!  Not his greatest game but it helped that Monfils attempted to hit the ball through his legs while facing the net for no other reason than to showboat and missed miserably.






The grounds at Flushing Meadows are nice, well organized and nice to walk.  Everyone has access to the surrounding courts and practice courts, where you can find anything from a juniors or wheelchair games to the legends and pro's practicing.  Once inside the complex, anyone is free to go and watch a match at the Louis Armstrong Stadium. While walking around, we came across Monfils practicing for the Nole game (where he also played a bit of bball) and Nestor practicing with the legendary Todd Martin.  Very cool thing happened that night, we saw Daniel Nestor again: while at dinner at Les Halles, he came in and was seated right next to us!





Day 2: windy and cold ... very windy and very cold
We went from 32C and sunburns to 15C and 50 km winds.  We definitely did not dress for the occasion.  In the gusting wind, we watched the mixed doubles final where Bryan (USA) and Huber (USA) def. Peschke (CZE)  and Qureshi (PAK).  Bryan also won the men's doubles with his twin brother the following day, defeating Qureshi (PAK) and Bopanna (IND).  Following the mixed doubles, we watched a marathon match between Wawrinka (SUI) and Youzhny (RUS).  Youzhny won in five sets.  We shivered our way home and had an amazing $4 chicken shawarma.  



Day 3: sunny, then more wind and cold again
This time we came prepared in many warm layers and enjoyed another great day of tennis.  We watched the women's semi-finals where seventh seed Zvonareva (RUS) deaf first seed Wozniacki (DEN) in two straight sets and then second seed Kim Clijsters (BEL) battled and beat third seed Venus Williams in three great sets (and many aces from Venus).  





We are looking forward to a whole day of tennis tomorrow: Women's Finals and Mens Semi-Finals.  GO NOLE GO!!!!!  

To be continued ... 



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