Columbus Circle
Rushing from Flushing, 15 days at the Billie were quite enough. But there were plenty of indelible memories of a very good Open…
Amazing how the USTA stretches a tournament that used to take 10 days in a time before floodlights and tie-breakers. Obviously more days mean more money, but slimmer second week programs. Yet Wimbledon gets it all done in 13 days, without lights and with the middle Sunday off. Moreover the men are properly given a day off between semifinal and final – as at the other three majors. Will the U.S. ever get that right? continue reading »
September 18 2009 | US Open | 2 Comments »
Rainy New York night
NEW YORK – A cool gray sky greeted 35-or-so thousand parishioners as another US Open arrived yesterday. But Jada Ellie Lynch’s old lady – a sunny-plus personality — was out there sweeping her favorite court and making people feel good in the gloom. Sweeping not with a broom, which she does as a housewife – but with a tennis racket again. continue reading »
August 31 2009 | US Open | 1 Comment »
One of four waterfalls, designed by Danish artist, Olafur Eliasson, this one is under the Brooklyn Bridge. Can be seen during the summer of 2008, until October 13.
NEW YORK – The lady was flat on her face on the pavement. Was this embarrassing with about 15,000 people watching?
“No, but I was worried about getting my dress really dirty,” says Jelena “Jelly” Jankovic, a tourist from Serbia clad in a lemon yellow tennis frock.
Had she been hit by a bus? Nothing that ordinary in the big city. Actually she was running as though she were trying to catch a departing bus, chasing instead a nifty hit, a deft drop shot from the racket of a troublesome Swede named Sofia Arvidsson.
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August 27 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Dinara Safina, No 7, talking to Bud
NEW YORK – Tolstoy would have loved her. Count Leo Tolstoy, the Russian scribbler, would have loved this U.S. Open, too, because he was one of the first tennis nuts in his country. Had his own tennis court. Played avidly. And, were he here, would be surrounded by attractive, strong-armed countrywomen.
Seventeen of them, for Lenin’s sake, infiltrating, seeking the U.S. Championship for which only 15 Americans were eligible. But only two of them with a chance. (You know who, named Venus and Serena.)
I think Tolstoy would have singled out 22-year-old Dinara Safina because she has the best story. Kid sister of the 2000 champion, Marat Safin. Shipped out from Moscow at age 12 to Spain for coaching. Strange country. Strange language. Knowing no one. Valencia, where the oranges come from – and good tennis players. Following the route of big brother, Marat, she fit right in – “It wasn’t hard,” Dinara shrugs – tuned up her game and became a touring pro.
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August 26 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Bud selling his book at the US Open Bookstore
NEW YORK – The blue courts are hard, the resolve of a red-hot Spanish conquistador named Nadal is harder, and the internationally-flavored guys and dolls are in town playing tennis again. Their fortnight is called the U.S. Open, the last of the year’s four majors, at the Billie Jean King Center in Flushing Meadow.
If there was a hard luck guy here yesterday, it was a 28-year-old German named Bjorn Pfau. He got in through the back door as a qualifier ranked No. 136 only to find himself looking at No. 1, Rafa Nadal, a bruiser seeking his third major of 2008. Pfau was named for Bjorn Borg, the great Swedish champion – but a luckless lad at the Open, zero for 10 years.
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August 25 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
