@wright
Hall of Fame
I got back in town yesterday morning, so I figured I'd do a little write up with my experiences at the Open. I had been to the Memphis tournament before, but never seen the best of the best on the biggest stages.
When we arrived at the National Tennis Center via subway, it was Thursday morning and there were many junior matches going on, so we headed over to the practice courts. At the very end(furthest from us), Justine was hitting with an unidentified male. She was really popping the ball, her groundies were louder than the players closest to us. I was really impressed by her, she is a great ball striker. There were 2 women and a man hitting on one court, none of whom was over the 3.5 level, I never figured out what they were doing, and Svetlana Kuznetsova walked up to them and made a comment, which prompted them to get their crap together and get out of dodge. Kuznetsova surprised me with the lack of structure her practice had. She played soccer with a tennis ball for the first hour (a guy on the other side of the net kicked it back and forth with her, keeping it within the service lines). They juggled the ball with their chest and knees, I guess to work on footwork? She then hit with another guy, I never realized how wristy her forehand is. She spent the rest of the time goofing off and giggling with her two guys. I couldn't believe she had won a slam after watching this...
On the near court was Natalie Dechy and Dinara Safina. I was struck by how tall both of them are, very tall and slim, Dechy especially. They rallied for awhile and worked on each shot separately, they went on to win the doubles title. Safina hits the ball very hard but is somewhat erratic on groundies, and Dechy plays with better control. We were hoping to see King Fed practice, but this was his first day off of two days, so no dice. We entered Arthur Ashe to watch Chela/Ferrer, which was a wash in Ferrer's favor. They were really popping the ball, but Ferrer especially impressed me with his movement and control. I remember thinking that after Djokovic gets past Moya, that semi should be a real dogfight (no way Djokovic blows Ferrer off the court).
We came back that night for the Moya/Djokovic match, lamenting that we had not been there 24 hours earlier for a classic Fed/Roddick matchup. To my surprise, the crowd was overwhelmingly pro Moya. I didn't hear one fan scream Djokovic's name, but conversely, we could hear "Vamos Carlitoooooo" pretty often. Although Moya had his chances, I don't think anyone expected him to win. It was gusty out, and the level of play was very poor. Neither player served well, and Djokovic didn't seem to be putting anything on his groundies, but he was hitting tons of balls out, I wasn't impressed. He seemed relieved to have won, and treated us with the famous Nadal and Sharapova impersonations, which were met with boisterous laughter. It was great, this guy really knows how to work a crowd. He makes references to "McEnroe" constantly in his interviews. That night we stopped by the Whiskey Room, the swanky bar under the W hotel in Times Square that is known to be a tennis hotspot. Despite an abundance of loud music, decadent partying, and scantily clad women, no tennis players or personalities were there. I'm sure we would have seen some earlier in the tournament, but toward the end of the second week, I had the feeling I'd be more likely to see cocaine than anyone related to tennis. Friday we had no tickets, but we were hoping to score some for the semis on Saturday, which we got on Stubhub.com, but we had to pick them up at the Holiday Inn near Shea stadium. We left Saturday morning attempting to get to Ashe just in time for Ferrer/Djokovic, but instead we took the wrong train from Brooklyn, necessitating a switch, so we lost about 30 minutes. We hurried to get the tickets from stubhub, which was a flawless transaction, and hurried to the tennis center, but we decided to check out the practice courts even though the first semi was underway. Our late arrival proved serrendipitous, as Federer was taking the practice court as soon as we got there. There were few people watching him since the other semi was being played, and he was only one court away from the onlookers. He hit with a young unnamed guy, as Pierre Paganini walked around picking up balls so Fed wouldn't have to. They rallied some from the baseline, hit some volleys, and finally serves and returns. Let me tell you, watching Fed hit the ball so casually and carefree, but yet with such perfect technique, was phenomenal. His timing on his forehand is sublime, the ball had a completely different sound off his racquet than that of his practice partner. He was trying to conserve his energy, but the way he hits the ball is poetry in motion, simply breathtaking. The other shot that really impressed me was the slice, just phenomenal. After hitting, he approached the fans near the entrance of the practice courts to sign a few autographs. He walked up with "hey guys", spent about 5 minutes signing, then turned and tossed the pen to the crowd and left. During his little autograph session, everyone was completely silent. All you could hear was the crowd jockeying for a better view and maybe an autograph. He seemed very focused for the upcoming battle with Davydenko. We made our way into Ashe once again for Djokovic/Ferrer, which was a straight setter, to my surprise. Djokovic, despite his struggles with the heat, really pushed Ferrer all over the court, which I didn't think would happen. Ferrer had a great opportunity to really grind Djokovic and maybe win in 4 or 5, but instead he just tried to blast the ball harder and harder, riddling his stat column with errors. He was unwilling to change his gameplan, which proved costly. The crowd was mostly for Djokovic, he seemed relieved to have won, given his conditioning problems. Next up was Fed/Davy, which was highly anticipated. Davydenko started very well, breaking Fed in the first game, while Fed seemed uncomfortable out there. This wore off and he started hitting much better in the 3rd game. Davy was playing at a very high level, but whenever a baseline rally started, Fed would hit the ball harder with every shot, and Davy just can't hang with that kind of pop. Fed's groundies were like lasers, even with the windy conditions. Fed saved 2 set points in I think the 3rd set, which was amazing. The crowd was gasping as his slices whizzed inches over the net, this guy really plays with ice in his veins, as we saw in the final. It was a fun match to watch, the Fed fun house was open for business. Fed was knifing his volleys to the extent that Davydenko could hardly get them back over the net. I don't think Davy believes that he can beat Fed, he is like a practice partner on steroids. This was our last ticket, so we left, relieved that we got to see Fed/Davy afterall. I hope it wasn't too boring a read, it was fun taking my mind back through all the experiences of the last few days, it was a blast!
When we arrived at the National Tennis Center via subway, it was Thursday morning and there were many junior matches going on, so we headed over to the practice courts. At the very end(furthest from us), Justine was hitting with an unidentified male. She was really popping the ball, her groundies were louder than the players closest to us. I was really impressed by her, she is a great ball striker. There were 2 women and a man hitting on one court, none of whom was over the 3.5 level, I never figured out what they were doing, and Svetlana Kuznetsova walked up to them and made a comment, which prompted them to get their crap together and get out of dodge. Kuznetsova surprised me with the lack of structure her practice had. She played soccer with a tennis ball for the first hour (a guy on the other side of the net kicked it back and forth with her, keeping it within the service lines). They juggled the ball with their chest and knees, I guess to work on footwork? She then hit with another guy, I never realized how wristy her forehand is. She spent the rest of the time goofing off and giggling with her two guys. I couldn't believe she had won a slam after watching this...
On the near court was Natalie Dechy and Dinara Safina. I was struck by how tall both of them are, very tall and slim, Dechy especially. They rallied for awhile and worked on each shot separately, they went on to win the doubles title. Safina hits the ball very hard but is somewhat erratic on groundies, and Dechy plays with better control. We were hoping to see King Fed practice, but this was his first day off of two days, so no dice. We entered Arthur Ashe to watch Chela/Ferrer, which was a wash in Ferrer's favor. They were really popping the ball, but Ferrer especially impressed me with his movement and control. I remember thinking that after Djokovic gets past Moya, that semi should be a real dogfight (no way Djokovic blows Ferrer off the court).
We came back that night for the Moya/Djokovic match, lamenting that we had not been there 24 hours earlier for a classic Fed/Roddick matchup. To my surprise, the crowd was overwhelmingly pro Moya. I didn't hear one fan scream Djokovic's name, but conversely, we could hear "Vamos Carlitoooooo" pretty often. Although Moya had his chances, I don't think anyone expected him to win. It was gusty out, and the level of play was very poor. Neither player served well, and Djokovic didn't seem to be putting anything on his groundies, but he was hitting tons of balls out, I wasn't impressed. He seemed relieved to have won, and treated us with the famous Nadal and Sharapova impersonations, which were met with boisterous laughter. It was great, this guy really knows how to work a crowd. He makes references to "McEnroe" constantly in his interviews. That night we stopped by the Whiskey Room, the swanky bar under the W hotel in Times Square that is known to be a tennis hotspot. Despite an abundance of loud music, decadent partying, and scantily clad women, no tennis players or personalities were there. I'm sure we would have seen some earlier in the tournament, but toward the end of the second week, I had the feeling I'd be more likely to see cocaine than anyone related to tennis. Friday we had no tickets, but we were hoping to score some for the semis on Saturday, which we got on Stubhub.com, but we had to pick them up at the Holiday Inn near Shea stadium. We left Saturday morning attempting to get to Ashe just in time for Ferrer/Djokovic, but instead we took the wrong train from Brooklyn, necessitating a switch, so we lost about 30 minutes. We hurried to get the tickets from stubhub, which was a flawless transaction, and hurried to the tennis center, but we decided to check out the practice courts even though the first semi was underway. Our late arrival proved serrendipitous, as Federer was taking the practice court as soon as we got there. There were few people watching him since the other semi was being played, and he was only one court away from the onlookers. He hit with a young unnamed guy, as Pierre Paganini walked around picking up balls so Fed wouldn't have to. They rallied some from the baseline, hit some volleys, and finally serves and returns. Let me tell you, watching Fed hit the ball so casually and carefree, but yet with such perfect technique, was phenomenal. His timing on his forehand is sublime, the ball had a completely different sound off his racquet than that of his practice partner. He was trying to conserve his energy, but the way he hits the ball is poetry in motion, simply breathtaking. The other shot that really impressed me was the slice, just phenomenal. After hitting, he approached the fans near the entrance of the practice courts to sign a few autographs. He walked up with "hey guys", spent about 5 minutes signing, then turned and tossed the pen to the crowd and left. During his little autograph session, everyone was completely silent. All you could hear was the crowd jockeying for a better view and maybe an autograph. He seemed very focused for the upcoming battle with Davydenko. We made our way into Ashe once again for Djokovic/Ferrer, which was a straight setter, to my surprise. Djokovic, despite his struggles with the heat, really pushed Ferrer all over the court, which I didn't think would happen. Ferrer had a great opportunity to really grind Djokovic and maybe win in 4 or 5, but instead he just tried to blast the ball harder and harder, riddling his stat column with errors. He was unwilling to change his gameplan, which proved costly. The crowd was mostly for Djokovic, he seemed relieved to have won, given his conditioning problems. Next up was Fed/Davy, which was highly anticipated. Davydenko started very well, breaking Fed in the first game, while Fed seemed uncomfortable out there. This wore off and he started hitting much better in the 3rd game. Davy was playing at a very high level, but whenever a baseline rally started, Fed would hit the ball harder with every shot, and Davy just can't hang with that kind of pop. Fed's groundies were like lasers, even with the windy conditions. Fed saved 2 set points in I think the 3rd set, which was amazing. The crowd was gasping as his slices whizzed inches over the net, this guy really plays with ice in his veins, as we saw in the final. It was a fun match to watch, the Fed fun house was open for business. Fed was knifing his volleys to the extent that Davydenko could hardly get them back over the net. I don't think Davy believes that he can beat Fed, he is like a practice partner on steroids. This was our last ticket, so we left, relieved that we got to see Fed/Davy afterall. I hope it wasn't too boring a read, it was fun taking my mind back through all the experiences of the last few days, it was a blast!
