Day 7 @ The US Open 2007

When my friend Sara had talked about going to the US Open in mid July, I told her that the best day to go would be the Sunday of the labor day weekend. That way we could see a lot more players still left in the draw (3rd and 4th) and hopefully catch a great match or two. So off I went and bought 2 tkts to Louis Armstrong Stadium that included a grounds pass as well. The only stadium we could NOT get into with those tkts would be Arthur Ashe-big deal I told myself and Sara was cool with it too.

So whatdyaknow Saturday rolls around and I happen to glance at Sunday morning's schedule. Serana, Nadal, and Venus are scheduled to play at Arthur Ashe on Sunday morning! Aaaaaarrrggh! Of course to rub it in, a bunch of no names were playing at Louis Armstrong. So I quickly checked for tkts on StubHub and lo and behold tkts were available for Arthur Ashe for Sunday. Of course we would have to pay 5 times the actual price to sit in the highest 5 rows or pay 10 times the actual price to sit courtside. I called Sara to discuss this and she of course was willing to give an arm and a leg to watch Nadal play live! So we decided to pay for the 5x tkt. Within 5 minutes after that phone call I get a txt message from Sara asking me if she was crazy (or was it her anti-biotics speaking) to suggest that we should get the uber-overpriced courtside seats? So a discussion ensued and we decided to stay reasonable with 5x tkts.

Of course this meant we had to get rid of the two tks we had which I thought would be easy at the stadium. So off we went for the session starting at 11 AM. Woke up at 6 AM!

Highlights from Day 7:

Food items consumed(together):
-1 Chicken/Spinach/Cheese and 1 ham/cheese crepe. (yes! they had crepes at the US Open)
-1 cheesy Panini Ham sandwich (half of which Sara wolfed down like it was her last day on earth!).
-2 Cashew LARA bars (our only healthy dietary constituent for the day)
-1 bag of Cape Cod chips.
-3 pints of Heineken lager.
-1 large hot coffee (cold water added to cool it down-Canadian trick apparently!)
-1 bottle of "Yellow" Gatorade
-3 bottles of water
-atleast 1 ounce of SPF 55 sunscreen lotion. There is no way Sara did not eat atleast a little of the lotion. She used atleast 1/2 litre of it in 2 hrs and it was everywhere her top, her shorts, her shades.

Players Seen:
-Serena Williams and Bartoli. Serena seemed a bit sluggish in the first 4 games but she recovered quickly to handle the pudgy French girl. Did you guys notice that Bartoli does not even bounce the ball before serving, this is even more strange live. I mean no bounces or tosses! Sara seemed pretty irritated by that.
-Nadal and Tsonga. This was a great match in the first set. Nadal is impressive live. The Tsonga kid was playing pretty well but Nadal was at a different level. In the last set, Tsonga seemed to be pleading the heavens for some help. He did not get any.
-Venus and Ivanovic. I stay put with my pre-tournament prediction after seeing Venus destroy Ivanovic. She is playing at a different level and it will be tough to beat her.
-Radwonka. She is the Polish kid who upset Sharapova on Saturday. We saw her on the practice courts getting ready for Monday. Man, these kids practice hard. Some dude was her practice partner and they were going at it.
-Random Spanish player dude with no shirt on. Of course Sara spent a good 30 minutes staring at this guy and taking pictures on the practice courts. Her excuse, "I needed some shade".
-Blake. We saw him from far away practicing in the courts not available for spectators to see.
-Random mens doubles match. Can't remember their names.

Comfort Level:
-We were getting roasted in the Sun in the first 2 hours. Yeah, the weather was good but it was HOT sitting directly in the Sun.
-After the start of the Nadal match we walked over to the side of the stadium which was in the shade and sat there for the rest of the day. It was MUCH MUCH more comfortable there.
-Next year, definitely courtside seats!

Memorabilia purchased:
-One brown US Open 2007 Womens Hat (for Sara)-this was more for her protection from the Sun.
-One black US Open 2007 Mens Hat (for Sara's dad)

Cool free gadgets at the US Open:
-Portable radio for all AMEX cardholders (both of us had corporate cards of course!)
-This was cool as we could listen to John McEnroe and the rest of the CBS crew while watching the game live. I did not use it much but Sara occasionally gave me interesting tidbits that she heard on the tiny radio.

Trips to the Restroom:
-Four (or was it five?)

The Crowd and The Atmosphere:
-Interestingly there were more people milling around in the general area than at the matches. Seriously, almost the whole of the top rows which were directly in the Sun at Arthur Ashe were almost empty. Sara kept mumbling as to how they can claim it was soldout and there were so many seats still available. "Probably at Sunday mass" she told herself!
-When we went to our assigned seats at 11 AM, there were probably about 15 people within 30 rows of us. All the areas in the shade seemed full though.
-There was this French guy by himself seated directly behind Sara. With 2 French athletes in action that morning (Bartoli and Tsonga) I knew he would break out into French name-calling eventually. I took the over on 5 games during the Serena-Bartoli match while Sara took the under. Unfortunately we were not treated to any colorful French epithets. This guy turned out to be well-behaved. If only if they sold cheap wine at the US Open!
-I heard a lot of "Let's go Raffa" chants when Nadal was playing. Good to see him getting more popular in the US.
-The crowd did get a bit loud during the Nadal match. Actually both players got standing ovations as Nadal began to serve for the match. It was good to see.
-Other than that it was not raucous at any point. The one-sided nature of all three matches had something to do with it probably.
-Unfortunately, there was no sightings of people who were drunk or people flashing or streaking either. We could have used some of that entertainment!

Talents Discovered:
-Turns out Sara is a natural at sales! As soon as we got off the 7 train, she immediately attracted one seedy looking scalper dude and one suspecting German tourist looking for tkts. Not sure how they figured out how she had extra tkts? Of course, she disappeared into the dark when the cash was being exchanged! Something about just being a dealmaker but not wanting to be seen with cash being exchanged-shall we say that Canada should get ready for a new woman politician?

Overall:
-It was entertaining and I had a good time. Next year, I would get night tkts or day tkts courtside in the shade.