I was delighted when my son, Greg, said he would be interested in attending the US Open with me this year. After some debate as to when would be best for him, I purchased seats for Sept 2 and 3 in the Grandstand Stadium and Arthur Ashe Stadium, having no idea who would be playing those days but knowing that it would be great tennis.
On Sept 2, Greg and I met at DC’s Union Station to take the train to New York City. Having worked for many years at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judicial Center, I was amused by seeing National Guard troops wasting their time guarding a rather benign area. What a waste. Our trip on Acela was uneventful, but I thought it worked out well for Greg since he had just bought out Fairfax Kitchen Cabinets to go along with his Nova Home Renovations business, so he could work on the train.
After arriving at our hotel and dropping off our bags, we took an interesting walk through Chinatown — not the most direct route, which might take a few minutes longer, but through an area of car and appliance repair shops. Not exactly the safest part of Chinatown, but what I might call a colorful part of town. We arrived close to noon when we entered the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and headed to the Grandstand Stadium, where Alex Michelsen was playing Brandon Nakashima. It was an interesting match, with Michelsen defeating the higher-seeded Nakashima, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 — a nice start to our two days at the US Open.
Next we watched the Emma Navarro vs Caty McNally match, which Navarro won 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. A more interesting match, since each player had runs, and Navarro ended up grinding out a win after around an hour rain delay.
During the delay, we tried to find a place to stay dry but noticed people going into the Louis Armstrong Stadium, so we went over and watched some of the Karolina Muchova vs Katie Boulter match, which Muchova was completely dominating. Once the rain ended, rather than continuing to watch that match, we decided to go back to the Grandstand Stadium.
We ended up seeing a match rescheduled due to rain the previous day, between Iva Jovic and Magdalena Frech, won by Jovic 7-5, 6-3. I had wanted to see the Tommy Paul vs Dino Prizmic match, but with the rain delays and rescheduling, it was pretty late, so we decided to go back to the hotel and find a place to eat in Chinatown. It was getting dark as we walked back to the hotel.
On our second day, poor Greg worked several hours before I had to walk over and point out the time while he was on a business call. We proceeded to take the “scenic route” rather than the more adventurous route we had taken the day before. We had seats in Arthur Ashe Stadium in the nosebleed section. Although high, I had gotten the seats so that we had a side view of the court rather than one behind a player, which worked out pretty well. The first match we watched was between Naomi Osaka and Katerina Siniakova, who I had seen the previous year play doubles with Taylor Townsend. Osaka prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, but Siniakova did make things interesting.
The next match was Taylor Fritz vs Mattia Bellucci, which, unfortunately, wasn’t much of a match, with Fritz completely dominating Bellucci 6-0, 6-1, 6-1. I did get some pretty good shots of both players serving which I’m always working on my serving stroke so putting a series together really provides a good way to mentally thing through your serve.
Afterward, we walked around the grounds for a while but decided to have a shorter day, so we returned to the hotel. We went out for a nice dinner and some very good conversation that evening. We hadn’t been able to spend time together for a while so it was really nice to have this time together.
We got up early and caught an Uber to Penn Station for an early train ride home but we both will remember our time together at the US Open.