Tennis

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Tennis

      Novak Djokovic Wins His First-Round Match at the U.S. Open

      by

      Novak Djokovic, the No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player, began his bid for the final leg of the Grand Slam with a 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-1 victory over Holger Rune in the first round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday night.Rune, an 18-year-old qualifier from Denmark, was making his debut in a Grand Slam tournament. He is a dynamic, flashy player with explosive power and contagious energy. He not only won the second set, but he also got the crowd on his side in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest venue in tour-level tennis with its five tiers and 23,771 seats.Loud cheers of “Ruuuuune,” which sounded paradoxically like boos, were a frequent part of the soundscape. Though Djokovic looked frustrated and off rhythm as Rune evened the match at one set apiece, Djokovic never looked genuinely rattled and was not threatened down the stretch.Rune, playing his first best-of-five-set match, began to cramp in his legs early in the third set and began wincing and hobbling between points and struggling to jump into his serve and cover the corners of the court: a necessity to pose any threat to Djokovic.The final two sets lasted just 51 minutes, less time than it took Rune to win the 58-minute second set.“I’ve got to say that it’s never nice to finish the way we finished today,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “Holger is a great guy, one of the up-and-coming stars. He was the best junior in the world.” Djokovic added “he is making his way through the professional ranks quite quickly. He deserves a big round of applause. It’s unfortunate he had to go through all of that.”Rune has been prone to cramping, and though it is easy to forget at this stage, Djokovic, too, once struggled with his endurance on court, only solving the problem in 2010 and 2011 after switching to a gluten-free diet.But at age 34, Djokovic has proved himself to be a long-running champion, one of the most successful in the game’s history. If he wins six more matches in New York, he will break his tie with his longtime rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal by claiming a men’s record 21st career Grand Slam singles title.If he wins six more matches, he also will become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to complete the Grand Slam in singles and the first man to do so since Rod Laver in 1969. The Grand Slam requires a player to win the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same calendar year. Graf added an Olympic gold medal to her collection for a so-called Golden Slam.After failing to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics this month, Djokovic chose to rest before the U.S. Open rather than play in any preliminary events in North America. He was not at his sharpest on Tuesday night, but his shoulder, which troubled him in Tokyo, did not appear to limit his ability to perform.In his last appearance at the U.S. Open in 2020, he was defaulted in the fourth round after striking a ball in frustration and inadvertently hitting a line judge in the throat. But there were no misadventures in this first match, and Djokovic will be a big favorite again in the second round when he plays 121st ranked Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands for the first time. More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in Tennis

      Stefanos Tsitsipas Is Being Criticized for Mid-Match Bathroom Breaks

      by

      Andy Murray says his Monday opponent employs stall tactics too often for too long. Reilly Opelka says Tsitsipas is probably just changing his socks.It wasn’t his opponent’s dazzling foot speed or the velocity of his serve that Andy Murray was still dwelling on a day after his match. The statistic that stuck with Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, was how long his opponent, Stefanos Tsitsipas, took during his off-court breaks.“Fact of the day. It takes Stefanos Tsitipas twice as long to go the bathroom as it takes Jeff Bazos to fly into space. Interesting,” Murray posted to Twitter on Tuesday morning, misspelling both the name of his opponent and the Amazon billionaire, but adding emojis of a toilet and a rocket ship for clarity.On Monday, the third-seeded Tsitsipas had defeated Murray 2-6, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that turned early in the fifth set following an off-court break by Tsitsipas. Though two off-court breaks are allowed by the rules during best-of-five-sets matches, Murray was incensed when he saw Tsitsipas leaving the court after the fourth set, which Tsitsipas had won.“Why are they allowed to do this?” Murray asked chair umpire Nico Helwerth with exasperation. “Why?”Murray, 34, sat on his bench in Arthur Ashe Stadium, changed his shirt, draped an ice towel over his neck and hydrated, repeatedly glancing toward the court entrance. After a few minutes of sitting and bouncing his legs, Murray rose and wandered behind the baseline, bouncing a ball and hitting it gently against the video wall behind the court.“What’s your opinion on this?” Murray asked Helwerth. “You’re umpiring the match. Give me an opinion: you think it’s good?” Murray then asked Grand Slam supervisor Gerry Armstrong, “You think this is OK, what’s happening?”When Tsitsipas finally returned more than seven minutes after the last point had been played, he went to his bench, then walked to a cooler to get a bottle of water. He then sat down on his bench, and Murray shouted “Get up! What’s going on, get up!”When the fans began to boo, Murray pumped his arms to encourage them.Murray, still steamed, dropped his serve in the following game, and Tsitsipas held onto that break advantage the rest of the set. Murray said he had been prepared for Tsitsipas to take long breaks if the match wasn’t going his way, for which he believed Tsitsipas had a reputation.“It’s just disappointing because I feel it influenced the outcome of the match,” Murray said. “I’m not saying I necessarily win that match, for sure, but it had influence on what was happening after those breaks. I rate him a lot. I think he’s a brilliant player. I think he’s great for the game. But I have zero time for that stuff at all, and I lost respect for him.”Told of Murray’s comments, Tsitsipas, 23, said he hoped to speak to him directly.“If there’s something that he has to tell me, we should speak, the two of us, to understand what went wrong,” Tsitsipas said. “I don’t think I broke any rules. I played by the guidelines, how everything is.“I don’t know how my opponent feels when I’m out there playing the match; it’s not really my priority,” Tsitsipas added. “As far as I’m playing by the rules and sticking to what the ATP says is fair, then the rest is fine.”Tsitsipas said his time off the court had simply been “the amount of time it takes for me to change my clothes and to walk back to the court.”Acknowledging that players are often accused of abusing bathroom break or medical timeout rules to change the momentum of the match, Murray said he and other members of the player council had discussed rule changes that might make gamesmanship more difficult.“If everyone else feels like that’s totally cool and there’s no issue with it, then maybe I’m the one being unreasonable,” Murray said. “But I think it’s nonsense. And he knows it, as well.”Murray waits for Tsitsipas to return to their match.Elsa/Getty ImagesIn a statement, the United States Tennis Association said it “regards pace of play as an important issue in our sport,” citing its past implementation of visible serve clocks and warm-up clocks in recent years. “We need to continue to review and explore potential adjustments to the rules, whether for bathroom breaks/change of attire or other areas, that can positively impact the pace of play for our fans and ensure the fairness and integrity of the game,” the statement said.Though tennis players are generally loath to weigh in on each other’s controversies, several couldn’t resist.“Andy is right!” Milos Raonic, a Canadian who is missing the U.S. Open with a right leg injury, posted to Twitter on Monday night.Asked after his first-round win on Tuesday if he felt Novak Djokovic was the favorite to win the U.S. Open, Alexander Zverev managed to fit in a dig at Tsitsipas in his answer.“I think Stefanos can play well if he doesn’t go to the moon and back for a toilet break, that will also help,” Zverev said with a grin.Zverev had previously leveled accusations of his own at Tsitsipas during their semifinal match at the Western & Southern Open in August, accusing him of using a mobile phone off court to illegally communicate about tactics with his coach and father, Apostolos.Zverev reiterated his suspicions on Tuesday. “He’s gone for 10-plus minutes; his dad is texting on the phone,” Zverev said. “He comes out, and all of a sudden his tactic completely changed. It’s not just me but everybody saw it. The whole game plan changes. I’m like, either it’s a very magical place he goes to, or there is communication there.“But I also don’t want to disrespect him,” Zverev added. “He is a great player.”Tsitsipas denied cheating on Monday.“I have never in my career done that; I don’t know what kind of imagination it takes to go to that point,” Tsitsipas said. “That’s not something I want to take seriously because it’s absolutely ridiculous to be thinking about that.”Tsitsipas received support from the American player Reilly Opelka, who also took a lengthy break during his first-round win.“We’re hydrating a lot; we have to use the bathroom,” Opelka said. “To change — my socks, shoes, my inserts in my shoes, shorts, shirt, everything, the whole nine yards, hat — it takes five, six minutes.“If people don’t understand that, then clearly they’ve never spent a day in the life of a professional athlete or come close to it,” Opelka said.Murray, who has spent most of his days in the life of a professional athlete, ended his news conference by saying that it was a shame that a five-hour match between two top players was eclipsed by stall tactics.“I’m sitting in here after a match like that against one of the best players in the world, and rather than talking about how fantastic he is, how good he is for the game, how great it was for me that I was able to put on a performance like that after everything that’s gone on the last four years, I’m sitting in here talking about bathroom breaks and medical timeouts and delays in matches,” Murray said. “That’s rubbish. I don’t think that that’s right.”Murray complains to an official between sets.Seth Wenig/Associated Press More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Tennis

      Maxime Cressy Delivers the Biggest Upset so Far in U.S. Open

      by

      Maxime Cressy, an American qualifier, produced the biggest upset so far of this year’s U.S. Open. Playing with a throwback serve-and-volley style and big-point panache, Cressy rallied from two sets down in the first round to defeat No. 9-seeded Pablo Carreño Busta in a fifth-set tiebreaker.Like most of Cressy’s matches, it was a contrast in styles. He rushed the net whenever possible and sometimes when it did not seem advisable against Carreño Busta, a quick and fit Spaniard who has twice reached the U.S. Open semifinals and has one of the best baseline games on the tour.The 6-foot-6 Cressy hit 44 aces, and his swashbuckling victory required him to save four match points in the final-set tiebreaker before prevailing 5-7, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7). The match was played on Court 4, an outside court that had yield a stadium-like atmosphere by the end as fans craned their necks to watch from nearby locations and packed into the top row of the practice court bleachers and peered down as Cressy scrapped and volleyed for the biggest win of his career.Born in Paris — his father is French and his mother is American — Cressy, 24, later became a collegiate standout at U.C.L.A. and chose to represent the United States. He speaks French and English fluently, and his game speaks to the older generation of tennis stars who grew up playing the serve-and-volley tennis. That style has gradually disappeared: a victim of slower courts and the racket string technology that makes precise, dipping passing shots easier to produce. But the courts appear to be fast at this year’s U.S. Open, and Cressy was able to put his volleying skills and big wingspan to effective use when it mattered most.He won 46 of 70 serve-and-volley points and 64 of 97 points at the net overall, frequently punching or chipping returns and pushing forward. “It’s great to see that style working on tour,” said Martin Blackman, the general manager of player development at the United States Tennis Association. “Quicker courts help but you still have to be able to hit those great volleys under pressure.”Cressy hit plenty down the stretch, saving the first three match points when trailing 3-6 in the tiebreaker. The first two came on his serve and on the second, he hit two world-class low backhand volleys to stay in the point. On the third, at 5-6, Carreño double faulted, hitting his second serve weakly into the middle of the net. Cressy saved a final match point at 6-7 with another crisp backhand volley winner before closing it out: raising both arms high and howling as the crowd chanted “Maxime.” He then windmilled his arms to the crowd to celebrate.Cressy is one of three former U.C.L.A. players who’ve advanced to the second round of this U.S. Open. The others are Marcos Giron and Cressy’s former roommate, Mackenzie McDonald, who defeated No. 27 seed David Goffin 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday and will next face Kei Nishikori of Japan.Cressy will play Nikoloz Basilashvili, a former top-20 player, who advanced on Tuesday after Sebastian Korda, another promising young American player, retired in the second set because of a gastrointestinal problem.But Cressy made sure that it was also a day of pleasant surprises for American men’s tennis, and he is the first American man to defeat a top-10 player in singles at the U.S. Open since Jack Sock beat Marin Cilic in the third round in 2016. More

    • 163 Shares139 Views

      in Tennis

      To Play Tennis, Naomi Osaka Finds a New Purpose. So Far, So Good.

      by

      The defending champion started the U.S. Open with a solid 6-4, 6-1 win over Marie Bouzkova, a hard-hitting Czech. Feeling good about herself is the next challenge.Naomi Osaka was back on the tennis court in New York on Monday night, not far from where she first started hitting a tennis ball in earnest as a child, and where her year of years began 12 months and what seems like a lifetime ago.The journey began with her refusal to play tennis after another police shooting of a Black man. Then came her provocative and powerful masks, each adorned with the name of a victim of police violence, as well as the third Grand Slam title of her career. Then there were magazine covers; a magical run in Australia; a standoff with the press in Paris; revelations that she struggles with mental health; her decision to skip Wimbledon, the biggest championship in tennis; followed by a triumphant-until-it-wasn’t return in Tokyo, where she lit the Olympic cauldron for her home country.Osaka has become the rare tennis player whose presence raises the temperature, even of something routine: a first-round match against an unheralded but improving 23-year-old Czech named Marie Bouzkova.If there is one thing Osaka has shown during her young career, it’s that nothing with her is routine.She walked into a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night as the defending champion and the No. 3 seed in the U.S. Open, a little more than six months removed from being declared virtually unbeatable on hard courts, where she has won each of her four Grand Slam titles.She has the sort of résumé that generally makes a player a heavy favorite, not just to win her first match, but also to capture her third U.S. Open singles title in four years. In the back of the court, she bounces on her toes like a boxer and does her trademark thigh-whack as she awaits her opponent’s serve.Steve Nash, the Hall of Fame basketball player and coach of the Brooklyn Nets, and Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, were part of a crowd of nearly 20,000 that was far larger and more electric than the usual opening night of this 14-day tournament.Osaka drew a crowd far larger than the usual opening night of the U.S. Open.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesWould it have surprised if Osaka had lost, after the tumultuous ride she put herself on during the past year, and the mediocre results she produced this summer? She had played just nine matches since April and had a 5-5 record, including a default at the French Open.She didn’t lose, but Osaka did grind through a tough first set against Bouzkova, battling to find her rhythm against the hard-hitting Czech. She had to save eight break points. But after splitting the first eight games, Osaka started pushing Bouzkova deep into the back of the court with her clean, powerful strokes and, not surprisingly, also started winning most of the important points. She reeled off eight of the next nine games for a 6-4, 6-1 win.It was a far closer match than the score line suggested though, filled with tight games, long points and smash-mouth rallies, but also a more promising opening to her first Grand Slam in three months than the last time she undertook one of the sport’s most prized events.In May, Osaka arrived in Paris for the French Open declaring that she would no longer participate in the mandatory news conferences that all players sit through after a match, win or lose, if their presence is requested. She said that they caused too much mental stress, and that she would pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines instead.Within days, French Open organizers, with the support of leaders of the other three Grand Slam events, threatened to kick her out of the tournament. A day later, Osaka dropped out, announcing that she would take a break from the sport and telling the world that she had been battling depression on and off for nearly three years.On Sunday, a little more than 24 hours before her opening match at the U.S. Open, another pretournament declaration arrived. This one was far less confrontational and more nuanced, but still packed a defiant jab at anyone who has criticized her recent subpar performances, at the French Open, or the Olympics, where she was beaten badly in the round of 16 by Marketa Vondrousova, another young and unproven Czech player, ranked 38th in the world.Osaka during her Olympics loss.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIn an Instagram post that she also shared on Twitter, Osaka said she had realized, upon reflection, that she is far too critical of herself.“I think I’m never good enough,” she wrote. “I’ve never told myself that I’ve done a good job but I constantly tell myself that I suck or that I could do better.”She urged people to value the smallest accomplishments, even getting out of bed and fighting off procrastination, and she committed herself to celebrating her own accomplishments more.“Your life is your own and you shouldn’t value yourself on other people’s standards,” she wrote. “I know I give my heart to everything I can and if that is not good enough for some then my apologies, but I can’t burden myself with those expectations anymore. Seeing everything that’s going on in the world I feel like if I wake up in the morning that’s a win. That’s how I’m coming.”Exactly what Osaka meant can sometimes be anyone’s guess. She is something of a tennis sphinx, insisting that the message that people receive from her is more important than whatever message she might be trying to deliver.Also, she has admitted to a certain amount of impulsiveness. If she thinks or feels something, she may very well just say it, or write it, or do it, without thinking through all the consequences.On Friday though, Osaka allowed that she plays far better when she is playing with a purpose beyond competing for another trophy and $2.5 million, the prize for winning the U.S. Open.“I’m the type of player that plays better if I have a reason or if I have a goal or if I’m driven about something,” she said in a pretournament news conference. “In New York last year the biggest goal for me was just to push that message across. I feel like I did well there. Right now, I don’t really have that big of a message to push across at all. So it’s going to be really interesting to see what drives me.”Osaka seems to have dialed in on a purpose — to play without beating herself up for every error, every missed opportunity, and, if it happens, another loss, even if the chorus of critics grows louder.She has heard all the criticism, and she knows better than anyone that she has not made even a quarterfinal since March, much less a final of a Grand Slam. She knows how little she has played this year — remarkably little given her ranking and her stature as the winner of two of the last four Grand Slams, and four of the last 11.This, she hopes, will be the Grand Slam when she begins to get over her obsession with perfection that leads to disappointment when something she does is great but not flawless. Amid all the thousands of screaming fans on Monday night in the biggest stadium in tennis, Osaka’s ear remained tuned to the high-pitched yelps of a small girl seated low beside the court.“I just want to be happy with knowing that I did my best and knowing that even though I didn’t play perfect I was able to win a match in two sets,” she said after her win. “Or if I have to battle, play a match in three sets, knowing that I made a couple mistakes, but it’s OK at the end of the day because I’ll learn from the matches that I’ll keep playing.”“It’s not really a tournament thing,” she added as the night drew to a close. “It’s more like a life thing.” More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Tennis

      What to Watch at the 2021 US Open Today

      by

      Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty feature on Arthur Ashe Stadium as a slew of young talent battles on the grounds of Flushing Meadows.How to watch: From noon to 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN; 7 to 11 p.m. on ESPN2; and streaming on the ESPN app.Matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Court 10 | 11 a.m.Maria Sakkari vs. Marta KostyukMaria Sakkari, the 17th seed, reached the semifinals of the French Open in June but has struggled on grass and hardcourts since then. Sakkari reached the round of 16 at last year’s U.S. Open, but faces a tough draw from the start here.Marta Kostyuk, 19, boldly declared herself at the French Open by reaching the round of 16, propelling herself to a career-high ranking of 55th in the world this month. She is quite capable of upsetting well credentialed opponents, and will provide a serious test for Sakkari on the faster surface of Flushing Meadows.ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 3 p.m.Ashleigh Barty vs. Vera ZvonarevaAshleigh Barty, the world no. 1, retired from the French Open in the second round, and needed to skip the preparatory grass tournaments early in the summer. Since then, she has won 12 straight matches, capturing her second major title at Wimbledon along the way.Vera Zvonareva, a former world no. 2, has not been past the second round of a major tournament since 2014, after a shoulder surgery in 2013 necessitated multiple periods away from the tour. Against Barty, Zvonareva’s experience is likely to be overshadowed by Barty’s current dominance.Ashleigh Barty has won 12 straight matches.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesARTHUR ASHE STADIUM | 7 p.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Holger RuneNovak Djokovic comes into the U.S. Open looking to complete a Grand Slam. After two losses at the Olympics left Djokovic without a medal, he will be looking to bounce back and win a record-setting 21st career Grand Slam event. Djokovic begins his campaign against Holger Rune, a first-time major qualifier ranked no. 145. Although Rune won the Junior French Open title in 2019, it is highly unlikely that he will present staunch opposition to a 20-time major champion.Louis Armstrong STADIUM | 9 p.m.Taylor Fritz vs. Alex de MinuarAlex de Minuar, the 14th seed, will face off against Taylor Fritz, an American who is struggling with his form. Fritz has lost his last four matches on hardcourts, usually his favored surface. De Minuar lost in his first round at Wimbledon in June, and has won only one match since then. As the two look to restart their pushes up the world rankings, the match is likely to hinge more on mental strength than on the physical aspects that have powered their careers.Sleeper match of the day.Court 4 | 6 p.m.Jenson Brooksby vs. Mikael YmerJenson Brooksby and Mikael Ymer are two scintillating young talents on the ATP Tour. Ymer, a 22-year-old Swede, reached the third round of two major tournaments this year, upsetting players like Gael Monfils and Hubert Hurckaz along the way. Brooksby, a 20-year-old American, just broke into the world top 100 after a run to the semifinals at the Citi Open, beating Frances Tiafoe and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Both youngsters have aggressive baseline games that should create a whirlwind of exciting tennis on the outer court. More

    • 125 Shares109 Views

      in Tennis

      Naomi Osaka Wins Her First-Round Match at the U.S. Open

      by

      Naomi Osaka had a solid start to the defense of her U.S. Open title, posting a 6-4, 6-1 win over Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic that was a little closer than the final score suggested.Osaka and Bouzkova were dead even through a hard-fought first set filled with tight games, long points and hard-hitting rallies. In the 10th game, Osaka finally forced Bouzkova into a backhand error on her third set point to take the lead with her first service break and claim the opening set.Osaka seemed to settle in from there, jetting to a 5-0 lead in the second set before Bouzkova was finally able to hold her serve. Osaka finished Bouzkova off in the next game with a forehand winner down the line that caught the edge of the paint.This was a far different atmosphere than anything Osaka experienced on her march to the championship last year, when no spectators were allowed at the tournament. She played Monday at Arthur Ashe Stadium in front of nearly 20,000 fans who were loud all night and have begun to embrace her as one of their own. Osaka was born in Japan and represents that nation but grew up largely in New York and Florida.“It feels kind of amazing to play in front of everyone again,” Osaka said after the match, “The energy here is unmatched.” More

    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Tennis

      Fans Packed the U.S. Open on the First Day

      by

      As the first tennis balls were struck in earnest at the U.S. Open on Monday, thousands of frustrated tennis fans waited patiently to get inside for the first time in two years, stuck in a human traffic jam that left many feeling angry and sick in the hot sun.When Madison Keys hit the first serve to her friend Sloane Stephens inside Arthur Ashe Stadium shortly after noon, there was hardly anyone there to see it. By the time Stephens held on to win, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7), the world’s largest tennis arena was packed, but only after fans made their way through the backlog to catch the end of a captivating opening match.It was an agonizing way to welcome back fans to the U.S. Open after a year off. But from a tennis point of view, it was a riveting kickoff to the tournament, with a rematch of the 2017 women’s final, which Stephens also won.“It seems like it was a hundred years ago, not just four,” Keys said. “Yeah, the world is obviously a completely different place now as far as regular life goes. But then also with tennis, a lot has changed.”Sloane Stephens during her first-round win against her friend Madison Keys.The biggest change for the 2021 tournament is that the fans are in the stands. They had been excluded from the 2020 tournament because of the coronavirus pandemic. But it took many of them a lot longer to get back inside than they expected.“It’s ridiculous,” said Betty Gruber, a fan from Chelmsford, Mass. “And then they let hundreds of people go right past us. I’m 82, and there are kids here and people who need to use the bathroom. It is very poorly organized.”In the end it took more than two hours to clear out the backlog of people trying to enter. Some were lined up at the South Gate, joining the back of the queue hundreds of yards away, beyond the giant globe monument. Some lines of people intertwined with others and stewards did their best to control the flow amid the chaos as people complained and sweated in the midday sun.But once inside they did all the things tennis fans have been doing at the U.S. Open for years, up until last year. They wandered the grounds, spent lavishly on food and cheered for their favorite players on a warm day that ultimately felt rather normal.The announced attendance was 53,783 — 30,993 during the day session and 22,790 during the night session.Maria Onuorah, 58, a nurse practitioner and her two daughters, Jessica and Chelsea, waited over an hour in line. After they got off the No. 7 train they were met instantly by a wall of people, already lined up on the wooden boardwalk bridge over to Flushing Meadows Park.“At least we were able to see the last set,” Maria Onuorah said of the match between Stephens and Keys. “I’m glad we were able to finally get in because we came all the way from Atlanta to see it.”Gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin stopped by the Billie Jean King Center.Fans on the grounds during the U.S. Open.One fan, who asked to be identified only as Harry, a software engineer from California, said that there were so many people on the bridge from the subway that at one point it began to shake and sway. He said he saw a handful of people, including his girlfriend, throw up.“It was total mayhem,” he said. “I’ve been pretty Covid conscious this whole time and I didn’t appreciate being packed in with all these people in such close quarters.”The United States Tennis Association issued a statement that said the delay was largely caused by crowds arriving later than they have in the past, and that the slowdown was centered on the bag check area.“Patrons have brought an inordinate number of bags this year, all of which need to be searched. This becomes the main choke point for entry,” the U.S.T.A. statement said.The U.S.T.A. added that it was looking into ways to avoid the problem in the coming days. It also said that the process to check proof of vaccinations seemed to work “smoothly” and did not contribute to the delay. Some fans agreed, but said part of the reason for that is because the process was not rigorous.“They were looking at the cards, but they didn’t match them up with ID’s,” said Matt Stapleton, 61, a film industry transportation director from Long Island. He said he waited two hours to get inside the grounds but once he made it through the gates he said — surprisingly cheerfully — that it was well worth it.Crowds waiting for the evening matches to get started.“He’s always like that,” his wife, Linda, said with a laugh. “He’s just here to have fun.”Most of the fans moved about without face coverings, but most of the workers wore masks. Originally, the tournament was not planning to require proof of vaccinations against the coronavirus, but after Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York intervened, tournament organizers changed the rules.“I’m glad they did,” said Jessica Onuorah, a graduate student at Georgia State University. “I’m vaccinated, but I feel a lot safer knowing that everyone else is, too.”Things really began moving along in the afternoon, just as they would in a normal year with no pandemic. The food concessionaires did a brisk business, fans ambled about the main plaza, sitting near the fountains, watching matches on the giant video screens, and crowds of people packed into the stands as they did in 2019, and each year for decades before that.“We missed the people in the crowd,” said the 12th-seeded Simona Halep of Romania, who beat Camila Giorgi of Italy, 6-4, 7-6 (3), in their first-round match on the Grandstand court. “You cannot compare the atmosphere. It’s much better. You feel the energy. You feel alive on court.”And once the day session ended, it all started up again at night. More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Tennis

      Benoit Paire Loses, But Scores a Victory Just by Playing

      by

      Last year the French player missed the tournament after a positive Covid-19 test kept him confined to his hotel room. Even after a first-round loss, Paire felt free.A year ago, French tennis player Benoît Paire spent the U.S. Open isolated in his Long Island hotel room after testing positive for Covid-19, unable to take his place in the draw and unable to find his happy place in the aftermath.Paire, no pillar of consistency in normal times, struggled in new ways in extraordinary times, missing the fans and shot after shot, sometimes making very little effort as the opening-round losses piled up.“I was there without really being there,” he said.But the crowds are back, as the first day of the U.S. Open made loud and clear on Monday once the ticket holders managed to navigate the insufferably long security lines and actually get into the tournament.Paire left his Manhattan hotel room in the morning and made his way to Court 13, one of the outdoor courts that still feels like an outdoor court even after all the new stadium construction at Flushing Meadows.The fans are close to the action here, and the action on the adjacent court is close, too. The fans gathered at Court 13 soon made their loyalties clear, chanting “Benoît” a great deal more often than they chanted the name of his worthy Serbian opponent Dusan Lajovic.“I was happy to see the crowds again, to share a moment with the people,” Paire said. “It’s true that when people applaud for a great point or a break point well saved it makes you feel good. And it pushes you, or at least it pushes me. That’s why I play tennis. So I’m taking more and more pleasure in it, and that’s why I’m coming back to my good level.”Paire’s tennis clothes, freshly delivered from his new sponsor, have “be normal” written on them, but that does not seem like the message Paire actually wants to deliver.He does not resemble other tennis players with his long hipster beard worthy of a 19th century French painter: think Édouard Manet. He also has a creative side of his own: conjuring half-volley winners from places on the court where most tour players would not consider trying to hit a half-volley winner. His two-handed backhand is smooth, versatile and often deadly. His forehand, with its odd and cramped backswing, is unique and not always in a good way.But like Nick Kyrgios, another outrageously gifted tennis player who has rejected the tour without its fans, Paire, ranked 49th, is hard to take your eyes off with a racket in hand.He left the 40th-ranked Lajovic shaking his head and chuckling after some of his best shots, but though Paire clearly cared, which was progress to be sure, he could not back up his strokes of genius with enough solid play under duress.There were double faults at inopportune moments, unforced errors that looked lackadaisical but were also down to fatigue in the heat and humidity.Though Lajovic’s shirt was soaked through with sweat early on, Paire was the one who looked the weariest, hunching forward and resting a hand on each knee as he settled in slowly to return serves.But he still found the energy to blow off some steam late in the second set, losing his temper after stopping play because of a shout from the crowd and a lost point.Tennis rules are clear on this: the point stands. But Paire took umbrage and eventually took it out on the umbrella over Lajovic’s chair, smacking it hard enough with his racket to break the umbrella and startle the chair umpire and the fans sitting in the front few rows.Paire received his second code violation of the match — this one for unsportsmanlike conduct — and was docked a point. He went on to lose the set and the match 6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.It was a downbeat result after his joyful run to the quarterfinals at the Western & Southern Open in the Cincinnati suburbs earlier this month. But Paire sounded like an unusually happy man for a first-round loser.A different French player is missing the U.S. Open this year because of quarantine: Gilles Simon, who is not vaccinated and restricted to his New York hotel room after his coach tested positive for Covid. Simon was considered to be a “close contact.”But Paire is free to swing away, free to move around the grounds that were packed on Monday as he left not-so-lucky Court 13 and made his way back to the locker room with two security guards running interference.Not that Paire wanted to stay in his bubble. The fans kept running toward him, cellphones in hand, to pose for selfies, and though many a first-round loser would have kept his chin down and picked up the pace to refuge, Paire slowed down and accommodated each and every one. More