18 Observations of the US Open

Recently I was fortunate enough to have worked at the US Open. As a first time visitor to this or any tennis event, I've made some observations. Regular tennis events attenders may find some of these to be blindingly obvious so apologies in advance. Some are tennis related some are well, not, but enjoy and please add your own in the comments section below.

No. 1 TV does not to justice to this sport. This point is fairly generic as I'm yet to come across a sport that looks as good on TV as it did in the flesh but I was blown away by just how hard the players hit the ball. When I first seen pro-boxing live, I was mesmerized by the power behind the punches and just how much punishment the boxers take. At the tennis it’s the court coverage and speed of the ball that most impressed me. When I was playing Leinster schools tennis at Gormanston College (under the watchful eye of Kingbet founder Peter Kingston - dishonourable mentions here also to fellow bloggers Gary Sinnott and Kevin Walsh for having a role in my tennis failures) one of the things they drummed into us was having your shot selected long before the ball arrived at your feet. I now understand the importance of this as watching Djokovic and Nadal smash forehands at each other, there is no way they could have time to pick their shots on the run. While the serve has historically come under the attention of the speed gun, I would love to see a gun track the speed of some of the ground strokes. Strikingly while the players are nearly all adapt at slugging the ball across the net, like all good fighter they're also able to box. By this I mean their touch around the net and ability to use the drop shot is frightening. To see Roger Federer take all the speed of the ball and make it drop stone dead just beyond the net is a thing of beauty.

2. The athleticism of tennis players is much undervalued. Again the observation can only be appreciated when you see them play live. The court coverage of all players is amazing. While their ability to sprint from the base line to the net is probably widely acknowledged, their stamina is often not. These players do repeated efforts unique across sports. They're on court for at least a couple of hours at a time yet never, noticeably anyway, seem to drop the speed they hit the ball at or in getting the ball back. To back that up with the same intensity the very next day is mightily impressive. Of all the players the most athletic is probably my favourite........ 

 

3. Gael Monfils is a legend. After losing a first round match in five sets and being on court for a little under five hours the last thing a player wants to do is play another tennis match, right? Well in the case of Gael Monfils after his epic five setter lose to Juan Carlos Ferrero he turned up two hours later to play a doubles match with compatriot Marc Gicquel. Okay so it's fair to say that he didn't play to the best of his abilities but he still entertained the crowd. Check out his antics here.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a92HAM7-6c8&feature=related) The guy is a born entertainer, even breaking into a dance after winning a shot on a couple of occasions. I blogged on this before -www.kingbetireland.blogspot.com/2011/06/drink-drugs-and-sausage-rolls.html - but it's the Gael Monfils and not the Andy Murrays of this world that make sport the experience it is. The admiration his fellow pros have for him is evident. On match point Gicquel stood aside and let Monfils play against two players, who played their part well by making him run all over the court. Monsieur Monfils, J'adore tu. (For more on this read here http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2011/09/gale-monfils-and-losing-in-style.html)

4. The inside of a tennis players head is a strange place to be. Like all elite athletes, tennis players are a highly strung bunch but nothing beats them quite like their own inner demons. On countless occasions I witnessed players in winnable positions throw away matches because one point went against them. Wimbledon semi-finalist Bernard Tomic, decided three games into his first US Open that he wasn't bothered trying against Mario Cillic. He then spent the next two hours strolling around the court. Giles Simon decided mid-way through the first set against John Isner that the Gods were against him and continued to shout "merde" everything he lost a point. A large preportion of the retirements can be put down to this. Radek Stepanek was comfortable early in the first set against Juan Monaco. The tide turns and suddenly poor Radek has a sore shoulder (although if my finance looks liked his I'd be running off court as well). Talking of female tennis players....

5. Gisele Dulko. Google her.

6. Women's tennis isn't at a low ebb. It's plainly poorer then men's. There I said it. Take me out and stone me Billie Jean King for the heresy I just expelled. When a ladies match proceeds a men’s match it’s as if the courts have been covered in quick sand as the play slows up so much. While I was delighted to see Sam Stosur live up to her potential, if Justine Henin made another return to the game, she'd dominate again. Kim Clisters - while carrying an injury - would probably have beaten most of the draw. Many of the great ladies champions must now look at the draw and sigh that they weren't born in a different era. Having said that.........

7. Sexual equality is empty rhetoric. The US Tennis Association is based at the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre so surely they of all tournaments would look out for women’s interests? Only when it suits them it appears. On the first Saturday of the event the crazy decision was make to play Novak Djokovic in the Louis Armstrong Stadium (capacity 7,500) while Schiovare played Pavlyuchenkova in front of 18,000 empty seats in the Arthur Ashe. So while thousands of fans were denied the chance to watch Djokovic, all was good in the world because the ladies got to play on Arthur Ashe just as much as the men. However when the decision was made to move the Ladies final to Sunday, the USTA choose to play the Ladies semis on Saturday evening giving the winners less then twelve hours to recover. Why not play Saturday morning I hear you ask? Well because, despite their final not being until Monday, the mens semi-finals were being played. When the USTA actually had the opportunity to help out elite female athletes, they bottled it. (If you're interested I blogged on this before as well http://kingbetireland.blogspot.com/2011/07/all-sports-are-equal-but-some-sports.html).

8. People who shout "What time is it?" "It's break time" on a break point are all wankers. Please feel free to join people who shout "Get in the hole" when a golfer is teeing off, on a long walk down a short pier. In saying that......

9. Tennis crowds are remarkably respectful. Despite the fact that crowds get animated and passionately support their charges, they are generally quiet and respectful during play. They go from cheering and booing to quiet as soon as the umpire calls "time". On this point the Argentinians really know how to get behind their players. They brought a colour and atmosphere to the event not seen by other nationalities. Expect for maybe the Indians who light up otherwise dull evening with their support of a certain doubles maestro. Speaking of him......

10. Doubles can be a very entertaining game. This may be down to my love of the volley but I was suitable impressed at doubles. Some of the players touch around the net is incredible. There is no better vollier in the world then Leander Paes and it was a privilege to watch him play. While it may lack both the athleticism and tactical nous of singles, the entertainment level makes up for it, especially when the ball bounces between players at the net.

11. Mixed doubles is not though. When I used to play my big sister Wraith in tennis, I'd often not hit the ball as hard as I could because I wanted to give her a chance to beat me. (Beating her too heavily would result in her stopping buying me presents or driving me places!!) We've all done it, helping the girl out so that she doesn't get discouraged - a certain first date of mine was only a success because I dropped a few mini golf putts short. However I do not expect to see this short of behaviour in the US Open. Yet in their first round match, number one seeded Bob Bryant consistently served slower to Melaine Oudinthen to Jack Sock. Now unless this was Bob and Melaines first date - bit of an odd setting but whatever - this is astonishing. Gentlemen who play mixed doubles, leave your chivalry at the door and smash the ball at the girl. Talking of Melanie Oudin

 

12. Jack Sock and Melanie Oudin are straight out of Friday Night Lights. These two American sweethearts teamed up and were given a wildcard draw into the mixed doubles. They seized their opportunity and won the mixed doubles championship scoping $150,000 for their troubles. Sock is an eighteen year old pretender to Andy Roddick’s crown of big serving American superstar. On top of his thumping serves, he has been described by a female colleague as "dreamy". Oudin is the A typical girl next door with her southern drawl and perfectly straight white teeth. As a couple you wouldn't think twice about calling them Prom King and Queen. Expect a celebrity girlfriend on Socks arm soon and the cliqued "bare-all" shoot with Playboy for Oudin. Another young American of real quality is

13. Taylor Townsend. Remember the name. A certain Richard Williams said she is better this his illustrious daughters at their age. At 15 this girl , scratch woman, has blazing power. If she can hone the more delicate sides of the game she should be a star.

14. Nadal v Djokovic and not Federer v Nadal is going to be the rivalry that defines this era. Much like when McEnroe first burst onto the scene it was his rivalry with Jimmy Connors that people expected to see grow, in reality it’s his rivalry with Bjorn Borg that is most remembered. Unfortunately for Federer his ownership of the men’s game in now over and he cannot now regularly compete with Nadal and Djokovic. These two guys however will play some classics in the next couple of years. Djokovic really beat up Nadal in that final to the extent that at times Nadal looked lost for answers. But a player of Nadals quality won’t just roll over so expect to see him come back stronger. As is Djokovic must hit a wall soon because...

15. The amount of tennis the players play is insane. I used to think it was crazy when I saw players play doubles as well as singles at a Grand Slam but after seeing them train I understand why. When the players get on court to practice they easily spend an hour just hitting to each other. If you are going to do so much in training you may as well just play in a competition. However it is little wonder that players are burning out if this is their year round training regime. It's not often I agree with Andy Murray but I'm with him on this and fully expect the players to take a stand sooner rather than later.

16. The volley is dead. The number of serve volliers in the game has gotten so low you would expect the World Wildlife Federation to put them on some sort of list soon. Even players like Mario Cillic - who is the archetypal serve vollier - are reluctant to play this sort of game anymore. The blame for this must lie at the door of the various tennis associations. In an attempt to curb the growing influence of the big serving player, aided by technological advances, they slowed the courts down. However they were so successful at this that all players now choice to slug it out from the baseline. While I appreciate that for a wide part of the world this is how tennis is meant to be played - a Chilean colleague had vastly different views then me on this - for people brought up on Wimbledon coverage, the sight of a player diving for the ball at the net is sacrosanct. The volley is nay on non-existent in the women's game right now and the men's game is following suit quickly. Bring back Tim Henman all is forgiven!

 

17. The umpires are correct an unreal amount of the time. The reasoning put forward by FIFA as to why they won’t introduce video technology is constantly that it undermines the integrity of referees. It fact it could do the opposite and prove just how good a job they do. The line umpires in tennis do a remarkable job when you see how close some of their calls are. I'd judge that player challenges are only correct 30% of the time and sometimes the calls so minute. Much like cricket umpires getting an incredible amount of LBW decisions correct, video challenges have proven that line umpires do a good job. Why so scared FIFA?

 

18. Maria Sharapova must be heard to be believed. Of course I'd heard all the media clamour about her grunt and how off putting it was but you really must hear it live to appreciate just how loud she is. From the upper deck in the Arthur Ashe stadium it is impossible to hear the noise of racket and ball coming together. Yet from these seats you could comfortably hear Maria scream. What makes it even crazier is that she screams after ever shot, not only the shots where she's really trying to smash the ball, which tells me that the grunt has nothing to do her being fatigued. It has simply become a crutch much like the learner driver who continues to look down at the gear stick even when they know how to change into second. (Be honest guys, if you were with Maria Sharapova and she didn't make similar noises when you were "together" would you be disappointed in your performance?)

Finally a big shout out to all my colleagues especially to those on Court 17 who made the event so memorable for me. We survived sunburn, lashing rain and irate Bryant Brother fans. Onwards to Ashe!!!!

Follow Seamus on twitter @fbspecial