US Open '12: Point by Point Coverage

[tikigirl]

Am I only one sick of these male players with their faithful model girlfriend following them from tournament to tournament, cheering them on in the stands, wringing their hads at the mistakes and looking pensive when it's the other player's point? Do these women have nothing else going on in their lives? That's it? Their life consists of being their tennis boyfriend's groupie?

Ha, breezy, I was just saying something similar to Tikiboy. All those women look alike. And the vast majority of those tennis players could not pull that kind of chick if they weren't rich and famous. Ugh.

[lt]

Yes, roseha, the clouds are flying by. Not only do the have to deal with the wind, the have to deal wi th the rapid switch from sun to cloudy to back again. I'm feeling buffetted and I'm not even playing. It looks like the really bad weather will be here in about an hour. David has to win fast! They d i'd n't even do oncourt interviews with Andy.

[roseha]

Yes maybe the weather will put Djoko in one of his bad moods heh

Go David!

[lt]

Did they show the huge scratches Murray's chair made when the wind blew it on to the court? They're still there.

The wind has died down from before. It's still gusting really hard, but not like before. Also, both David and Djoker are better wind players so they're already both doing better than Andy and Tomas.

[breezybee]

Did you know that David Ferrer once was locked in a closet by his coach and that he left tennis for a week once to work construction? Amazing that I've never heard those stories before. Shut up Mary.

[lt]

Ha! That's why I always laugh when I se people wearing the AmEx radios. Why would you choose to listen to the commentators if you don't have to?

[francienolan]

Twitter is saying play has been suspended. Get home safe LT

[breezybee]

I don't understand. Why didn't they at least play until it started to rain?

[francienolan]

Tornado alert.

Scariest thing ever is when the winds settle down and the horns start to blow...

[acre]

So this will be 5ys in a row they've had to play the men's final on Monday. Getting kind of ridiculous. I mean, I know you can't cont-ol the weathe-, but how old is Ashe? Why didn't they put a roof on? Any plans to do so? Cause that ship has sailed, all the othe- Slams have one, no going back.

Wow it would be SWEET to see David beat Djok to get to his 1st Slam final. Would've liked to see Tomas do it to, but so it goes. What was the tension/dislike with him and Andy? Is he just an ass, o- is Andy being c-anky as he knows so well how to do?

[falafaclese]

We just had a tornado watch here, maybe they have a similar system moving in.

[francienolan]

Yes. I generally like Brad Gilbert on Twitter (I don't care for him on TV but 140 characers seem about the right dose of him ) and he was complaining that he was leaving the grounds and there were clear skies. Sorry USTA gets no love from me this weekend but, they can't wait until the skies are dark as knight to evacuate thousands of people.

Better question is why these matches were not simultaneous. Even though we all know the answer. The lack of plans for a roof has gone from a joke to something that is outright embarrassing.

[breezybee]

That would make sense Fala. I didn't even hear what the commentators said as I was out of the room. I think they should have let Ferrer serve for the first set though.

[lt]

Better question is why these matches were not simultaneous.

I think you can blame Andy and Tomas for that. I think they were waiting to see if Tomas was going to go up two sets and then when Andy won that second so easily they held off moving the other semi to Armstrong thinking he'd win quickly. The third set backed that up and by the time the fourth started getting tight it was too late to move the match.

I think they should have let Ferrer serve for the first set though.

I agree--especially since David was on fire and we all know that Djoker is going to get his act together tomorrow. But I will say it took a solid half hour just to get to the stairs to leave the stadium--23,000 people leaving the same place at the same time takes a really long time. I got to my car and within 5 minutes it was coming down in buckets.

However, here's the thing. . . it's over. The severe weather is over. There is chances of rain for the next couple of hours but if they could have figured out how to keep the people safe, they could have finished the semis tonight. USC/Syracuse are playing at Met Life Stadium (old Giants Stadium) and they suspended the game at half time until the severe weather was past, and then they started the game up again. I don't know where all the people went, but they were sent out of the open part of the Stadium.

I don't know what to do about tomorrow. Is it really worth it to drive all the way back to see the end of one semi? I think I'd be able to go into Armstrong to watch the women's doubles--but it will probably be going on at the same time as the men's semi since the semi starts at 11am and the doubles start at 1:30. And the men's final is at 4pm on Monday. Do I leave work early to get home in time to watch?

Oh, I got home just in time for CBS news to do a segment on the ball boy that has a prosthetic leg. He is 23 years old and had his leg amputated after he stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan and his foot blew off. He considers himself lucky because there was a homemade bomb under the land mine and it didn't detonate. He's still in the Army working with other vets in his situation and he thought it would be helpful for them to see him working at the Open so when they asked him to tryout, he did. He's planning on competing in the Paralympics in Brazil.

acre, they can't put a roof on Ashe because the grounds are on a swamp (all of the area around Manhattan in both NJ and NY are swampy land) and Ashe can't take the weight of a roof. They've had engineers trying to figure out some solution, but there just isn't a light enough material for a retractable roof. They can't put a roof on the new Armstrong or new Grandstand because they can't put a roof on a stadium if the main stadium doesn't get one (where would they put the extra 8,000 people?). Thing is, when Ashe was built we just didn't have all these rain delays. The hurricane season has changed and we now get the remnants the 2nd week.

Honestly, the smartest thing they could do is to move the tournament earlier by one week. That would end the tournament before the classic hurricane season had begun and they could even make Labor Day Monday the men's final--another plus is that the NFL wouldn't have started yet either.

[roseha]

Honestly, the smartest thing they could do is to move the tournament earlier by one week.

I've been having that thought myself. The other tournament directors will howl, in fact probably no one will be happy, but I don't see another solution. Five years in a row is just not a coincidence. These dates don't work for New York anymore.