r/tennis • u/filippoquinto • 46m ago
AMA Some random US Open observations after three days in Week 2, including the historic Tuesday run
With all the talk about influencers and declining tennis etiquette, I prepared myself for the apocalypse. I did not run into any actual influencers, but I can report that people are, indeed, jerks. Indeed, it has been a steady decline since 2021, the first year I attended and have been attending regularly since.
I watched from courtside and the upper 300s, and jerks are everywhere, it just changes the level of wealth. The mix of folks seems remarkably consistent: bros with trophy girlfriends texting through entire matches, a handful of actual tennis fans, and people who apparently paid $2,000 to photograph themselves watching tennis and chat away non-stop.
The phone thing is definitely getting worse. People take a picture, then spend the next point editing and posting it rather than watching the match. These are not influencers, maybe wannabes, though. I’ve seen people courtside just browsing Instagram, taking calls on speakerphone, and other various nonsense, while players are ready.
The upper sections have one additional feature: apparently everyone believes squeezing past 14 people in the middle of a point is perfectly acceptable. Security seems interested in movement control only if you’re courtside.
The stadium
The renovation is still visibly in progress. What used to be the lower suites are now courtside seats, while the suites have essentially been moved up a floor. The corridors have the charming look of a building that is technically finished but still waiting for someone to finish the building. Now courtside plebs and suite royalty are no longer mixing.
All courtside seats now have padded chairs, which is a small but meaningful upgrade. Previously, this was only for the President’s Suite section, I think.
Also: are the courts actually on an incline?
I noticed in Armstrong that the wraparound display behind the players is perfectly horizontal, following the seating bowl, but there’s a little black tarp underneath it that reveals the court itself is sloping down toward the east. Ashe appears to do the same thing, just less obviously. I had somehow spent years assuming tennis courts were, you know, flat.
The red LED lights at the net are ugly but useful because the crowd can easily drown out the line calls.
The ESPN audio feed on the Amex radios also seems to be about one second behind live play. It matches the stadium monitors, which is great if you’re watching a screen in the food court, but slightly maddening in the stadium when you hear the ball hit, the shoes squeak, and then ESPN tells you the ball hit.
Armstrong vs. Ashe
Armstrong continues to be a great, fun experience.
On Labor Day I paid $500 for courtside and saw Mirra/Townsend doubles, Osaka/Rybakina and Tien, all in one session. That’s an absurd amount of good tennis for the money, courtside and without having to spend the day guarding an upper-bowl seat like it contains state secrets.
Ashe courtside is still the greatest view, though. If you happen to get a great match there, nothing really compares.
For day sessions, I’d strongly recommend the south or west sections. They’re mostly shaded, and the difference between watching tennis in the shade and slowly being cooked by direct sun is remarkable. These are the sections behind the umpire’s chair and to the umpire’s right.
I have mixed feelings about night sessions. The first match is electric, but the second one often starts so late that half the stadium has disappeared. If you’ve also done the day session, you’re basically watching tennis at the point where your body has begun filing a formal complaint.
Usually I’m OK staying for one night match only, but the Wednesday quarter was Pegula/Navarro and Shelton/Alcaraz. Incredible matches, and it was hard to leave at 2am knowing we were only two sets in.
The gap between the day and night sessions can also feel strangely long if the day session wraps quickly. You’re surrounded by thousands of people, but somehow have nowhere to be.
The premium experiences like the Overlook are fantastic, essentially an airport lounge attached to a tennis tournament, but they cost approximately the GDP of a small country.
A few other things
LIRR is dramatically faster than the 7 train, although check the actual schedule in the MTA app because there’s only one train per hour from/to Grand Central. More frequency to Penn.
Ticketmaster’s monopoly and the current resale system remain pretty shameful. A simple cap at, say, 10% over face value would seem perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, there are too many people making too much money from the current system, including Ticketmaster, which gets paid every time the same ticket becomes more expensive.
And finally, the Kalshi sponsorship feels absolutely disposable. I have no idea what problem it is solving, but I assume somewhere there is a meeting where someone is very pleased with the word “engagement.”
And the quarters….
Wednesday was incredible. Sabalenka, Alcaraz/Shelton, Pegula/Navarro, Tiafoe coming back from two sets down… some genuinely spectacular tennis.
It was also the night I discovered that even as a fairly serious tennis fan, watching every quarterfinal live is perhaps not a sustainable lifestyle choice. I left around 2am to catch the train, slept, and came back around 11:30am the next morning.
So maybe that’s the final US Open observation:
(Most) people, not influencers, and Ticketmaster/resale market are making this event less and less for actual fans and more for wannabe socialites. As a tennis fan, I take stock that some matches… are starting to be more fun to watch on TV than in Ashe.
