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Around the Grounds: Day 1 at the 2017 US Open

Tennis by Adesina O. Koiki on add comment 3.17K views
Robert Cole/ALOST
The players who will not be playing at the 2017 US Open, like 2016 men's singles champion Stan Wawrinka, are as much of a storyline going into this week as the players who are in Queens. (Robert Cole/ALOST)
The players who will not be present at the 2017 US Open – like 2016 men’s singles champion Stan Wawrinka – are as much of a storyline going into this fortnight as the players who are in Flushing Meadows. (Robert Cole/ALOST)

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Tennis: 2017 US Open, Day 1

 

If the third time is a charm, then what does frolicking around in the New York City summer watching Grand Slam tennis for a fourth consecutive year constitute?

It’s hard to believe that we’re getting ready to start the fourth consecutive year of A Lot of Sports Talk‘s live blogging experience at the U.S. Open – an undertaking in which we walk around the grounds to consume more tennis than one’s eyeballs can possibly take in for a fortnight. After the ups and downs of the tennis season in 2017, what else can happen in the last Grand Slam of the tennis season?

Unlike the past three years, we will also have a consistent presence inside of Arthur Ashe Stadium, as one of our reporters, Andrew Leffler, has just touched down in the Big Apple and will join us to provide feature stories which involve the action from the showpiece court of USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Just another reason to be excited!

While the fun is just about to get started, what is a downer already is the number of star players and former champions who will not be a part of the fun in New York City, including six-time US Open champion Serena Williams. We at ALOST wish her all of the best and hope for a very successful delivery of her first child. Three of the top five men’s tennis players in the world, all of them former champions in New York City, also have had to take a pass: Andy Murray (hip), Novak Djokovic (elbow) and last year’s men’s singles champion, Stan Wawrinka (knee). Kei Nishikori, the 2014 US Open finalist, also is missing the event due to a right wrist injury.

But the show must go on, and what a show it will still be! As we said, we’ll be in the borough of Queens throughout the entire tournament, so stay tuned and keep hitting the refresh button for our updates from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Like always, we absolutely encourage you to contact us on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram and let us know where on the grounds we should blog from. We always love your feedback.

Let’s have some fun, shall we? Latest entries are at the top of the page.

9:18 PM EST: Oh, and going back to Armstrong will afford me to hang out with the life of the party, Cindy and Leslie! Here’s visual proof of our awesomeness…

Leslie, Cindy and yours truly.
Leslie, Cindy and yours truly.

1:20 AM EST: Here’s hoping you’ve seen the impressive high socks/knickers that Zverev is sporting out there. I definitely approve, especially since I rocked that look in gym class in elementary school! It was my homage to former Syracuse University basketball star Lawrence Moten, my all-time favorite college basketball player who played with his socks pulled up knee-high.

1:14 AM EST: You see the time next to this post and yes, we’re still here. And, yes, there’s still tennis. The No. 4 seed, Alexander Zverev, was the unlucky person – along with Darian King of Barbados – who had to follow that drama-filled three-setter between Sharapova and Halep. But the first set was a thriller, with King up a break for the majority of the set until Zverev broke back late in that set. It went into a tiebreak, with Zverev fighting off two set points and eventually winning 11-9 in the breaker. It’s now in the second, and Zverev just broke to go up 6-5. Very competitive match, but one that Zverev looks on the verge of taking control.

12:30 AM EST: So Maria’s press conference happened after midnight, and she intimated that, after these past 19 months,
that she almost “had no right” to win this match tonight. She also couldn’t help but feel the energy and love from the crowd despite the knowledge of her suspension. Shazza was unbelievably solemn and humble when answering questions from the media.

11:03 PM EST: It’s been a couple of hours since our last entry, but it’s been a real busy – and dramatic – couple of hours!
First, Maria Sharapova, in her first Grand Slam match in 19 months after her suspension, defeats No.
2 Simona Halep in three wonderful sets! More from that a little later from Andrew. Second, our pictures are live!! As you probably saw when scrolling down, we have pictures from around the grounds, as we can’t thank Robert Cole enough for being a human tarpaulin, covering the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center from Arthur Ashe to Court 4…and everything in between!

9:07 PM EST: Food consumed (meatball marinara sub). Close to getting back onto the courts. Looks like its either Ashe or Armstrong. Andrew is on Ashe as Maria Sharapova took the first set from Simona Halep, 6-4. On temporary Armstrong, Sock did force a fifth set, though I was a temporary jinx: Sock was broken, but then came back to win the fourth set 7-5. It’s 1-1 in the fifth. Looks like we’ll be heading back. Oh, and Armstrong, during changeovers, might be the unofficial classic rock station. Heard Led Zeppelin and Mötley Crüe already over there, and now wondering what I’ll hear next when I get back.

8:34 PM EST: I’m pretty sure we’re going to head in for a pit stop in the media room after this game. I believe the media dining room closes at 9 PM, so I better get my grub on now! Thompson holds and it’s 4-3 to Sock. Looks like Sock is going to force a fifth set, but I’ve been a broadcast jinx before!

8:27 PM EST: We’re at the renovated, stripped-down Armstrong, and it’s actually somewhat sad to see, given how majestic this place was for so long. Of course, it will be again, but not until 2018 at the earliest. Anyways, back to tennis. Sock is up a break now in the fourth set, leading 4-2 after a routine hold. Sock complained (whined?) about the hard courts in Washington D.C., but I’m sure he can’t do that this time around if he were to lose in the first round of his home Slam to the Australian.

8:17 PM EST: A Smith backhand goes into the net and Fabbiano advances into the second round. He’ll take on the winner of Jack Sock and another Australian, Jordan Thompson. Thompson won the first two sets – including a 14-12 tiebreaker in the second – before Sock won the third. That match is on the temporary Armstrong Stadium,
and that’s probably where we should go.

8:16 PM EST: Fabbiano now with three match points.

8:11 PM EST: Smith holds at 15 to force a fourth-set tiebreak. Behind us, on Court 15, Timea Babos and Viktorija Golubic have gone to a third set, with Golubic breaking Babos to start the third. She just held for 2-0. Now on 14, Smith just double faulted, giving Fabbiano the minibreak at 2-1.

8:06 PM EST: I’m wrong again, Bob. We’re now siting on the first row of Court 14, where Thomas Fabbiano of Italy is taking on the left-handed Aussie, John-Patrick Smith. Fabbiano just held and he’s up 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-5. Smith serving to stay in the match. I’m almost certain I’m next to the Fabbiano coaches/supporters. Si! (Yes, in Italian.)

7:59 PM EST: Baroni pulls it out as a Puig goes long during a rally. Baroni just drops the racquet, as she knows she was in a battle. That, and the crowd was decidedly pro-Puig. But the No. 29 seed pulled it out at the end. Court 11 is done. Now off to 17…we think.

7:58 PM EST: Don’t call it a come back!! Puig wins the next four points and we’re even at 4-4. Baroni answers with an ace and it’s 5-4.

7:56 PM EST: After Baroni wins another point, Puig finally on the board with a forehand winner on a second serve. 4-1 Baroni in the tiebreak. It’s now 4-2 as they change ends.

7:54 PM EST: But Puig is back up against it, as Baroni wins the first three points of the final-set tiebreak.

7:54 PM EST: TIEBREAK!
Puig wins five points in a row to dig herself out of a massive hole!

7:53 PM EST: DEUCE! Puig saves three match points!

7:51 PM EST: Now one point away at 0-40. Puig then wins next points, but it’s still match point for Baroni.

7:50 PM EST: Baroni hit a couple of more forehand winners to hold for 6-5, and now has won the first two points on Puig’s serve. Baroni two points away from the match!

7:47 PM EST: There’s one person in the stands who has consistently said, “Se puede, se puede!” (Spanish for “you can”) rooting for the Puerto Rican. She now has a break point…which Baroni wipes away with a swinging forehand volley winner.

7:42 PM EST: Instead of Court 17, we’ve been diverted to Court 11 for another final set thriller between 2016 Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig and the No. 29 seed, 2017 Australian Open finalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. It’s 5-5 in the fifth set, with Baroni serving. Very underrated first-round match, and it’s definitely living up to the billing…well, the billing that you might have heard about it coming in, which isn’t much. But it should have been more.

6:55 PM EST: Lots of happenings for us. We saw Querrey close out Simon in straight, saw American Jared Donaldson complete a bagel in the first set against Nikoloz Basilashvili on Court 4 and Lucas Pouille close out his match on Court 5. Robert is with me now, so photos are on the way shortly. While Robert goes to Ashe, we’ll have a quick bite to eat then go out to Court 17, where there’s a fifth set between Thanasi Kokkinakis and Janko Tipsarevic. Janko has won the last two sets, including winning a fourth-set tiebreaker, 7-2 in the breaker.

5:40 PM EST: The three of us, while watching Querrey-Simon, are talking about the American figure skaters of yesteryear who have gone on to great schools and great careers off the ice, like Sarah Hughes, Debbie Thomas, etc.
They’re self-deprecating about their figure skating knowledge, but I think they’re like pool sharks when it comes to figure skating: they know everything.

5:25 PM EST: Querrey was broken to begin the second set and then just broke a couple of break point chances from Simon to prevent going down a double break. It’s 2-1 Simon in the second, with the Frenchman serving. We are now sitting next to a couple of people cheering for Simon, who are from Paris. Cindy just talked with them about her being in France for her son’s wedding earlier this summer. We’re making friends everywhere we go!

5:19 PM EST: Cindy, Leslie and I are now on the Grandstand, as Sam Querrey just won the first set against Gilles Simon.
Oh, and on Court 7, Shapovalov just dispatched Danill Medvedev in straight sets. It’s now Shapovalov vs. Tsonga in a very juicy second-round match. Leslie now has me thinking if Danill is related to the former tennis pro Andrei Medvedev after asking me whether that was the case.

4:49 PM EST: The sisters are back! Cindy and Leslie are here, the wonderful ladies who graced our presence between Courts 5 and 6 on Day 1 last year are here! More thoughts on that as we’re currently seeing Denis Shapovalov, the surprise semifinalist in Montréal, is taking care of business on Court 7.

4:36 PM EST: On the adjacent Court 5, there’s a third set going on between Saisai Zheng and Alison Van Uytvanck. Remember when Van Uytvanck made the quarters of the French Open a couple of years ago? Oh, now Sela has a match point, but the Eubanks supporters are still at full voice. And a backhand volley winner at the net seals it for Sela!

4:33 PM EST: During the changeover, I got a chance to talk with some of the orange-clad Eubanks supporters, and most of them come from the Washington Park Tennis Association in Atlanta. One of the members here estimated that there are about 50 people who came from Atlanta to cheer on Eubanks. Wonderful!

4:27 PM EST: Now we’re on Court 6, for a match that has the atmosphere of a college basketball game. It’s Christopher Eubanks, the senior from Georgia Tech who is the two-time reigning ACC Player of the Year, against Dudi Sela,
the Israeli veteran who always has a large cheering section in New York because of the large Jewish population in the Big Apple. Sela is giving Eubanks a lesson, as he’s up 6-2, 6-4, 4-0. At the moment, I’m sitting right behind Eubanks’ cheering section, which, during changeovers, is chanting, “Go, Chris, Go!” As a response, the Sela supporters chant, “Duu-dee Say-lah!” It’s a lot of fun, but, doesn’t look like it will last that much longer for the collegian.

4:15 PM EST: The upset is complete! The No. 7 seed in the women’s draw, Johanna Konta, has been upset by Serbian Aleksandra Krunic. Krunic wins 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. In 2014, Krunic made the fourth round of the US Open, but today’s win is her first win against a Top 10 player since that run, when she beat players like Madison Keys and Petra Kvitova, the latter being the No. 3 seed at the US Open that year.

4:14 PM EST: We’re out on the new Grandstand, and we’re about to see a possible upset! More in a second!

3:29 PM EST: Going back to the media room for our first pit stop…and, most likely, our first batch of chicken wings during the fortnight. I’m below a size 40 waist line for the first time in a while, but I don’t think it’s going to stay that way after the 60-plus wings I’ll probably consume soon enough…

3:24 PM EST: I asked Kristyna Pliskova, who won her match on Court 5 against Misa Eguchi of Japan, if she liked playing at 11 AM to start the entire tournament, as well as if she’s just as happy for twin sister Karolina as she is in being the World’s No. 1 ranked tennis player.

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3:22 PM EST: Sitting near the concourse outside of Court 13, and just heard that Duan won the match, but Liu did force a second-set tiebreak as well. Will be interesting to see how Liu will do in the next couple of years.
Has a lot of fight in her game. Needs to develop a couple of weapons, though. Hey, at least she’s just 17. Oh, and we have the interview with Pliskova ready to go!

3:06 PM EST: Copil’s serve bails him out and he holds for 2-2. My apologies for not mentioning it earlier, but our senior photographer, Robert Cole, will be here later in the afternoon and we’ll have a photo gallery up from all of the matches that he ends up going to courtside! Whee!!!

3:01 PM EST: We’ve now made it to one of the show courts here at Ashe, Court 17. Currently, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is putting a beatdown on his opponent, Marius Copil of Romania. It’s currently 6-3, 6-3, 2-1 for the No. 8 seed.
Looks like Copil has a massive serve…and that’s really it. Just made a hash of a fairly easy volley at the net and now is fighting to just stay on serve. A backhand goes long from Copil and it’s match point…err, break point…for Tsonga.

2:52 PM EST: Break point chance for Liu! And she breaks! Duan dumps a backhand into the net and it’s on serve in the second.

2:50 PM EST: Again, Liu saves a break point to hold in a service game, and now is up 30-15 on Duan’s serve at 2-4. Can she get back into it…a Duan ace suggests maybe not. 30-30.

2:42 PM EST: Duan holds for 4-1. Might have headed to a different court sooner if it wasn’t for me sitting next to the cutest baby on the front row bench of Court 10. Maybe a couple of more minutes here and I’ll skedaddle.

2:42 PM EST: Claire Liu saves a couple of break points to avoid going down two breaks in the second set. It’s 7-6, 3-1 for Duan, who has a punishing forehand. You would expect that given the physical specimen that she is:
listed as 6-1, 185.

2:34 PM EST: People behind us are just fans of Duan. Not friends nor family. By the way, here’s Maria Sakkari signing autographs after her win against Bertens.

IMG_5428

2:32 PM EST: Now we’re on Court 10 to see our firs tAmerican in action, 2017 Wimbledon junior champion Claire Liu. She just lost a dramatic first set in a tiebreak to Duan Ying-Ying of China and now Duan is up 2-0 in the seconds. Also, I might be sitting next to the cheering section of Duan’s, as the person next to me just let out a “C’MON” after a winner. Duan now up 3-0 in the second and is in control.

2:21 PM EST: Gulbis broke Giannessi to go up 3-1 in the second set, then just held for 4-1. Already up a set. Gulbis, as you know, has unbelievable talent, yet also is known for not being as committed to the game as his talent would dictate. He’s ranked 255 in the world now, but he also has six career ATP Tour titles and was ranked as high at No. 10 in the world!

2:15 PM EST: Got to see a little Gulbis – and his awkward-looking down-to-up forehand, but, on the adjacent Court 9, we just saw Maria Sakkari of Greece defeat the No. 24 seed, Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-3. Looked like the two were good friends judging from the handshake (and hug) at the net. If I remember correctly, we took a picture of Sakkari playing in her first-ever major, which was the 2016 US Open.

1:44 PM EST: Before leaving for Court 8, the person sitting next to me in the media room brought chicken wings, and now that smell is consuming my area! Trying my hardest not to go into the media dining room and going for some wings. But, boy, it’s hard! OK, Court 8 we go!!

1:36 PM EST:  Out to the courts! We’re heading to Court 8, where we will see Italian Alessandro Giannessi take on the ever eccentric Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. I guess this is coincidence, but the first match we’ll catch involves a player we interview last year! Don’t believe us. Here’s yours truly and Giannessi talking about his first-round win here in 2016!

1:30 PM EST: So we have a few issues with our WiFi here in the media room. Not surprising. We’ll have those pictures up soon, as well as an interview with Kristyna Pliskova, twin sister of World No. 1 Karolina. We asked her whether she likes playing the first match of a major at 11 AM on a Monday. Let’s just say she was less than thrilled with that. You’ll hear that…eventually!

12:47 PM EST: We are so close to heading out onto the courts after our Facebook Live posts. Unfortunately, we missed the first match on the Temporary Louis Armstrong court, as No. 13 Petra Kvitova defeated Jelena Jankovic 7-5, 7-5. John Isner us up next on Armstrong. I’ll probably go over there a little later. Not in the mood to be a broken record with my blogging: “John Isner hits an ace.” “John Isner hits an ace.” “John Isner is in the tiebreak.” Wash, rinse, repeat.

12:00 PM EST: Not only are we here, we HAVE OUR OWN SEAT IN THE MEDIA ROOM! First time! Here’s the proof…well, eventually!

11:20 AM EST: I’m here. Andrew is here. It’s gametime folks! Give us a few minutes while I show my intern the ropes here in the media area. I’m such a nice boss, aren’t I?

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