The US Open is Still Unwatchable

So this year I once again made the annual Labor Day weekend trip to New York to eat food and watch tennis, though as the years have gone on it's become more food-focused and much less tennis-focused. This has primarily been to the American fan base that shows up to the US Open.

I understand that the home crowd will support the home player, but the behavior of American fans borders on rudeness, especially in the sport of tennis. Fans will applaud when the opposing player faults on the first serve, and will continue to call out during the service motion or unnecessarily during the point. This year was the first time I went to Louis Armstrong Stadium as opposed to Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the atmosphere was significantly better. All those loud casual "I want to do the prestigious stadium and only see the top players" fans will go to Ashe and as a result, fans who follow the game more closely will end up all over the complex instead of just one stadium. Even when John Isner was playing at Armstrong, the crowd was much more respectful for his opponent, Milos Raonic. As a side note, Armstrong also has much better air circulation than Ashe, as anyone who watched matches on Ashe saw players dripping sweat (Coric, anyone?).

Otherwise when I'm watching on TV or streaming it, the US Open is the only grand slam I watch on mute all the time.

The US Open Is Almost Unwatchable

As we wind down the final Grand Slam event of the year, I'm almost glad as it means that the upcoming events will be away from US soil. The watchability of the US Open is below that of other majors despite it being in a more accessible time zone. Naturally, the thing that gets in the way the most of the US Open is the fans.

American sports fans are a different breed of sports fan compared to other sports fans. It starts with the sports we watch the most, where being noisy and boisterous are not only commonplace, but encouraged. We don't take kindly to taking orders (yay the American spirit?), and value loyalty to our team above all else, including etiquette. And this lack of etiquette makes Americans poor spectators of sports where fans are expected to be respectful and, at times, quiet.

This is painfully obvious within the US Open itself. During matches featuring an American player, fans will loudly cheer when the opponent faults on the first serve. This is very rude and disrupts the flow of the game with the chair umpire constantly telling the audience to be quiet (for example S. Querry vs. M. Zverev or S. Querry vs K. Anderson). On the other hand, when there is no American on the court there is very little noise between the first and second serve (P. Kvitova vs. C. Murugurza the match before) and what cheers are made are often shushed by the crowd. (for example when Federer is playing). It's also pretty obvious at other slams, where this behavior is minimized when the hometown favorite is playing (like Murray at Wimbledon). While I still go every year, I always hope to avoid seeing American players in my session in the hopes of having somewhat watchable tennis.

I never really understood this blinding sense of loyalty in sport. A lot of it seems to be related to a lowest common denominator, where it's just easy to follow along. For example, chanting "USA" at the US Open is just beyond petty. Or maybe it's just time for me to get a lawn so that I can yell at everyone about staying off of it.

US Open!

I attended my first ever Grand Slam this past weekend, and it was definitely really exciting. I had tickets to see the night session in Arthur Ashe this past Saturday, and I was excited to have Federer's match against Mannarino. However, I was not excited to see Wozniacki vs. Giorgi, because Wozniacki is not really a top-tier player.

(Click to Enlarge)

I had a really nice seat in the loge level, which is the second level right above the luxury boxes (and almost directly above one of those long screens), which I purchased through the ticket exchange from a subscriber (and given how much an individual session costs per ticket, I couldn't imagine ponying up the money for an entire loge box-6 seats-would cost for the entire tournament).

Help Me Understand Something...

I've played tennis since I was in middle school, and one thing I've never understood why professional women players need to shriek when they play. Growing up, I've never heard anyone I've played tennis with grunt or shriek on a regular basis. It's really annoying and seems to take a lot away from the game. It seems to be a tactic used to distract an opponent and mask the sound of the racket striking the ball (which gives a good indication of how the ball will travel). Shrieking just seems like bad sportsmanship and something that is very immature for players that I feel couldn't really win without this atrocity.