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.

So What?

I, like most of us, spend a lot of time perusing the internet, and my general reaction to most things is just "So what?" and not much else. It almost seems like everyone has an opinion, which they are certainly within their rights to hold, but then feel the need that because they're so important and knowledgeable in everything in which the hold an opinion everyone else is obligated to listen to that opinion. I think the peak was right after the election, where everyone had an opinion on the outcome and made sure that you knew what they were saying, because somehow everyone you knew suddenly became a top-notch political analyst overnight.

Of course, this is slightly hypocritical since anything I write is mostly just random thoughts without much substance, which leads to a lot of "So what?" reactions. There's no real direction here, but for a personal "blog" or collection of ramblings, naturally there doesn't need to be. (Naturally I'm such a renown journalist and as such "journalistic integrity" is such a forte, but the lack of it in the professional world is well...another opinion for another day.) Naturally these thoughts have kept me away for a while, and I'm not really sure what I'm doing with this, though at least hopefully it doesn't seem like I'm shoving words/opinions down your throat.

In other words, no news is good news.