US Open Commences — Day One Observations

Today’s attendance was a record breaker for opening day – 37,602 came out on a steamy hot day.

I first went to see Mardy Fish play the first set on the last year of the grandstand vs Marco Cecchinato, which he lost in a tiebreak, after being up the early break, and Fish is playing very well, he looks as good as ever, his fluidity and ball striking are a pleasure to watch, as his his service motion, but he might have lost a quarter of a step of footspeed — Fish won in four sets.

Brad Gilbert walked by me near the front fountain in front of Ashe and commented about my Kyrgios-Muhammad Ali Tweet a few weeks ago that he yellow carded me for — your Tweet “completely disheveled me” he said today — I had said that Nick’s quotes to Wawrinka were tame in comparison to some of the cruel and vicious things the young Muhammad Ali said about and to some of his opponents which mocked the looks and speaking skills of Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston and George Foreman. I stand by what I said, though Nick is not in Ali’s league as a champion he is still young and he has a super bright future, and his one mumble to Stan was way overblown and absolutely undeserving or a major punishment. Give the kid a break and let’s hope the warning sets him right —

Saw Jelena Jankovic, 21 seed, sitting on the dirty floor of the Ashe hallway by the restaurant workers, yelling, whining, complaining to her coach for at least 20 minutes, very upset after her three set loss to Oceane Dodin of France, 26 75 63. There are a lot heartbreaks in tennis that the public does not see.

Funny moments in the Ferrer vs Albot battle on grandstand — Albot held serve late in the second set, after winning the first, and while walking back to his chair did a ten second fist pump to his box, as the ballkid walked with him with his towel, Albot held his fist pump for the ten seconds and then finally released the fist pump and accepted the towel for the kid, who had to wait till the extended fist pump completed. Ferrer rolled after that fist pump to the tune of 46 75 61 60.

The Bryans practiced this afternoon with young Americans Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka who got wildcarded into the dubs draw, they drew a full house to court 8.

Dominik Hrbaty, the former top ten player from Czech Rep was watching Radek Stepanek, his former Davis Cup teammate, battle Turkey’s Marcel Ilhan, however Hrbaty was not there to support or coach his old buddy Step, he was actually coaching Ilhan, as his new job is as a coach for Turkey’s junior boys, a job he began over a year ago. Ilhan won in four sets. I spoke with “The Dominator” about his memories of “Facing Marat Safin” which is a feature I’m working on, perhaps it could become a book, as the stories and memories of Safin by Hrbaty were tremendously enjoyable to listen to. Hrbaty played Safin fourteen or fifteen times, and they split at 7-7 or 8-7 with the last match at the Hopman Cup final – I also interviewed Karim Alami, Jeff Tarango today about Facing Safin.

The NBA star from the Sixers, who was on crutches and hasn’t played a game in two years was at the Open today, sitting at the outdoor bar by the fountain, the number five draft pick overall declined to talk to me about tennis for an interview, with his right hand man telling me he’s exhausted from the walk in on the crutches – then standing there looking at the scoreboard, an Asian fella dropped two twenty dollar bills as he walked by me, I called out to him Yo, and pointed to his two twenties, which he turned around to pick up, saying thanks.

John McEnroe did a guest spot on Chris Mad Dog Russo’s Sirius Radio show table outside the media center, Johnny Mac was in prime form talking tennis, wearing his Wayfarer shades and a backwards Mets cap. Mac said fans actually booed before his US Open final vs friend and Queens neighbor Vitas Gerulaitis, because they wanted to see Borg vs Connors, not McEnroe vs Vitas, which was won by Mac, his first major title win. I gave Chris a copy of my Facing Federer earlier in the media cafe. Milos Raonic joined Mac and Maddog during their segment and Mac called Milos a “future grand slam winner.”

Tommy Paul was playing lights out tennis in the first set vs the 25 seed Andreas Seppi and was ahead 3-love with two break points to go up 4-love but then Seppi found his groove and dominated the rest of the match 64 60 75. But Paul was on fire, just outplaying Seppi from the baseline, hitting winners and stunning Seppi with consistency and firepower. Despite the loss, I still love the future potential Paul has. Remember, James Blake’s first ever US Open match he lost to Chris Woodruff one, one and one.

Miroslav Mecir was in the house, first I saw him watching Granollers vs Lacko, won by the Spaniard in straight sets, then the Big Cat was watching Jerzy Janowicz lose to Pablo Carrena Busta in four good sets. At the Lacko match, Mecir stood up from the court 12 bleacher to stretch and a fan, who didn’t know who he was, asked him to please sit down, but Mecir nicely told the fan, that he has a bad back and needs to stretch it out. Mecir played in the ’86 US Open finals and lost to Ivan Lendl 64 62 60.

The Dolgopolov vs Groth match was a high points of the day on court six, but Groth was too much for Dolgo to handle, the robust Aussie’s serve and improved backhand got the job done in three sets as Dolgo quit after losing the third, without any signs of injury, it just looked like he had passed the frustration breaking point having to deal with the Groth serve and baseline pounding —

The new Ashe stadium is amazing – I stepped in to see Djokovic put the three breadsticks on Brazilian Souza and was more awed by the stadium roof then the match — the new roof and beam structure, not yet complete, adds a new quality to the ambiance, it’s more intimate and closed in, it’s the most amazing sports arena I’ve ever been in —

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