Gasquet & The Governor enjoy U.S. Open Thursday

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer attended the Ashe Stadium night session with his wife and another couple. They sat in section E57 adjacent to the lower press section and from our nearby perspective, thoroughly enjoyed the action, applauding each Novak Djokovic and Philipp Petzschner for the outstanding efforts at different moments of the match. And the Governor’s group of four stayed to see the final point of the match, won by Djokovic in the third set tiebreak. However, thankfully for him, Mr. Spitzer did miss Djokovic’s comment about having something else between his legs, in the on-court interview with Brad Gilbert. It would have been an awkward moment for him, but he was already up the steps and on his way.

Tennis-prose.com good friend Mike, aka “Name”, later revealed he saw Mr. Spitzer watching the finale of the Berankis-Melzer clash on Court 7. Because this match was very crowded, Mike (Name) said he saw the Governor trying to stand on the metal barrier to improve his view of the dramatic ending which featured the young Berankis saving four match points, only to lose 7-5 in the fifth to Melzer who had a large and vocal contingent of Austrian supporters, to inspire him. Poor Berankis, of Lithuania, had no evident supporters except for one guy wearing a green Lithuania shirt. But Berankis gave a memorable battle and showed many signs which bode well for his future. Keep your eye on Berankis. Also, Philipp Petszchner stopped by to watch the ending of this match and support his doubles partner Melzer.

By the way, Mike (Name) is an outstanding photographer who is an iron man. He was on the grounds all day and night Wednesday, then arrived yesterday and stood and shot photos for the entire duration of Nishikori vs. Cilic, with no complaints or signs of fatigue. Mike says he has been attending and shooting the Open for 35 years, having only missed two years. He has an excellent web site called www.protennisphotos.com which I hope you can check out.

Martina Navratilova was hitting with Jimmy Connors on the practice courts, next to Maria Sharapova, who was preparing for her night match. At one point, Maria asked Martina to hit her some lefty serves to help her get ready for Benesova which of course the still ultra competitive Navratilova obliged and even aced Maria on one, which produced a big “Yes!” from the living legend tennis Hall of Famer.

The media center was graced by the presence of the great Manuel “Manolo” Santana who came by to visit some Spanish journalists. I was fortunate to do a Biofile with the classy man from Madrid, who if you didn’t know, won two French Opens, one Wimbledon and one U.S. Championship. Manolo Santana is a revered figure by three tennis legends I admire very much – Fred Stolle, Cliff Drysdale and the late Eugene Scott, and having the pleasure to do his Biofile, which turned out to be a classic, was a highlight of the year for this reporter.

Richard Gasquet has had several marvelous performances over his eight-year ATP career and yesterday’s total destruction of Nikolay Davydenko was certainly one of his best. The classy Frenchman is a study in tennis brilliance when he is on his game and is as fine a sportsman as you will find in this sport. He never argues calls, never misbehaves on the court. He plays a clean, professional game with grace, elegance and power. However, if there’s one aspect Gasquet may need to clean up, it’s the mess he makes at his changeover chair. Both chairs were moved a yard back out of place from the wooden squares they are supposed to rest on and the area was strewn with used shoes, wet socks, shirts, wristbands, bottles, towels, and racquets all over the place. By total contrast, Davydenko was meticulously orderly, with his chairs perfectly aligned, his Dunlop bag perfectly parallel to his chair with just one racquet neatly resting on top of the bag. They were an odd couple on Thursday, but Gasquet was poetry in motion on the court and let’s hope he has many more days like this impressive victory.

A cool moment was when myself and Dan Markowitz were exiting the bowels of Ashe to go watch Gasquet vs. Davydenko, and who passed by us but Bret Connors, the son of you know who. Bret’s a big man, almost like a linebacker, with a happy-go-lucky spirit. I said, Hey, that’s Bret Connors. And he turned around and smiled, That’s me. Rumor has it Bret Connors is a big fan of another happy spirit – Marcos Bagdhatis.

Manolo Santana visited the media center

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