The US Open Grand Slam experience has evolved considerably over the years in structure, size but also in other simple ways.
Today you are unlikely to see the elites outside of an Arthur Ashe Stadium luxury box.
But back in the old days, the outer courts had more appeal.
A colleague journalist claims he saw Led Zeppelin’s lead vocalist Robert Plant watching qualifying matches with a draw sheet in his back pocket.
I once saw the writer Norman Mailer sitting down and eating in the food court with presumably his wife.
A young unknown Roger Federer was once spotted at the old Heineken bar having a beer with friends.
I sat on a subway ride with Sloane Stephens and her coach Roger Smith as they headed back to their hotel in Queens. This was before Sloane was a top 100 player. I talked with Smith about his Marcelo Rios memories.
Rafael Nadal finished a practice on Louie Armstrong and after signing everything, climbed the rail and walked through the stands and signed more for fans on his short cut way back to the Ashe Stadium locker room entrance. Rafa did this with no security or team handlers with him. Yes, this really happened.
Fifteen years ago, former ATP no. 8 and winner of 13 ATP titles, Karel Novacek was eating by himself in the food court, totally unrecognized. He was nice enough to do a Biofile interview.
Miloslav Mecir was also often seen around the grounds during qualies and the first week of US Open or qualies as his son was competing.
The grounds now have much different feel, every where you look there some kind of corporate pitch and the old fountain area outside the Ashe entrance is now a big jam due to a new big stage where a couple of hosts drum up some buzz with silly gimmicks and trivia contests. The kids seem to love it though.
There used to be a book store near court 9 but that’s gone for a few years.
In the same corner booth where tennis books were sold, now there’s a Fage yogurt booth that offers a free cup of Greek yogurt which is very tasty. In years past, you could wait on line for a couple minutes and grab your free snack but this year the lines were about ten times longer, 30-40-50 yards – and so the wait was about 30-45 minutes just for a yogurt. The Fage coordinator running the line told me the reason it takes so long is because people get to the counter and take a long time to decide which flavor they want.
A few years ago I saw Carlos Moya at that round covered US Open shop that still sits outside Armstrong Stadium, he was buying some US Open gear and was nice enough to answer a few questions about Facing Nadal for my Facing Nadal book. I still remember he said the first time he ever met Nadal was not in Mallorca but at an ATP tournament in Germany where Nadal also happened to be playing a junior tournament and that was the first time they ever hit on a court.
Today, it’s unlikely you will see a famous player around the grounds as they opt to stay inside the luxury comfy confines of the Ashe Stadium players lounge and cafeteria.
You might see a random player striding through the grounds to watch a friend or countryman play on an outer court or cutting through to catch the free bus ride back to the NYC hotels. Those player and media buses are located outside the front gate near Corona Park. I remember being on a bus with Fabio Fognini, Anna Kournikova (still a junior), Todd Woodbridge (post playing career as a broadcaster) and Stan Smith.
Now most of the players take tournament transportation from the VIP lot located by the VIP gate near the practice courts adjacent to courts 4-5-6. That is the gate that the big stars enter, such as Brad Pitt, Mike Tyson, Taylor Swift, Leonardo Di Caprio, Placido Domingo, etc.
Yes the US Open has changed and evolved in many ways over the years. And it certainly will continue to do so.
Anna Kourikova · Brad Pitt · Carlos Moya · Rafael Nadal · US Open
Steve · August 26, 2025 at 6:32 pm
I 100% saw Robert Plant walking the grounds. A lady accidentally walked into him pretty hard. He smiled, exchanged pleasantries with her and kept walking.
I thought to myself “that’s a pretty nice guy for a rock star”.
The run-in that stayed with me the most was I was just mindlessly walking in-between sessions with my head down and I look up and I’m face to face with Kohlschreiber. Whatever his listed height I was a few inches taller than him but more than that this guy I watch give Nadal all he could handle on TV was just carrying his own bag over his shoulders like some random player in the park. He was alone and somewhat anonymous.
I had a brief interaction with Meddy’s wife & her friend at a Bradley Klahn practice. Things like that would happen.
Scoop Malinowski · August 26, 2025 at 10:17 pm
WOw, Led Zeppelin was roaming the outer courts. Also don’t forget Donald Trump and Marla Maples were in Ashe for the early night match and it was a blow out so they both walked over to Armstrong to watch Marcelo Rios who was at a set apiece with Giorgio Galimberti. Trump had to walk through the grounds to get there from Ashe and his entry on a changeover provoked a hush in the crowd that Rios noticed. And then when the match resumed Rios was inspired and put on a show, he was doing theatrics like using his tongue like a snake to hiss at a ball that was going out, strutting around the court, stuff like that. Rios was trying to entertain Trump with a good show and it was. Mike Agassi was sitting on the bench watching Andre play one of his last matches at his last US Open, the bench by the fountains, watching the big screen, odd that he didn’t want to sit in Andre’s box. The grounds were cooler back then, now it’s too jammed up and overcrowded.
Cory · August 26, 2025 at 11:55 pm
Great stories Scoop, Steve too. I was just having a conversation with my Mom as we watched a Mets game together on TV. She had taken me to a handful of games as a kid and watched on TV the same back in the day. She commented about the extreme number of flashing lights and sounds, like an ambush of unnecessary stimulation. I agreed. I went to a Met game a month ago and it was an assault on the ears and eyes. In between pitches were myriad sound effects, gimmicky little musical snippets. I remember as a kid, they would play music simply between innings and that was a cool thing. It’s gotten so extreme and corporate now, as you say, or inorganic, like mind-hackers want to squeeze as much juice from their lemons to impress the impatient and myopic.
I digress a little off the above points to say that the pitch clock in baseball and the serve clock in tennis just takes the LIFE, the humanness, the natural ebbs of time, stress, drama, out of the game and makes it too mechanical. One of the greatest things about tennis and baseball were those huge extra seconds of anxiety and despair during huge moments – the most human elements possible. Now those moments are governed rigidly by a clock. I feel like it is the same mechanical mode of thinking, ie, like shareholders looking at a bottom line like “hey we can save 3.5 minutes per match with this clock and therefore squeeze in xyz” that echoes the points from your original post. I wish things were more old-school and human.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2025 at 9:06 am
Well said Cory, sporting events have too much gimmicks and distractions. It’s like they have forgotten the game sells itself. The pure game really does not need all that extra decoration. I wish all sports would go back to the way it used to be and with boycotts and fan revolts, hey, you never know. This is why I actually prefer being at Challengers now, the tennis is not assaulted with all the BS. I hate the shot clock too, it’s like reducing the players, the central stars of the show, to being dictated to by the slave masters. I would love to see the US Open go back to a throwback US Open in 2026, no music, no fancy lights, no loudmouth emcees, no clowns on stilts, no music, just let fans have pure tennis. “Throwback” in sports is gold and it always wins.
Jack · August 27, 2025 at 9:34 am
Tennis, baseball, NBA, all competing for attention with the likes of Tiktok, YouTube, etc. Pro sports are trying to keep youngsters with shorter attention spans interested. I remember my father complaining bitterly when the AL introduced the DH. Why shouldn’t the pitcher bat? He’s part of the team, isn’t he? Younger fans had no interest watching pitchers bat. Years later the DH is in both leagues and no one under the age of 40 is missing the good old days. Ch-ch-changes…
Mark Sanders · August 27, 2025 at 10:58 am
And dont forget Nick Bolleteri ant the same table every single year outside the deli
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2025 at 11:46 am
Mark yes and he would still be accessible roaming the grounds if he were still alive today. A real People’s Champion guy. He could relate and interact with everyone.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2025 at 11:50 am
Jack good points. DHs surely has raised pitcher ERAs. I liked the pitcher vs pitcher faceoffs it was a nice change and sometimes the pitcher hitter got lucky. Jack, a tennis match doesn’t need smoke and mirrors and bells and whistles, the duel itself is an interesting study, to observe every detail of each player and how they handle it. Tennis does not need distractions, kids can focus for more than a few seconds or minutes.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2025 at 4:41 pm
Parking is $40. Small Evian water $7.