US Open – Storm Before The Storm

Written by: Staff on 27th August 2011

US Open - Storm Before The Storm |

Hurricane Irene is making landfall this weekend. Starting at North Carolina and moving up through New England. For some of the players, it has caused them to make their trek to New York a road trip. Then there are other players like Sabine Lisicki who is in Dallas still and will be playing in the Singles Final of the Texas Tennis Open against Aravane Rezai. With flights expected to be grounded through the weekend she tweeted her concern over how she would get to the US Open. Bethanie Mattek-Sands tweeted to her followers while she was at Whole Foods and showed photos of shelves that were wiped clean.

Unfortunately, Arthur Ashe Kids Day was cancelled due to the Hurricane and that was very sad news as not only does it pay tribute to Arthur Ashe but it is an incredibly good time for the kids and their families.

As of the end of Friday, it was reported that matches on Monday are still going on as scheduled

What follows is a collection of tweets and statements from players regarding the Hurricane and what they have been up to in preparing for the US Open.

May not have been weather-related but Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Andreev decided to drive from Winston-Salem to NYC after their flight kept getting delayed:

@TursunovTales: Flight kept getting delayed so me & Mr. Andreev rented a car. 11 hours drive ahead of us, plenty of open road, IHOPs & 76s. Yihaaaaa!

Jurgen Melzer shared a few photos of his visit with children in the hospital:

@jojomelzer: Glenis loved the racket and i keep my fingers crossed that she can go home soon!good luck glenis!!! http://yfrog.com/h312361932j

@jojomelzer: Had a blast with tamira…funny girl…get well!!! http://yfrog.com/h214995175j

Svetlana Kuznetsova had a photoshoot yesterday and shared some photos with her followers:

@SvetlanaK27 Glam time! @SvetlanaK27 http://yfrog.com/18lq9aj

Serena Williams shared a tweet with her over 2 million followers that she was “officially scared”:

@serenawilliams: Ok. Its official. I’m scared. I’m in NYC. Oh boy….. #HurricaneIrene

Casey Dellacqua was making her way to NY just yesterday. Hope she made it before flights were grounded!

@caseydellacqua: Hurricane irene, meh!!! Stay away til tmrw plz. I’m flyin into NY tonight & don’t really feel like being delayed or hanging out at airports.

Ivo Karlovic, one of the funniest people that you could follow on Twitter has had a couple of things to say about Hurricane Irene:

@ivokarlovic: Irene is coming!! I have to stock up on water and food that doesn’t rot. Like Mcdonalds..

@ivokarlovic: Governor urges people to “Get the hell out of Jersey shore”! You can start panicking now ‘couse Snooki will be on the lose.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands just wanted to do a little grocery shopping but discovered she was too late!

@bmattek: Panic at NYC Whole Foods! Shelves are getting empty. ruuuuuun

Sania Mirza decided that she best have a hit very early in the morning to get ahead of the storm.

@mirzasania: Hurricane Irene coming..supposedly the worst in a 100 years..yikes!hit at 8.30 am tomm before everything shuts down..

It is not hard to tell from Sabine Lisicki how concerned she is over getting to NY. Hopefully, she can keep her focus and play a good Final.

@sabinelisicki: Hope you come out and support me just like you did the last few days! I´m a little worried about how to get to NYC…

@sabinelisicki: FLights are cancelled because of the hurricane… Hope to find a solution soon! Now I´m off to bed. Good night <3

Elena Vesnina managed to get the last flashlight at a pharmacy.

@Evesnina001 I am ready for hurricane,just got flash lite in the pharmacy,last one!))))

To which Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova replied:

@nastia_pav: flash lite??!really?!do u think its gonna help!!pff..looking forward for hurricane!exciting!!!

Kevin Anderson was another casualty of cancelled and delayed flights so road trip it became.

@kevinanderson18: Leaving to NY tomorrow morning, excited to be heading to one of my favorite tournaments and cities in the world!

@kevinanderson18: Storms in NorthEast canceled our flight yesterday, which resulted in a 9 hour drive getting in at 1am. A little tired but happy to be here