THE 2015 U.S. OPEN TENNIS WRAP REPORT, GOSSIP, SUMMATIONS & OBSERVATIONS FROM 10SBALLS_COM

Written by: Lovey on 19th September 2015

Donald Young of the US hits a return to Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland during their match on the eighth day of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 07 September 2015. The US Open runs through 13 September, which is a return to a 14-day schedule. EPA/JASON SZENES

epa04918861 Donald Young of the US hits a return to Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland during their match on the eighth day of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 07 September 2015. The US Open runs through 13 September, which is a return to a 14-day schedule. EPA/JASON SZENES |

2015 was filled with surprises. Some good. Some bad. And some that need fixing. The Team @10sBalls_com was there in force. So we saw oodles of great tennis. Well unless you were Ricky Dimon with the broken desk . Till Thursday he schlepped from court to court for 16 hours a day instead of sitting at his desk in the press room flipping channels on a TV or having Internet access. Thanks to Katrina we finally had a desk this year. Good thing Ricky is young and fit cause 4 days of trying to watch and file stories was tough but 14 days (whole tourney) would have been a real beast.

The worst was that the television was only available in the United States to people that had a cable provider. Otherwise ESPN 3 is meaningless. For real. If you don’t have cable you can’t watch on your computer or electrical devices… Very sad. And my ESPN kept losing it’s signal every time I tried following a match.

The best match I saw on the iPhone was the men’s wheelchair finals. Shingo really had a battle on his hands. The chairs all look more stealthy and the players are really getting good. There is great depth there now. And think about it, it’s so difficult for these athletes to travel the world with two wheelchairs. Just saying check it out. Tennis is a really great sport for someone in a wheelchair, difficult but an exciting way to stay active and see the world at the pro level and to meet new friends from all over.

Japan’s Shingo Kunieda returns a ball to Dutch Robin Ammerlaan during the men’s wheelchair tennis final for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, 15 September 2008. Kunieda won the match and gold medal with 6-3, 6-0. EPA/Oliver Weiken

I’ve tried writing for three days. Comedian and actor and friend Ben Schwartz @rejectedjokes said “30 percent of writing is complaining about writing…” Agreed! My 30 percent was up….

I’m still in mourning since the greatest player of all time lost. You could say he is like a fine Swiss watch. A Rolex. Once the match was pushed back by 3 hours for rain he was thrown off. When to eat.? Do you eat or snack or Have a meal ? Do you stretch or warm up or both ? Cause the officials kept saying. Soon…. Not before whatever time…. That may work for some but not R.F. Then you have the lights issue. An older player will usually play better in daylight. Why the match was due to start at 4 local time is a bit foolish anyway. How about 1 or 2. A fan arrives on site at lunchtime. Spends some money on souvenirs and food and drink. Then settles in for a final. Oh well.

What else should I add. Ok. This is a stretch. But valid. Almost 25 years ago John Feinstein wrote a great tennis book about life on the tour for almost a year. It’s called HARD COURTS. GREAT BOOK. REALLY GREAT. 10sBalls.com has a huge tennis library. We actually gave over 100 books to the Tennis Channel to start their library. Bud Collins even left our museum with a box of books. Yes, that Bud Collins. The one they named the media center at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center after.

Back to John Feinstein. He answered a few things I’d been wondering about. Like why do some players play big at home or not. John discusses Yannick Noah and his playing at the French Open @ Roland Garros in Paris. Here’s the quote “it’s a great feeling and it’s a bad feeling all at once” out of context he then said “in Paris the crowd comes to see me win”….. I think Roger Federer suffers from the same feeling at certain tourneys or finals. We go to see him play like the tennis god he is. But we also go to see him WIN ! And he knows it !

It was said that the celebrity friends that all meet Roger in the hallways is compared to being invited backstage at a Broadway play or a rock concert. He had the big celebs from Hollywood and the world all there to greet, chat, hug, shake his hand, slap his back. So Roger feels the pressure of the Anna Wintour’s and Gavin Rossdale’s, and the Bradley Cooper’s and the Wayne Gretzky and Tiger Woods or Lindsay Vonn or Michael Jordan. You get it. He feels extra excited to not let any of them down… They come to see him win!

Next subjects and tidbits:

The Genie Bouchard slip and fall and concussion was a bigger shocker than Serena losing. Jill Smoller should have had one of her best U.S. OPEN’S in years. But she didn’t. There hasn’t been a peep or a word about how Genie is ? …. That in itself is odd that there are no updates on her health. Jill was there for Serena. Jill was there for Genie. The accident should have never happened. Never. The overall cleanliness on the whole site is marginal. It isn’t Disneyland. Dirty and wet slippery areas all over.

Also what’s with players getting their equipment stolen from a “secure” locker room. Donald Young Jr. had to play his round of 16 match with borrowed shoes from Asics. See Ryan he wore Asics for you. But they weren’t his Lottos that he was used too. Any reason why the USTA doesn’t know who has access to steal from the lockers… ?

Maybe it went un noticed but the Bryan Brothers who were seeded first in the Mens Dubs lost in the opening round. The Brothers have to be fairly weary. Neither was entered in mixed dubs. That never happens. And they are not playing Davis Cup either. That never happens either. Our guess is hips? Knees? Shoulders? Sorry guys. We missed you.

Taylor Fritz had three of the best weeks of his life. He was a regular practice party for Roger and Rafa and Nole as well as he had earned a wildcard in dubs for winning at Kalamazoo and he turned pro and he won the boys junior championships. Talk about Fun! But the kid is weary. This was his daily grind. Plus he played in singles main draw qualies.

Biggest double fault from the USTA was not giving the wonderful cancer survivor Vicky Duvall a main draw wildcard. What a pity. We said a long time ago when America took the letter “L” out of the name. It went from USLTA to USTA. The “L” stood for lawn but I think it was for LOGIC. (LOVE?) No, in tennis love means nothing.

Nicest touch by probably Katrina was the invite of the original Ladies who formed the WTA tour. Fearless leader Gladys Heldman was such a visionary. The group had a great time and were treated royally as they should be. Sorry Julie Heldman missed it, she would have loved it.

Oh, and. Drumroll please.

I don’t Love tennis anymore.

It’s like an option on Facebook.

It’s complicated and I just “LIKE” it.

Oh, and while the USTA legal department should have been investigating the Bouchard slip and fall they were on the phone with us at midnight because we had a live scoring on our site. It’s been there in exact same place on homepage for 3 years. But if it didn’t come down overnight our credentials were toast. It wasn’t a post. It was on a template. Those things can take a webmaster a week to remove. Luckily Mori the Dungeon Master and computer genius worked all night and shut it down. Just saying…..

Bags are packed and we’re off to the airport Spain here we come. No tennis, just fun.

Topics: 10sballs_com, 2015 U.S. Open, Bryan Brothers, Donald Young jr, Genie Bouchard, Glady's Heldman, Lovey's Lob, Roger Federer, Sports, Taylor Fritz, Tennis News, Usta

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September 15, 2015 at 9:45 pm

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September 15, 2015 at 11:27 pm

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September 19, 2015 at 8:47 pm

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