Posts Tagged US Open

Day 2 at 2011 US Open: Nadal

I was split second slow, didn’t catch the famous motion/fuss
The big dude was sitting on the steps when we got to our seat. He yelled, screamed the loudest. Then next set, he sat in front of us and was very quiet. We left when Andrey Golubev was leading in the third set. Golubev has a wonderful single hand backhand, however, he wasn’t able to hold on, lost the match to Raf 6-3, 7-6 (1), 7-5, in 2 hours 49 minutes.

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Day 1 at US Open 2011

an easy win for Venus

It's Roger Federer's night

how much longer will we be seeing this?

night view of USTA during US Open

night view of USTA during US Open

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Day 10 at US Open 2010

New York World Fair 1964 score board as of Sept 8th, day 10

I’m weak: 10:40pm flight out to Asia and I haven’t packed yet, but when the US Open is calling, I dash off to Flushing in no time. It’s day 10 of the two weeks long tournament. A glorious sunny day, cerulean blue sky n all that.

DSCN0616 DSCN0617

Jordan and I watched women’s doubles quarterfinals between Y. Chan and Jie Zheng vs Bethanie Lynn Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy. The Chinese pair won over the Americans.

Zheng Jie's coach DSCN0620

Zheng Jie’s coach (can’t recall his name but he looks very familiar) in white cap came over to rally us to cheer for Zheng Jie.
“I’ll count to 3 .. you’ll say 郑洁加油” .. make an extra effort.
True to his words, he would shout in good Mandarin
“一,二, 三, ..”
We would chime in with “郑洁加油 ..” The echo worked: they won, despite 64-mile serve.

64 miles per hour serve Day 10, most courts are empty

Zheng had double fault and her second serve came at 64 .. but the China dolls managed to win with persistence and remarkable retrievals. By 10th day, most matches were done, courts became vacant

.

The qualifying rounds
US Open Day 3

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Day 3: The Flying Dutchman, G-string, etc

Day (or night) 3 at the 2010 US Open
DSCN0269 filled out
Pumpkin called over to this court,
“Mom, watch his serve ..”
Someone is flying
And his racket has two handles.
Cool
All in the name of a good game.
Kai-Chen Chang has matured a lot, built up and out a lot too.

somethin is bothering me ..
With all the fame and wealth Rafa Nadal just can’t find a comfy undie. Does it tell us to be happy with what we’ve got (or given)?
.

We watched the little tree John Isner play .. so did Patrick Mcenroe and his Aussie sidekick ..

Andy Roddick is arguing while John Mcenroe is looking on .. Did Mc wish that he were down there?

We’re not worth .. we’re not worth ..

.. and ran into friends that I haven’t seen in ages ..

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A few shots of the 2010 US Open

It’s the qualifying rounds of the 2010 US Open. The atmosphere was very relaxed.
I wandered into Court 11. Near by were two guys, one was holding a huge camera, the size of a canon.
He was giddy.
Click .. click .. click .. he fired away.
“Oh .. I hide the boxes in the garage when I bought new stuff .. ” he offered with a laugh.
He then showed me the shots he took earlier when Novak Djokovic was practicing. We’re agreed should I manage to sell it on eBay, we’ll split the profit.
More pix on FB

US Open Day 3; Day 10

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The vigilante justice

US Open. Center Court. 1989. Ivan Lendl was playing (forgot his opponent’s name). One bad line call resulted in Landl’s favor. He didn’t protest it by giving back the point. Then immediately after a point or two later, one of the linesmen called a controversy shot that favored his opponent, Lendl shouted in resignation, almost good naturally,
“Do you have to give it back so quickly?”
The whole stadium chuckled.

Back in Jan 2010, the big news in ice hockey was Vancouver Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows accusing referee Stephane Auger of slapping him with spiteful penalties, because Burrows faked an injury in a Dec game that Auger dished out a penalty to the player who ‘injured’ Burrows, causing Ref A feeling stupid and tricked into giving a penalty. Reportedly, Auger said to Burrows that he’ll get him. And he did, the Canucks lost 3-2 at home: one goal was scored while the faker was in the penalty box.

The league fined Iverson $25,000 for his comments, but most of the league referees thought the punishment was too lenient and were upset he wasn’t suspended. As a result, we collectively decided to dispense a little justice of our own, sticking it to Iverson whenever we could.

“Unfortunately that’s part of the sport we’re in. It’s a team sport and those guys (officials) are part of the game.”

There is vigilante justice in every aspect of life/sport. People think they know instinctively what’s right and what’s wrong.

During one of last weekend’s playoffs, the deciding match against Manhattan, there was a bad call by our team. The Manhattan pair didn’t protest at all but moments later, when it was their game point, the ball traveled from our court into theirs, landed deeply on the inside of the ad court but the Blue Jersey called it out as he was chasing it down (but couldn’t get to it). We sat on the stand (on ad court side) and saw it clearly.
One of vets on my team muttered: “don’t call it carelessly .. call the line smartly.. .. now they got the game.”
So .. ..
Skills, luck plus timing, you win. Isn’t this the right formula for life? On a good hair day when stars align one could do no wrong.
Also, you’ve got to learn the system.

Woody Allen narrated a perfect metaphor in Match Point that there are moment in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With little luck, it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn’t, and you lose.

One of Golfer’s four-some said he quit playing competitively was due to too much aggravation/cheating on court. But so far, I have only found mistakes but not intentional cheating. It’s very hard to judge a player on a close call, was it blink moment or plain devious. I know I don’t have excellent line calls and don’t mind to be corrected. Have I faced a call that I already made up my mind before the ball landed? Of course. Am I a cheater? Absolutely not.

Lendl went on to win that match but Boris Becker beat him in the final, from the baseline, claimed his only US Open crown.

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Be quiet .. I don’t give a shit

Chair umpire: “.. .. Be quiet.”
Roger Federer “.. .. I don’t give a shit .. ..”
..
Wow.. Men’s Singles Final is in progress, between Juan Martin Del Potro and FedEx.
One set apiece.
Del Porto broke Rog and was serving at 4:3. But couldn’t hold. Rog broke back and the last point that gave Rog 5:4 was questionable. Del Porto decided to challenge the call long after 2 seconds has passed; and Rog walked to his chair. Players have two seconds to file a challenge.Rog .. “I wasn’t allowed to challenge after two seconds. The guy takes like 10 every time.”
“Be quiet,” The umpire told Federer.
That irrated FedEx
“You have any rules? Don’t tell me to be quiet, ok? When I want to talk I’ll talk, all right…I don’t give a shit what he said, ok?”
I think he has Serena’s incident in mind.
Mary Carillo commented that it’s joke for no coaching:
“Everyone cheats.” They all look up to their coach.
“Whom would you turn to?”
The 2-second rule is to cut down the chance to consult with coach.
I’m not sure now, but for a long time, Roger didn’t have a coach.
..
4th set, tiebreak.
Del Potro’s serving.
His first serve looked out. No call.
I think someone from the crowds called out.
Federer approached the chair. After brief conversation, Rog challenged the point.
Del Porto said .. didn’t we just had this 2-second exchange?
He had a point.
But the chair umpire allowed the challenge.
It was out, by a hair distance – but it’s beside the point – why did the chair umpire allow it??
Del Porto did his second serve .. and went on to win the 4th set at 7:4.
..
US Open is tarnishing its name.
I can’t wait for the Federer trophy ceremony and interview ..

Did anyone feel funny when US Open claimed

A Storybook Ending for Clijsters

??

I disagree for she didn’t exactly, actually win that match.

5th set: Del Potro leads 3:0. He started the 5th set .. Rog started the previous 4 sets. Hmmmmm…
5th set, 4:1. Del Potro serves. Rog has 10 double faults and 58 unforced errors. He’s playing below himself and looks dare. .. he lost the match at 6:2 5th set.

Ironically, given what’s happened earlier about the delayed challenge, Rog changllened a Del Potro’s first serve after prolonged delay. Del Potro protested. But the chair umpire allowed it anyway.
It was out.
Del Potro went to the line and smacked out a second-serve.

Really, IS THERE any rule at US Open?

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Serena is on fire at the Women’s Doubles Final

Serena and Venus Williams disposed the number 1 doubles team Cara Black and Liezel Huber 2 and 2 – 6:2, 6:2. Their third major this year (only lost the French) and their last US Open was 10 years ago.

The match was very exciting – show more doubles games please!!! Aside from wonderful hands at net – ping pong volleys, clean passing shots, they whacked balls hard at each other. One male commented wondered that you may lose a friend that way. The court side commentator, the Aussie said there wasn’t many other angle you could hit to when one stays so close to the net.

Simon sometimes would say to me, not to hit to the net person. The truth is
1. I’m lazy – often the case – not moving my feet
2. have nowhere else to hit to
3. I don’t have much control

I have no desire to hit anyone. Yesterday I got hit on my banded up arm. The guy held up his hands to apologize. No need. Honestly, I wasn’t tad mad, not at all. The first thought hit my head was,
“Oh, Irene, move your feet.”

Ding and I have been winning a lot lately. He thinks that my game has improved a lot. It’s getting harder and harder to have all your body parts work at the same time: wrist, arm, elbow, shoulder, back, ankle .. mine are having truce at the moment, so I treasure the opportunity and play well.

The sisters earned US$420,000 from Olympus, and one trophy from Tiffany. How do they split the trophy?

You’ve got to see the trophy ceremony. Patrick Mcenroe is an terrible by pressing Serena. Was he trying to give her an outlet or egging on her?
Did anything changed in the last 48 hours?” then reduced to 24 hours
Serena laughed. Finally it’s Venus took over and said .. ..
“I think the crowds says let’s move on Patrick ..” that ended the interview.
What was he thinking? Out of line there.

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Her apology

Serena made a statement on Sunday after the foot fault incident.

“Last night everyone could truly see the passion I have for my job. Now that I have had time to gain my composure, I can see that while I don’t agree with the unfair line call, in the heat of battle I let my passion and emotion get the better of me and as a result handled the situation poorly. I would like to thank my fans and supporters for understanding that I am human and I look forward to continuing the journey, both professionally and personally, with you all as I move forward and grow from this experience.”

No remorse, deemed the media.

So she made an apology today.

Hey guys!!!

I want to amend my press statement of yesterday, and want to make it clear as possible – I want to sincerely apologize FIRST to the lines woman, Kim Clijsters, the USTA, and tennis fans everywhere for my inappropriate outburst. I’m a woman of great pride, faith and integrity, and I admit when I’m wrong.

I need to make it clear to all young people that I handled myself inappropriately and it’s not the way to act — win or lose, good call or bad call in any sport, in any manner.

I like to lead by example. We all learn from experiences both good and bad. I will learn and grow from this, and be a better person as a result.

Xxxx,
S

Was the line judge a volunteer? Did the judge know all the rules? Why couldn’t USTA spend little to hire someone who’s competent? Her conduct on court was unsportsmanlike. But why would major player tolerate a quasi-professional? And as if she never got a bad call.

As the USTA officials are saying that they’re launching an investigation, an INVEStigation!! – to decide if to levy more fines or even suspects Serena. It’s bogus. What’s there to investigate? The sisters are playing ladies doubles final – they won 6:2 n 6:2. Higher TV rating to have them in the tourney? Without Serena and Venus, what else do they have to offer? I know the limit shelve life the top players have, but the sisters are sure could dominate the tennis for few more years.

Serena was provoked.

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Oh my ..

match pointI’m speechless.
why did Serena always get screwed by the linemen/officials? There should be a clear rule that prohibits a match be decided on a foot fault or by chair umpire.

The initial foot fault that began the fireworks was a terrible call. It was unconscionable. It cannot be made at the end of any match, let alone in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. This isn’t because a foot fault is a ridiculous call at that juncture (even though it is). It’s because it wasn’t a foot fault. The replays show that Serena’s foot was behind the line when she served. You could make the argument that it was close but not close enough to make the call.

Serena has been conducting herself graciously on court, I just couldn’t believe she’d lost her cool so badly. This isn’t the first time she’s been wronged at US Open. It was her tourney to lose and she lost it .. ..

Just saw the news flash indicating Serena is fined US$10,000.

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