The US Open

Going to the US Open is all a part of the New York experience, at least that is one of my co-workers told me. I wanted to go this week, feeling a little nostalgic for my days of playing tennis at Wayzata where I perfected my patent-pending move, "the spread eagle slam." (Anyone remember 'Baby Powder???') So when I overheard one of my coworkers talking to a client on the phone and heard the words "US Open," my ears perked up. Turns out that one of our clients had tickets and was inviting some of my coworkers to come. Being low on the company totem pole, I didn't expect to get the invite and I was right. But then one of the guys I worked with decided not to go so I figured that someone would ask me if I wanted to go, especially since I had already been pretty vocal about wanting to go see the US Open earlier in the week. Long story short, I eventually got the invite.

View of the court

So we skipped out on work today and Julie and I went to the US Open with some of our company's clients. I've been out to Mets stadium before, but I guess I neglected to notice the tennis complex/Flushing Meadwos park right across the train tracks. The place was incredible and a little depressing since they don't really use the facilities for anything but the US Open.

The first game we saw was a pretty low level match, but exciting nonetheless, mostly because I was able to stand right next to the court and watch the whole match unfold.

Ai Sugiyama returns a serve

After that match, we went to Louis Armstrong stadium to catch some more high-profile matches. We saw Sharapova destroy Loit. It was kind of funny because the whole stadium cheered whenever Loit scored a point and went hysterical when this happened.

Loit actually one game during the whole match but that was only because Sharapova double-faulted five times!

Sharapova making a shot

After the Sharapove-Loit match, we stayed for the Amelie Mauresmo (ranked #1)-Meghann Shaughnessy match. It wasn't the most exciting match to watch, but it was fun to hear the stadium cheer for Shaughnessy. She's American, which helped her win over the crowd, as well as the underdog.

Marie and Julie in the stands

The highlight of the match was seeing our favorite ballgirl come onto the court. We had seen her at the first match we watched and she was freakin' intense. By far the most professional ballgirl we had seen all day, she was hilarious to watch. She always had a serious look on her face and whenever a point ended, she sprinted like a mad woman to get the ball. One time, she was so quick that she almost knocked over one of the players who had just hit the ball into the net. We weren't the only one ammused as some of the people next to us also had a good laugh. We decided that since she had become such an important part of our US Open experience we had to give her a name. Lacking any creative spirit, we settled on "Sparky" because of her energy and spunk.

"Sparky" standing ready

In the end, Mauresmo won and so ended our 8-hour day at the US Open. We left exhausted and sun burnt, but pretty content. A day of good tennis and skipping work...what more could you ask for?