As I promised on Sunday, I put together some random thoughts of the US Open, one of the two Junior Slams that I treat every year, together with Wimbledon. As I wrote in July in my first such post, I can’t help it, but compare the two, which is understandable, but no nuance is missing, given their various histories and approaches. Their differences are part of what every tournament gives its identity; It is not my intention to assess or assess them, but to use them as a reference point for the others.
The schedule
I will start with the schedule, including the qualification. Every year I talk to many college coaches about the qualifying schedule in New York, which is awkward and expensive for them. It is held for two days, Thursday and Friday in a less than desired neighborhood in the Bronx. This means a full day of no junior game on Saturday, for which another $ 300 hotel room is needed to start the game again on Sunday. Although the Cary Leeds Center is an impressive location, it in no way offers the atmosphere of the practical jobs in Corona Park, the previous qualifying site, directly outside the gates of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
With Saturday, the USO qualifications can play on Sundays, the first day of the event, while Wimbledon, which plays the main table for nine days, not the seven of the US Open, qualifications the day free Saturday after the conclusion of the qualification on Friday.
I am not sure what the tournament will win from the current US Open Junior schedule, and I still have to hear a plausible reason to stop the Sunday Junior Singles Finals. There is now nothing but the men’s final on Sunday-no wheelchair, no juniors, no double that does nothing to put the stage or to build up for the last game of the SLAM year.
Atmosphere
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| Court 12 fans at Boys final |
While juniors mainly refer to the garden parties elegance and tradition of Wimbledon, their go-to word is energy for New York. Juniors, who get hotels rooms in Manhattan, often comment on the urban atmosphere. Although incidental concerns have been collected in the continuous pop music and incidental scent of marijuana that waves through the outer courts, juniors are happy to experience the enthusiastic, even rough crowds of New York, who find their way to Junior competitions. Forty or 50 Bulgarians will not make much impression in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but at the court 12 they increase the commitment and offer an atmosphere that Juniors rarely experience.
Simultaneous final
This year it was excellent again during the second week, at least until the weekend, when the humidity and rain approached, but the series of good weather had continued, the final would still have been played on Saturday, if Jeline Vandromme had not been in both singles and double.
In no other Junior Slam this is the standard, although the double finals are occasionally played simultaneously with the singles, and bad weather can change the schedule. I do not criticize this year’s decision for simultaneous finals, which were moved for an hour due to approaching rain, but even in good weather the US Open devalues the Junior Championships by having the boys and girls compete with each other for fans. This is unnecessary and I hope that the new US Open Tournament Director will recognize and correct this.
Lanes
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| Cooper Woetsendick and Maxwell Exsted |
For a few days I was just as much on the men’s dubbels Beat as the Junior One, with Kalamazoo 18S Champions Cooper Woentendick and Maxwell Exsted and reached the second round and giving final finalists Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury a real challenge in a three-set second round loss reached.
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| Kim Clijsters, Jeline Vandromme, coach Philippe Galadé |
Coaches
I am happy that the USTA has introduced a new coaching prize that extends to all Ous Open Champions, including juniors. Shot during the ceremony that was held on the field after each final, the coach received recognition that is often missing in the Junior competition. This year all recipients were development coaches, as you would expect in juniors. The most famous supporter of a champion, three-time US Open winner Kim Clijsters, attended all fellow Belgian Jeline Vandromme’s competitions last week, but does not serve as her coach. The role of Clijsters is not daily, but as a mentor that gives advice and encouragement, especially with the slams.
Media center
I praised the new media center in Wimbledon in my post in July, which offers the juniors the same access to rooms and space as the “seniors”, as they are known in Britain. This is not the case with the US Open, where juniors are not allowed in the Bud Collins Media Center, where the interview rooms and spaces are located. To be honest, I don’t mind that the juniors, who were previously permitted in those areas prior to the pandemic, are now being brought to the Media Garden outside the entrance of the MediaCenter near the court 6. The informality of that environment often causes more natural conversations, even if the wind, or an approaching storm, occasionally form a challenge.
But after I would accept this apparently permanent relocation in the past three years, I would welcome this upgrade to the media garden: a designated area only for interviews. I would rather not regularly collect a suitable place with enough seats for players, journalists, agents, coaches and family who may attend, while holding interviews alongside journalists who take a break, have lunch or talk on their phones.
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| Matisse Farzam |
Partners hit
Jon Wertheim mentioned the position of the battle partner that exists at the US Open in His weekly mail bag today(I am not sure who the Columbia player he refers, perhaps there is no first-year students in the Lions 2025-2026 schedule, which has always been a coveted opportunity for junior and university players. My article about the Ozan Baris by Michigan State, who serves as a stroke partner for Taylor Fritz last year, is here.
Although I am not sure whether Clemson was a formal part of the program that Wertheim mentioned, he was certainly in demand as left -handed, with Jannik Sinner prior to his third round match with Denis Shapovalov and with Novak Djokovic prior to his third round match with Cam Norrie.
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| Honing Deunces Wild |
Honing Deunces and Fage Yogurt
As a resident of a small city with low living costs, the prices at the US Open always give me sticker shock. Publish $ 39 on a watermelon-based cocktail, or $ 10 for a scoop of ice cream, or $ 200 for a sweatshirt simply does not calculate for me, but it is the honeyduce cocktail of $ 23 that has reached a new level of striking consumption in New York. Jon Wertheim, in his essential We open 50 farewell photos Column, refers to this popularity and calculates that “about three in four fans on the site are buying one.” Wimbledon can have his pims and his (cheap) strawberries and cream, but with regard to trade, there is nothing that the honeyduction phenomenon approaches. By the weekend, before the ladies’ final, they were without the commemorative plastic tumblers who are an important part of the charm of the cocktail, but many fans were willing to drink from pedestrian plastic cups to have the experience.
It starts to feel as if honeydeuzen open for the US what beer is for Oktoberfest; I am not sure where tennis fits in there.
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| The Fage stand outside the stands |
That said, a large shouts of Fage Yogurt, which supplied size $ 1.69 yogurt cups to their stand outside the stands as standard. One of the Fage employees who helps distribute the yogurt, said he heard that they spent around 7000 cups a day. Their logistics was excellent, because they didn’t look like hitting yogurt, and the lines that were much shorter than those for a honey diction, moved quickly. That is positive pr.
#thoughts #trade #energy #Open