Forty Love

HA! No, its not the age of a new boyfriend of mine, so stop thinking you are all so smart. I reality it is a reference to the US Open.

Now to preface this posting, you all must realize that I LOVE TENNIS. I once woke up at 4 AM to watch an Australian Open final between Pete Sampras (my fav) and Andre Agassi. It was brilliant. There is something about tennis that puts it above ANY other sport for me. I love football and basketball, but with tennis, it is one person against the other. You don't have anyone else on the court trying to get you out of your head. Psychology plays such a huge role and let's not lie, it is physically exhausting. To be on a court, running your ass off for sometimes up to 3 or 4 hours, everyone I know would probably die. Including me. So in short, I LOVE TENNIS. And not to mention, it is just such a classy game. No beer being thrown on the ice / field, no one yelling profanities at the players and the other great thing is that because it is such an international event, the crowd cheers for everyone at some point. All anyone wants is to watch some more tennis.

So yesterday, I walk to the subway, get on the 6 train and transfer to the 7 at Grand Central Station. The US Open is held right across the street from Shea Stadium. So after almost 45 minutes on the train, I finally arrive at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. Wow. It was amazing. Welcome to the US Open.

Since I was so hungover all day yesterday, I hadn't eaten anything. I go to the first food station I see, not really knowing the eating etiquette. Am I allowed to eat in the stadium (Arthur Ashe Stadium actually) and would the allow me to get food during the match? I decided to get a beer and a pizza and sit outside at watch me some tennis. They have big screens all over the place and you can actually buy tickets to just hang out on the grounds and do just that.

First match of the evening session was Serena Williams and Amelie Mauresmo. I GET TO SEE SERENA WILLIAMS PLAY!!!

I eat my pizza and rush to my seats. Sure the seats aren't that great, but hello! I am at the US FREAKING OPEN!!!

There was a definite leaning towards Serena going on. I think it has to do with the fact that she is American, but also because she was unranked playing the number one seed. This match went to three sets and it was great. Cheers were heard for every good point, not just Serena's. Serena ended up losing and a lot of people left.

The next match started at 9:20 PM. I knew that as much as I love tennis, I would not be staying for the whole thing. I didn't really care about either of the players, and I just wanted to see some big, man serves.

I left after the second set, when it seemed as though Lleyton Hewitt had it in hand. By the time I got home, they were in the fifth set. DAMN! But being on the subway that late at night is not something that I think is a good life choice.

Oh, how cool is this? They were selling crepes at the stadium! How random!

That was my day. I got to fulfill a dream of mine - I was at a major. Sure it would have been WAY better if it was Wimbledon, or if I was caught on camera with food all over my face, or dated the deaf linesman, or become a ball girl - but such is life and this was still pretty freaking great.

FAULT!

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