Yup I’m going Friday and Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Have to return home on Sunday unfortunately to get my son back to his college, was able to stay through Monday last year.
Will be courtside in the new grandstand on Friday morning, can’t wait.
I am going Wednesday and Thursday first week. We fly in Tuesday (from California), spend two days at the Open, then Friday in the city (including a Broadway show) and will fly home Saturday. We have tickets in Louis Armstrong in the shade. I am excited to see the new grandstand.
The new Grandstand is beautiful and it also has a lot of food places that are much needed in this corner of the Tennis Center. They also redid and added stands on all outside courts so everything looks much more modern. It seems the original reddish tiles are now only left on the Arthur Ash stadium.
I’m going Labor Day weekend, squeezing in the Monday day session before a late flight home and back to work. Can’t wait to see all the changes as well as some great tennis!
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/More-exhausting-than-a-five-setter-Protecting-9189105.php
I hope they don’t confiscate my Altoid tin again!
Aaron was on my original list of tennis totty and I was at his first round match when he beat AA. I’ll miss seeing him during rain delays - even though he lost that match.
Many interesting questions await:
- Will Djokovic, Nadal and Del Potro (combined 5 time winners of the USO) be fit to play?
- Will Cilic (another champion) continue playing at a high level after his Cincinnati win
- After a long month of August, will Murray be emotionally and physically up to the challenge, particularly in the second week?
- Will any of the young rising stars, like Zverev, Kyrgios or Thiem (oddly all concentrated in the third quarter of the draw along with Del Po and Wawrinka) finally emerge? Thiem reached the semis of RG this year, and Kyrgios last year, and I have a feeling Zverev is about to show what metal he is made of, but one never knows.
Oh dear…it’s the return of the highlighters. Blinding!
- They’ll be fit-Ish. Good enough to make second week in weak era.
- Yes
- Yes
- No -maybe one will reach the qtrs but which one who knows
Hehe! It is indeed that time of the year…again. The next fortnight ought to be very interesting.
Such a shame Tiafoe choked. I was hoping for a Coco/Isner double. 
Some good come backs on women’s side.
Taylor Townsend really needs to lose weight.
It is a bummer that a lot of the Americans have to play each other first round.
Expected flop from OG winner.
I’m off to drive down to NYC. Everyone enjoy the tennis!
I was waiting to see if Puig was bona fide – didn’t have to wait long. The OG produces some strange results.
Who all is heading to the US Open?
We were there yesterday and saw some AMAZING tennis on day 1. The Isner/Tiafoe match was incredible. Great energy from the crowd. I wouldn’t characterize Tiafoe’s loss as him having “chocked”. He was fighting tooth and nail. Isner has that incredible, fast serve and was delivering quite a few aces at the end. Isner is just inconsistent in all but his service - no wonder he has matches that go on so long. I expect to see and hear much more from Tiafoe and I am now a big fan. He plays smart.
The new Grandstand is a really nice and nicely sized venue although I did feel badly for players on the adjacent small courts because there is a lot of carryover noise, Court 7 especially.
Speaking of Court 7, another fun to watch match were the 2 Spaniards Bautista Acut and Garcia-Lopez, with almost every point earned on incredibly long, and hard fought rallies.
So, if you are going, two tips:
The wait to get in was crazy! Maybe they’ll get more organized after yesterday, but the security process and poorly designed crowd control had many of us waiting up to an hour in a queue to get into the complex, so plan accordingly. Much worse than past years.
Don’t waste your time and $ at Toro restaurant. Poorly executed food with nonexistent, amateur service at steep prices. Learn from our mistake. 
@doschicos is there a separate entrance line for USTA members? They are promoting every day as “member appreciation day” - which when it was one day, IIRC meant a fast lane for members.
Would love to go in the bag-free line but not possible.
Have to see how Rafa does tomorrow. We have courtside Grandstand seats on Friday morning, which is when Rafa will most likely be playing in Ashe assuming he beats Seppi. And as I have to leave Sunday morning this year, that’s going to be my only opportunity to see my man. Decisions decisions…
If there was a separate USTA line, it wasn’t apparent or obvious nor did anyone mention it. I doubt it exists. The “no bags” line wasn’t even functioning well as it extremely chaotic. Tons of staff and hordes of police presence but despite all that I would not call the security process thorough. maybe they’ll get there act together after day 1.
On a positive note, we found the parking and shuttle bus process easy and organized.
The announcers seemed excited by new grandstand and new roof, but on some the matches I watched on TV the shadows were horrible. Hopefully not as extreme for the players as for TV cameras. Couldn’t see half the court on a couple of matches.
Love Isner and glad he won, but he needs more depth to his game. Keyes pulled it out. Hopefully her experience at Olympics helped her - she’s one of my favorite new Americans. Djokovic looks ripe for defeat by a half-way consistent opponent unless he gets over whatever is bothering him. Lots of comments on how slow his serve is.
That new roof was a blessing with yesterday’s heat!
Isn’t Djokovic suffering from a wrist injury?
Yesterday the trainer was called out for right arm/elbow area.
Also, regarding the slow serve comments, given he has complained of injuries, why overdo your serves if you don’t need to bring 100% to beat your opponent to advance out of the 1st round. Might make for less interesting tennis from the spectator’s point of view, but might be the smartest strategy to minimize bodily wear and tear.