US OPEN 2015 WRAP-UP

To begin with: I was absolutely in love with that Ladies Final, on every level.  Classy players, no grunting, gracious winner and loser, happy well-behaved crowd.  It was just a wonderful happy few hours.

I’ll go in order in a second, but first I have to state what’s obvious to everyone who knows me—I’m truly miserable that Roger Federer didn’t win the Championship, even though he came close once again. Yes, I know that he’s still won the most Majors in history, but I want even more for him. There’s never been a classier tennis player, or athlete, period! Or person!

I can’t discuss much about the Men’s Final because I’m so miserable that Roger didn’t win it, but the Ladies was unbelievably fabulous! At least I can take that away from this.

Actually, the whole tourney, in general, was pretty interesting, and easy enough for me to watch.

So, let’s get to the wrap-up of it now.

[Note #1: So, right after I published my first week updates on the first week of the Major tennis tourney, I began watching Week 2.  And on Labor Day, no less, a day I should have been at some of the holiday parties I was invited to!  (But I really had to stay home resting my broken ribs, to be ready for next week’s Emmys activities!  I guess it’s true–there’s no rest for the weary.)]

[Note: #2 I realized later that I didn’t write about every interesting moment of Week 1, (like someone stealing all of Donald Young’s sneakers,) but I have to have some undocumented moments in my life.  So, please forgive me for that.]

[Note #3: And, again, because I watch every second of the TV coverage, I’ve been totally sleep-deprived during the entire US Open, so please excuse any errors this time.]

MONDAY

– ESPN commentator Brad Gilbert said, in regard to Donald Young’s success here, “To say that we saw it coming would be an understatement.” OMG! It would be an overstatement, not an under one!!! Totally opposite meanings, dude. [Note: He said the same thing later in the week, about Roberta Vinci defeating Serena Williams in their Semi. Why has no one corrected him all week?! Do the producers and directors of these shows not listen to their on-camera personnel???]

— Being the Empath that I am, I’ve been feeling for the athletes who have to play in the daytime, because of the dreadful uneven shade that’s being thrown by the still-in-progress construction of the new roof.  It’s so hard on them.  But today I realized that it’s just as hard for us, the viewers!

— Victoria Azarenka is always so honest!  I love her.  She’s one of my favorite female players.

–I think Stan Wawrinka is hurt, either in the shoulder of arm.  I’ve never seen a player put his bags down to do the brief pre-match interview, especially after he had just picked them up!

— Sabine Lisiki gave such a rude handshake to Simona Halep, who beat her.  This after what she carried on when she won her previous match.  She fell to the ground, and lay there, crying, for much longer than appropriate, while her just-defeated opponent had to wait at the net.  Not nice of Sabine, either time.

— Now, former Champion here, Sam Stosur, knows how to do a polite handshake!  Props to her!

–Roger Federer was even more stunning than ever in his match against the giant American, John Isner!  He’s one of the few people I can say is truly amazing.  What a privilege it is to see him play.

– Did John Isner have a nose job? Or is it just his better hair that’s making him look so much more attractive?

TUESDAY

— The ESPN on-camera staff needs to stop kissing the Williams sisters’ butts!!!  They’re giving all the other players way too short shrift.

— A couple of things about Kristina Mladenovic:  She’s so pretty, as long as she doesn’t open her mouth.  Why hasn’t anyone told her to get braces?  She can certainly afford them.  But I give her major props for being one of the few to wear eye make-up on the court!  (Some cosmetics company should offer those girls contracts, just to get them all to wear it!)  Why would you want to look your worst when millions are watching?!)

–The height difference between 5’4″ Roberta Vinci and her opponent 6′ Kristina Mladenovic looks so funny.

–Mladenovic does have mad soccer skills, but it was rude to show them off when her opponent was serving, especially down break point!

–The commentators have pointed out a couple of times that the crowd just doesn’t get into Novak Djokovic, even though he’s funny and nice, and they don’t get it. I think it’s because he gets crazy in the middle of matches, which Roger Federer would never do!

–At the end of his quarter-final, you could tell that Novak hated the crowd, but had to thank them anyway.  And he controlled his dislike of them. So, good for him for that.

WEDNESDAY

– They finally mentioned that Fabio and Flavia Penetta are an item! It’s about time; they’re actually engaged!

– I’m so sorry that either Flavia Penetta or Petra Kvitova had to lose.  I love them both.

But Petra was a very gracious loser, and Flavia was an equally lovely, and honest, winner.

– Roger’s victory over Richard Gasquet was just amazing!

FRIDAY (As with all the other days, these thoughts are written as they happened. But it’s especially pertinent today. You’ll see why in a second.)

– The Ladies’ Semis were postponed from yesterday due to the rain, which had stayed at bay for the whole tourney, until they showed-up on Wednesday for a little bit. So today, we got to see all four semi-finals, both men and women. How exciting!!!

– I’m officially disgusted with ESPN!  They not only didn’t interview Roberta Vinci after her win in the quarter-final, like they do with everyone, but they showed only the one with her opponent, Serena Williams, before the Semi!!!  This, so they could show a YouTube video of a little girl loving Serena.  Roberta is a semi-finalist at a Major, and I’ve never even heard her talk!  These ESPN people are really horrible.  They almost make me not to want to watch them ever again.

– Serena is just the worst sport ever!  She was actually crying in the middle of the second set that she was losing.  I seriously can’t stand that woman.  (And for those few of you who like to point-out her accomplishments to me—yes, I do recognize that they are incredible.  But that has nothing to do with how she comports herself as a person, which is quite the opposite.)

– Roberta Vinci!!!  OMG! What a feat, to defeat the great Serena Williams! That was truly one of the most amazing wins I’ve ever seen, in any sport!

And contrary to how the commentators made believe they saw it, the crowd jumped up and went nuts when Vinci won!

And she gave the best post-match interview, ever, in the history of the sport! (That makes me extra-sad that ESPN denied us all her other pre- and post-match interviews during this tourney.)

– I swear, I think that the ESPN interviewer Tom Rinaldi secretly told Roberta Vinci that he’s happy for her!  While waiting to begin the interview, he whispered to her, she smiled, and then he looked sheepish, like he hoped that he was off camera for that exchange.

– The only person who’s happier than I am that Serena won’t get her Calendar Grand Slam is Steffi Graf, the last person to accomplish that..in 1988! (And it was actually her first year winning any of them!) And the announcers had wondered aloud all week if Steffi would show-up there to give Serena her trophy. Nice of them to award it to her, before she even played her semi-final!

– I lost some of the respect I had had for Mary Jo Fernandez because she was almost crying on camera when Serena lost.  Then she said the win was a combo of her defeater, Roberta Vinci, and Serena beating herself.  She stated, “Vinci played a big part in it, too.”  Too??? You think???  She added, “It was a combination of both.”  No, you moron–it was all Vinci!

– I love that they all gave Vinci no chance whatsoever.  They totally counted her out.

– The ESPN idiots are all acting like someone died!

– And they don’t stop making excuses for Serena losing.  Guess what, you morons?  Vinci had all the same conditions!!!

– When a great friend of mine, (who was among all the people who were downright gleeful that Serena lost,) and I were discussing why so many people really don’t like her, she said it’s because Serena is “a person who is not easy to love.”

– Brad Gilbert showed why he’s the way he is with this revelation. On Sports Center, when discussing the Vinci win, he lauded Tom Rinaldi, who did that wonderful interview with Roberta, for “not making the interview about him.”  I have news for you, Brad–no one ever does that to the players but you!

– Marin Cilic is such a sweet, pleasant guy. Too bad he had to go out that way.

– Roger Federer was perhaps even more amazing than ever in his beat-down of his countryman, the #5 seed, Stan Wawrinka! I can’t believe he’s thirty-four-years-old!

SATURDAY—THE LADIES FINAL

–I love both of these lovely girls, Roberta Vinci and Flavia Penetta.  And I love that we have the first all-Italian Ladies Final!  And they’ve been great friends since they were little!

– What does Flavia put in her mouth before and after the matches?  Is it invisible braces?  A retainer?  A mouth guard?  What?

– The match announcer is thrilled that he gets to say both Italian names because he always gives those two a spacial flair. And in their cases, he was correct to do so all tournament long!

– On a non-tennis note, why would Alicia Keys do that to her nose?! (Wear a septum ring.)  And her singing of New York on that pre-match video is shockingly brutal! Maybe the ring is affecting her voice after all.

–I was already glad that Flavia’s fiancé, Fabio Fognini, was at the final, even before she won. He had just left New York for a tourney in Siberia, and had to fly all the way back when she made it into the Final. Good choice on his part.

– They were the oldest women to make it into their in final!

– If these two had played each in any other round (other than semis, too, of course,) they wouldn’t have showed even even one second on those matches!  (They played each other here in the quarters in 2013, and they didn’t show it!)

–Both girls were wearing yellow sneaks, though different hues.  I wonder if there’s something to that.  And just who was the original chick to rock them, way back in the day?  None other than yours truly, of course!

– From the hug at the net, when the match was over, you could not tell who won! Now, that’s the way it’s supposed to be!

– Chris Evert said, “How refreshing is it, though, to see a new face win a Grand Slam!”  Good for her to admit it, amidst all the Williams butt-kissing!

–Roberta Vinci is the first person I’ve ever believed when she said she’s happy for her opponent to have beaten her.

– Flavia Penetta gave the classiest Champion’s speech ever.  She’s the Grace Kelly of the tennis world.  She said she doesn’t know what she’ll do, now that she shockingly, announced her retirement from the game! I have an idea—she should become the president of Italy.

– But I wish she had mentioned Fabio in her speech.  Maybe they just like to be private.

– These were both the happiest speeches, all-around.  Roberta was not sad at all.

– Chris Evert mentioned that Flavia is “one of the most popular players, very gracious, funny, charismatic, and smart.”  Those are all things no one has ever said about Serena!  So, I guess that makes Flavia the anti-Serena.  And I also love something else that Chris mentioned; said what she liked about this final was that “it wasn’t all about power.  And that’s all we’ve seen the last five, six, seven Grand Slams.”  (That means she was talking about Serena. ) iShe continued, “It’s only been about power.  But this was about finesse, and this was about variety, and this was about being smart out there and opening up the court.  And it was about great sportsmanship. We’ve seen poor sportsmanship at times.  And this was a wonderful match, wonderful atmosphere.”  Read between the lines, People.  Good for you, Chris!!!

– Flavia and Roberta just beat the rain!!! Wow! More greatness from them.

SUNDAY

Now it’s all over. Whew.

The Ladies Final yesterday was truly the happiest Final ever, and the Men’s today was the saddest, on so many levels.

Roger Federer is the classiest guy ever.

For the trophy ceremony, no one was left there because the entire crowd, save for ten people, had left when Roger lost.

Roger said in his post-match interview, about both Novak and himself, “We walk away from it knowing more about our games, and knowing more about ourselves, really.”  What a deep, appreciative thought.  He is such a great sport.  Mr. X said of him, “He’s a noble sportsman.” While those two were being classy and oh so well-spoken, I just cried my guts out.

I do feel for Novak a bit, that no one’s cheering his win.  I’ve never heard less applause for the Champion.

I wish the tournament had ended on a high for me, but I’m going to try to emulate Roger, and put it behind, and move ahead. So, tomorrow, on to to other topics in this space!