US OPEN 2016 WRAP-UP

Well, this was a satisfying last week-end of the US Open! Both of my singles players won!

And not only did neither Rafael Nadal nor Novak Djokovic get closer to my beloved Roger Federer’s record number of Majors titles, but I didn’t have to deal with Serena Williams in the Women’s Final, either!

I love that we had two new ladies in the the championship match! Having no Williams sister there, same as last year, made it so much more pleasant to watch.

So, major (get it?–it’s a Major tournament,) congrats to both US Open 2016 Champions—Stan Wawrinka and Angelique Kerber! You go, people!

And congrats, too, to the runners-up, Novak Djokovic and Karolina Plishkova. These were two wonderful finals—the best in a long time!

While the ESPN commentators always said Angie might pull her win off, they barely ever mentioned Stan as a possibility. (And trust me—I watched every second of their US Open coverage!) A time or two, one of them would say, “We’re not even talking about Stan Wawrinka, and he’s the #3 seed.” And then they still didn’t talk about him! Idiots. They never gave him a chance! But Stan is always really classy.  I’m so happy for him!

I hope you followed my two weeks of tennis tweets @MajorCelebrity. If you’re not a follower yet, this might be the time to do it because next Sunday, you just know that I’ll be live-tweeting the Emmys! And you don’t want to left out of the loop on that snark! (There’s lost of lauding going on, as well. I’m a yin-and-yang kinds gal.)

Now here are my thoughts, (the ones that didn’t make it into my many tweets,) during the second week of the tournament:

TUESDAY

I felt awful for Roberta Vinci to lose the quarterfinal, (she’s the one who ousted Serena here last year, so she’ll always shave a place in my heart,) but I wanted Angelique Kerber to win this whole thing, desperately. (That way, she’d take over being #1 from Serena Williams, who could then not break Steffi Graf’s record.)  I really think that having an uber-rare foot fault called on her on the first set point threw Roberta, and she never recovered in the match.

Je t’aime que le plethora de hommes de français dans le quarter-finals! (For those of you who don’t speak French, I’m hoping I said that “I love that there are so many Frenchmen in the quarter-finals.”)

But I don’t know for whom to root!  I’ve always liked Gael Monfils, but now I also love Lucas Pouille.  But forget tennis—Lucas should be a model!  [I wound-up rooting for Monfils, though, because he’s older, and has been around longer. And he won!]

I love how adorable Lucas was at the net after his loss.  He actually walked over to Gael already smiling, genuinely.

Oh no—a moustache on otherwise pretty Caroline Wozniacki!

I was so sad for Anastasija Sevestova. She had had this incredible tournament, and I really felt she could beat Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-final, but she turned her ankle in the third game of the match and could not recover. Such a shame, especially because she had actually retired from the sport for a recent year and half because of too many injuries causing her depression.

It was very rude of the on-air ESPN peeps to show Wozniacki film of her losing to Kerber before, and talking about it, when she thought she was on set to discuss the win she had just had.  They also made her discuss how great Kerber is! [Note: And then she wound-up losing to Kerber in the semi-final!]

Novak Djokovic is the luckiest person at this tournament. Actually, at any tournament! In the first five (of an eventual seven,) he got two retirements and a walk-over!  (To the nescient, that means he barely played at all, to advance to the semi-final!) Why couldn’t this have ever happened to Roger Federer?!

I feel awful for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He was playing the best he had in a long while, made it all the way to the quarter-final, and got injured during the match, and had to retire. Shame.

I used to think Novak spoke so well, but he said of Jo’s retirement, “This is something that I’m sure he didn’t wish for, he didn’t want this to happen.”  DUH!!!  May I repeat D-U-H!

Plus, he used to be more charming and entertaining.  He didn’t even do anything for the crowd who got shorted twice in his cut-short matches.

This is off-track, but since they were there in the audience, I have to note that Hugh Jackman’s wife is looking more like she’s his mother than ever!

WEDNESDAY

I finally realized who Chris McKendry speaks like—the phony baloney actress whom Kristin Wiig played in the Password sketch on SNL!

Kei Nishikori—wow! He beat #2 guy, Andy Murray, beautifully. What a performance!

I can’t believe that the stadium was almost empty for the Serena Williams quarter-final!  Especially when the announcers try to make believe the Williams sisters are so beloved, especially in this country, especially in New York.

Simona Halep did great against Serena, but I wish she had won. [It wound-up not mattering because the next girl got her.]

I hate that the commentators make such a fuss over Juan Martin del Potro.  That minimizes everyone else, especially his opponents.  They totally excused Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals, even though he’s won one more Major than Delpo, and a gold Olympics medal to Juan’s silver.  They made it like Stan was nothing.  Shame on them! [And, I’m happy to report, Stan won that match!] [And I’m even happier to report that he won this whole Championship, as well!!! Now he’s equaled Andy Murray’s three trophies, so they better stop calling the others “The Big 4,” always leaving Stan out.]

When they showed retired player Guillermo Vilas in the stands, (with awful hair now,) John McEnroe commented, “I’d like to see a little bit work done with that…the hairdo.  It’s time to make a move on that.”  Then he added, “Less is more, I can tell him from experience.”   Then after Brad Gilbert called it “the rough combover look,” John said, “pass the shoe polish.” I agree, with it all, but that was pretty rude of them.

I just knew that Delpo would have a hairy back!

But, as much as I still hold a grudge against Juan (for beating Roger here…in 2009!,) I know that everyone is happy to have him back in the sport, after multiple wrist surgeries. When he was about to lose his quarter-final, the crowd was chanting his name, which made him start crying…on the court! That was sure something to see. (I actually teared-up myself, just writing that!)

Thank goodness Johnny Mac finally gave Stan his props! At the end of the match, he stated, “Very professional world-class work by Wawrinka to get this win here tonight.”

I hate the way they all make excuses for Serena when she’s not doing well.

Serena is just so rude.  How can anyone root for her?!

THURSDAY

I’m so glad that Serena Williams lost her semi-final!!!

It’s the first time I’ve ever respected commentator LZ Grandson.  He basically called-out Serena’s coach for claiming that Serena was injured, and could barely even practice.  LZ said, “I watched her during practice, and she didn’t appear injured.”   Then he added, “She didn’t look like a player who was hampered going into the match today from practice.”  Good for him!!!

Finalist Karolina Plishkova, (who beat both Williams girls,) is quite the talker.  It’s sort-of funny.

It was weird—Serena started her presser like a bitch, but then calmed down and got a bit better.

I want to know Kerber’s regimen to get such a great body after she was kind-of a pudge for so long.  No one has even mentioned that fact, all year! (Well, they wouldn’t quite say she was “a pudge,” but they could have mentioned she “trimmed-down” or “got more fit,” or something to that effect.)

FRIDAY

Tom Rinaldi just said, “rout to the semis,” instead of “routE,” which is the correct word, of course.  And he did it on purpose.  I’m so sick of these stupid commenters thinking they sound intelligent.

Even though I always root again, I like Novak Djokovic. He’s a very charming guy.

I hate that the commentators and analysts kept ragging on semi-finalist Gael Monfils. They kept saying he wasn’t even trying, and how shameful that was. I admit they all, of course, know much more about tennis than I do, especially the nuances of it, but I really didn’t think that was the case, at all. I thought Novak was just too much for him on that day. [Note: I’ll go back and re-watch that match one day, but for now, it all looked like normal tennis to me. Well, normal for Monfils!]

The arena was pretty empty, which is downright sad for a men’s semi-final!!!

SATURDAY—WOMEN’S FINAL

Angie is the first woman other than Serena to win two Majors in a season since 2007. Pretty big achievement!

SUNDAY—MEN’S FINAL

As it was beginning, I realized another reason I wanted Stan to win—because I don’t watch the Aussie Open and The French Open, so I missed seeing him win his other two titles. (I just thought of another one—Stan’s win kept the record of his fellow Swiss player, Roger Federer, intact! Good countrymen work!)

There was one black mark on the otherwise-fabulous men’s final, and I’m so glad that it didn’t affect the outcome. The officials let Novak take a medical time-out…on Stan’s serve!!!  That is a definite no-no in the rules! But even the tournament director, Brian Earley, allowed it! All the commentators, (on both channels who broadcast it, by the way—yes, I’m that nuts about tennis that sometimes I watch the double coverage,) were upset over it!  What is wrong with the officials?!

And on that delightful note, I’m ending my own coverage of the 2016 US Open. I’m so relieved that all my hard work on it, (the watching, tweeting, and writing here,) was not for naught. It all went my way for a change. And now, I’m off tennis until next year, when, knock on wood, Roger Federer, The Stranger I Love Most, will be back! Can’t wait!