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<\/a>This is from an earlier tournament this summer, but it depicts what I hope for all tennis events–lovely camaraderie! That’s American Tommy Paul on the left and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz on the right, walking back to the court together after a rain delay. I’ve never seen that before. The players usually keep their distance from one another and never walk together, no less chat and smile and laugh along the way!<\/p><\/div>\n
Ergo, I don’t have anything earth-shattering to report on for the beginning of it.<\/p>\n
But I just want to acknowledge the venerable tourney, as I always do. So I’m sharing just a few disparate thoughts on what we might see there. Here they are, as they occurred to me right now:<\/p>\n
~ I love that, in addition to having electronics<\/em> make the in and out calls, which eliminates all the errors by human<\/em> line judges, and makes challenges obsolete, (so players don’t need to decide to use the few they were allotted,) this<\/em> year the US Open will also feature a Video Review System. That will come into play for things other than line calls, such as if a ball bounced more than once, and the dreaded foot faults. I’ve always been a fan of fairness, (except the occasional time I could actually see out of the eye mask for Pin the Tail on the Donkey<\/em> when I was a kid,) so this new innovation is right up my alley!<\/p>\n ~ I hope that Ons Jabeur<\/strong>, who is now #5 in the world, finally wins a Major, which the US Open is one of a quartet of them. (In case you’re not a big tennis follower, the others are Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the French Open, which is also known as Roland-Garros.) She’s been in three Finals in the past baker’s dozen months, including this<\/em> one last<\/em> year, and deserved to win the two Wimbledon ones, so I’m praying this is her time.<\/p>\n ~ And even more fervently, I hope that Novak Djokovic<\/strong> does not<\/em> win another one!!!<\/p>\n Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils off the court. What a beautiful couple!<\/p><\/div>\n ~ I’m far from jingoistic, but it will be interesting to see if the Americans can continue their recent good runs. Jessica Pegula <\/strong>and Tommy Paul<\/strong> both recorded wins over the World #1s this summer, which is amazing, (a word I use for only its true meaning, and not like all the idiots of the world do!)<\/p>\n ~ I love that married couple Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina<\/strong> play with their wedding rings on. And she even wears her big engagement<\/em> ring!!! I<\/em> can’t do anything while rocking jewelry except just look fabulous!!! (If I do<\/em> say so myself, which happens most likely all<\/em> of the time.)<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz in July…<\/p><\/div>\n …and Carlos now. How much better does he look with that haircut and a shave???<\/p><\/div>\n ~ Thank goodness Men’s World #1, young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong>, finally had his awful hair trimmed and styled! And he also shaved the back and the sides of it! He looks a zillion<\/em> times better. Now he just needs invisible braces, and we’ll be all set in a year or two.<\/p>\n ~ Recently, World #1 woman, Iga Swiatek<\/strong>, made it known that she was unhappy with the \u201camount of hate and criticism that\u201d she and her team receive if she even loses the rare set. She very wisely, gently, and kindly wanted to \u201cencourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on the Internet.\u201d I’m soooo with her! I’m always grateful that there was no social media when I<\/em> was doing my TV show! Even though 99% of my fan mail and phone messages\u2014and media stories!–were positive, there were always a few jealous trolls out there who tried to bring me down. So I can just imagine how awful I would have felt with those people being able to comment publicly every second of every day! And that’s what Iga and many others, (including vocal-against-the-meanies-of-the-world Nick Kyrgios<\/strong>,) are going through right now. Horrible.<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek having some fun on Fan Day.<\/p><\/div>\n ~ Speaking of Nick, he’s sitting this one out with an injury again, making it a clean sweep of the 2023 Majors that he’ll miss. What a shame for him, and even moreso, for us fans! I guess it will be left to Monfils to pick-up the slack in the entertainment department. [Note: I was invited to a special professional tennis tournament in LA a few weeks ago, but I didn’t plan my schedule well, so I missed it. The invitation said that both Nick and Gael would be there competing, but I never found-out if either of those injured men did<\/em> show-up. If they were<\/em> there, I’m even more depressed<\/em> that I missed the event than I already was before I knew!]<\/p>\n Chris Eubanks, looking like the grown-up commentator that he sometimes is.<\/p><\/div>\n ~ Perhaps the happiest person there will be previously-to-Wimbledon unknown American, Chris Eubanks<\/strong>, (who I told you about before that tournament, where I rightly predicted he was one to watch, which you can still read here: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/tennis-wimbledon-2023-begins-today<\/a>.) I’m<\/em> also happy because Chris is now seeded<\/em> here at the US Open!!! (He’s #28 or #32, which is an amazing accomplishment for him.)<\/p>\n ~ I also always root for Daniil Medvedev<\/strong>, who is seeded third here. He’s funny and charming and intelligent and abundantly fun to watch play his crazy brand of tennis!<\/p>\n ~ Caroline Wozniacki<\/strong> is back playing professional tennis, (at thirty-three years of age!,) after retiring in January of 2020, and having two children, including one just nine months ago!!! That is sooo impressive. She’s doing so after a year of commentating for ESPN, which just might be why she caught the bug again, seeing so many competitors she feels she’s better than. (And just might be.) I’m happy for her.<\/p>\n And for us, the listeners. Mr. X walked into the room when she was commentating during Wimbledon, and asked if \u201cthat woman\u201d had just \u201cwoken up,\u201d because her voice and slow, low speech sound like she had. So we’d both much rather watch<\/em> her play than listen<\/em> to her speak.<\/p>\n I have to be honest, and say I never much cared for her, (perhaps because she’s the first person I had ever heard start every sentence with \u201cI mean,\u201d but I did feel awful for her when her former fianc\u00e9, pro golfer Rory McElroy<\/strong>, broke up with her, (on the phone no less,) right after their wedding invitations went out! So I’m thrilled about her subsequent happy marriage to way-taller former NBA player, David Lee<\/strong>. He must be a super-supportive husband, (and baby daddy,) to be okay with her still following her dream at this late stage.<\/p>\n John Isner and his beautiful fam–the perfect reason to retire now and enjoy being hands-on as his kids grow-up!!!<\/p><\/div>\n ~ And a major congrats to giant American John Isner<\/strong>, who is playing his last pro tourney here. He’s given us tons of fun through the years, (remember that marathon match against Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010?,) and he holds the record for the most aces ever (14,391 right now), so he deserves to relax a bit now. (I just hope that if he becomes a broadcaster, he works to banish his lisp; it’s hard to listen to a lot in a row.)<\/p>\n ~ Jack Sock<\/strong>, the Men’s Doubles Champion here in 2018, just announced yesterday that he, too, is retiring after this US Open, but his reasons appear to be very different from\u00a0John’s. It seems that John, (with whom Jack is playing Doubles here, making that discipline a fun one to watch,) is leaving the pro side of the sport to spend more time with his young family. So guess what Jack, (who won the 2016 Olympics in Mixed Doubles!,) is planning on doing now? He’s going to be playing professional…pickleball!!! Wow. I think that will suit his high energy style really well. I wish the best of luck to both these guys.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>