Tuesday Sept 5, 207

Flushing Meadow, NY

I was lucky enough to get an invitation into Arthur Ashe today and saw Pablo Carreno Busta (PCB) of Spain take out Diego Swartzman of Argentina in straight sets and Sloane Stephens continue her post surgery comeback with a thrilling three set win over Sevastova of Latvia.

PCB and Swartzman play quite a lot alike but PCB is a bigger stronger version of the tiny (from a tennis perspective) Swartzman. PCB is the highest seed left on the bottom of the draw and was a quarterfinalist at the French Open, so he’d been in this situation before, unlike Swartzman. He played the break points and big points better and overall was a bit better at being a good mover and solid baseliner. He won 64 64 62.

After the men’s match Stephens and Sevastova played and it was a great match. Sevastova is a very good tennis player. She alters the pace and location of the ball, mixing in slower and faster serves, drives and slices and drop shots. Stephens won the first set by being patiently aggressive and at the end of the set just patient as Sevastova appeared to be injured. After an injury time out, Sevastova came out playing well again and Stephens was too passive, letting Sevastova control the points and Stephens looked a bit tired. That continued into the third, with Sloane trailing 3-1 ad out before she dug in and leveled the set at 3-3. The two held on from there until the inevitable tiebreak. The points were fun, lots of long ones using much of the court. Sloane has an easy power, and when she chose to use it, was consistent. The crowd really urged her on. It wasn’t the Ole Ole Ole of the Delpotro match but it was Let’s Go Sloane which was effective. It’s noisy inside of Ashe whether or not the roof is closed.

I ran into tennis friends Michael Cooke, Burnadette Lehman and Sheila Weinstock today.

And that is a wrap on the US Open…on my way home early tomorrow.

Next up: Super Seniors in Orlando and Seniors in Miami.