I was out at the US Open for the first time this year today. It was hot and humid and that heat and humidity affected Jack Sock a lot I think. I saw the second set which went to a tiebreak. Sock seemed to just hang on, his walking between points and to change ends even seemed labored, and though he had a few sniffs at breaks, the set ended in a tiebreak…7-1 to Tipsarevic. Sock took a long break, to change clothes…he was dripping, his shorts were totally soaked…he even changed shoes! It didn’t help…he was broken early and I left, convinced the match was over…and it was 36 76 61 62 to Tipsy. The other thing that stood out to me was how western Sock’s forehand was, though on high balls it looked great. He really likes his forehand too and spent a lot of energy running around his backhand to hit it.

I went from Grandstand, where Sock was playing, to Armstrong, which was packed for Kohlschreiber/Isner. Some fans had snuck in an American flag and waived it after Isner would win a point. There were chants of USA, USA, I guess to make up for the last match where Isner played Monfils and the crowd was cheering for the Frenchman. Isner broke just as I got to the court, after having dropped the first set. He won the 2nd set and seemed in control of the third till 56, where he double faulted to lost the set. I still thought he had a good chance, especially when he broke in the fourth and served for it at 65, but another untimely double and he ended up losing it in a tiebreak 75.

Yesterday, on arrival in NY (traffic was awful from NJ…the tunnel…) I checked in to the hotel and then took off to check out Uniqlo (Djokovic’s clothing line among other things) on 5th and 52nd. It was pretty crowded, and is a huge, flagship store. It had a good display of tennis clothes…only men’s and boys, and lots of other clothes, jackets, etc. The walk was fun, lots of tourists gawking, hot dog and pretzel vendors on every corner, more taxis than private cars, and lots of energy. Welcome to NY!

Meetings tomorrow and more tennis…Sloane and Serena, Andy Murray…fun.