Attending the U.S Open

Well, I always wanted to do it. Definitely before we had kids or a busier lifestyle. So I booked the tickets to Men's final and it was a lot of money. But I had a hunch it was going to be worth it.

It was supposed to be on a Sunday but then the rain moved the schedule one day ahead.

I took off on Monday and G called in sick. We stayed at our aunt's place on Sunday night. Had good food. Then in the morning we left around 10 am to reach the CitiField parking area and find it scantly full. When you walk across the station and into Tennis park, the first thing you see is the big Arthur Ashe Stadium.

We roamed and hung around. Checked out concessions stands. I found them to be over-hyped. The place was jamm packed and the workers didn't look very professional. The food was not so great.

So we entered into the stadium and took our seats in the promenade. The view was what the money was worth. With the kind of people who came in, I soon realized I had paid more for my tickets than what they were worth and I will see to it next time. May be they bought it from the counter when the tickets went on sale.

The ladies double final was one sided. G enjoyed herself a lot and the place was not too crowded. We had a good break between the double's final and men's final so we just killed time. Went out, ate, clicked snaps and schemed on how to get better seats.

The opening ceremony was great and I managed to capture the video. We had 90% view of the court and it was good enough. The stadium was full now as if this match was the only thing anybody every cared about. Given that Juan Martin was new comer, I thought Federer would have it easy but as history now states, thats not how it turned out. The crowd was nuts about this guys and I could have never imaged there were so many Argentinians in US, before I attended this match.

The match ended at 9 pm and luckily we were able to get back by 12:30 am thanks to little traffic. Now the only sports event I will never want to pass on would be the opening ceremony of Olympics if they are held in Chicago.