Greetings, Tribe, this is Steve from one door down. I’m filling in for a day for Pete. He’s away for a very good reason, of course—his niece’s wedding. I feel like I should make my identity clear from the start; the last time I did guest labor here on the tennis-and-turkey-huntin’ blog, at Wimbledon in 2005, more than a few readers got Pete and I confused. On my last day there, I criticized Serena Williams for being in denial during her press conference after she lost to Jill Craybas (some things never change, do they?). A few days later Pete received an angry email—this was in the peaceful, prelapsarian, pre-comment era—taking issue with what I said, but attributing it to him. Natually, Pete didn’t mind. He answered her by saying that he didn’t think I had been critical enough of Serena.
By this time at the Open I’m usually a little—OK, more than a little—burned out after two weeks in Queens. In the past, I’ve been tempted to phone in a post from the couch on Super Saturday. But that will not do for Tennis World and Concrete Elbow! This morning I hiked across the city through a buzzing humidity to Penn Station; it felt like some kind of all-sports American holiday was going on there. Gangs of young people barreled by me, looking ready for that ancient rite of fall: beer and college football. I confess that I had to fight a strong urge to join them.
The train to Flushing was packed with fathers and sons in Mets jerseys. Golfers toting their clubs to suburban courses jammed in next to them. Tennis was represented here as well, and its fans stood out in a positive way, I must say. The three good-looking blondes in the row in front of me? They were talking about Novak Djokovic. Unfortunately, I was seated next to a different type of tennis fan, a man named Igor, who was with his family. He decided that he wanted to read my New York Times along with me. He pretty much stuck his face in front of mine. To combat him, I had to fold the paper in half—didn’t work—then in half again—he kept reading—then down to postage-stamp size. Finally, he turned away with a muffled grunt of annoyance.
A humid gust of air hit me getting off the train. Up ahead were two groups, Mets fans turning to their left, to Shea Stadium, tennis fans going right, toward Ashe. Today there was a professional wit standing at the crossroards between the two and directing traffic: “Rich people this way,” he yelled, pointing to Ashe, “poor people the other way!” He was getting laughs.
As I said, you could feel the heat off the concrete in the station; as you might imagine, the towering hunk of concrete that is Ashe Stadium was significantly hotter. Novak Djokovic was certainly feeling it by the time I got out to the court, early in the second set. He had stormed off with the last five games of the first set, but now he looked ready to call it a day. He went to the drop shot early, drank water even when it wasn’t a changeover, got his baseball hat out and then chucked it on the ground for a ball boy to fetch, and tanked one of David Ferrer’s service games. The reporter behind me said, “If this goes five, they better call an ambulance.”