US Open and then some.

Finally. The moment we have all been waiting for... The release of the US Open blog. Haha jk, but seriously, it is getting so hard to find time to blog! And when I do get time, it seems like the internet never wants to coperate. So, the open. Good times, good times. It was an early birthday present from my parents, and I am so glad they let me go with Blake and his mom, Jeanie. We left after school a few thursdays back, and hopped on a plane to JFK. The plane had these awesome little screens where would could watch tv, movies, maps, rock out, pretty much whatever you wanted (I wish i could get one of these installed in my room)! And to much excitement and anticipation, good ol barack obama came on the screen, delivering a balla speech about his plans for america...

Once we had landed, it was about one a.m. est, we waved ourselves down a taxi, and took the hour drive to our hotel in Manhattan. It was about a block away from Time Square, which was freakin awesome by the way, tons of lights... We finally got to bed around three, looking foward to the next five days in NYC.

Day 2

We didnt have tickets till the night match at seven, so after we woke up (noon!!), we did a little sightseeing. To start off the day we had some lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was cool becuase it had tons of music memorabilia. Then we walked around the Square, and took the subway to the U.N. building... It was awesome there, we saw tons of different people of various nationalities, and an awesome vibe seemed to radiate from the place. After that we headed over to the south side of Central Park. The place was HUGE and awesome, it was like a jungle surrounded by skyscrapers. While we were walking back to the subway, something extraordinary happened. A man came around a newstand with this super sick red nike shirt. I thought "wow, thats a cool shirt" and proceeded to walk by him. All of a sudden, Jeanie grabs my arm, "Boys, do you know who that is??!"

We turned around and looked at the man. He had lime green nikes, white 'man-pris' that are rather popular in Europe, and the red shirt. His dark burgandy hair was long and kind of curly. Suddenly it dawned on me, that was Rafael Nadal! We sprinted after him, and when we finally caught up to him and his agent we just kind of stood there and gawked for a moment. Jeanie asked "Are, are you rafa?" He stared back and nodded "ya." Suddenly she burst out in a stream of words "Oh my gosh we are so excited to see you, we are here for the open too, we are just so excited!" He continued to nod, and started to walk away, quickly I blurted out "Good Luck!" He waved goodbye and took off at a brisk walk. Ah yes, one of the best moments of my young life.

That night was our first night of action, so we were pumped up for some tennis action. The sub ride took about an hour each way, since Flushing Meadows was in Queens while we were staying on Manhattan island... Billy Jean King National Tennis Center is quite a venue. The main stadium, Arthur Ashe holds around 30,000 people if I remember correctly, and thats where all the bug matches were held. There were three more stadiums, and then about twelve other match courts where we could watch the pros up close. There were also tons of shops, including my favorite, the polo shop! The first match that night was Safin and another chick, we saw so many matches I dont remember all the names! But right after their match was Roddick's. He can serve fast. I mean fast. Tennis is a quiet spectator sport, so if you yell in between points, the players can hear you, its awesome. So Blake yelled "150!" to try to get Roddick to serve fast, so the next point he looks up in our direction, and BAM! The ball hits the net, but clocks in around 143 mph. It was awesome. The match ended after Roddick's victory around 1:30 am, so we hopped on the subway, and hit the hay as soon as we got back.

Day 3

We had day and night tickets the rest of our time at Flushing Meadows, so as soon as we got up (around 11) we went over to BJKNT (aka the open!). We watched Sam Querry advance to the semis, and then it was time for some doubles action with the Bryan Brothers! These guys were intense, and watching them was a real treat. They swept the competion in straight sets, dominating as usual. That night we got to watch James Blake and his good friend Marty Fish duke it out. The crowd was going nuts for the two Americans, and Blake and I were no exception. In the end, Marty would prevail, leading him to his first Grand Slam semi.

I will write more as soon as I get back tonight or tommorrow, there are plenty more pictures and exciting stories to come, so check back soon.