Enjoying the U.S. Open? Well, it is the greatest tennis tournament in the world. At least that's what they said (twice) during the opening ceremonies. It is the only tennis tournament in the world that insists on claiming that it is the greatest in the world.
It's also the only tennis tournament in which players are constantly asked how they like playing "in front of these crowds" - New York sports fans apparently being the world's neediest. Every player, without fail, says he or she loves it, though I wonder about Djokovic, who had to stop play last week when a fight erupted in the stands. You don't get fights at Wimbledon, that inferior upstart.
You also don't get British fans cheering a missed first serve, the way they do at the Open when their favorite is on the receiving end. You don't get ball boys wearing supersized Ralph Lauren polo logos so that they're unmistakable on TV. (Do people wear logos of tennis players at polo matches?) You don't get, speaking of Djokovic again, caps and shirts flowing with decorative Gothic lettering.
But if you cut through the nonsense, it's been fun to watch on TV. If somehow you can forget the superior coverage the USA Network used to give the Open, with the inimitable Michael Barkann roaming the grounds and doing the on court interviews of the victors. Last night, during the Federer-Melzer match, they showed celebrities sitting in the stands; years ago Barkann would have been kneeling next to them with a microphone. John McEnroe continues to be as brilliant a commentator as he was a player (and without the tantrums) while Jimmy Connors - on another network - states the obvious in sonorous tones as if it's great insight. He's the poet laureate, as a journalist friend used to say about a colleague, of conventional wisdom. If Connors were dumped and Barkann reinstated I might actually consider the Open to be the greatest tennis tournament in the world.
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