US Open: Serena Williams and Andy Murray

In the evening, I took the 7 express train up to Mets-Willets Point as usual, but this time, I turned right and headed into the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center instead.  I managed to buy a ticket for this evening's session in the main arena - the Arthur Ashe stadium.

View over plaza from Arthur Ashe stadium

The wooden bridge seems a bit rickety to me, with uneven planks, but given that thousands of people cross it every day, it can't be that bad.  I had been watching Venus Williams' match on the television before leaving, and when I arrived, she was still playing, so the day session overran a bit, which delayed the start of the evening session by half an hour.

You can wander around the rest of the courts to see people playing, and you are so close to the players.  I saw a bit of one of the other men's matches.  I also met a student, Khalil, who was doing an assignment about the tournament, who asked if he could interview me quickly.  I agreed, and it didn't take very long - questions like "why have you came?", "what's the best thing about tennis?" and at the end, only a couple of minutes later, he thanked me and said it was best interview he'd had all day.

My seat was in row N of section 101.  It's actually an accessible row, with no fixed seating, but fold-up seats that are brought out for you.  I was sitting right in line with the centre service line, at the South end of the stadium and about twice as high up as the level where the TV cameras are positioned for normal coverage, so it was an excellent view.  The umpire was to the left as I looked at it.  There was quite a breeze blowing through the gate behind me, which was a relief given how humid it was.  A couple of other people moved around to behind the next section to get out of the draught, but I enjoyed it.  Players have been asked whether the new retractable roof on the court affects the wind and they all say that it has reduced it down at court level.

Possibly the only downside to the seat location was the official photographers came by a lot and were taking photos of every shot, which was somewhat distracting.

I was surprised how many empty seats there were, given that Serena Williams was the headline act.  I had expected it to be packed to the rafters.  I saw a few other people wearing union flags, or Team GB supporter things, and even some wearing a union flag baseball cap as I was.

However, there were quite a few well-known people in attendance.  I didn't recognise all of the US Olympic medal winning athletes who were there, but I did recognise this man - Andre Agassi.

I know Ivan Lendl was there too, but couldn't spot where the coaches boxes were.

Serena was wearing all black, except for an underskirt which was coloured shocking pink that was revealed as she moved around.  Later on, Andy Murray would also be wearing all black, but without the pink dress.  The opposition both wore plain white, although Rosol changed to a yellow top midway through the match.

Serena's match took just over an hour to complete, with no real scares along the way.  Then after all the interviews on court and waving to the crowd and hitting balls into the crowd and signing the giant tennis balls down in the front row of the stands, a bloke came out and spent 10 minutes fiddling with the two Chase logos attached to the net for the Ladies' Singles match, replacing them with Mercedes-Benz logos for the Men's Singles match.

Andy Murray, at the far end, serving to Lukáš Rosol

Then after a singing performance by someone I didn't know, it was time for the second match to start.

The first point of the match was a typical Murray point, with lots of running about and rescue shots and lobs which, although he lost that point, won him lots more during the course of the match.  It was a slightly slow start, I thought, but he soon got going.  He didn't face a break point in the whole match, and once he was up a double break in the second set, the match was clearly over as a contest, although Rosol fought on.

The accuracy with which all the players aim the ball to the sidelines and baseline is astounding.

The most amazing thing about Murray's play is his anticipation of where his opponent is hitting the next ball.  He's getting to things that he really has no right to, and getting them back to force the opponent to hit another shot - which they sometimes fail to do.

Although the match started after 9pm, it was over in under 2 hours, as Andy wrapped it up

Unisphere, from the World's Fair - not the boy's ball

6-3 6-2 6-2.   The lady guarding the entrance at our section took my photo - several times, as we tried it with the flash, without the flash, and people kept walking in front or coming up the stairs behind.  I had taken my free red headband off and put it in my pocket by this time.

In fact, all the staff were really good and a credit to the tournament.  They would welcome you as you went past and offer help to anybody who didn't look like they knew what they were doing or where they were going.  Just along the row from me were what looked like grandma & grandson, the latter being in possession of a giant tennis ball that had already had several players' signatures.  Seeing the ball and the grandma's infirmity, just as the last game was in progress, one of the helpers offered to escort the young man (aged around 7-8, I'd guess) down to court side to get Andy Murray's signature on his ball, and bring him back up.  

The whole tennis centre looked very smart, and had lots of trees and flowers in the main section.

I'd definitely come again if I'm in New York when the tournament is on again, as I enjoyed it a lot.