Above: Renzo Olivo, of Argentina, serving in the sunshine
Tuesday August 25th, 2015 – Right up until the morning of, I was unsure if I’d be making my annual trek to the US Open qualifying tournament this year. Over the last two or three years, I have changed from being a “Summer person” to being a “Winter person”. I – who used to sunbathe avidly, and always loved hot, steamy weather – have done a complete volte face. I now find heat and humidity oppressive and really annoying.
But the lure of watching tennis live overwhelmed my concerns for comfort and so, after having a ‘private car’ on the 7 train out to the tennis center, I tried to ignore the sun beating down and the trickles of sweat. Around 2:00 a lovely breeze kicked in, and if you sat high enough up in the stands, you could maintain reasonable comfort.
The day started badly as two of my favorites went down to defeat: Tatsuma Ito (above) was over-powered by the big-hitting Russian Aslan Karatsev…
…whilst Somdev Devvarman (above) fell in a three set battle to the Slovakian Norbert Gombos.
Wei had asked me to check out the tall young Chinese player Ze Zhang (above), who won his first-set in an exciting tie-breaker against France’s Tristan Lamasine. In the second set, Ze Zhang was serving for the match but somehow lost a bit of momentum; Lamasine stepped up his level and took the set. In the deciding third, Ze Zhang seemed to be hobbled by an injury to his serving arm; his big serve was compromised and often he would just tap the ball into play. The trainer was out and did what he could to alleviate the problem, but Lamasine took advantage of the situation, playing even harder and forcing a victory. The Chinese crowd were demoralized. But Ze Zhang has the goods; I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of him in the seasons to come.
Japanese-American Taro Daniel (above), who impressed me at last Summer’s tournament, played a beautiful, dominating first set against the Argentine Renzo Olivo; Taro’s serve has a lovely slice to it. Olivo made some headway in the second, but Taro kept his cool and swept to victory.
I so enjoyed watching Taro’s match from my perch up in the stands. It was everything I love about tennis.
Above: Taro Daniel after the match.
I would have loved to have stayed on to see the 19-year-old Swede Elias Ymer, and my longtime favorite Alejandro Falla, but I was already sunburnt, and so I grabbed a big bottle of water and headed for the train. Both Ymer and Falla won their matches today, so hopefully I can catch them in the next round.
