[envenonearo]

DAMN IT ALL STRAIGHT TO HADES, I was just typing the following report, when this stupid cheap hotel internet ate what I was writing. I HATE!!!!! having to re-write stuff. WELL, here goes, best that I can….

You see, it’s time for me to out myself with my dirty little secret……you see, as a treat for myself, with work being so rough for me as of late, I’ve gone back to NYC and the US Open on my own. And, yes……..I was there, Center Court, second row, to see Little Miss America take the mixed title. And, yes……..I loved it.

It truly was an electric and fun atmosphere- albeit, I could have lived without so many “Go USA”’s and “Go America”’s- BUT, at least folks weren’t being a**holes when shouts of “Go Argentina” went out. AND the following I am sure will be a bitter pill for some of you all to swallow- but, at least from the perspective of one who was there- I’d give the Finals MVP to Melanie. Jack has some excellent skills and good hands- but, he truly needs to learn to play much better percentage tennis- go for the regular winner vs. always trying to go for the flash- even though of course the flash IS fun to see when it works. All four at times played some horrendous shots- but, over-all, the quality of this match was quite high. (Albeit, I HATED having to leave the very fun King/Shvedova vs. Kirilenko/Petrova match after one set to see this final.)

Other observations:

*Please let me add that, actually, Schwank is really quite Schwing. Nice ass.

*As I already had tickets prior to coming to this second US Open trip for the women’s and men’s Semifinals and men’s final, today’s tennis came courtesy of my first experience with a scalper. WELL- OK, the situation was that, while I did raise my hand for awhile there, I had been talking with this couple who were also looking to purchase tickets for today, they ended up getting a ticket they didn’t need, and so I was able to go thanks to paying pretty much the equivalent of face value for this ticket. AND I didn’t spend one second going to either of the men’s singles matches today- today was my Doubles Orgasm Special- almost the entire day at Grandstand. (WONDERFUL hosts that the USTA poo-bahs are, there were no grounds passes available for today- thus, I had to try to buy a scalped ticket, as I did hear from some staff that there was a chance that someone would let me slip into the doubles matches if I had my women’s SF ticket with me- but of course all my tickets had been left at the hotel, as I SURELY thought they’d offer grounds passes- there was PLENTY of room for grounds passes, trust me.) As for the other doubles matches seen, the first was much fun until the Italians ran out of steam in the third, Aggie sucked the worst in the second match- VERY lethargic, and Leizel and Lisa were very solid, the Polish team were superb (especially and predictably Matkowski) and Bopanna really sucked in the first set, AND the first set of the Vania/Yaroslava match truly could have gone either way (they blew some opportunities to put the first set away earlier- Shvedova had served for it up 5-4, and Vania/Shvedova had to “save” a set point in that first set tiebreaker- albeit of course “saving” the set point, meant Nadia and Maria hitting three easy errors to close the first set.

*After somehow managing to sneak into a flight that had been scheduled two flight ahead of my scheduled flight (United usually ain’t all that cooperative I’ve found), I did manage to get into NYC early enough on Thursday to go see “Follies.” I’m not sure that the cast has fully coalesced yet- understandable, since it’s in previews. Of all things, for me, the one troublesome casting is Bernadette. She’s very interesting to watch in anything of course- but, she just feels mis-cast for me. She pulls off crazy of course (go figure)- but, she just plays this too wan for me- and wan she just ain’t. Jan (an incendiary “Could I Leave You?” Maxwell, Elaine “I’m Still Here” Paige and Jayne “Broadway Baby” Houdyshell are all outstanding, there’s a lovely operatic number with Rosalind Elias (older Heidi) and Leah Horowitz (younger Heidi), all male and younger cast members are fine, and it’s very lavish with amazing scenery and costumes. Not the best Sondheim show in the first place (too theatrically arch at times)- but I can already confirm that this is very much worth seeing.

*Truly, yet again the USTA can go suck it with putting Sam/Kerber on the Grandstand Court tomorrow one hour before Serena/The Dull Blonde play on Center- albeit, nerd that I am, I’ll probably spend more time in the Grandstand (unless the Center Court score starts getting interesting?) Mind you, I’m sure that, weather permitting, at noon time I’ll be perseverating at somewhere like the Caroline Garcia match, to avoid the Roger/Novak inevitable result.