‘It looks like a kind of amusement park here,’ says Tim van Rijthoven after his elimination in the second round about the US Open. When he debuted in New York, he was amazed. The difference with the modest Wimbledon, where he had his breakthrough at a grand slam tournament this summer, is huge. “It’s super busy, very different from all the other tournaments. People come and go in the stands. There is shouting, just a little louder than anywhere else, and you hear music everywhere.’
The US Open is like host city New York. Loud, chaotic, expensive and above all busy, unavoidably busy. In the first week, the visitor records are broken. That has everything to do with the farewell of Serena Williams, which has pushed ticket prices to record highs. Whoever wants to see her play in the third round on Friday, in what will turn out to be her last match, has paid at least $ 530. Some tickets sell for thousands of dollars.
It is already crowded on Friday morning in the center field next to the impressive Arthur Ashe Stadium. “It is busier than other years,” says Wesley Koolhof, number four in the double ranking and a 2020 finalist in New York. “That’s why we keep players indoors as much as possible.” After his afternoon training, he squeezed through a crowd towards the players and media building. Outside the gates are huge queues.
Contrast
The contrast is great with two years ago, Koolhof sees. He then played the final in the corona bubble of the US Open. He remembers the chilling silence in the grounds. On the other hand, the room to move was pleasant. ‘Where all those people now walk, we had a mini golf course and fitness equipment to ourselves.’ He could also hear a pin drop at Arthur Ashe Stadium where he played the doubles final. Television viewers at home heard artificial responses from an invisible audience.
Now everything is back to normal. Loud pop music comes from the speakers in the center area, often cheering at one of the seventeen lanes. Silence is nowhere to be found at the US Open.
“You have to take that into account in advance,” says Peter Lucassen, coach of the now eliminated Botic van de Zandschulp. “Sometimes there’s a lot of screaming on a track next to you, while you’re in the middle of a rally.” The eternal noise of the US Open often leads to irritation among players, Lucassen sees. ‘But in the end they all say after a game that they love the atmosphere so much.’
Van Koolhof may not increase the volume of the so-called hawkeye live, the automated linesman, down a bit. When balls are knocked out, pre-recorded screams sound from the speakers at the field. “On the smaller runways you sometimes think it’s happening to you, when it’s coming from the next runway.” No other complaints, says the Dutchman. “It’s magical to play here.”
Torture
Not everyone shares Koolhof’s enthusiasm. Australian Daria Saville expressed her frustration with the hectic pace of the tournament after her elimination in a post on Instagram. For someone with ADHD like her, the many distractions were a bigger problem than for others. “People are walking everywhere,” she wrote of her experience on a smaller job. “You hear calls from other jobs that aren’t for you, it’s constantly noisy.” For Saville, the US Open felt like “torture.”
Her compatriot Nick Kyrgios was disturbed by the sound of the subway in the distance, but also had another, notable complaint on Wednesday evening: he smelled weed at Louis Armstrong Stadium. According to the referee, it would have been the smell of the many food stalls at the top of the stadium and outside on the grounds.
Especially in the so-called Food Village, a part of the park full of eateries, there is constant consumption, as is usual at American sporting events. According to the organization of the tournament, 225,000 hamburgers, almost 40,000 kilos of chicken and 7,000 special tennis ball-shaped cookies pass through in two weeks. Here too, visitors notice it in their wallets. The Honey Deuce, the tournament’s patented cocktail, will cost $22 this year.
Focus away
In the stadiums it is a constant coming and going of people. Between each game, hordes of tennis enthusiasts rise from the stands, for a quick bite, or to move to another court. Others just walk in. ‘If that happens in your field of vision, it can be irritating,’ says Gijs Brouwer, debutant at the US Open, the morning after his elimination in the second round. “Then your focus on the ball is gone, and that’s just really bad for your timing.”
For Brouwer, the US Open was his first Grand Slam tournament. Before a recent hazing in Houston, he hadn’t even played an ATP tournament. ‘There were also a lot of people there, but they make a lot more noise here.’ Brouwer hears everything, he says, from footsteps in the stands to conversations next to the track: ‘I don’t get what they’re talking about.’
It doesn’t bother him. The left-handed tennis player qualified through the qualifying tournament. In the week before the bigger work began, loud music blew across the small courts he played on. “It doesn’t bother me, but I can imagine that it can be irritating for other players,” says the Dutchman. ‘What if you just heard a song you know and you start singing along in your head. You shouldn’t have that.’ Brouwer enjoyed the amusement park in New York. “This is unique,” he says. “Unlike I’ve ever experienced.”