US Open Tennis - Timbuktoo Photos

Timbuktoo Photos

There are four separate galleries here - 2015 tennis, and below that 2014 and 2012-13, and NY City shots at the bottom. Scroll all the way to the bottom for NY City pics.

US Open 2015

Roberta Vinci - surprise runner-up!

On the first evening (Wed of first week) I always go to outer courts first, usually for doubles. Here I saw Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil. I always thought Sock would be a great doubles player, but now he's looking sharper in singles. Sock & Pospisil lost.

Next up a really fun match..

Two of my favorite doubles players, teaming up together - Martina H and Leander Paes

And little did I know... that guy serving was Taylor Fritz, the #1 junior player in the US, who won the US Open boys singles!

Although no match against Hingis and Paes (who won the tournament), they had fun!

Between the moon and NY City...

Watching Venus from one of the eating establishments.

Great tournament for Venus, until she ran into little sis.

Celebrating 100 years of the US Open, in one form or another!

Billie Jean is always a big hit with the fans

Djokovic is always a nice djoker :-). He really enjoys the game and all about it.

Denis Istomin, playing against...

... rising Austrian star Dominic Thiem

Kevin Anderson had a very good Open

Donald Young also had a bit of a breakthrough tournament.

Eugenie Bouchard seems to be coming back a bit.

At least Berdych's outfit was memorable. Hasn't had a great grand slam event in a while.

Got to see Hingis again in women's doubles, with Sania Mirza (she plays with Indians in both doubles events).

Mirza is also very good, and Hingis/Mirza won this match so fast that they stayed afterwards slamming the ball at each other in singles for almost an hour. Fun to watch. Hingis/Mirza also won the women's doubles.

This is hilarious and sorry I can't get it to show right side up. You can buy Evian to drink for $4.00 or $5.50, OR, you can buy a tiny little spray can for $7.00 and spray Evian on your face (just Evian!)!

Fed was a master and almost captured #18

This was a great match - Cetkovska played a great game and beat Wozniacki. Wozniacki didn't play too badly, but Cetkovska played her heart out. Very entertaining match.

Over 3 hours match!

The thrill of vistory

C Garcia and K Srabotnik playing doubles. Friday day matches.

Robson was teamed up with K Flipkins

Sam Querry playing doubles with Steve Johnson. They beat the Bryan bros in the first round!

Querrey and Johnson were playing against my favorite, Leander Paes, and F Verdasco. And Querrey/Johnson won this one too.

Good Dutch & Romanian doubles team, Rojer and Tecau. Last year we got pictures of the kids with these two. Nice guys.

One of the guys playing against Rojer/ Tecau

La Colombiana - Mariana Duque-Marino - serving against eventual runner-up Roberta Vinci.

R Vinci. Have to hand it to her. Great tournament!

David Goffin - rising Belgian star... looking really good against Bautista Agut but had to retire (heat?). Heat was a big issue this year at the Open.

He has the funniest serve toss-- across the body almost underneath the serving arm. And with eyes closed to boot!

Cilic had a tough match against Kukushkin

Kukushkin from Kazakhstan

The end came early for Milos - ran into a red hot Feliciano Lopez, who most of the time served harder than Raonic.

Feliciao Lopez - great tournament.

Consistently served 135-138 MPH

Ferrer also beaten early... by Chardy

And the big Friday night events - first Serena against Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Serena's first serve (when she wants to) is almost as fast as average for the men's field. But somehow up close it's not all that amazing. 122 from Serena somehow looks slower than 112 from Nadal.

I'm sorry, but Serena just didn't impress me. I have never seen any pro look so uninterested, and unhappy, to be where she was. Most of this 3 set match she plodded around, taking WAY more than 25 seconds between serves, looking bemused when she lost points, and angry or in pain when she won. I think the pressure of the "slam" just got to her.

Honestly, it was kind of a weird match. I've never heard the stadium so loud (100% in her favor) and such a lack of interest. In retrospect, I'm not surprised she didn't win the tournament.

"Who's that Goth?" asked Martin.

Did I just take the first set off of Serena, or am I dreaming?

In the end, she turned it up a notch; always seems to be able to when she needs to.

And finally, in the last couple of games,some positive emotion.

Then a complete change in demeanor - this was not the same person who was playing for almost 2 hours. Maybe just happiness of relief?

And then the late match... By seedings, the late match probably should have been Ferrer vs. Chardy, or maybe Cilic vs. Kukushkin. But the US Open chose to show Rafa against Fognini...

... and boy did they get that one right!!

This one started off like an indication that Rafa is back. He played very commanding tennis and took a 2 set lead. Lots of entertaining points, not so amazing, but enjoyable, and he was back to he sort of relentless self where he gets everything, and is rocksolid on key points.

Rafa moves so fast (once the point starts :-)) that it's very hard to get him in focus, especially at night under low light.

Fognini was game - made some great shots in the first 2 sets but lost a break in each one.

In the 3rd set, something amazing happened. He just starting pulling shots out of I-don't-know-where, and the two of them started producing some of the best tennis I've ever seen.

He started making laser-like forehands and backhands, especially down the lines - and Rafa would get most of them. Fognini won the next 2 sets to level it at 2 sets all.

The 5th set was truly unbelievable - I think there were 7 CONSECUTIVE service breaks.

Fognini really pushed Rafa all over the court, but Rafa still got almost everything. The stadium actually got even louder than the Serena match - even though by now it was almost 2:00 AM!!!

Rafa hasn't been playing well for most of this year, so we haven't seen too many fist-pumps, but there were a lot of them in the 5th set!

But a lot of frustration too-- not so much for errors, but more like "what can I do against this guy?!"

Fognini finally held serve...

...and won! I have to say, I've never been a big Rafa fan, but he moved WAY up on my list after tonight. has a ton of heart, is very gracious, loves the game, has shots no one else has, and is very entertaining. I think he's on his way back to the top or close again soon.

But he's still the king and world record holder for BPPM :-).

Fognini enjoyed the moment... probably as stunned as the crowd. But he earned every bit of it. This was without doubt the greatest match I've ever seen live, and among the greatest and most entertaining I've ever seen. Period! Only downside was getting to Mitch's house at almost 3:00AM!

... and Fognini promptly went out and got crushed by his next opponent, Feliciano Lopez. Must have been completely drained (and Lopez was playing great too).

Next day, bleary eyed, I went out early to get tickets for the whole family (our gamble to do it online didn't work!). And while waiting for the others to make it out to Queens, I got to see some early practice rounds - Martina H again!

Hitting against Mirza. They're both incredibly hard workers.

Look how a racquet flexes when it's crushing a ball.

So who IS this guy and why does HE get to play with them?? If a ball ever went to him, he could barely hit it. Not a coach. Seemed more like a ballboy. I did see him on TV in the Hingis/Mirza box. Maybe a relative?

Men's doubles early Saturday

Stahkovsky, who beat Fed in Wimbledon a few years ago in round 2 I think.

On Saturday, the matches get fewer, but better (higher seeds going against each other). And you can still get court-side for lots of them.

The South entrance has plaques commemorating all the past greats.

Probably my favorite plaque - hey, he holds the ball just like me during the point!

Anatomy of a serve - for the remainder (about 80 shots), just hold down the right arrow and watch like a video!

us open 2014

US open 2012-2013

New York City