A successful start into a new Grand Slam era – and the end of the chaotic years: After decades of turbulence, the US Open has taken a turn.
When tropical heat broke out over Flushing Meadow, just outside the gates of the Big Apple, at the beginning of the first US Open week, the makers of the last major tournament of the season reacted quickly with an act of common sense.
Even the male professionals were immediately allowed a ten-minute break during longer matches, tournament doctors and the Grand Slam management had rush together and implemented the historic decision without long hesitation. It was a logical, compelling decision, but it was also an indication of how the competition, once known as “horror slam”, and its conductors have changed in recent years.
Many in the tennis caravan still vividly remember the chaotic years of the not too distant past, the partisan approach to the matches, the confused schedule, the overwhelming dictate of the US television networks, the sickly infrastructure. But the days when the American Grand Slam was even on the brink and player representatives openly threatened to boycott are fortunately over.
John McEnroe, once one of the most merciless critics of his own tennis federation USTA, has now become a sworn fan of the new US Open: “They really got the hang of it here,” says the New Yorker, “it was a last-minute rescue somehow”.
Since this year, the US Open chiefs have had three pretty top arenas at the same time. The Ashe Stadium and the Grandstand, which was completed two years ago, have now been joined by the new Louis Armstrong Court, a 14,000-seat construction with an airy and light appearance. And just like the Centre Court, it is equipped with a mobile shield roof.
Actually, the construction of the Arthur Ashe Stadium 20 years ago should have ushered in a new era. But the world’s largest tennis arena had a birth defect from the very first year – namely, no protection from the not at all atypical rainfall in late summer on the US East Coast.
For example, years of the tournament were plunged into turbulences in the schedule, the men’s final had to be postponed five times in a row to Monday due to fatal weather caprioles. Added to this was the idiosyncratic schedule dictated by major TV financiers such as CBS – on the so-called “Super Saturday”, for example, the male professionals had to step onto the court just 24 hours before the final to reach the semi-finals.
For a long time and persistently, the USTA executive had spoken out against a major Grand Slam upheaval. At the beginning of this decade, the tournament boss at the time, Jim Curley, proclaimed the motto that “other tournaments had much greater problems with the weather – such as Wimbledon”.
But there, in the All England Club, a utopia had long since become reality, an umbrella over the Centre Court, a piece of planning security in the uncertain weather. New heads at the top of the association then also launched the small revolution in New York – a 600 million dollar project for technical stadium conversion and complete beauty correction was decided and implemented on schedule. “When you think about what it looked like here ten years ago and what it looks like now, you can’t help but be amazed,” says Roger Federer, the Swiss maestro.
Rafael Nadal, his congenial rival, is also full of praise: “Now it’s really fun to play here again, without ifs and buts”. Once Nadal complained that the tournament was disrespectful of the professionals and that “only the TV stations would decide what happens here.
It is quite clear that “former players now also have a say in the USTA leadership,” says German coach, manager and association official Dirk Hordorff: “They know what the levers are. In this way, the not unimportant details have been improved in daily operations: A better working shuttle service, upgraded menus in the more modern Player Lounge. “You end up feeling like a welcome guest,” says the coach of one of Europe’s top players, “it used to be quite different.
The program now also follows rational considerations – and not the selfish will of powerful television conglomerates. Each tournament round is played for two days, as in Wimbledon. And on the final weekend the questionable “Super Saturday” has long since disappeared, the women’s final game on Saturday and the men’s final on Sunday must be more than enough.