For those of you who aren't tennis fans, I hope you can tolerate my enthusiasm about the US Open over the next couple of weeks. Last year during the tournament, I tried to find other topics to post about, but my head was always in the tournament so I'm thinking--why fight it?
Night One of the US Open was everything a tennis fan could hope for--a five set match that goes past midnight that involves two hard playing Americans; one who is in the prime of his career and one who is just 19. James Blake outlasted youngster Donald Young in a match that didn't start out all that well. The first three sets were played at a high level, but the fourth and fifths sets more than made up for it.
Blake had a two sets to one lead going into the fourth, but Young raised the level of his game and hit some marvelous shots to take the set and push the match to the fifth set. That's when both players seemed to be at their best. Fans were allowed to moved down closer to the action and that always makes for an electrifying environment during late night matches. Blake finally broke Young's serve in the ninth game of the set and he served out the match.
I'm hoping that this was just the first of several five set matches that will be played under the lights. As I said in my post yesterday, the USA network always stays with these matches even though they often go way beyond their scheduled time, and the environment that it creates is second to none in my opinion.
