What To Do During The Rain Delay

We're currently under a rain delay here in Flushing Meadows, leaving thousands of anxious tennis fans stranded throughout the Billie Jean King Tennis Center with nothing to do. But fret not, my US Open friends. There are still plenty of activities available to pass the time until play gets underway again. Here are five:

Wine Down Wednesday!

1.) Drink champagne.

Because it's 1:30 p.m. on a Wednesday and you're at the U.S. Open.

Bottoms up.

I don't think the keychain is supposed to go on your ear, sir.

2.) Buy a Mercedes.

The 7 train back to the city can be crowded at times and your nose hairs don't deserve the insufferable smells that often permeate from some of the subway's passengers. Is that urine? I think it's urine.

So why not leave Flushing Meadows in style behind the wheel of a brand new Mercedes? Yeah, it's an impulse purchase, an expensive one at that, but it can be yours for the cost of four of those 2013 U.S. Open fleece jackets you were about to buy.

I see you checking The Outer Courts on your mobile device.

3.) Stand with these people outside the indoor training facility.

Everybody's doing it. Look at how much fun they're having.

I want a bag with puppies on it.

4.) Visit the Time Warner Experience.

Time Warner Cable's new customer and fan lounge outside the East Gate of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center has everything one would need to follow the tournament; from interactive maps to live audio and handheld controllers featuring action from six different courses.

Just don't ask to watch Dexter or Ray Donovan. The Showtime breakup is still a touchy subject.

Got enough tennis balls?

5. Shop in the US Open Collection Store.

Unless, of course, you bought the Mercedes.

We are One in the Bond of the SEC

On the whole, I have found tennis players relatively difficult to talk to on our travels. I don't necessarily blame them for this fact. As we have stated on here often, tennis media don't actually watch tennis, so they make the trips to the tournaments solely to talk to the players. And since on the whole, tennis media seem to have the personality of a pack of pea moths, I wouldn't be eager to talk to them either. However I am a person interested in conversation and actually communicating with others, not just enjoying the perks of international travel. Thus the inability to get anyone outside of Rafael Nadal to do anything more than give me a head nod has been frustrating.

Enter John Isner. The lanky American came into the media room today after his straight set first round win and media immediately swarmed him. They began asking him about his match, his next opponent and other battles taking place on the grounds. I had nothing to say about those subjects, mostly because I was sitting in the cafeteria while he played. Instead I looked at the former UGA star and asked him how the Bulldogs were going to do against Clemson. He immediately lit up, ignored the other chirping reporters and looked at the logo on my shirt (I am repping UK here in Flushing) inquiring, "you from Kentucky?"  I said yes and the conversation was on.

We chatted about the UGA quarterback situation (good), the Bulldogs' big game issues in the past (bad) and the future of UK football (rising). We talked about whether Georgia would cover the spread Saturday (1.5 and Isner says for sure) and the over/under line (probably worth avoiding). And we went into some detail on the SEC as a whole, specifically whether anyone can wrestle the conference crown from the Dirty Tide. It was as close as I yet have gotten to an in-depth interview on the tennis beat and afterwards, I walked away like a celebrated general walking off the battle field. Now to be fair, it had nothing to do with tennis and there is almost nothing I could use anywhere outside of "The Outer Courts". But it is a start and I have now realized that as long as the tennis players I encounter have the same love and affection for the S-E-C that I do, everything will be fine.

Let's just hope that Juan Martin Del Potro has an unknown allegiance to Spurrier and the Gamecocks.

Donald Young isn't messing around at this year's Open

There was a time, not even that long ago, when Donald Young was "The Next Big Thing."  The kid from Chicago, skewed hat and all, was the future of American tennis, the Venus or the Serena on the men's side of the sport. Everyone, including legends like John McEnroe and Jim Courier, projected him to be great. Like great-great. And everyone, including legends like John McEnroe and Jim Courier, and the suits at Nike that drew up Young's enormous endorsement deal, were wrong. They were all wrong. It's 2013 and Young never reached the bar, that incredibly high bar, that was set for him. He is now known as the guy who peaked too early, the guy with a 17-match losing streak in 2012.

But Donald Young showed flashes of greatness in his opening round match this afternoon against 46th-ranked Martin Klizan. And by showed flashes of greatness, I mean he pummeled Klizan throughout the entire match, winning 6-1, 6-0, 6-1. That's a jaw-dropping scoreline for you, folks. Holy beatdown.

Young advances to face the Mayer/Monaco winner in the second round of the Open. If he can win that one, he'll likely meet an old foe in Andy Murray in the third round of the tournament. Murray sent Young home from his best run at Flushing Meadows, in the fourth round in 2011. 

Does Young still have another Open run in him?

We're about to find out.

MAXIMO: A Cinderella Story

At this point in America, tennis reaches the average American sports fan via the exploits of four people, Nadal, Federer and the Williams sisters (and Venus is barely hanging on to this level). Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Maria Sharapova are occasional draws and the height (and serve) of John Isner is gaining steam. But for the most part, it takes star power to reach the average American public more interested in Duck callers than tennis ballers. That is unfortunate, because on Court 13 today the type of moment that sports fans love took place. An underdog, with the look of a mid-level comic book character, dug down deep and came through for the win of his life. Unfortunately for the sport of tennis, only me and a few hundred of my friends were there to see it.

A David vs Goliath matchup

Maximo Gonzalez defeated #14 seed Jerzy Janowicz in a match as entertaining as any we will see this week. We will see better tennis, closer matches and possibly heightened drama...but just for sheer enjoyment and smiles on the faces in the stands, nothing is going to top the unveiling in New York of dear Maximo. Take a second and realize what a huge underdog poor Maximo was going into this match. Janowicz's game is taylor-made for the US Open. His powerful serve and intimidating forehand made him a darkhorse choice in the easy David Ferrer quarter of the bracket. Those who do US Open bracket pools (sad sorts) had him penciled as a potential shocker into the last weekend and I heard one international reporter yesterday say that this "this will be the tournament that Jerzy becomes a worldwide name."

On the brink of becoming a worldwide name

Not so fast. Maximo had something to say first. Maximo Gonzalez is not only a world-class name seemingly created by a WWE script writer (can't you see Maximo coming to the ring...the spunky underdog with high-flying moves and a chant of MAXIMO! while engaging in mischievous, yet humorous behavior), but on this day, he also had a tennis game to match. There was absolutely no reason to think Maximo could even stay on the same court as Jerzy (in fact one unnamed Top 20 player saw that Jerzy lost to Maximo and said to any within earshot...what is a Maximo Gonzalez?). He came into the tournament ranked #247 in the world, having played in exactly ZERO ATP Tour matches this season. His sole tennis on the international level was in the Challenger series, and the only surface he had bothered to take on was clay. He came to the US Open qualifiers on a flyer and beat three people ranked higher than he just to get to this position. If ever there was a match that looked to be forgettable, this was it (as showcased by the placement of the #14 seed in the tournament on Court 13).

Our hero sensing the moment

But that my friends, is why they play the game. Backed by a group of self-described "New York trash talkers who love the underdog," Maximo played the match of his life. With each returned serve and sliced backhand at his opponent's toes, Maximo got the crowd behind him (which in New York means against the other guy, leading to my favorite taunt so far of the tournament, "Hey Jerzy, this is New York tennis baby and making guys like Maxi win is what we do!!!!") and slowly caused the big man with the bad back to wilt. Janowicz, clearly in pain, but still moving fairly well, fell apart in the second and third set, slamming his racket, pounding the backstop of the court, yelling at the sky, throwing his hat to the ground for the final four games and complaining to the umpires so often that even one of his supporters yelled, "okay that's enough!" (at which point he did shake his head as if to agree). It was such a poor effort that a member of the Jancowiz entourage (and yes, in tennis everyone has an entourage), got so frustrated that she walked out of the arena, looking at the taunting New Yorkers in the process saying, "you suck and so does this place!"

Trash talking came from this group...you can guess which ones

But as the screamers suggested, this is New York and this is what they do here. New York crowns temporary heroes that burn bright for a few days...guys like Maximo. It would be difficult to have found anyone in the draw this week with less of a chance to make news in the tournament's first days than a clay court specialist from the Challenger Tour who hadn't played in a Grand Slam since 2009. But enter Maximo, "The Outer Courts" new chosen underdog and a crowd favorite on the smallest scale. The rest of the American sporting world may never learn of his majestic qualities (unless he can win a couple of other matches), but if given the chance, I know they would love him.With a possible matchup set up in Round 2 with "The Outer Courts" arch-enemy (one Jack Sock), a titanic struggle on Thursday between unadulterated joy and perpetual annoyance could await. But for now, we celebrate Maximo, the hero of Day Two so far and proof that in tennis anything, except possibly a seat for Drew and me outside of the media cafeteria, is possible.

Maximo celebrates the big win

Behind-the-scenes look at Tennis Channel's set in the sky

I reluctantly put my lifelong fear of spiral staircases aside for the day and climbed up to Tennis Channel's loft in Arthur Ashe Stadium to see what it's like on the set. Once I safely reached the top, high above the tournament spectators and their gigantic tennis balls, I positioned myself in the far corner where I couldn't break anything or disturb the people doing actual work.

The Instagram video you see above shows what it's like being a fly on the wall while Tennis Channel worked its Tennis Channel magic with Milos Raonic. You see it on TV and now you know what's like behind the scenes.

For the first time in U.S. Open women's singles history, it's gonna start raining Min!

Grace Min won the 2011 U.S. Open girls' singles title.

Yesterday I wrote about Dan Evans and how I saw him lose in the first round at the Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships last month in Lexington, Ky. Today's Open schedule features another familiar face from the Lexington Challenger event, only this time our connection is even stronger.

For reasons I'll never truly understand, Matt and I were invited to commentate a tennis match at the Fifth Third tournament for the USTA. Again, why we were asked, I'll never know. But we did it and had a blast providing our insight and unique perspective (with help from 14-year tennis pro Joanne Wallen) to the USTA's online audience with viewers tuning in from all over the world.

The match we were assigned to for our tennis color commentating debut featured ITF women's circuit competitors Sanaz Marand and Grace Min, two strangers to The Outer Courts crew. But after calling what felt like the longest tennis match in the history of the sport -- like watching two tinier, prettier versions of Isner and Mahut do battle -- we have a bond with Marand and Min forever. You always remember your first, they say.

So now that you know the background, you can only imagine our excitement when we saw Grace Min's name on the 2013 U.S. Open's women's singles draw. 

Grace Min?! OUR Grace Min?! Could it be????!!!!

It's true. Grace Min, our Grace Min, survived the qualifying gauntlet to reach her first U.S. Open singles tournament. Today she'll face Karin Knapp of Italy, ranked 94 places higher, and I'll be her biggest supporter sitting courtside.

Will she remember me? Of course not. The moment was only memorable for one of us. But I remember her, the winner of my first match as a commentator, the one I'll never forget, and I couldn't be happier to see her here in Flushing Meadows.

Time to bring back my catchphrase from that night Lexington:

"It's raining Min! Hallelujah, it's raining Min!"

Today at the US Open in 4 Pictures

The smiling man above is Kentucky Defensive End Bud Dupree. I put his picture up here (a) because I know you are wondering about what he and his teammates will do when they open their season against Western Kentucky University on Saturday and (b) because he is an example of the type of people Drew and I deal with in our regular jobs. We cover Kentucky sports and that basically means talking to college athletes such as Bud, usually with their lives still ahead of them, eager, full of energy and smiles. There are pros and cons to the job, but after years of doing it, we have entered into a comfort zone where we are able to predict how days will go and what encounters we will have.

Tennis is an entirely different world. In tennis, every day is completely unique and you are never sure exactly what you might encounter on the grounds. We have found some of the nicest people we have ever met covering tennis and some folks that I have wanted to have deported to Antarctica (and that is just at Tennis Channel!). The same is true of players. While I have been amazed at how kind and engaging Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have been, I have had to bite my tongue during interactions with Juan Martin Del Potro and Jack Sock. Every person is different and that diversity of personalities makes every day unique.

Take today. We arrived at the US Open as eager beavers, ready to brave a Grand Slam and cover it like it has never been covered, while also setting aside a bit of time to explore the official US Open gift shop (we spend our entire Outer Courts' paychecks on merchandise). However this day has been a bit of a grind as we have had to adjust to our new scenery, while also enjoying one of the biggest events I have ever been a part of as a pseudo-journalist. Thus rather than write 5,000 words on what we have encountered, I thought it better to sum it up in four easy pictures:

Many of you mistakenly believe the tennis blogging lifestyle is pure raw sexiness on a daily basis. This is not always true. Yes there are the moments when you meet a beautiful Italian tv reporter who tells you that she thinks your voice is "oh so cute" (chicks dig Southern drawls) but then there are the other, more difficult times as well. Today we arrived in Flushing, Queens to find out that we have no seat in the media room and thus no place in which to write our whimsical musings. When we asked the woman at the media desk what we could do, she said "well there's always the cafeteria." So that is where we are...posting "The Outer Courts" writings from a space in the corner of the media cafeteria. Yes, this means I smell like zucchini and Drew has eaten six meals already, but we didn't come here for the glamour. Blogging is not about your scenery, but about setting the scene for the reader and letting her live through you. We came here for the tennis and media luxuries such as televisions to watch the matches, power outlets to give your computer life or desks to sit behind are not requirements for us. We will harken back to a much more pure, simple time, when writers were writers. I have been told that AJ Leibling once covered a Joe Louis fight while sitting in a bus depot on a stack of hay. This is our mission this week and a lack of sunlight or electricity will not deter us.

Because it took us so long to get settled, we didn't get to watch a great deal of actual tennis today. You may remember from previous Outer Courts tournaments that the tennis media tends to watch almost no tennis, preferring instead to simply sit in the media room and eat granola bars, while talking loudly on their phones. Not me. I came here to see action, so I ventured to Louis Armstrong Stadium to see David Ferrer take on Nick Krygios. I will admit that I cared not at all about Ferrer (no more boring great player could there be), but wanted to see 2013 Australian Open and Wimbledon Boys Champion Krygios play. It was like watching a young deer learn to walk, slow, unsteady and full of mistakes. Yet the massive talent was obvious. Krygios played with Ferrer in his three set loss and watching the match, I got a distinct "I will remember this when he gets good one day." The mistakes he made were all of the "going for too much" variety and stardom is (in my humble opinion) almost assured. Seeing Krygios early in his career is why you watch tennis and I plan on being like that annoying guy in college who insisted he saw Dave Matthews Band "before they got big." I am now a Kyrgios mark, and seeing him early is a perfect example of what is great about this tournament.

The couple above on the other hand, is an example of the what is terrible about tennis in New York. These two spent the entire Ferrer-Kyrgios match, sitting in the third row, taking selfies of themselves and wearings sunglasses at night. To say that I dislike them is an understatement. To say that I would have liked to see them fail miserably at the Pamplona Running of the Bulls is only a slight overstatement. Watching the two of them take pictures, giggle and pose during the proceedings led me to contemplate horrible behavior and it may only be because of a late departure (she wanted ice cream) that my time in New York is able to extend past one day. When I draw up the type of person that I find difficult to tolerate, this couple would at least be in the preliminary sketch. My hope is to not see them again.

After the match, as I walked back to my media cafeteria home, I ran into the reason that for all its downfalls (the other media seem to believe this is the worst of the Grand Slams), there is a certain appeal to the US Open that can't be matched anywhere. Walking past a group of panting young women (apparently Lenny Kravitz had just walked by), I saw sitting above me, the grey dome of John McEnroe doing a live interview before Serena took the court. McEnroe was one of my childhood heroes and the reason that I love tennis. In my trips to Indian Wells and Cincinnati, I haven't run into him as he didn't attend either affair and meeting him has become my goal. Now, here he was above me, wearing the same media pass that I am (although my guess is that his includes free meals in my office, excuse me...the media cafeteria). Say whatever you want about the difficulty getting here, the lack of seating or the loud people screaming into their walkie-talkies. McEnroe is here and this is the US "Freaking" Open...and I am in attendance covering it. That is beyond cool and the reason these next 12 days are going to be something special.

And if you need me, I will be plugged into the outlet next to the pasta bar.

Dan Evans bombed in Lexington, shines in Flushing Meadows

No one is more shocked by Dan Evans' upset win over 11th-seeded Kei Nishikori than The Outer Courts. And that says a lot, because EVERYONE is shocked the British qualifier advanced to the US Open's second round. But we have history with Evans, dating all the way back to a month ago. Yeah, that far back. Let me explain:

Evans competed in the Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships in Lexington, Ky -- the place I call home -- in late July. In fact, Dan Evans was in the first match I saw at this year's tournament, my first time attending the Lexington Challenger event. It was Evans versus Malik Jaziri and Jaziri won the opening round match rather convincingly in two sets. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed by Evans and never thought we'd cross paths again. But I was wrong.

The 23-year-old Evans pulled off the first major upset of this year's Open in his debut at Flushing Meadows, just days after he rallied from a set down against Adrian Menendez-Maceiras to reach the Grand Slam stage as a qualifier. Ranked 179th in the world, Evans took down Japan's top player and the No. 10 guy on the 2013 money list without giving up a set.

So who is this Evans guy?

Here's what we know...

He was once known as the "bad boy" of British tennis.

Evans was suspended by the LTA in 2008 after he was spotted partying in the wee hours of the morning prior to his boys' doubles match at Wimbledon. He was stripped of all funding and support for fourth months.

The win over Nishikori is his first victory in a Grand Slam event.

He was 0-2 prior to Monday with both losses coming at Wimbledon, in 2009 and 2011.

He clinched a comeback victory for Britain in the 2013 Davis Cup.

Evans stunned Evgeny Donskoy, ranked 245 places higher, to complete a miraculous comeback for Great Britain over Russia in the Davis Cup. He was a last minute addition to the team.

He has an Oscar Wilde quote tattooed on his left forearm.

It reads, "Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."

He watched Billy Madison Saturday morning.

It was a great morning, he tweeted.

He'll face Bernard Tomic in the second round of the US Open.

"It will be another good match," Evans said of his next opponent. He said he prefers Tomic over Albert Ramos, who Tomic defeated on Monday in five sets.

The Outer Courts will be there for that one, although Evans would probably prefer we stay away. I wasn't much luck for him in Lexington.

Day One of the US Open Gets Off With Sadness

The Outer Courts arrived today at the US Open, ready to take on the world and visit our first Grand Slam here in New York City. This area is a great place for tennis and the history of the sport reeks out of the premises as strongly as the odor emanating out of the riders we encountered on the #7 train on our way to the event. We were eager to find our way into the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, get our media credentials and begin blogging at a pace that would make you, Tennis Channel readers, proud.

Unfortunately, like all great stories of triumph, this one began with a rough patch. As we walked towards the area where our credentials were to be given, a man in a yellow shirt with the logo "Security" on it, told us in no uncertain terms, "YOU CANNOT GO THIS WAY WITHOUT CREDENTIALS!" I assumed that his tone was possibly due to a difficult morning and then proceed to explain to Mr. Yellow Shirt that we had such credentials, but we needed to pick them up at the stand 100 feet behind him and if he would so kindly let us walk by, I would get the credentials and all would be fine. He then looked at me (wearing sunglasses on an overcast day, a perfect compliment to his hyper-aggressive arrogance accompanying his small modicum of power) and said, "If you want to PICK-UP credentials, you must enter from the other side, which can be accessed by walking around the facility." He then pointed to a path that would require us to walk all the way around the circular USTA grounds, a direction that would probably include just under a mile hike. I pleaded to his sanity by saying, "the entrance is 100 feet behind you, why make us walk that entire way when we could be there in 5 seconds." He smiled with a smarmy grin and said, "it is policy."

So there you go, the US Open of 2013 begins with adherence to rigid "policy" as the overriding theme. I am not sure what "policy" suggest that one can only enter an entrance from one side of a parking lot as opposed to another, but now with blisters on my feet and frustration in my mind, I am ready to give a small overview as to what Day One of the US Open has given us so far.

--- The big news of the morning is the announcement of the retirement of James Blake. Many saw this coming, as the American has been hounded with questions for the past few months about when he would cut the cord on his tennis career and enter the game of tennis commentary, where he will most certainly succeed (this is a particular hazard of being an athlete as the implication that comes with such questions is that you are no longer fit to proceed with your career. I would not take well to such questions). Blake says that this tournament will be his final run, a fitting end for a player that has seen his best moments here in New York. He laughed, cried and reminisced during his press conference and explained that he hoped to have one more glorious run over the next two weeks. As American tennis struggles to find players outside of John the Giant, losing Blake, probably still the most marketable current male American, is a huge blow. However as his play and fashion choice (he is the last player I have seen refuse to conform to the dry-fit tennis wear revolution, causing his cotton shirts to get weighed down with so much sweat that a woman in Cincinnati two weeks ago said to me, "I simply can't look at him with all that moisture everywhere"), have faltered, it became clear it was time to make the tough decision. We here at The Outer Courts wish him the best and while we aren't sure what to do in his first round match (he plays the funniest player on tour, and Outer Courts favorite, Ivo Karlovic in Round One), I am hoping he finishes with one magical day/night where he gets Arthur Ashe electric again.

--- Venus Williams won in dominating fashion, taking out the #12 seed Kirsten Flipkens (6-1, 6-2). It was an old-school Venus day as she controlled the match from the opening moments and never looked back, taking out Flipkens, who beat her in three sets just three weeks ago. The win leaves open the possibility of a Round of 16 match against Serena, which could result in a similar conversation as the one I had with my grandmother when the two played in a US Open final many years ago. My grandmother said to me while flipping channels (the match was on, but tennis isn't her normal focus), "those women are both named Williams, maybe they are related." I then said to her, "yes Granny they are...they are sisters." She got a puzzled look in her eye and then said, "well that isn't nice then. They shouldn't play each other. What would their mother say?" It is a good question...what would their mother say?

--- We spent most of the afternoon learning the lay of the land and at the US Open, that means roaming the underground halls below Arthur Ashe Stadium. More than any other stop so far on our travels, the US Open offers a great opportunity for the media to just casually run into players, a highlight for The Outer Courts. Thus far today, we have passed Novak Djokovic (he posed for a picture with two girls, which I then proceeded to photo bomb), James Blake (I am not going to say that Drew mumbled under his breath that Ivo Karlovic might pull off the win...but I am not going to suggest he didn't) and a random female player I didn't recognize, crying in the hallway. After we passed her, Drew and I debated as to why she was shedding tears...I thought it was because of a loss, Drew believed an injury, but we both regretted not taking the time to comfort her. There is nothing sadder than the sight of a lone woman crying with no one around to help ease the pain. So if you are the player we saw weeping in the hallway, we apologize. Next time we will adhere to our Southern, gentlemanly ways and make it better.

More as the day goes along, as we move towards Roger Federer's debut under the lights.