Yalah Shachar! Andele Andy!

So only a crazy person would do this. I got off the nearly 12 hour flight from Israel to NYC, on which I barely slept b/c I was taking care of my two kids, both of who refused to sleep. My mom met us at the airport and dropped me by my brother Mo at the Subway on Jewel Ave. in Queens (right near his place near Queens College) where we got footlongs to go (kosher subway! I love NY) - mine was some sort of Italian style pastrami and turkey - delish! Then it was off to Flushing Meadows, home of the world's largest field of toilets and more importantly, round two of the U.S. Open.

We had nightcap tickets but that still gave us a groundspass which proved to be the best part of the whole thing. We got in and looked at the big scoreboard on Ashe Stadium to see what was going on. Shachar Pe'er, Israel's lone female hope was warming up on court 11 so we headed in there and were treated to a thrashing of Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro. Sachar was in top form, barely making an error and dropping only 2 games in 2 sets. I still think her serve needs to improve big time if she wants to really go far in a major but it was great to see her play so well following her injury.

The Israeli fans at her matches are insane. Constant screaming and catcalling, flag waiving, they bring their whole extended families out, pick up their cell phoes in the middle of a point. But they really get Shachar's back and I think it gives her lots of energy to play her best. My brother Yaakov, who hits a lot of U.S. Open tennis thinks Shachar has a better fan base there than most American players, with notable exceptions like Roddick and the Williams sisters.

Mid-match, I hopped out to go to the bathroom and found myself next to a guy who towered over me. I'm not a short guy - 6'1" or so - and I've never felt like such a midget in my life. This guy may have been 7 feet, or just under if not.

Next we wandered the grounds and caught some good doubles (#3 team Knowles and Bhupathi) and caught the last set and a half of Phillipe Kohlshrieber against an Indian qualifier Samdiev Devvarman. Kohlshreiber won fairly easily in terms of the line score but Samdiev put up a huge fight on every point, dragging points to as many as 40 groundstrokes. He was very scrappy.

Then it was into Arthur Ashe Stadium for the end of Shrapova and the Andy Roddick match. Ashe is insane. I haven't been to the Open since the days of Sampras and Aggassi and so have never sat in the monstrosity that is Ashe. It holds nearly 25,000 people and from our vantage point in the uper deck, we could see the action well but didn't feel like we were at a tennis match but rather a Yankees game. The crowd gets pretty into the matches so that's cool. Roddick is in top form and I think he's gona go deep this year. I kind of hope he even wins - he derserves it and is playing so well he just may pull it off. The guys behind us kept catcalling 'Brooklyn' - Roddick's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition model turned wife, Brooklyn Deckert. Funny stuff.

My Dad is funny to watch there. He's not a big fan of waiting on lines, which you have to do a fair bit with the grounds pass, so if you see a middle-aged man running across the grounds to beat the rush into a no-name first round mixed doubes match, it may be him ;-) Good times - a great way to arrive in NYC. Thanks guys!