Steven
@steventydings
I am in Sports. Used to write words on baseball. Always waiting for Roland Garros and the US Open. Marcus Smart is a future HOFer.
Lastly for qualifying: 17. Sakamoto over Nishikori: Saw the final set of Kei's US Open career. Fun passing of the torch. Sakamoto better player on the day, but Kei fought for the tiebreak. Nice ceremony after
Friday finish to qualies! 14. 2nd set tiebreak as Koevermans defeats Bolkvadze 15. 16yo Kristina Liutova! Won her first set en route to qualifying, fending off Kubka 16. Basavareddy again! Final set of his impressive win over Arthur Gea. Sat right by coaches box, and they were very encouraging
Thursday! 12. Zheng Qinwen first set vs. Pridankina. Zheng played with her food a bit but took Set 1 before the rain 13. Coleman Wong vs. Dusan Lajovic: Saw like three games as Coleman got one game away pre-rain
10 cont. Came back for the end of Johnson* over Daniel. The 17yo found his form and got the crowd behind him for a solid three-set win
9. Last half of the final set of Joanna Garland's three-set win (camera smudged lol) 9b. Jerome Kym finishing a win (last game) 10. First set of Taro Daniel vs. Andrew Jackson. Taro took set 1 11. End of Bu over Noguchi in 3
7. Basavareddy over Koume: A sight of the future? Koume with some *great glimpses, then came undone at the end. Credit to Nishesh 8. Hon over Tubello: Solid win for Priscilla. Muchova came to watch for the last set or so.
Catching up so Tuesday... 5. Nishikori over Ofner. Fun to see a throwback from the former finalist. Looked sharp at the start and also finished well. 6. Grigor over Giustino: Dimitrov looked less like No. 25 in the qualifiers and more like No. 25 in the main draw. Only stayed for 6-0 first set.
3. Knutsen over Lepchenko: Was watching some in between Wong-Mōller points. Not great stuff. Lepchenko choked Set 2 hard. 4. Closed Night 1 with Jack Pinnington Jones over Trevor Svajda final set. JPJ just too much for Svajda. 2b. An extra photo of Coleman Wong appreciating the crowd support.
2026 US Open matches attended w/ my awful photography: 1. Wendelken over Travaglia. Unimpressed by both, Wendelken overcame a bad second set and an injury timeout. 2. Wong over Mōller. This match slapped. Came to watch Wong, got to see Elmer's insane backhand. Great comeback from Coleman.
Another excuse to post one of my favorite photos I've taken, Arnaldi after beating Fils in a different five set marathon at the 2023 US Open:
I won!* * = I didn't win the Philly marathon but I got a PR and a banana anyway.
30. Hon-Li full match. Sadly, Pri Time came to a close. Li was just more consistent even with a poor second serve. 31. Last 1.5 sets of Krejcikova-Navarro: Wowza, Krej comes back from down 0-3, 0-30 to take the final set. Good match despite meh crowd on Grandstand.
28 continued: Shelton's injury was unfortunate. Could immediately see how it limited his forehand, leading to a game of just serving and volleying. The disappointment on his face was palpable.
28. Shelton-Mannarino, all of match but end of Set 2: Shelton looked strong but Mannarino is so good at just getting everything back. Will return to this next post. 29. End of Paolini-Vondrousova: Sadly, Jasmine looked exhausted. Just didn't have it.
26. Pri Time! Priscilla Hon is a fun watch, got to see her final set of a 3-set win over Samsonova. She took it to her! 27. Paolini-Jovic 2nd set. Jasmine looked solid, but Iva put up a real solid fight. Kader Nouni chair ump!
23. Kym-Nakashima, end of 4th/full 5th set. Fun back and forth, Kym's serve so good. 5th set breaker! 24. TIAFOE! Saw 2.5 sets before leaving. He looked solid. Damm, meh. 25. Rybakina-Valentova final set: Couldn't get into see Townsend, saw a really solid set ending in a breaker. Good dub for Ryba.
20. Emma Raducanu R2, first 1.5 sets. Emma cruising like it's 2021. Tjen good forehand, rough backhand. 21. Last 5 games of Navarro-McNally. Emma looking solid in a year where she has been up and down. 22. Joao! First 1.5 sets of Fonseca. He was not quite it today.
16. Coleman Wong! His win over Gigante probably my highlight of qualies. Great showman! 17. Lloyd Harris breezing to a dub. That's my dude. 18. Priscilla Hon! Had to fight for two sets vs. Niemeier but she got it done. 19. Sadly, Michael Zheng just didn't have enough vs. Jerome Kym.
13. Llama Ruiz's final set of his win. Good stuff. 14. Hugo Grenier taking out Martin Landaluce, last few games. Landaluce hit a point far out of the stadium after a point win. Not quite ready, mate. 15. Aranxta Rus beating Jodie Burrage, last set on Court 17. Real tense, close jawn.
9. Aoi Ito! Saw full match, she plays in such an off-kilter way. Fun! 10. Virtanen losing to Riedi in spurts from across the court. Sad. 11. Last 2 games of Aiava's win. Wanted to watch after catching some of her loss to Ryba in '24 12. J-M Cerundolo, last few games of his loss. He was mad!
7. Mixed Doubles semifinal No. 1: Yay Iga, sad for JPeg. Draper didn't carry his weight. 8. Mixed doubles semi No. 2: Didn't stay for the final (tired) but got to see Sara Errani hold serve in person, a religious experience
Forgot to resume post rain, but interlude, saw Tiafoe-Cilic, Rublev-Khachanov and Andreeca-Bencic practice while reading Changover. Seeing Marat Safin and Conchita coaching was v cool
6. Got to watch 45+ min of Cazaux-Clarke, with Arthur getting two points from a 6-3 set win before rain hit. Oh well. Cazaux's serve is quite solid. Shoulds won this set already tho.
Wish I had the photo, but Evans saying "you got a bet?" and doing the 💲 handsign at the guy was all-timer. Starting fistpumping at the dude. 4. Lastly, saw final four games of Pacheco Mendez defeating Gueymard Wayenburg. Good crowd for the former, while the latter seemed out of gas.
3. Harris over Evans in three sets. This match had everything. Evans turned things around down a set and two break points when he thought a dude had a bet against him and singled that dude out as he won Set 2. Lloyd was juuuust steady enough to win. But too passive overall.
2025 US Open matches attended w/ my awful photography: 1. Gojo losing to Blanchet, final set: Blanchet just way more steady. 2. Galan's final game in win. Remembered his run a few years back. Only saw a few points, shouts to the chair ump GOAT Kader Nouni.
17. Last 3+ hours of Paul-Khachanov: Best tennis I saw? Probably. Tremendous fight on Mathieu. 18. Last but not least: Altmaier-Medjedovic: middle 2nd set to middle third. INSANE return position for Altmaier, but it was working great for him.
Last matches from Friday 15. Anisimova-Tauson, full match: Sat near Amanda's coaches and watched her overcome an errant forehand. Super fun. 16. Sabalenka-Danilovic: Literally just the last two games. Yay Aryna