NYC - Day 3
Monday 27 August was day 1 of the 2018 US Open and I was excited to be heading out to watch. I woke up feeling surprisingly much better than I had the night before. Still sore but not too bad. Of more concern was the scorching hot weather predicted. Left the hotel and grabbed some breakfast at a café near Times Square before jumping on the 7 train out to Mets-Willets Pt where I joined the masses entering the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre.
Made it just in time for the first games kicking off at 11am and settled in to one of the outside courts. Not the best move. They are all exposed with no shading and on a day like today it didn’t take long at all to become quite uncomfortable.
Decided it was a better idea to watch the centre court action where at least I would be more comfortable. So after the first set I had a walk around the grounds before making my way into Arthur Ashe and up to the nosebleeds.
Newly Refurbished Louis Armstrong Stadium:
Arthur Ashe Stadium:
Down to one of the bars an hour of so later and had a couple of the signature US Open coughtails – The Honey Deuce. Grey goose vodka, lemonade, raspberry liqueur, honeydew melon balls. Pretty simple but also pretty tasty. Had two of them in about 20 minutes and added the souvenir plastic cups to the collection that we got in 2016.
Note: If you happen to be flying out of JFK during the Open and have access to the
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse you can try the coughtail complimentary instead of forking out US$15 a pop.
Negative: You miss out on the souvenir cup.
Positive: Made with more alcohol.
Spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the grounds and going back and forth between centre court and the outside courts.
Ash Barty:
Finally the time came to say good bye. I love my tennis and have planned multiple trip itineraries around spending a day at big tournaments so will definitely look to come back here for a 3rd time if possible. It’s a great day out for sure.
Hopped on the train again back to Times Square and to the hotel for some rest.
I had been eating most of the day out at the tennis so didn’t really feel like dinner. I did however want to take a look at Times Square at night. Sure, I had been there several times before but might as well have another visit. Walked down and by the time I got within maybe 6 blocks I was kind of regretting it. Just very busy (as expected) with the usual array of “entertainers” harassing the tourists.
Popped into the Marriott Marquis to have a drink at their terrace bar overlooking Times Square. Unfortunately it was closed. Since I had already managed to navigate the maze that this hotel is I thought I might as well have a beer at the inside bar. Downed my drink pretty quickly before deciding to call it a night. Back to the hotel and another warm greeting from the guys on the door. Up to the room and into bed.