Why I don't like the US Open

To be quite honest with all of you, I am not a big fan of the US Open.

The Australian Open is one of my favourite slams. I just love the entire feel of the event – the blue surface, the atmosphere, the on-court interviews, Rod Laver Arena and Jim Courier. I start getting excited about the tournament come December.

The French Open does not go up that well with me. Rafa and I differ in this issue but I think there are too many matches on clay and by the time you get to the French Open, you just get a bit saturated with all that sliding. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of mind-bogglingly good tennis to be seen and Rafa in particular, is to be blamed for that.

Wimbledon is like true love and holy pilgrimage rolled into one. I think everyone likes Wimbledon. Even Andre Agassi, who skipped the tournament in his initial years, got his first slam success on grass. For all his rebellious clothing and ridiculous hairdos, he still came back to the Royal Box to watch Federer play. I admit, with no shame might I add, that for two weeks every summer, I am profoundly mesmerised by the AELTC.

And then we have the US Open – a fitting end to a season of exciting tennis. Wouldn’t you agree? For a final time, the greatest players all gather to put together one awesome spectacle in the greatest city on planet earth. This is the Big Apple, this is New York City and the US Open is the prime-time show of tennis. Yes?

No. Not quite. Because the United States Open is held in, well, the United States.

You see, this is where the other slams fit in so perfectly. You can watch all the morning matches of the Australian Open before your day begins. You can follow the other matches online in your office as well. And when the finals days come, you can leisurely eat your weekend lunch and settle down comfortably in the chilly afternoon sun to watch the matches. Perfecto!

Wimbledon and French Open fit nicely on the other side of your office hours. Work diligently and well all day (or don’t, either way) and when you come home in the evening, you will be rewarded with great tennis action. From about five to midnight, entertainment will be superlative tennis. Oui!

And this is where the US Open annoys me so much. Adding 0930 hours to the schedule to find out when a match is and when you do the necessary math you realise that the match is in the morning, the next day.
If the US Open is to get my liking, they need to do one of the following – either relocate the entire US to Australia (or anywhere on this side of the International Date Line, really), but this might be slightly unrealistic; or introduce a new Summer Day Light Spending system which makes 6PM IST (even 1:30PM GMT is fine by me) equivalent to whenever Federer, Djokovic or Nadal are playing. It would make life much so much better.

No longer then, would we have to wait till 4:30 AM in the morning to witness Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal slug it out in one of the most physical tennis matches. No longer then, would we have to battle sleep to watch Roger Federer hit a tweener to get to match point. No longer will we have to worry about sleeping of in the office as we watch Juan Martin Del Potro script a new story.

If these measures are taken, the US Open will become very successful, and yes, it could even become my favourite slam!

For the time being, I’ll just Google plausible excuses to call in sick next Monday morning.