Sunday, September 12, 2010

US Open Day 14: Score One for Melbourne

Curtain Call

Player: Yulia Putintseva
Nation: Russia
Age: 15
Current Ranking: 795
Notable Conquests: Timea Babos (junior 2nd seed, Hungary) and Monica Puig (5th, Puerto Rico)
Tour Page
Today's Result: loss to Daria Gavrilova (1st, Russia) in straight sets

Three matches did finish today before the rains washed out the rest: both junior singles finals and the women's wheelchair singles final. Young Putintseva is definitely making her mark. She made the semis of the juniors draw at Wimbledon this summer.

So, for the second year in a row, the US Open men's final is delayed until Monday due to rain. You know, I've been thinking all year about which of the four tennis majors is my favorite. Wimbledon has the tradition and the England summer coincides nicely with my teacher's work calendar. But I'm not a big fan of everyone wearing white. The French is fun, too, and certainly more colorful than Wimbledon in many ways. But the Australian and US Opens have two huge advantages over the other two: they are played on the more democratic hard courts and they have lights for night tennis.

So, which is better? Aussie is at the beginning of the season and everyone's in pretty good shape. Everyone's pretty worn down by the time they get to Flushing but New York is where all of the season narratives reach conclusion. But today clinches it for me. The greatest of the four tennis slams is...

The Australian Open. Why? It has not just one but two stadiums with retractable roofs. As such, play shall always go on, no matter the weather. Bad time zone and inconvenient time of year for me? Well, that's really my problem, isn't it? The fact of the matter is, of the four majors, the Australian is best prepared for the 21st century. Good on ya, mates!

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