Advice for attending the US Open - Tennis

The Game Room
1

This year I’m planning to take my wife up to New York to attend the US Open Tennis tournament. We’re really looking forward to it, and I’m hoping to buy my tickets fairly soon. However, my priority is to make sure that my wife can attend at least one Roger Federer match. She’s a huge fan and I’m worried this may be her one and only opportunity to see him play live.

My question is - given that the draw won’t be out until the week before the tournament begins, how do I maximize our chances of seeing Fed play? We’ll be attending during the first week - Tuesday through Friday. Looking at last years tournament (Fed didn’t play due to injury) it looks like all the top seeds (at least Andy and Novac) played only in Arthur Ash stadium. However, I can’t tell what time of day they played their early round matches - day or evening? I’m assuming that Fed will be a top seed this year based on his Australian Open performance, if nothing else.

So I guess I have multiple questions.

  1. Do I need to buy my tickets now for that first week or is it possible to wait until the draw comes out and still reliably get tickets for Arthur Ash? Watching early rounds on TV I’m always surprised by the number of empty seats - but that doesn’t mean the tickets weren’t sold. So do I need to buy early? I’m assuming that I do.

  2. I’m assuming I’ll need to buy back-to-back days since I won’t know which days Fed will play on (e.g. Monday - Wednesday - Friday, or Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday). So going Tuesday/Wednesday assures me that he’ll be playing, regardless of which schedule he’s on. Does this make sense?

  3. I’m assuming that, since the top seeds last year only played in Arthur Ash, that Fed will only play in Arthur Ash this year. Is that a safe assumption?

  4. Is there any way to guess at what time Fed would play in that first week? That is, in the early rounds, will he likely play in a day session or the night session? I’d rather not buy tickets for day and night on back to back days, if I can avoid it - that’s a lot of tennis to pack in to a short amount of time.

Finally - any other advice from people that have gone is greatly appreciated. We’ll be staying in Manhattan and taking the train out. Any advice on getting there, when to go, what to see, etc.?

Note that I’m only looking for advice. Obviously there’s no way to guarantee when/where/if he’ll be playing. But anything that can improve our odds is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

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I’ve been to the US Open before. AA is a HUGE stadium and the nosebleed seats (general public) are so far away that I’m afraid your wife will be disappointed.

Unlike other tournaments, the top seeds don’t usually get first round byes, so I’d definitely target earlier in the tournament, because as the week advances, if Fed is still in it, your competition for tickets will get greater and greater (read $$).

Me? I’d buy tickets for both sessions for 2 consecutive days. There is absolutely no telling if they’ll play in the day or evening. The only thing you can count on is that he’ll play on the big court.

Or, you can wait until the tournament starts and once the Order of Play is announced and you’re certain of when he plays, go and buy a scalped ticket.

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That’s what I was afraid of. It does look like I’ll have to buy day/night on back-to-back days at Arthur Ash if I’m hoping to confirm a Fed sighting. Or risk picking up a scalped ticket or two once the draw is released.

Thanks for the input.