Roddick and Sharapova at the US Open

K and I went to the US Open this past Tuesday, the second night of the tournament, to see Sharapova and Roddick. Amazing sunset atop the Manhattan skyline (it matched Sharapova's pinkish red dress!) from the top of the stadium. Overpriced food and wine, but the Pinot Grigio went down nicely and the turkey sandwich with melted provolone was just fine.

Most of Sharapova's drama was in her supermodel entrance onto the court. The red sequined dress and black bolero jacket with sheer sleeves. And then her personality re-enters when she wins and finally smiles and twirls. During the match apart, from her sopranic grunt, she is all business. The crowd encouraging her opponent Roberta Vinci to win at least one game. She did to a roar from the crowd and a robust fist pump from the Italian, but Sharapova won easily and thre was little intensity to the 40 minute match

Roddick (versus a soon to retire Gimmelstob) is more of a showman on the court, during the game. He and Gimmelstob are friends so there was banter between them and little spontaneous comedic routines and lots of facial reactions. And they played hard and as Gimmelstob wants to be an annouoncer they interviewed each other after the match, which was charming as they traded one-liners and compliments.

Its definitely fun to watch Roddick serve and to check to see how fast it travelled--nothing over 150 mph but alot over 140--they look like a blur.

Great audience too. Prety diverse. The in-stadium cameras search for cute dancing viewers during the breaks (like at a basketball game) -- and the camera seemed to find quite a few older white guys with trophy wives. After the match, the winner signs three tennis balls and hits them into the audience. Roddick hit one straight toward K and I sitting high up in the stadium. I felt nervous and excited like I was in left field as a child and the ball was actually hit toward me. the guy sitting in front of me, very quiet, ignoring his family with his headphones, stood up, reached out and up and quickly caught it. His family shrieked in delight. I realized it was actually heading for him, but I would have had it if he wasn't there. K joked with him and said she let him have the ball.