Remnants of Hurricane Ida hit US Open, create chaos
Even a retractable roof on the U.S. Open was no match for the heavy rain and wind because the remnants of Hurricane Ida carried to Flushing Meadows, flattening tree limbs and inflicting flooding across the match grounds, whereas forcing a match to shift from one court docket to a different after a delay of two 1/2 hours.
“Crazy weather,” was the best way Eleventh-seeded Diego Schwartzman summed issues up after he managed to beat 2017 runner-up Kevin Anderson 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4 of their interrupted contest to achieve the third spherical as Wednesday turned Thursday.
The National Weather Service workplace in New York declared its first-ever set of flash flood emergencies within the area, subway stations and tracks turned so flooded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended all service and New York City put in place a journey ban till 5 a.m. ET Thursday for all non-emergency autos.
Fans react to rain coming in by way of roof on day three of the U.S. Open (Photo: USA Today)
Schwartzman and Anderson initially went out to start out their match at Louis Armstrong Stadium earlier than 7:30 p.m. however didn’t end till simply previous 1 a.m. at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Those are the one two arenas on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center outfitted with covers that may be moved into place and permit competitors to proceed when Mother Nature causes issues.Usually, anyway.
Armstrong, a 14,000-seat stadium that was up to date forward of the 2018 U.S. Open, was geared up with a naturally ventilated roof and the house purposely left between the concourse and the highest allowed the rain to get blown onto the court docket by robust wind. So people popped open umbrellas whereas sitting below the roof, and Anderson and Schwartzman have been halted at 5-all within the first set whereas employees dried the court docket. Play resumed, then was stopped once more early within the second set. The match then gave up on the concept of ending at Armstrong and determined to maneuver issues to Ashe as soon as the in-progress match there between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Adrian Mannarino ended.
Wednesday’s final scheduled match in Armstrong, between Angelique Kerber and Anhelina Kalinina, was postponed till Thursday. Schwartzman had no real interest in that type of situation. “I was ready to play and I wanted to finish today, not finish tomorrow. You never know what can happen,” mentioned Schwartzman, a 5-foot-7 Argentine who reached the semifinals finally yr’s French Open and twice has been a quarterfinalist on the U.S. Open. “I was trying to push … to play tonight.”Then, since issues have been operating so merely and easily as it’s, Mannarino grabbed the third set in a tiebreaker that ended simply previous 11 p.m. to delay that match and, in flip, delay the continuation of Anderson vs. Schwartzman.
On high of that, Tsitsipas headed off court docket for a bathroom break, as is his wont. Eight minutes elapsed earlier than the fourth set might begin, and Mannarino bought a bunch of tennis balls so he might hit some observe serves to maintain his shoulder unfastened. Tsitsipas returned to boos from spectators.At least issues have been expedited from there. Tsitsipas rolled by way of a 6-0 fourth set in a mere half-hour, and Anderson and Schwartzman wasted little time getting out on Ashe.
