By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
The email came in to me from Greg Sharko from the ATP World Tour, copying Bill Simons from Inside Tennis Magazine.
It was an inquiry to joggle the memory on what some of the most memorable matches were on the Grandstand court at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center at the U.S. Open. With the 2015 U.S. Open being the last year of the court’s existence – being torn down in the U.S. Tennis Association’s new redevelopment of the site, it was a worthy topic.
The Grandstand was for years the No. 2 court at the U.S. Open, from when the USTA National Tennis Center first hosted the U.S. Open in 1978, until it was downgraded to the No. 3 court when Arthur Ashe Stadium debuted in 1997. It’s always been regarded as the most intimate court, seating 6,000 fans, complete with shade created from the over-hang of Louis Armstrong Stadium to the west, which provided refuge for fans and players, but the shadow did cause for difficult playing conditions. Up until the 1990s, a restaurant called “Rackets” was situated along the west end of the court, where diners could get a premium table along the glass window where they could watch the tennis while lunching. For those U.S. Open aficionados, the Grandstand was best place to watch tennis.
I remembered the first match I could recall on that court that I saw in person – Guillermo Vilas vs. Erik van Dillen in the third-round of the 1979 U.S. Open, Vilas winning in five sets. I always associated Aaron Krickstein with the Grandstand court, although the only match I could definitely remember from there was his upset win in 1983 in the third round as a 16-year-old over Vitas Gerulaitis after losing the first two sets and being down 2-4 in the fifth set.
I remembered Brad Gilbert with a massive five-set win over Boris Becker in the fourth round in 1987 on the Grandstand. I could still see both Becker and Gilbert yelling after points in that match – Becker in agony, screaming missives in German, and Gilbert acknowledging himself, complete with fist-pumps, after finishing off the two-sets-to-love comeback win.
Steffi Graf made one of her earliest announcements on the tennis scene on the Grandstand, upsetting the No. 4 seed Pam Shriver as a 16-year-old in three-tiebreakers 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4) in a 2-hour, 46-minute quarterfinal. It was the first-time in U.S. Open history where a match was played featuring tie-breakers in all sets.
When I was working with the USTA, two matches I vividly remember was Wally Masur coming back from 0-5 down in the fifth set to beat fellow Aussie Jaime Morgan in the fourth round in 1993, winning the last seven games of the match, winning at one stretch 16 points in a row. It was probably the greatest comeback in U.S. Open history. Also, Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor played the longest tie-breaker in U.S. Open history in 1993 (equaling the longest in the history of men’s singles), with Ivanisevic winning 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (20-18).
In fact, the longest men’s and women’s tie-breakers in U.S. Open history were played on the Grandstand as Sam Stosur and Maria Kirilenko also played a 32-point tiebreaker in 2011, Kirilenko winning the tie-breaker, but Stosur winning the fourth-round match 6-2, 6-7 (17-15), 6-3. The round earlier, Stosur played the longest U.S. Open women’s match in history in time – three hours, 16 minutes – beating Nadia Petrova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 on the Grandstand.
A U.S. Open semifinal was actually played on the Grandstand – also in 2011 – when Stosur beat Angelique Kerber 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, the USTA being forced to use this court due to a back-up of the schedule due to rain and Louis Armstrong Stadium already being knocked out of service for the event at that late stage in the event.
Other matches that came to mind were when Andrea Leand, a 17-year-old, unranked amateur, beat No. 2 seed Andrea Jaeger in the second round In 1981 by a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 margin in one of the biggest upset in Grand Slam tournament history. I think the first time I saw Andy Murray play in person was when he won his first ever U.S. Open match on the Grandstand in the 2005 first round against Andrei Pavel, highlighted by Murray throwing up all over the side of the court at the beginning of the fifth set, causing a substantial delay in play to clean up the mess.
What are your memories of the Grandstand Court? What are some of your favorite matches on the court or some of the best ever that have been overlooked? Share in the comment section below.
