Great working the US Open

Maria’s US Open has come to a close and her two and a half week stay in New York is over.

We asked her for her thoughts on her stay.

“It has been great working the US Open. We were pretty busy with the transmission mostly coming from New York over the second week, and, I must say, that the [TV Globo SporTV] crew has been wonderful to work with, as usual,” she said.

“They have all done a great job, and I include everyone from the backstage production people to my colleagues on the commentary team, and the excellent support we all got from the local US Open technicians, who could not have been more helpful to us all.

“It has been a real pleasure, as always, to work with them. They make my job so much easier!

“As for the US Open itself, there have been a lot of improvements this year, especially for the public all over the grounds.

“They are doing a great job for the fans, now they can watch all the practice sessions from the new stand, which has proved to be very popular. More often than not, that stand has been full!

“Everything has gone very smoothly actually. I was very impressed with the transportation this year, which was very efficient and always on time, thanks to a great team who looked after us very well.”

And what about the tennis?

“We had such great expectations for both finals but it turned out to be a one-woman / one-man show!

“Serena [Williams] found her best game when it mattered and dominated the entire match, not letting Caroline Wozniacki find any of the form that had carried her to the final,” Maria continued.

“She battled hard and did really well to win six games, but she was never any real threat to Serena.

“It was much the same story with Marin Cilic, whose serve destroyed Roger’s [Federer] chances and completely neutralised Kei Nishikori.

“The Japanese was a shadow of his former self, probably because he had spent over 10 hours on the court getting to the final and had taken five sets to beat Milos Raonic and then four more to get past[Novak] Djokovic.

“He looked exhausted in Monday’s final and his ground strokes didn’t have the pace or penetration they had had in those previous matches, so he couldn’t make any impact on Cilic’s serve.

 

“The good thing is that we now have eight different Grand Slam champions this year – [Stan] Wawrinka and Li Na in Australia, Rafa [Nadal] and [Maria] Sharapova in Paris, Djokovic and Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon and now Cilic and Serena at the Open.

“That has to be good for the game because it is creating a wider attention around the world.

“I was glad to see such a huge a crowd for the men’s final because generally the New York fans are very partisan and only turn out for the big names but then, of course, there is a big Japanese community here, not to mention plenty of Croatians.

“I also heard that there were quite a lot of sell-backs so many tickets changed hands and were discounted, which was good because a whole new group of people got the watch the tennis.”

In fact, there was a record crowd of 713,648 for the two weeks of this year’s US Open, which is said to be the biggest sporting event in the world.

“We were very lucky with the weather too because although it was awfully hot and humid, it only rained a couple of times, unlike previous years, and when it did, it only stopped play for around an hour or so,” Maria added.

What were the highlights of her stay?

“I had a lot of fun hitting at Town Tennis in the early mornings with the pros there and added Jon Vegosen and his son, Spencer, to my growing squad of hitting partners.

“Jon is the former USTA President and a very good player. Actually they are both good players, Spencer having played college tennis, I understand, and we had a really good time.

“On one occasion we had to bump Bill Gates and his group off the court because they were over-running their time and I had to get to my work! It’s a popular place, Town Tennis.

“Towards the end of the Open there are quite a few social events and I attended the Hall of Fame dinner at Cipriani’s, which was very good this year. They changed the format a bit and it seemed to work very well.

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“I was also very privileged to be invited by Chris and Courtney Combe to a tribute lunch they hosted at the Quality Italian Steakhouse for a large group from the University of Northwestern – St Paul in Minnesota to honour Katrina Adams and Todd Martin, who both went to college there too.

“It was a really nice occasion, with excellent speeches remembering the lovely times they had while at school and the fantastic job the coaches are doing there now, all very much in good spirit.

“Jon [Vergosen] was also at Northwestern, as was Judy Levering, the first female President of the USTA and now Katrina is about to be elected to that position from January, which is an extraordinary achievement all round.

“We all learned a lot about ‘Kat’, the next President of the USTA, and Todd, the newly elected CEO of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum.

“They have both accomplished so much and done a lot for community tennis, providing opportunities for under-privileged kids through tennis and education.

“Both gave wonderful responses to the tributes paid to them and it was really nice to see them in a totally different light to how I’ve known them in the past.

“The theme of the lunch was very much about giving back and it made us all think a bit.

“I was also very impressed at how popular the Combes are with the ‘Wild Cats’ – Northwestern’s moniker – and to hear how much the family has done for the campus over many years, starting with Chris’ Grandfather.

“Chris has now just joined the Board of the Hall of Fame and I am sure he will be a huge asset to all their efforts to rebuild and expand over the coming years.

“In all, it has been a really interesting and successful US Open for me.”

And what is next for Maria now?

“Well, I am going straight back to Sao Paulo because the Davis Cup starts there on Friday – Brazil against Spain,” she said.

“There has been huge hope to see the top Spaniards but that isn’t happening now so it is a bit of a let-down for the fans.

“So, for me and the team at SporTV, it will be back to work!”

More on that later, then…