US Open

[barnesisgenius]

I'm heading to NYC for the US Open this September. I'll be flying in on the afternoon of September 4 so will be able to catch the session that night for men's quarterfinals. I also plan on going to the day session on Saturday for the men's semis and the final on Sunday.

I got tickets for Thursday night through Ticketmaster but Saturday and Sunday are sold out. Are there plenty of scalped tickets available outside the grounds? Also, are people cool with me moving down closer to the action on Thursday night should it run late and people in the good seats have already bailed? How long should I plan on it taking to get to Queens via subway from midtown Manhattan?

Any other general advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[MikeUT00]

You're going to have a blast. I've been many times and it is a great experience, especially the night sessions. I've never actually scalped, though in my experience I haven't seen many dudes hustling tickets outside the grounds. Not saying it doesn't happen; rather just saying that in my years attended I have never seen many ... and certainly not the likes of, say, a Texas football game. The few times I didn't have tickets, we bought them off eBay. Never had a problem doing so. Always bought them before leaving for NYC, so technically had them in hand. Though, one year we ended up having an extra for the '01 Men's final, so I resold it on eBay a couple of nights before. Met the guy there right outside the main ticket counter outside the gates and did the exchange with no problems.

As far as moving down, wait until the stadium crew allows you to do so. There is a moment during night session matches where they pull the guys from the gates and it green-lights everyone who wants to move down. Once you do, just be sure to be courteous to those around you who actually paid for their down-low tickets. Allowing upper-deckers to move down is a part of the Open night session, so people understand. But it does kinda suck if you chose to sit right in front of someone else where there are other seats available, and then scream your head off or something when the crowd in your area isn't doing the same. There are certain sections for that. They'll announce the move-down over the PA and you'll see the mad rush. You won't miss it.

Subways are pretty consistent. I mean, it's not like traffic plays a part or anything. I'd say if you are coming from midtown, say Times Square or Penn Station area or the like, give yourself at least an 90 minutes, maybe longer for safe measure. Just hop on the #7 and ride it all the way to Flushing/Shea Stadium. I believe it is the last stop, though I am not 100% positive. Perhaps Hellraiser or Midtown can chime in otherwise.

I'll be there too enjoying Rafa kick ***!

 

[bigup2dahorns]

when i was a wee lad, went to the US open with my family on the first day session to highly seeded john mcenroe who was playing in the big stadium vs schlomo glickstein (misspelled i'm sure). our seats were halfway up but very few people were sitting down low in the big money seats, so i went and sat in the front row with my friend. he took a picture of mac serving (first serve was out) and then my friend's camera went into auto-rewind mode and made a HUGE noise while doing it for about 15 seconds during which mcenroe proceeded to point his racket at us and yell "what the hell is going on? JESUS!!!" and then we were yelled at by the head umpire in the chair. it was GREATNESS. mcenroe won in the 5th set. the end.

have a great time!