US Open, Tennis and Silence

I was at the Women’s finals of the US Open on Saturday. The US Open is a great, if overpriced, event. No annual sporting event attracts more people than the US Open (it is two weeks long, after all). The American Express Gold Card gets you a shot a tickets a bit before the general public (but apparently after anyone with real connections) so we always try to go one night. The last two years we’ve picked the women’s final because it’s on a Saturday night.

The night sessions are fun at the Open. They are much rowdier, and tennis needs a bit of that. I’m not a huge tennis fan. I enjoy it, and follow the majors, but that’s about it.

This year’s women’s final was a bit lame. Henin simply stomped her opponent. At no point in the match did the outcome seem in doubt. And it always helps to have one of the Williams sisters in the final. Love them or hate them, they add a ton of buzz to the match.

But the weirdest thing for a baseball/basketball/football fan about tennis is the total silence. In between points, one person can easily yell something and the entire stadium will hear it. Try that at Yankee stadium. Imagine if at a basketball game, the crowd had to be silent during a free throw.

I was at a Yankee game with a friend of mine recently, and between cheering and general socializing we pretty much talked the entire game (ok, he’s a talker). At a tennis match you make whispered comments and only occasionally lest you offend someone.

I’d like to see golf and tennis players have to deal with distractions. C’mon Tiger, hit a 40 putt with people screaming…