Only 61 minutes of play were possible last Tuesday and a similar drab outlook dominated the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre at Flushing Meadows as yellow sou’westers and waterproofs took over from the traditional American tennis fan’s garb of T-shirts and shorts.
Tournament officials were disappointed but not distraught at the prospect of the third round of the men’s and women’s singles being disrupted. “The forecast is not looking good right now and we are not expecting too much play, if anything at all,” said a spokesman yesterday after the Five Boroughs Weather Centre predicted steady rain would last for much of the day.
“The storm hit reasonably late on Friday. We weren’t able to play the night session, but that only affected something like four matches and up to then we had managed to get back on schedule. Tuesday presented more of a problem. It’s extremely unfortunate for the fans who have purchased tickets and the television companies, but the forecast is better for the upcoming days. Because of the number of courts at our disposal and the fact we play here on the middle Sunday of the tournament, we do not foresee any scheduling problems later in the week.”
In 2003 three full days of play was lost, but the tournament still finished on time, with Andy Roddick beating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the men’s final. However, once again questions were directed towards the organisers over why Arthur Ashe stadium was built nine years ago without provision for a sliding roof. More puzzling is the decision not to cover the courts during rain delays and then employ groundstaff, along with ball boys and girls, to get down on their hands and knees to dry the court with towels. Last week one of the mobile blowers used to dry the show courts created added problems when it dropped oil on the playing surface.