2o,ooo Fans Now Have Bragging Rights To Say “I Was There”
It wasn’t raining. There were no blustery winds. Still the long-awaited moment came. Tournament ref Bryan Early – the man whose finger is on the button that controls the US Open’s snazzy new ceiling – emerged. The US Open’s big electronic sign informed the throng: “Inclement weather in the area. The roof has commenced closing.”
At 10:38 p.m., the massive covering, with its 52 million pounds of steel, slowly inched across the dark, ominous New York sky. In a flash the stadium became a chiropractor’s dream. Everyone began to crane and crook their necks. New York City became whiplash city. Cameras clicked. The roof’s slow deliberate 5:22 closure slightly suggested an eclipse, or maybe the descent of the electronic ball above Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
All the while, Rafa “the man who can’t stand still” Nadal jogged in place. Nervous officials paced and checked in on their walkie talkies. One imagined they were whispering to each other, “This better work.” Then, at last, at 10:46, the New York crowd roared as the roof approached its touch down and then shut snug – phew! And in just a few nondescript moments the first round Rafa Nadal-Andreas Seppi match resumed and Seppi, a somewhat obscure Italian, dumped a simple rally backhand into the net to end the first indoor point in US Open history, not with a bang, but a whimper.
No, there had been no sheets of rain, no winds swooping down from Oz and no on-court wonders. Still the historic moment had its own magic, not least of which was that almost 20,000 New Yorkers now gained bragging rights and the honor to inform their grandkids, “I was there. I remember the night they shut down old Arthur’s roof.”
