#40!

The day in Rumson started out drizzling. The semis of the singles were taken off the grass courts and played on the clay instead. One of Phil and Tom’s doubles final opponents was playing in the semis of the singles first.  The grass courts were deemed too wet to play so the singles were played on clay courts instead. Strange I know to play on clay courts in a grass court nationals, but when weather is a factor anything goes.

Phil called around 3:00 to say his opponent finished singles and they’d start the doubles final around 4:00, probably on the clay courts. Luckily I had the US Open women’s final to watch to take my mind off Phil’s match.  (As if that wasn’t high drama in its own right!....my thoughts on that at the end....)

Just as the women’s final was finishing Phil called...they won! 7-6, 6-4.  I found myself in tears for him. I know how has been struggling within himself. Feeling like he was doing all the right things to do well, but nothing was happening on the court for him. He turned it all around with his doubles play and made it “golden”.

Phil now has 40 USTA national titles..30 doubles and 10 singles.  Wow!  I am so proud!

I’m excited now to play in Palm Springs soon. I hope I can bring his same intensity and toughness to my play.  I’ll be posting my results in about 3 weeks.

Now my thoughts on the US Open final.  Osaka outplayed Serena through the whole match.  It is a code violation to coach. She may not have seen her coach make the sign to “move forward” but the umpire did.  Hmmm. Judgement call for ump, so he called it. Breaking a racquet to me is for sure violation, since it was her second code, lost a point. Ump just following the rules. Now here to me gets tricky. Serena wouldn’t let it go about the coaching call and kept badgering the umpire. Now calling him a thief didn’t quite merit losing the game, in my opinion. Maybe umpire should have ther told Serena watch it because she was on the verge of a third code and would cost her the game. I don’t know.  The umpire is in charge of the match and he did what he felt was right on each instance. I may not have agreed, but that’s why there is an umpire, to inforce the rules.  It’s a shame that all the hoopla took away the limelight on Osaka’s big win. She was the better player and deserved to have more joy for her victory than what she was given. Just my thoughts.