44 insider tips for attending the 2016 U.S. Open in New York

Heading to the 2016 U.S. Open? From transportation to navigating the grounds once you get there, our ultimate guide has you covered.

Author:
Jon Wertheim
Publish date:
Aug 23, 2016

The U.S. Open, starting Aug. 29, is a two-week production that will draw upwards of 700,000 fans. For those planning to attend, here are various tips—culled from previous years with some new ones thrown in:

Pre-Tournament

• We'll get the icky self-promotion out early. The SI.com tennis page will feature the work of various and sundry colleagues including Richard Deitsch, Stanley Kay, Elizabeth Newman, Jamie Lisanti and yours truly. Plus, this year, look for SI’s Daily Data Visualizations, an ongoing collaboration with IBM.

• Tennis Channel’s pregame show starts at 9 a.m. EST and—conflicts aside—it’s good fun and crackling television. Also, the great Mary Carillo will host a late show on the network. ESPN will have the matches, first ball through last ball.

• The new retractable garage door that is the roof will get all the attention, but take inventory of the new Grandstand and various other facilities upgrades.

• Note the Bud Collins Media Center—and pause a moment to acknowledge the eponymous.

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• The qualifying event for the U.S. Open is the best value in sports, and not simply because admission is $0.00. It's top-tier tennis featuring catch-a-rising-star prospects and at least a few down-on-their-luck players, whose names will sound familiar to casual fans.

• Check out the live streaming—available in the U.S.—on USOpen.org.

• Unless you have a match that day, there's no excuse for dressing like a player when you go to the U.S. Open. You don't wear stirrups to Yankees games and shin guards and cleats to watch Arsenal. Leave the wristbands at home.

• Leave the selfie stick as well.

• Give the USTA credit for doing the right thing and conferring a wild card on Juan Martin del Potro.

Transportation

• Take safest play: the MTA's much-maligned No. 7 train from Times Square, Bryant Park or Grand Central in Manhattan to the Willets Point-CitiField stop. Especially if the Mets play, prepare to stand.

• Our preferred alternative: ride the Long Island Railroad from Penn Station. It’s much faster, though trains runs only three or four times an hour, so check the schedule. (As part of our crowd-sourcing, reader @clarkcomedy notes: You can take a bus to the Open straight from LaGuardia.)

• At the risk of sounding like a tourist-bureau p.r. flack, you'll be surprised how civil and efficient the trains are. If you insist on private transportation, take an Uber or cab over a car service, which drops you off somewhere near Montauk.

While at Flushing Meadows

• Buy a program and/or a daily draw sheet when you walk in. The schedule of matches is key for spectator planning, and the program is great changeover reading.

• Bring a Mophie. Unless you’re my kids, in which case you should get off your damn screens.

• We all agree that the USTA sells too many ground passes. But, still, take the grounds pass over reserved seating in Arthur Ashe Stadium, especially during the first week. You'll have the freedom to walk from match to match. You might also want to pick a court early in the day and stake out your terrain.

• Check out the No. 5 court viewing platform.

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• Root for any and all qualifiers in the main draw. Winning that first round could be the difference between financing another year on tour and quitting the sport.

• Root for the players who could use it. This year, candidates include Reilly Opelka (who could have made a credible case for a wild card), Genie Bouchard (believe it or not), some no-name who looks to be close to tears. Djokovic and Serena Williams can win with or without your vocal support. For these other players, it can make a real difference.

• If you own an American Express card, investigate whether you're entitled to a free radio that enables you to hear the TV commentary. (Aside: Whoever does the AmEx U.S. Open sponsorships gets it. These are consistently creative, fun and feel completely non-intrusive.) If not, bring binoculars. Particularly during changeovers—"I think the trainer is on the court, icing down Granollers’ larynx!"—they can come in handy.

• Complain at least once about the lack of intimacy in Arthur Ashe Stadium. And complain at least twice about the lucky ones in the luxury suites who have prime seats yet fail to show or have their backs turned away from the court as they eat their canapés and knock back wine.

• Arrive early and spend half an hour or so watching players practice. It's weirdly mesmerizing, and you can learn quite a bit about players while watching them hit balls for 20 minutes.

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• Drink a lot of water. While waiting in line at the restroom may not be an ideal way to spend time, it beats dehydration any day.

• For those not working, alternative beverages: As @Pschrags encourages you: “Have at least two of those Honey Deuces.”

• Speaking of good habits, wear sunscreen —though bring cream, not aerosol—some of you have told me that a can won’t make it past security.

• Watch the top players in the boys' and girls' singles draw. One day soon they're likely to play on the big stages (or not). Either way it makes for good theater.

U.S. Open 2015 Top 100

Victoria Azarenka

Andy Murray

John Isner

U.S. Open

Oceane Dodin

Jack Sock

Andy Murray

Jack Sock

Kevin Anderson

U.S. Open

Sabine Lisicki

Roger Federer

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Serena Williams

Bernard Tomic, Lleyton Hewitt

Caroline Wozniacki

Petra Cetkovska

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Venus Williams

Petra Cetkovska

Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis

Ekaterina Makarova

Nick Kyrgios

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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Roberta Vinci

Eugenie Bouchard

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

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Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Donald Young

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Fabio Fognini

U.S. Open

Petra Kvitova

Sam Querrey and Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Benoit Paire, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Roger Federer

Madison Keys

Flavia Pennetta

Richard Gasquet

Rafael Nadal

Roger Federer, John Isner

Kristina Mladenovic

Serena Williams

Marin Cilic

Dominika Cibulkova

Eugenie Bouchard

U.S. Open

Serena Williams, Vitalia Diatchenko

Borna Coric

Lucie Safarova

Thanasi Kokkinakis

Tomas Berdych

Donald Young

Lleyton Hewitt

Andrea Petkovic

Agnieszka Radwanska

Stan Wawrinka

Frances Tiafoe

Andy Murray

Nick Kyrgios

Alize Cornet

Mardy Fish, Feliciano Lopez

Mardy Fish

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Fabio Fognini

David Ferrer

Belinda Bencic

U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic

Victoria Azarenka

Johanna Konta

Serena and Venus Williams

U.S. Open

Victoria Azarenka

Simona Halep

Serena Williams

Roberta Vinci

U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic

Roberta Vinci

U.S. Open

Rafael Nadal

Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic

U.S. Open

Novak Djokovic

Roberta Vinci

Serena Williams

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut

Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta

Roberta Vinci

Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta

U.S. Open

Fabio Fognini, Flavia Pennetta

Flavia Pennetta

U.S. Open

Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta

Flavia Pennetta, Fabio Fognini

Dalma Galfi

Martina Hingis, Sania Mirza

Anna Wintour, David Beckham

Roger Federer

Chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore

Roger Federer

Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic

U.S. Open

Novak and Jelena Djokovic

• If you walk by a scoring console and see that a match is deep in the fifth set (or third set for women), watch the conclusion, regardless of whether you've heard of either player. It will give you a good sense of just how brutal tennis can be.

• We know. Your fund of funds is crushing it this year—despite this market swoon. If you fly Delta, the upgrade will come through. You wish your nanny drove, so you didn't have to waste a day going to Maine to pick up Ashley Madison from summer camp. You're important. We get it. But don't use your phone during play, and switch the ringer to vibrate.

• Most of the volunteers are tennis lovers helping the event run smoothly. Likewise, the ushers are just doing their jobs. Same for the security folks. Bear that in mind when they make you wait for a changeover or deny you unused seats in a section closer to the court or insist you check your bag.

• Bring an iPad/book/crossword puzzle/fellow tennis fan to pass the time during changeovers.

• Watch some doubles matches.

• Watch wheelchair tennis. Not out of any sense of obligation, but because it’s terrifically entertaining and filled with the kind of shotmaking we all love.

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• Have a look at the Tennis Hall of Fame exhibit under Louis Armstrong Stadium. It doesn't compete with a trip to Newport, but it's close.

• Again, hydrate. A small Evian bottle may cost you dearly, so bring your own bottles and fill them up at the dozens of drinking fountains on the grounds.

• Go to the U.S. Open bookstore, which, regrettably, is hidden near the indoor facility.

• Maybe it's desensitization to overpriced ballpark food or New York prices in general, but the food-court fare—once the subject of so much derision—no longer seems so overpriced. The food ranges from passable to quite good. The terrific Sam Sifton cooked this up a few years back. The Indian joint is always my personal favorite. Also, at the Wine Bar near the main fountains, try the burrata—if only because burrata is the single greatest substance known to man.

• Alternatively, check out some of the restaurants in Flushing's Chinatown. You can walk there or take the No. 7 train one additional stop. Says @veryape: Queens has the best food in the city. On the way back, stop off at Sunnyside or Woodside for authentic everything!

• @andrewikesports writes: Keep an eye on the sunset behind the NYC skyline from the top of Ashe as the night session gets going.

• I'm serious about the sunscreen.

While in Manhattan

If you're staying in Manhattan, take some time for some of these:

• Check out the High Line on the west side, which is just tremendously cool. End your tour at the new Whitney Museum.

• If you’re feeling adventuresome, go to Williamsburg in Brooklyn—especially if you can time it with a trip to Smorgasburg. And if you take the train from Grand Central Station, take a few minutes to walk around the terminal.

• Koreatown in the low 30s, just east of Penn Station, is an easy walk from a midtown hotel, and many of the joints are open 24 hours. Same for the "Curry Hill" Indian restaurants on Lexington in the high 20s.

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• Run the six-mile loop in Central Park or stroll around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

• As in many other cities, the bikeshare program is a tremendous value and great way to see the town. Citibike.

• Just walk around. It's hard to get lost given Manhattan's grid system, and you're bound to stumble past something interesting.