U.S. Open Tennis 2006 photos

Photos taken Monday 28 Aug through Friday 1 Sep --- the first week of the tournament

I have grouped these 2006 U.S. Open photos (about 50) into the following groupings.

  • photos of the grounds and horizon (to establish the environment)
  • photos of me (Blaise) with life-sized tennis player photos, and a huge ball (some humor)
  • photos of Agassi --- and Baghdatis (this was Agassi's last U.S. Open --- his retirement)
  • photos of women players (ladies first --- except for the retiring Agassi)
  • photos of men players

Grounds (and horizon) photos :

Here are views from the top of Armstrong Stadium --- first, looking North East ---
at the ramp between the subway stop and the entrance gates to the Flushing Meadows grounds.
The subway stop is to the left, just out of the photo. The entrance gates are to the right,
out of the photo. The ramp goes over railroad yards. In this photo, a long old building
is being torn down, in the middle of the railroad yard.

The view below looks North West from Armstrong Stadium --- from Queens to Manhattan.
See the Empire State Building in the distance, in the middle of the photo.

The view below looks South East, from Armstrong Stadium --- over the East bleachers of the
"Grandstand" Stadium-Court, which is right beside Armstrong Stadium. In fact, the
West seats of the Granstand court are tucked under the East seats of the Armstrong Stadium.

The view below looks South from Armstrong Stadium --- toward remnants of a World's Fair.

Below is Armstrong Stadium at night, after the last match of the day.

Below are a couple of views of the Globe left over from a World's Fair.
The Globe was seen in the photo above, looking South from Armstrong Stadium.

Below are a couple of pictures of jets taking off from LaGuardia airport, as seen from
the bleachers of one of the "outer" courts. The jets are seen over the stadium lights
of Armstrong Stadium.

Below is one of the flower gardens near some of the "outer" courts.

Below is the statue on the other side of the plaza in front of Arthur Ashe stadium.
The words engraved in the wall below the statue say
"From what we get, we can make a living ; what we give, however, makes a life." - Arthur Ashe.

Rather humorous photos of Blaise with tennis luminaries :


I wish I had bowed down to Federer in this picture --- in the vein of
"We're not worthy ... We're not worthy".

Agassi (and Baghdatis) photos :

Below are a few photos of Baghdatis warming up a couple of hours before his match with Agassi.
Maybe if he had not leaped into these practice serves he would not have cramped up in the
match with Agassi --- and Baghdatis would have sent Agassi into retirement, instead of
Benjamin Becker in Agassi's next match.

That is Martina Navratilova above, in the gray sweat pants and red sweat shirt and white hat,
practicing on the court next to Baghdatis. She was having long rallies with a tall man
on the other side of the net. She does not look like she should retire this year. She
still has quite a few years of good tennis left in her.

I watched the first 3 sets of the 5-set Agassi-Baghdatis match on the big screen on the
front of the Arthur Ashe stadium, since I had "grounds" tickets --- not tickets to the
Arthur Ashe stadium matches. All the seats around the fountains and on the benches of
the plaza were occupied. (See the dancing waters of the fountain that we were sitting beside.)

I got into Ashe Stadium for the last two sets of the Agassi-Baghdatis match. I was
standing along the wall below the top tier of seats, like many others. It was standing
room only. It seemed like 90 percent of the stadium was cheering for Agassi. Baghdatis
was hitting about twice as many winners as Agassi. Baghdatis probably would have won
if he had not cramped up in the last (5th) set.

Below is a shot of a Baghdatis winner that just went past Agassi. The ball is to the
extreme right of the picture.

Women (and mixed doubles) players :

Below is a picture looking down from the top of Armstrong Stadium onto the "Grandstand Court"
on which Dementieva is serving in a singles match.

Below is a picture of Golovin and Bremond (both French) in a doubles match on one of the
"outer" "grounds" courts. Note how close you can stand to the players.

Below are a couple of pictures of Jankovic in a doubles match on the "outer" courts.

Below are Martina Navratilova and Bob Bryan, looking at balls they are hitting
into the crowds in the upper decks, just after they beat Mike Bryan (Bob's brother)
and Corina Morariu in a doubles match that went to a ten-point tie-breaker 3rd set.
(The audience booed the start of the 10-point tie-breaker. They wanted a regular set.)

Below is Sharapova warming up on the practice courts next to Arthur Ashe stadium.
That is her father standing beside the court. (Unfortunately, I caught Maria as the
raquet was crossing in front of her face. And I should have used a telephoto zoom.
Oh well. I have not practiced enough taking pictures with a digital camera, or any
camera for that matter. I hope to do better in the future.)

Below are some non-famous women warming up on the practice courts far from the Arthur
Ashe stadium --- near the ramp that comes down from the subway stop.
Their coaches are standing by.

In the picture below, a man (I heard him speaking English with a French accent) is
serving to a woman player. Some of the women had men hitting to them (sometimes
their coaches) to get some extra-hard-hitting practice.

Some men's practice courts are across the street, just beyond the white tents.

Men players :

Below are Hewitt and Gasquet practicing with each other on the practice courts next to
Arthur Ashe stadium. Hewitt is on the left ; Gasquet on the far right.
Four days later they would meet each other in singles, and Hewitt
would win as Gasquet's right leg was cramping up in the fifth set.

Below are 3 pictures of Arnaud Clement --- the man who usually plays with (prescription) sun glasses.

Below is another Frenchman playing doubles --- Fabrice Santoro --- one of the very few
players who uses two hands on both sides (forehand as well as backhand).

Below is Nikolai Davydenko in one of his early matches on one of the "outer" "grounds" courts.
That is Arthur Ashe stadium looming overhead on the left.

Below is Juan Carlos Ferrero serving in a doubles match. His partner (unseen here) is Garcia-Lopez.
(I did not use fast-action mode in this camera shot, so the ball is a yellow streak, and
his raquet is a blur.)

Below is a view looking down into Armstrong Stadium at one of Leyton Hewitt's first matches
of the tournament. Hewitt is on the left.

Below is another view of the Hewitt match, with Arthur Ashe stadium looming over Armstrong Stadium.
Armstrong is pretty big, but Ashe is huge.

Below are a couple of pictures of Jonas Bjorkman and Max Myrni playing doubles together.
They were seeded second, after the Bryan brothers.

Below are some pictures from a doubles matchup of Fernando Gonzalez and Mardy Fish versus
Dimitri Tursunov and Sebastien Grosjean.

Below are Tursunov and Grosjean. Grosjean is about to strike the ball.
(The fast action mode of my little Nikon Coolpix 3100 camera worked pretty well,
especially for a night shot. If I had used a tripod, it probably would have been a little clearer.)

Below are some pictures of the Andy Murray versus Robert Kendrick slug-fest --- an
evening match on one of the "outer" courts. (Sorry about the poor quality of the photos.
I think I need to use the fast-action photo mode more often, along with a tripod or monopod.)

Kendrick is in whites. Murray is in blue shirt and black shorts.

Below are a couple of pictures (blurry, sorry) of Murray serving and receiving.

Below is a snapshot of Paul-Henri Mathieu, taken from about 10 feet away. This is one of
the advantages of watching matches on the outer courts on a side without bleachers.
There is only a low fence and a few feet separating you from the court.

Below are some pictures of Carlos Moya. Rafael Nadal wore the same red Nike outfit for some of his
matches. From the rear, Moya looks just like Nadal --- long hair, bandana, but not
quite as muscular.

After the match, Moya and a phalanx of about 5 big body guards pushed past me.
In contrast, a few minutes later, beside another "outer" court, Tommy Haas and his
single body guard pushed past me. I fully expected to see women tossing their bras
onto the court at Moya's match. It did not quite come to that, but he had quite a few
female fans in the audience.

Below is a young American, Sam Querry, only 18, who made it into the main draw. He took
a set off of Gaston Gaudio, using his big serve, aided by his height (about 6 feet
6 inches, but looking taller). But then Gaudio took the next 3 sets handily. Querry
looked pretty discouraged after that shellacking.

Below is Vince Spadea who had just released a tell-all book called "Break Point".
The book chronicles his life as a player on the tour and divulged some of the things
that go on off the courts --- in the locker rooms and at parties. His book was not
very flattering about James Blake, so he probably had some awkward moments in the
locker room at this U.S. Open.

Below is Spadea in another match, with bigger bleachers.
Vince Spadea finished off Bjorkman in 3 rather quick sets.
That's Spadea seated on the left, and Jonas Bjorkman is seated on the right.
It was pretty cold for the 1st day of September. See the umpire with jacket zipped up.


2006 US Open Men's Singles Draw and RESULTS (PDF file)

Bottom of Blaise's U.S. Open Tennis 2006 photos page.

Thanks to my son, Mark, for taking the pictures of me next to the life-size pictures of Connors, Federer, Hewitt, Nadal, and Roddick.

To return to previously visited web page locations, click on the
'Back' button on your web browser --- a sufficient number of times.
OR, use the History-list option of your web browser.

NOTE: You can scroll back up and look at faces in the crowds.

Page created 2006 Sep 05. Reformatted 2010 Feb 22.