Just a quick heads-up if anyone other than my wife and daughter go looking for me around the Labor Day weekend of the summer holiday.  I’ll probably be in New York at the United States Open Tennis Championships in Flushing Meadows.  Why do I say this? The record shows that thirty-six out of the last thirty-eight years (but who is counting) you can find me roaming around the boroughs of Manhattan and Long Island, New York.

Such wonderful memories over the years with so many great friends. Lenny, Roz, Harold and Jan Solomon from Ft. Lauderdale, Gerry Goldberg from Montreal, Bob, Helen and Darron Moore from Studio City California, Richard Ramer from Santa Monica.  The Jeffer, Miller, and Zimmerman Families of Great Neck, New York.  My sister Terry and her two boys from Ocean Port, New Jersey, Gilad Bloom, the Israeli pro player now living and teaching tennis in New York City.  The rock of the US Open Dick Savitt and his lovely wife Anne. (I hope her back is feeling better.)  Eric Fromm and his highly successful charity event. David Schoen from Atlanta. Chris Lombardi from down my way in Timonium, Maryland and Steve Turner and Lance Shanet from the Big Apple.  The list could go on, great fun!

Okay Steve we can see where this is going.  We can take a hint… so Steve who were you hanging out with at the Open this year?  Thanks for asking! This years Open was FANTASTIC! There were so many great matches.  Nothing compares to attending a night match at the Open.  And the day matches weren’t bad either, as 720,000 witnessed the two weeks of tennis matches.  That is a Big Event!  I was fortunate to be part of the crowd Monday, Labor Day evening sitting in the Ashe Stadium, under the lights on the “50-yard line” watching Andy Murray from Scotland against the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.  The number six and number ten players on the planet battling it out, not bad.

None of this excitement could have been possible without the generosity of two great friends who set the evening up to include me.  Mark “Buzzy” Mason from Mason’s Tennis Store in Manhattan and my host in NYC (where two days can feel like two weeks) Michael Goitein, aka Mike Hammer.  For the past twenty-five years Mark’s tennis shop on 53rd and Madison has been voted the #1 specialty tennis shop in the USA by Tennis Industry Magazine.  I picked up a nice US Open t-shirt for my daughter and some US Open programs.

Michael Goitein is the senior project Manager for Strategic Domain.  Strategic Domain is a full service e-marketing company serving the healthcare industry with a broad range of services including digital and web development, search engine optimization, strategic planning, advertising and promotions.  Mike “Hammer” was kind enough to introduce some terrific ideas for my website.

I’ll tell you one thing since I first participated in the 1970 US Open qualifying rounds at the Westside Tennis Club (I am dating myself with this statement)  the Open has changed,  a lot …I mean a lot!  Of course the tennis has always been great, it is a Grand Slam tournament, our National Tournament.  But now I would almost call the Open a “happening”.  The grounds have been fixed up beautifully and one can really just hangout, eat, people watch and tennis. Good combinations.  “Buzzy”, Mike “Hammer” and I “chowed” down at the Fulton Seafood stall on the food court.  We ate lobster rolls and salmon sandwiches.  We watched the tennis on the big screens before going into the night session on Ashe Stadium, $18.95 for the Lobster Roll and $12.95 for the Salmon.  Not too bad and you know what the food was pretty darn good.  Mike Hammer made the class move of the night, supplying dessert in the box with three Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream bars, very large!  We gobbled them up while watching the Entourage guys (my favorite HBO Show, also Andy) being introduced on the Big Screen.  Life was good.

Night matches never end early at the Open.  You have to prepare yourself for this.  And of course there’s the subway ride back into the city, always fun at 1 o’clock in the morning, sure!  At least now they have the express trains straight into Manhattan.  How do the people do it?  Don’t they ever sleep in New York?  Our subway train pulled in to Washington Heights Station at 1:40 am eastern standard time.  Mike lives with his finance JJ and cat Yoda near the George Washington Bridge and right across from the apartment is the Hudson River, very nice.  Henry Kissinger and Dr. Ruth have lived on his street, that’s a fact.

Mike is the ultimate host.  One can never leave in the morning without a “Hammer” breakfast and cappuccino, now that is hospitality.  Another good Labor Day weekend in the Big Apple, at the US Open.  I am already looking forward to coming back for the thirty-seventh year.
See you next time,
Steve Krulevitz

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