<Thread>
<ThreadID>60763_5_2104417</ThreadID>
<Title>US Open Tennis</Title>
<InitPost>
<UserID>hawaiiboundTo...</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 8:29</Date>
<icontent>     If anyone has been to this event in the past perhaps you can help me?!    Day or evening sessions?? or both - is it truly worth it?  How many matches during the evening??    Travelling back to Manhattan by subway after the evening sessions - safe? I&#39;m sure there is a large crowd headed back to the city???    Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!    Thanks    Happy Travels   </icontent>
</InitPost>
<Post>
<UserID>nywhiz</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 17:29</Date>
<rcontent>     There are more different matches during the day but the best matches are often at night. Subway in the evening is perfectly safe.   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>Poppa</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 18:34</Date>
<rcontent>     Day sessions are normally preliminary matches, evenings, semi&#39;s and finals...........  Why would you think the subway was not safe at any time?  NYC has been recognizred as one of the safest large cities in the United States.....  And as anywhere else, you just have to keep your wits about you and you&#39;ll be fine.   </rcontent>
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<Post>
<UserID>daninny</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 18:43</Date>
<rcontent>     Buying tickets to the US Open can be a complicated scenario.    When you refer to day or evening session, the tickets are usually for Arthur Ashe Stadium access. This also gets you access to the outer courts as well as Louis Armstrong and the Grandstand. In my opinion, unless you have access to the courtside seats at Ashe, it&#39;s generally not worth it to buy Ashe tickets. Those seats are very high up - you&#39;re better off watching on TV.    If you&#39;re a real tennis fan (i.e. really enjoy the sport rather than just going for the experience) - you may prefer the Grounds Passes. The gates open at 10:00, I believe. Matches start at 11:00 am. You have access to the outer courts - you&#39;ll be sitting literally at arms length from the linespeople. You also have access to the grandstand on a first come basis and also to the nonreserved seats in Louis Armstrong.     If you want guaranteed seats to some &quot;name&quot; matches, you may be better off buying tickets to Louis Armstrong - this gives you outer court access as well as reserved seats in Armstrong.    Usually, the night session in Ashe is only a limited number of matches. However, typically the matches go on very late in Armstrong and Grandstand. As an example, last year, we were in Armstrong until 11:10pm -Jankovic&#39;s match ended at that time. Tommy Robredo&#39;s match had just begun about 15 minutes prior to that in the Grandstand.   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>daninny</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 19:01</Date>
<rcontent>     As a point of correction to Poppa&#39;s post regarding the difference between day sessions and night sessions.     The &quot;prelim&quot; matches are played early in the tournament. Semis and finals are played at the end of the tournament. They have day and night sessions throughout the tournament.   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>hawaiiboundTo...</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 21:42</Date>
<rcontent>     Thanks for your advice! I do like the Grounds Pass - I had one for the French Open, and it was great! Maybe I will just do both....day &amp; evening! Why not? Life&#39;s too short!!!    thanks again     Happy Travels   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>daninny</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 21:51</Date>
<rcontent>     The grounds pass allows access to everything except Ashe. Also, they usually televise the evening session match on a large screen outside of Ashe stadium. So if you only had a grounds pass, you can still watch the evening session.    Regardless of what you get, have fun.    One piece of advice:  Upon entering, there is a LONG line that you must get on if you have a bag - it must be hand searched. If you wish to bring a bag, get a small foldable tote and carry in your bottled water, sunscreen, etc. Put it in your pants pocket and just zip in through the express line. Then, when you&#39;re inside, take out the bag. It&#39;ll save you a lot of time.   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>OttawaGlebe</UserID>
<Date>11 July 2008, 23:56</Date>
<rcontent>     As always, daninny has great U.S. Open advice. After doing a bit of research, we wound up buying our tickets about a month ago. Some tickets we were able to get through Ticketmaster; others we had to use a third party (in this case StubHub) as it was a weekend day and Ticketmaster was sold out. We purchased a bunch of Ground passes.   If you do have to buy from a reseller, needless to say, do be cautious.    </rcontent>
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<Post>
<UserID>queensbouleva...</UserID>
<Date>12 July 2008, 0:26</Date>
<rcontent>     Here&#39;s a link all about Queens (from the FAQ &quot;sticky&quot; at the top of this forum.) In this collection are some great posts and trip reports about going to The Open. Very valuable info:    tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k1563295… -QUEENS_a_collection_of_posts-   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>daninny</UserID>
<Date>12 July 2008, 0:40</Date>
<rcontent>     Thanks ottawaglebe.    Have fun. We have friday grounds passes and Armstrong tix on sunday (middle weekend).   Also, if you get there early enough, look for the American Express booth.   Last year, they were loaning out mini tv&#39;s to watch the various matches throughout the location on various courts. All you had to do was leave an american express card as a deposit (you had to return it at the end of the day). It was free to use for the entire day. They were also handing out free portable radios to listen to the broadcasts - all you had to do was show your amex card.   </rcontent>
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<Post>
<UserID>Artemus</UserID>
<Date>12 July 2008, 1:03</Date>
<rcontent>     The first (or middle) weekend is better than the second weekend IMO because there are so many matches going on and so many going on at the same time, well during the daytime, anyway. Usually, in the evenings is when they play the marquee matches of the day and those are the ones that are televised. And those are the ones that are televised nationally on the USA Network or CBS. Except, on the weekends (Saturday and Sunday), the marquee matches are played during the day. Sorry for the rambling.  It&#39;s great to be able to go the small outer courts early in the tournament and be able sit very close to the match. Very, very nice aspect of being there.  I would get the day and evening session tickets. Both are great. The day session tickets allow you wonder the grounds and see all the matches going. The evening session gets you into the stadium for the marquee matches of the day.  Great event. You will be glad you went.   </rcontent>
</Post>
<Post>
<UserID>hawaiiboundTo...</UserID>
<Date>13 July 2008, 23:10</Date>
<rcontent>     Thanks for all your suggestions! I ended up lucking out getting tix on ticketmaster for an evening session. I will get grounds pass for a day session too! Thanks to everyone!   </rcontent>
</Post>

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