The schedule on the two biggest stadiums led to some short-lived tennis on Tuesday. Play started on Arthur Ashe at 11:30 a.m., so by 2:30 p.m., the stadium was facing four and a half hours of dead air before the night session at 7 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Stadium faced a similar issue, and with two show courts with a combined capacity of over 38,000 empty, all those day session tickets spilled out onto the grounds in search of tennis.
So fans packed onto stairwells, gangways and open areas, searching for a glimpse of the action. Courts 4, 5, and 6, which sit side by side with gangways between 4 and 5 and 5 and 6, became the place to be, along with Tsitsipas’ assignment on 7.
Lines snaked around every outside court, contrasting sharply with the ones only in use for practice, sparsely and quietly populated with players honing their skills for the bigger stages.
Around them, the Billie Jean King Tennis Center was abuzz, while its two grandest arenas lay silent. Could we see more of the same today?