A British friend said something snooty to me Wednesday night at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cUgh, this is so American.\u201d<\/p>\n
A concert fog machine had just turned on as World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium, like he was Lady Gaga at MSG.<\/p>\n
Once the match started, the 23,000 spectators talked the entire time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bad behavior is mutual at the U.S. Open \u2014 between fans and players. Steven Vago\/NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease try to keep your voices down,\u201d the Serbian chair umpire repeatedly implored in an exasperated tone that suggested these are her two least favorite weeks of the year.<\/p>\n
The New York crowd couldn\u2019t care less and kept yapping away regardless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, with seating rules mercifully loosened, folks got up to go buy cocktails right in the middle of points \u2014 stacking as many $23 vodka-lemonade Honey Deuce cups as Novak Djokovic has trophies. Why not? Spaniard Alcaraz was cruising to an easy victory. They were bored.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Open is notoriously loud, garish, rude, drunk and completely indifferent to more than a century of decorum and tradition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank God.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been to all four Grand Slams. Wimbledon is a stressful place. Shirts have buttons. And everybody acts primly like they\u2019re in the Royal Box next to Kate Middleton, even though they camped out overnight in tents to get a seat and haven\u2019t showered. The Australian Open is cheerful, yet \u201cno worries\u201d respectful. And the French Open is actually extremely obnoxious, but that often goes unsaid because, well, France.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Open is tennis New York style.<\/p>\n
Daniil Medvedev smashed his racket during a seven-minute meltdown and was fined more than $42,000. REUTERS<\/p>\n
The stadium\u2019s energy is so rowdy and impassioned that the players often lean into it. And juicy drama ensues.\u00a0Think 39-year-old Jimmy Connors egging on the masses in 1991.<\/p>\n
In that time-honored spirit, Russia\u2019s Daniil Medvedev, a hilarious spitfire \u2014 and stick figure \u2014 is never more cranked up than on the courts of Flushing Meadows.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first run to the finals in 2019, he infamously gave the crowd the finger <\/a>and said that their booing fueled him.\u00a0<\/p>\n Find me a New Yorker who can\u2019t relate to that.<\/p>\n Then, last Sunday, he had a seven-minute epic meltdown<\/a> after a photographer strolled on the side of the court at the wrong time. Mad, mad Meddy smashed his racket on the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n The former champ taunted the umpire, like the official was a cab driver who didn\u2019t feel like driving to Brooklyn at 3 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to go home, guys!\u201d he whined. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t like to be here. He gets paid by the match, not by the hour.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, it was Medvedev who paid. The Russian lost in Round 1 and was fined $42,500<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is the dangerously high dose of cortisol that Queens administers to players.<\/p>\n Jelena Ostapenko told American Taylor Townsend she has \u201cno education.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n