Ah, tennis. Former sport of the aristocracy, now open to everyone and made especially likeable for sad young literary men by David Foster Wallace. As a crown jewel of the Western world, of course New York City gets to host a Grand Slam tennis tournament (one of only four), in the form of the US Open. And while you’d usually need to pay to see it, you’ve got one more chance to see the US Open’s qualifying tournament tomorrow at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing.
The qualifying tournament takes all the players who are ranked 105th and 250th in the world, along with some wild card spots for some wild and crazy tennis players. Actually, they’re very skillful we’d imagine. Of the 128 men and 128 women playing in the qualifying rounds, only 16 from each side get a berth in the actual US Open, with the prize money and the glory and the live telecast on CBS.
So as you can imagine, the competition will be fast and furious and other action adjectives that are also a movie franchise when combined. Tomorrow is the last day of the qualifying rounds, so you can be sure these tennis ballers will be serving, forehanding and backhanding their hearts out. If you want to see it happen live, take the 7 train to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where all the hot tennis action will be going down starting at 11am.
And hey, while you’re there anyway, why not try to grab some tickets for the Mets game afterwards? They’re playing the Tigers, who just happen to have the best hitter in the entire world on their team. Also, to get you in the mood, here’s a Decemberists video that is both tennis and David Foster Wallace-themed.