Celine Wallenhorst walked into Louis Armstrong Stadium for the first time ever on Tuesday and saw history for free. There, on the court below, Venus Williams teamed up with Reilly Opelka in the new mixed doubles event at the U.S. Open, an updated format that brought some of the best players in the world to compete in matches that are usually contested by relatively unknown specialists in front of a couple of hundred fans.
Ms. Wallenhorst, a schoolteacher living in New York, made the spontaneous decision to go to Queens and watch a roster of stars for the price of a subway ride.
“It’s actually pretty incredible,” she said, “because everything in New York is so expensive, but this is free.”
Traditionally, the week before the main tournament, known as Fan Week, features the qualifying rounds, a low-key roster of singles matches among lower-ranked players competing for the last spots in the Open. Fans are allowed in for free, and the week has evolved into a crowded, but still affordable, attraction.
This year, several matches, featuring big names like Novak Djokovic, Naomi Osaka and Carlos Alcaraz, were held on Tuesday of Fan Week in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where spectators paid for tickets; others were in Armstrong, where admission was free. The semifinals and final will be played tonight in Ashe, with paid admission.
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