It all started on August 28, 2007. I was out my house when we got a call from my J.V. tennis coach. She said she was taking the J.V. and Varsity girl’s tennis team to the U.S. open and she had extra tickets. She was wondering if my brother and I wanted to come and we obviously said yes. My brother was actually playing tennis with his friend when we got the call. So the second he came home I said “Guess what” and he said “What” then I said cheerfully “Were going to the U.S. open on Friday!” We were both checking the schedule every 5 seconds to see when Roger Federer was going to be playing. Unfortunately it was too far in advance to know who was going to be playing on Friday. On Thursday we found out that he was going to be playing on Saturday the day after we went. Although we were disappointed, this would actually turn out to be a good thing.
The next day our mom drove us to the high school where we were picked up by a bus shortly after we arrived. It was a long bus ride. About three hours. We got there around 9:00 AM and had to wait about 15 minutes in line, but we finally got in. at first we roamed around watching all of the people hitting on the courts (secretly looking for Roger) but we didn’t see him. We watched Djokovic play Stepanek for 1 set then we went to eat lunch. We had tacos for lunch they were really small and costed about ten dollars a piece. So that was a disappointment.
We went back to Djokovic’s match after lunch and watched for another set or two. When we stop watching his match it was around 3:00 PM we roamed around again, looking for Roger again, losing hope that we would see him, when we heard murmuring that Roger Federer was on one of the practice courts. So we ran over, and there he was, playing with Scoville Jenkins. My brother and I could not see him very well because there was a row of tall bushes in the way but we managed to sneak in cracks to watch. Or at least my brother did. While my brother was watching and talking to Roger, I was waiting at the exit of the courts with my “Roger Federer” shirt and a marker. Unfortunately I was towards the back. A few people came out before Roger like Maria Sharapova and Scoville Jenkins. I got Scoville’s autograph. My brother was in the bushes watching him, when one of the balls that Roger was hitting with rolled up to the fence right next to my brother. My brother took his finger, stuck it through the fence and poked the ball back to Roger and Roger said “Thanks.”
When Roger finally came out every one was screaming his name. He went over to the front and started signing people’s things. I was standing on my tippy toes trying to let him see my “Roger” shirt, but I was to far back and he could not see it. I was screaming his name as loud as I could, but after a few minutes of autographing people’s things, he turned around and walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium. While I was waiting in line for autographs I was hoping I would see my brother to ask him if he would wait in line for a little while so I could watch Roger play, but I couldn’t find him. So I had to wait in line the whole time, but I wound up coming about ten feet away from him. After the “roger” excitement was over. My brother and I watched the final points of Djokovic’s match on the big screen, as Djokovic wound up winning. From then on we mainly just roamed the park watching random people hit. At 5:00 we went back to the bus and started back home.
We arrived in Guilderland around 8:30 pm, where our mom picked us up at Guilderland High. We told her about everything that happened. When we got home we had to repeat everything we told our mom, to our dad. Which was a lot. The first thing we said was how we saw Roger. My brother actually got a picture of him, on his cell phone.
So basically, make the best of situations. I stood in line the whole time Roger was playing, instead of watching Roger play. And I didn’t even walk away with his autograph. I should have joined my brother in the bushes, and taken a few pictures of him through the fence. Although I was disappointed in my decision, I walked away with something better than an autograph that day…Memories.