Here I am at the U.S. Open!

On August 31, I went to intern at Special Olympics New York expecting a normal day. I was kind of sad because the summer was over, school was starting soon, and it had been the best summer of my life. I settled into my desk to do some work, and then the mail came. At around 9:50 am, my supervisor asked me and the other intern if we wanted to go to the U.S. Open at 11 am! She had received free tickets in the mail, so off we went! It was so nice of her!

I was extremely excited! Every year, the U.S. Open happens in Queens, and every year, I look into volunteering or attending. This was the year I finally went! It reminded me that even though summer was over, Special Olympics New York will still be full of magical new experiences and surprises.

The other intern and I hurried onto the subway, and we got there a little before 11! I had to check my bag and then we had to wait in a long line, so we ended up finding our seats a little after 11. However, as I soon learned, tennis matches can be very long.

The entire tournament was in the USTA (U.S. Tennis Association) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which was huge. There were a lot of different stadiums and a lot of booths. We were in the main stadium called the Arthur Ashe Stadium. According to the USTA’s website, there are 22,771 seats. Here it is:

The first match was Ana Ivanovic of Serbia vs. Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. Cibulkova won overall, but the two players were quite evenly matched. They played really well.

The second match was Venus Williams (AHHH!) of the U.S. vs. Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.

It was so cool to watch Venus Williams play! As someone who is terrible at tennis, I was amazed at the level of play between her and Monica Puig. She won the game in the first round of three sets, but it was still a very good game. I can’t believe I was able to watch tennis royalty like Venus Williams compete!

It was such a great day and an incredible end to the summer! I am so thankful that I work at Special Olympics New York, where I’m able to have such amazing adventures!