MANHATTAN — Several of the world's top players took to the hard courts at 11 a.m. in Flushing Meadows on Monday only a day after Hurricane Irene walloped the New York City area.
Irene led to flooding, power outages and shut down the city's public transportation over the weekend, but the USTA said the storm did minimal damage to the Billy Jean Tennis Center in Queens, the New York Post reported. Workers spent two days taking down banners and securing broadcast equipment before the storm and were able to get things restored so the tournament could start on time.
"We spent 48 hours before the storm taking down most of the things we had spent the last few months putting up," Danny Zausner, manager director of the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center, told The Post.
Americans Mardy Fish, Venus Williams and Melanie Oudin along with 3rd-seeded Maria Sharapova will be among the notables playing their opening round match in the annual late-summer tennis extravaganza on Monday. Roger Federer will also play his first match on Monday night.
Oudin is hoping to recreate her magical run in 2009 when she came from nowhere to beat Elena Dementieva and Sharapova to earn a spot in the quarterfinals where she lost to eventual runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark.
Wozniacki and Novak Djokovic are the top seeds in the women's and men's singles draws, repectively.
