2010 Tennis U.S. Open

Not only is the summer heat starting to break, but there is another reason New Yorkers are walking with an extra pep in their step. The 2010 Tennis U.S. Open is set to begin in less than a week. This yearly event will be held in the famous USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center located in Queens (across the street from the Mets’ Citi Field).

This special venue is the world’s largest public tennis facility. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is open to the public seven days a week, twelve months a year, closing only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. During these exciting two weeks of tennis, more than 650,000 fans pack the center enjoying every moment taking place.

100 million television viewers in the U.S. and 64 million online visitors enjoy the thrill and excitement of the US Open each year as well. The Center also offers premium dining experiences sure to satisfy every appetite at any hour. With the world’s best chefs and premium food’s you surely will not be disappointed. Furthermore I could go on for another 2,000 words on why New York City is the greatest place in the world.

Five championships are up for grabs, including men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. For the men, defending champion Juan Martin del Porto has withdrawn from the tournament. Martin del Porto had surgery on his right wrist in May and can not compete in this year’s tournament.

The world’s No. 1 tennis player Rafael Nadal will try to win his first U.S. Open, completing his career Grand Slam. Nadal will be the tournament’s top seed in singles followed by Roger Federer (2nd) and Novak Djokovic (3rd). Other Notables in the men’s singles are Andy Murray, Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych, and American born Andy Roddick.

On the women’s side, top-ranked star Serena Williams has withdrawn from the tournament. Williams continues to recover from a cut to her right foot that required surgery in July. This makes the tournament wide open for anyone to win. Notables in the singles tournament are Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, and Serena’s sister Venus Williams.

This time of year is perfect to be visiting New York. The season starts to change and the excitement of fall spreads throughout the City. This could be a tennis fan’s trip of a lifetime. This one of a kind experience is why fans keeping coming back year after year, making the U.S Open the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world. Come be part of the action!

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2010 Ryder Cup

One of golf’s most famous tournaments is almost here. The Ryder Cup is only a month away with the action starting October 1. The bi-annual event will be held in Newport, South Wales at The Celtic Manor Resort. The Celtic Manor is one of Europe’s leading golf and business resorts.

This beautiful resort features five restaurants, two health clubs and spas, two clubhouses, and three breath taking golf courses. The United States and Europe will go up against each other in teams to compete for the cup. The United States are the defending cup winners as they beat Europe in 2008 at Louisville, Kentucky. Europe will try to regain the cup in front of their home crowd.

The action off the course is heating up as well. The world’s No. 1 golfer, Tiger Woods, failed to qualify for the Ryder Cup for the first time in his career. Woods has not been the same since his return to golf this summer. He has played the worst golf of his career including an 18-over par effort at the Firestone tournament. Woods now has to be chosen by team captain Corey Pavin to make the Ryder Cup team.

That will be the topic of discussion until the final rosters are announced. Eight players make the team automatically based on a points system and four more are added based on the captain’s decision.

The eight players for the United States are Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton, and Matt Kuchar. The eight players leading in standings for Europe (Final standings come out Aug. 20th) are Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Edoardo Molinari, Ian Poulter, and Padraig Harrington. With each team having golf’s stars, this should be a treat for fans.

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Basketball During the Dog Days of Summer

While the summer began with the excitement of the NBA draft and free agency, by the time August rolled around, John Wall was already a member of the Washington Wizards, Lebron James was a member of the Miami Heat as well as Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, and Amar’e Stoudemire was already a member of the New York Knicks. While August is probably the slowest month in the NBA, there are other great basketball events such as the FIBA World Championship and the Entertainers Basketball Classic to keep basketball fans satisfied until the next season starts at the end of October.

In the past decade, basketball has gone from being a sport dominated by American players, to a sport in which it is very common to see more than one international player on the court at one time. Yao Ming and Andrea Barngani, two international players, were drafted first overall in 2001 and 2006 for the first two times in the history of the sport.

The FIBA World Basketball Championship is evidence of just how far globalization in basketball has gone. Every summer, professional basketball players around the world travel to different countries to compete in the tournament.

Featuring twenty-six NBA players on twenty-four different teams from around the world, the FIBA World Championship brings the excitement of NBA basketball during a time when the most exciting news in the league is rumors of Isiah Thomas being rehired by the New York Knicks. The USA team features NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, and Rudy Gay. This past weekend, the team played an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden versus France. Tickets were sold out and the arena was filled close to capacity. Rudy Gay led all scorers and also made two incredible dunks during the game. One was a fast break dunk in which Gay stole the ball, drove down the court, and threw down a two-handed dunk. The other was when Rajon Rondo threw the ball up to Gay for an alley-oop dunk near the basket. Celebrities in attendance included; Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker, Thierry Henry, Eva Longoria, and Spike Lee. The actual championships will take place in Turkey, beginning on August 28.

While there is little basketball that takes place during the summer time, the FIBA World Basketball Championship boasts more talented and professional players than any other basketball tournament during the summer months.

Another exciting summer basketball tournament is the Entertainers Basketball Classic, which features the best playground basketball in the world. The tournament is held at the famous Rucker Park in Harlem, New York. In the past, the tournament has featured basketball legends such as Kobe Bryant, Julius Erving, and Wilt Chamberlain. Many celebrities also show up to watch some of the games. Sometimes celebrities including Denzel Washington, Bill Clinton, Howard Stern, and Jay-Z show up to watch the games as well.

Also instead of announcers for the games, they have an MC that does play-by-play for the games. This is not your average basketball game. The game is played with playground rules and the players are given much more free reign to play the way that they choose to play.

All of it is why I ranked watching a game at Rucker Park number 76 in my book 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live.

If you are a basketball fan, these are two exciting opportunities to watch some of the best basketball players of the world compete against each other during the month of August and early September when there is little else to quench hoop junkies’ thirst.

A Stadium to See

There’s a new kid on the block of iconic New York stadiums. Citi Field, Yankee Stadium and The Garden will have to make room for the New Meadowlands Stadium which opened its doors over the summer and will host its inaugural NFL season this fall.

At a total cost of $1.6 billion, it is one of the most expensive stadiums ever built, putting it right there with the new Wembley Stadium (London, England), the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium (Dallas, Texas), and the new Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York). With a seating capacity of over 80,000 it also seats the second most fans for a NFL stadium, behind FedEx Field home of the Redskins.

With four giant (30 x118 feet) HDTV screens at every corner of the stadium, and over 2,000 other TV monitors throughout the stadium, you would have to try hard to miss any of the action. If the technology does not have you drooling, this will. The suites now offer a martini lounge, brick pizza ovens, fire places, celebrity chef cooking areas, and an on-field patio in which you are within five feet of the players and coaches!

Imagine that, you can share a hot dog with Rex Ryan on a third down play, or receive a Tom Coughlin death stare for not cheering loud enough.

If you’re not a big NFL fan, two college games will be played in October at the new stadium. The first (October 16) features the hometown Scarlet Knights of Rutgers playing against Army while the second (October 23) features the storied Fighting Irish and new coach Brian Kelly of Notre Dame against Navy. Both of those games should be huge attractions.

Personally, I could not wait for football season to kick-off, so I will be going to the USA versus Brazil soccer game this coming Tuesday, August 10.

Coming to see New York City is an experience everyone should have, between the sites, the history, the museums, and Broadway there is never a shortage of things to do.

It’s fair to say the best time to be in the Big Apple is late September or early October, the weather is perfect for those few weeks and nothing looks better than Central Park when all the leaves are changing.

Luckily enough, there are also quite a few good sporting events occurring at that time, be it a Giants game, a Jets game, a Rangers game, or hopefully a Yankee playoff game, you can easily spend a week in New York and not get tired of everything non-sports. For more information click here.