A tricky few moments at the U.S. Open draw
U.S. Open Casting Call finalist Elijah Boothe, 12, of Jackson, N.J., takes direction from USTA staff as he participates in Thursday's tournament draw.
(Photos by Max J. Dickstein)
What if the superprofessional USTA held a U.S. Open draw ceremony and got part of the men’s tennis bracket wrong?
That was the case for about three minutes Thursday at the TimesCenter on 41st Street, where U.S. Open tournament referee Brian Earley supervised the drawing and placing of the 32 men’s and women's seeds for the final Grand Slam of the year.
All went smoothly until the bracket placement of No. 27 Feliciano Lopez on the men's side was at stake.
Two young kids slated to sing the anthem at this year’s Open were being led around by USTA reps, offering random guests in the audience the opportunity to choose where the last few seeds fell. But when the placement of Lopez came up, Earley and other officials didn’t hear the number "27" called. They had proceeded through the remaining five seeds when they noticed they were one short.
Three minutes of confusion ensued. Before a media assembly that must have had words like "embarrassing," "unprofessional" and "unbecoming" on its collective mind, Early patiently worked backwards toward the Lopez draw and redetermined the final bracket.
The USTA had photos and video to back up the accuracy of the proceeding if necessary, but Earley said he was satisfied with the corrected bracket and would keep the photographic evidence on hand in case someone requested it.
Here are the final men's and women's singles draws.
Kirk Zamrano, 35, of Flushing, selects a seed from the trophy cup of U.S. Open Casting Call finalist Elijah Boothe, 12, of Jackson, N.J., as both participate in Thursday's tournament draw.
U.S. Open Casting Call finalist Lydia Manuel, 8, of Wilton, Conn., participates in Thursday's tournament draw.
U.S. Open Casting Call finalist Lydia Manuel, 8, of Wilton, Conn., participates in Thursday's tournament draw.
— Max
