NEW YORK—When Sloane Stephens and Roberta Vinci walked out for their first-round match on Monday, they could have been forgiven for wondering whether they were actually playing it at the US Open.
The contest between the American and the Italian, who reached the final here two years ago, was one of the most highly anticipated of the day. And on paper, at least, it had been scheduled on an appropriately high-profile court, Louis Armstrong Stadium.
This year, though, “Louis” doesn’t mean what it used to mean. The US Open is in the process of building a new arena by that name, which will be ready 12 months from now. In the meantime, the tournament has annexed a chunk of its parking lot and put up “Temp Louis,” a temporary set of low-rise stands that seat 8,000. It’s an out-of-the-way location that’s seemingly in another zip code from Arthur Ashe Stadium, and fans are still learning how to get there—if they even know the place exists. At the start of the Vinci-Stephens match this afternoon, the vibe on Temp Louis was mellow enough that you might have thought you were in Cincinnati.
If that’s what it felt like to Stephens, she probably didn’t mind. The 24-year-old—yes, she’s still only 24— just had one of the best weeks of her career at the Western & Southern Open in Cincy, where she beat three former Top 10 players—and won two matches in one day—to reach the semifinals. The previous week she had blown out Angelique Kerber on her way to reaching the semis in Toronto.