By ADAM ZAGORIA
NEW YORK — It was so noisy and raucous inside the new Louis Armstrong Stadium on Tuesday night that Patty Schnyder’s daughter was awakened from the nap she was enjoying in the aisle while her mother played against Maria Sharapova.
Kim, Schnyder’s 3-year-old daughter, then sat on her father’s lap and clapped and cheered along with nearly 10,000 other fans until Sharapova finally prevailed near midnight.
Noisy night tennis, often lubricated by adult beverages and an enthusiastic New York City crowd, has always been an integral part of the US Open experience. Now there are two helpings of tennis under the lights during the first week at the Open thanks to the addition of the new $150-million, 14,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium that features a retractable roof. The capacity of Armstrong makes it almost as large as the center courts at Wimbledon, the French Open and the Australian Open.
“There’s a little bit more noise than maybe some of the other stadiums that I’ve played at,” Sharapova, the 2006 champ and No. 22 seed, said after playing her first match in the new stadium. “But I don’t know, it’s kind of part of the US Open. You can’t really shy away from noise if you want to be a champion in New York City, right? I think you have to embrace it. There’s always an amazing amount of energy no matter what court you play on in New York in the evening.”
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