Fresh zip ties went onto the chain-link at the Pine Hollow rec courts Thursday morning, nine of them, and somebody dragged the hose out to soak the dust off the baseline. The Pine Hollow Doubles Ladder confirmed its championship rubber is on. At the bottom of the same release, in smaller type, the league noted that Jannik Sinner has pulled out of the US Open with a bad right knee.
Make no mistake. Court 2 is a furnace, the wind comes off the parking lot at an angle nobody has solved all summer, and the ladder's top pair have not dropped a set since June. This is the fortnight's real theatre.
"Men have walked off that court with their ankles taped and their pride in a grocery bag," the ladder's competition secretary said. "New York can wait its turn."
Elsewhere, some knee trouble. Sinner, who won Wimbledon last month and has not played since, will miss Flushing Meadows entirely. Britain's Jack Draper is out too with a bruised bone in his arm. Both men are expected to recover in time for things.
Pine Hollow will stream the final on a phone lashed to a stepladder. The league says coverage of the US Open, should any spectators want it, is available on television.
