Perfect Match: Why U.S. Open Tennis Is Made For Social Media

The 2010 U.S. Open, the annual grand slam tennis tournament in New York, is now in full swing until Sept. 12. This year, the players' stakes are the highest, with recent shakeups in the rankings and the new largest ever prize in a tennis tournament: a base prize of $1.7 million for the champion. And what is a high-drama sports event better for than social media? Here are the top reasons why the U.S. Open works perfectly for the social online world. New York, New York! The U.S Open Tennis Championships is the most attended annual sporting event -- which probably owes largely to its New York, New York location. The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is able to hold 33,000 fans for each session of the event, which goes on for two weeks until Championship Sunday. That's a lot of people to update Facebook statuses, check in on Foursquare and tweet about their experience. The official site of the championship is Flushing Meadows Park in the borough of Queens. New York is already a city of theater and thrill, and coupled with this tournament, you get one sensational show. Foursquare is a New York City original, which is intuitive because there are just so many places to be in the Big Apple. Check in at the U.S. Open's venue and you'll earn approval from Foursquare saavy sports fans and NYC fanatics alike. (The beauty of New York is that there are lots of related tennis check-in spots: try the U.S. Open Big Screen locations.) Player Personalities On a tennis court, there are two players. Four in a doubles match. There isn't a squad or big team of people interacting. There are just a few people to zoom in on, and so player personalities become king. With social media, those personalities start to loom even larger, so that you can become even more invested in the outcome of the U.S. Open tennis matches. Take the Twitter account of Serena Williams, for example. She just tweeted "Hey guys productive day planned for today! Root for Venus @venuseswilliams she plays tonight in us open!!" to get her 1,739,569 followers excited for her older sister's first round match. So now we know that the sisters are actually friends, and we care just a little more when watching Venus Williams face Roberta Vinci. Or look at Andy Murray's Twitter to see the funny British way he spells yogurt. Murray has also already earned viral video status for his HEAD tennis tricks. Get to know the almighty Federer via his Facebook page, where he says that the player he would most like to play at the U.S. Open is John McEnroe. Extended Time This tennis event isn't just a one night explosion, or even a four day golf weekender. It's two weeks of the best quality tennis you can find. Which means that it isn't only up-to-the-minute scores that are important, but also up-to-the-hour, up-to-the-day and up-to-the-week tallies that are relevant. USOpen tweets regularly on scores, schedules and points of interest. For those who might find the length of the tournament tiresome, there are sources to keep you interested. Check out the USTA Twitter, which tweets messages like "In addition to developing performance character, develop moral character when coaching kids. ask yourself 'What it is all about?'" that remind you of the bigger picture in sports. New York is also a media hub, so it's no surprise that blogs have caught on to the allure of the U.S. Open. The New York Times has its own Tennis Blog to give you more in depth news. With NYT readers, you get such insightful comments on posts, such as this one one: "Nalbandian tends to have the nasty habit of dropping the first two sets, then letting rip The Big Comeback. Seems exciting, but is mostly exasperating." Or, for those tired of the endless Federer vs. Nadal talk: this women's tennis blog smartly starts online conversations about the powerful world of female tennis. All in all, the general slogan for the 2010 U.S. Open perfectly describes the tournament's relationship with social media: "It must be love."

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Perfect Match: Why U.S. Open Tennis Is Made For Social Media

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