You Can Attend The U.S. Open For Free

The weather will be spectacular for the next three days. Please go have this experience with your kids.

Attending the U.S. Open is one of my favorite things to do and it is usually pretty costly. I took my daughter today because I heard it is free during the qualifying and practice rounds. Not only is it free, you get the best seats in the house. We watched Andy Murray, CC Bellis and Victoria Duval from the front row. The kids even had their picture taken with Andy Murray, plus his autograph(I took that photo). August 28th and 30th are free days to go. Kids’ day is Saturday which is not free. They have a bunch of bands lined up to play on kids’ day. We heard American Authors warming up today and they were great. I will share with you here my tips to save more money and get autographs.

You can take in plastic water bottles-you can then refill them at water fountains located by court 17 and a water refilling station under the bleachers by the practice courts. This will save you $4.00-5.50 each time.
You can also take in small containers of grapes, cheese, granola bars and crackers etc. I didn’t but I saw other people doing this. You can’t take in huge bags. Basically just purses or a drawstring bag.
You can’t take in large sunscreen containers. So bring a small tube or a stick.
Bring a black sharpie for autographs. You should have a separate one for each child. Then you will have to buy something for them to sign or pick up a free flyer. Sit behind where the players are sitting if you want their autograph at the end of the match. If you are at the practice courts, scope out where the players are entering and hang out there.
If you want autographs get there early and hit the practice courts. Many of the big name players start practicing around 9am. The matches for qualifying players don’t start until 11am. We were lucky and saw Andy Murray in the evening. I know Serena and Roger were there in morning on 8/27.

I really can’t recommend this enough. It is free and fabulous. Great tennis and no crowds! Enjoy the beautiful weather. If you stay for the whole day bring sweatshirts. We were freezing once the sun went down.