For many fans, U.S. Open marks last hurrah for summer

For tennis fans, the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park signifies the end of summer - as well as a final hurrah before the return to school.

Rudy Migliore, 20, of Setauket, spent Sunday at the Open with friends - but said he had spent much of the weekend preparing to return to classes at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, where he is a junior.

"I've been getting ready for school," he said. "I got my books together, got my schedule figured out."

Julius Brown, 57, of Baldwin, is Hempstead school district's assistant superintendent for personnel, and said he couldn't take vacation this summer because the district had offered a retirement incentive, which required him to spend the summer filling "55 teaching positions and 12 administrative positions."

But he did manage to spend the weekend at the U.S. Open with his brother and two friends.

"I love the ambience, the tennis, the drinks, the food," he said. "I'm an outdoors person. I'm at Eisenhower Park all the time playing tennis. The weather this summer has been absolutely fantastic. The highlight of my summer was playing tennis."

David Rubin, 12, of Woodmere, who was at the Open with his father, Jay Rubin, 48, said watching Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer face Venus Williams was the highlight of his summer.

David, who attends Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, noted that Peer had been barred from playing in Dubai last year.

"She's Israeli and she represents all the Jewish people in America and around the world," he said, cheering as Peer landed a drop shot just past the net.

Jay Rubin, 48, said: "Everyone is free to play here. This is what's great about America. You're free to play no matter where you're from."

Laura Toner, 40, of South Setauket, sat near the food court, a beer in hand, and watched the David Nalbandian-Fernando Verdasco match on the big screen.

Toner, a pediatrician who works at a health care center in Yonkers, says she spends every Labor Day weekend at the Open. "I look forward to it every year," she said. "It's so much fun being here. Being so close to the players is just amazing."

Felice DiDonna of Babylon Village said she spent the weekend at the Open with one of her tennis buddies.

"I love the matches, running into friends, and the food," said DiDonna, a social worker at Dodd Middle School in Freeport. And, she added: "I love the pizza!"