NEW YORK — In 2001, when massive video board screens were first installed inside Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open, Andre Agassi wouldn’t play with them turned on.
“When we first put the video screens in the stadium, Andre told us, ‘Turn them off,’ so we did,” Chris Widmaier, the managing director for communications at the USTA, told USA TODAY Sports. “We accommodated that. But the next year, it was old hat for all the players.”
Fourteen years on, the 2015 version of the video board at the Open is a new initiative pushed by the USTA and ESPN: the mid-match, on-court interview.