If Wimbledon is Virginia creeper and tradition, Roland Garros all French style and sophistication, and Melbourne Park Aussie informality and fun in the sun, then Flushing Meadows is a teeming Bangkok street with tennis nets.
The Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre which serves as home to the US Open is a claustrophobic mix of noise, heat, smells and jostling crowds. There are those who will tell you that they ruined a nice swamp when they built the place.
To be fair, the ill-named Meadows has been a tad less uncomfortable of late since the air traffic controllers at nearby LaGuardia airport agreed to change the flight path of departing planes, the wheels of which used to clear the grandstands by a matter of metres.
None of which bothers the locals one jot. Although the average New Yorker would rather watch tractor pulling than anything as refined as tennis, any ticket in the Big Apple that can attract an audience of A-list celebrities exerts a "must see" appeal; thus does a boisterous horde board the subway to make the daily trek from Manhattan across the East River to the borough of Queens to eat, drink and even, well, watch the action.
The tennis, it has to be said, has always been a mere sideshow to the main attraction of Flushing Meadows - food. Through the concrete walls of the Arthur Ashe Court where Roger Federer or Andy Murray might be weaving their magic, the open air picnic court is a vast concourse of food counters launching a full nasal assault.
Curiously, given their often prodigious appetites, tradition calls for spectators to drape themselves in the latest designer tennis gear which is why it is not uncommon to happen upon a gluttonous New York taxi driver (imagine Homer Simpson gone to seed and you will get the picture) squeezed into Rafael Nadal's pirate costume.
A few miles away from this mayhem lie the rolling lawns, Tudor clubhouse, terrace bar and the junior Olympic pool of Forest Hills which staged the US Open until 1978 when the USTA - in its infinite wisdom - decided they required a more modern setting for their showpiece event.
To enter the genteel surroundings of the West Side Country Club is to return to the world of The Great Gatsby; it was here that Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks would engage in highly competitive sets of tennis whenever they were working in New York.
Ilie Nastase, champion in 1972 when he defeated Arthur Ashe in five sets, described walking into the West Side Club like, "...stepping back 100 years. You felt you always had to talk in whispers. Just as the All-England Club is known as Wimbledon, I still talk of having won Forest Hills, not the US Open."
At Flushing Meadows, they screech, they holler, they engage in violent arguments over their mobile phones. Quiet please? Forget it. Take your seats, please? Forget it. "It's an animal farm and I love it," says Jimmy Connors.
Only Napoleon and Old Major are missing...
@Email:rphilip@thenational.ae
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20specs
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Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5
The%20specs
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One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Traces%20of%20Enayat
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Haltia.ai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202023%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Arto%20Bendiken%20and%20Talal%20Thabet%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20AI%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2041%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20About%20%241.7%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self%2C%20family%20and%20friends%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Honeymoonish
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The%20Crown%20season%205
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'Falling%20for%20Christmas'
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 502hp at 7,600rpm
Torque: 637Nm at 5,150rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: from Dh317,671
On sale: now
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Friday
Saint-Etienne v Montpellier (10.45pm)
Saturday
Monaco v Caen (7pm)
Amiens v Bordeaux (10pm)
Angers v Toulouse (10pm)
Metz v Dijon (10pm)
Nantes v Guingamp (10pm)
Rennes v Lille (10pm)
Sunday
Nice v Strasbourg (5pm)
Troyes v Lyon (7pm)
Marseille v Paris Saint-Germain (11pm)
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo
Power: 435hp at 5,900rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,800-5,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Price: from Dh498,542
On sale: now
Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
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BABYLON
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million