Tennis, or terriers? US Open’s home hosts famed dog show

May 6, 2023, 10:32 AM | Updated: May 7, 2023, 7:06 am

A handler and his dog compete in the agility preliminaries inside Arthur Ashe stadium during the 14...

A handler and his dog compete in the agility preliminaries inside Arthur Ashe stadium during the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog show, Saturday, May 6, 2023, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK (AP) — They’re at the top of their sport. They’re primed to run down tennis balls. So perhaps it’s perfectly natural that about 3,000 top-flight canines are converging on the grounds of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where the Westminster Kennel Club dog show began Saturday.

It’s a new venue for the nearly 150-year-old event, now back in New York City after a two-year, pandemic-induced sojourn in the suburbs.

As the show began Saturday with an agility competition and other events, there were a few double-takes, if not double-faults.

Barks, not the pock of tennis balls, were heard across the sunny, 40-acre (16-hectare) grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Westminster’s traditional green carpet had been rolled out in Arthur Ashe Stadium for fleet-footed — but four-footed — competitors.

Dogs relaxed in their crates on a tented practice court. The fan-friendly South Plaza was set up with a 27,000-gallon (102,200-liter) pool for a canine dock-diving demonstration. Turn in any direction, and a dog of some sort was likely to pass by.

“It’s kind of weird to see them out and about at a place where you don’t usually see dogs,” spectator Haili Menard said as she watched in the dock diving to pick up pointers for her Dalmatian back at home in Bristol, Connecticut. Menard had been to the U.S. Open but never to the Westminster show.

“The sport of it is highlighted” by the environs, she said.

Meanwhile, Fletcher the Malinois took the plunge.

“We’re never going to get to Westminster any other way,” laughed owner Jenine Wech of Schellsburg, Pa. When not doing dock diving or other sports, Fletcher works as a bedbug-detection dog.

Stella competed in agility in 2021 but was back Saturday as dock diving, her favorite blow-off-steam sport, got a toe in the Westminster water.

“The experience is so neat, to get to come with your dog … and to even just show a healthy bulldog,” said owner Lucy Hayes of Dayton, Ohio, who taught Stella to swim years ago (she dives in a life jacket for safety).

For most of its history, Westminster was held in Manhattan, where generations of best in show dogs were anointed at Madison Square Garden. In order to hold the event outdoors during the COVID-19 crisis, organizers moved it to the grounds of an estate in suburban Tarrytown, New York, for the last two years.

The club sought to return to New York City, while assessing factors including construction plans at a Manhattan pier building that formerly hosted part of the show. The tennis center emerged as an alternative.

Besides hosting one of tennis’s Grand Slam tournaments, the facility in Queens has been trying to position itself in recent years as a flexible, festive event venue. It has welcomed wrestling, video gaming and BIG3 3-on-3 basketball competitions and embraced letting dogs have their day.

“From the biggest stars in tennis to the biggest stars in the canine world,” said Chris Studley, the facility’s senior director for event services. Westminster President Donald Sturz was equally upbeat about the prospect of “an iconic dog show event in an iconic venue.”

To be sure, Manhattan offered a certain allure to some participants who travel from around the country. But the spacious tennis center allows for holding all the events in one place, adding new ones and giving dogs and people more elbow room.

While dogs aren’t usually the main attraction at the tennis center, there are plenty of players known for bringing their pooches on tour.

Serena Williams had a pooch courtside in Arthur Ashe Stadium when she practiced ahead of last year’s U.S. Open, her final event before retirement. Her older sister, Venus, also has been spotted with a dog at tournaments. Bianca Andreescu’s pet, Coco, is often found with Andreescu’s mother in the stands during matches. Alexander Zverev adopted a dog while in Miami ahead of the Miami Open a few years ago.

Some vendors had tennis balls on hand Saturday, but dogs like Leslie Wilk’s had other activities on their minds. The border collie-Staffordshire bull terrier mix rocketed through the agility course as if determined to live up to her name, Champion.

“Every time she steps up to the line,” said Wilk, of Camarillo, California, “she just gives it her best.”

Look at it that way, and the human and canine athletes of the tennis center aren’t so different.

___

AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich contributed from Washington. New York-based Associated Press journalist Jennifer Peltz has covered the Westminster dog show since 2013.

United States News

This photo provided by the chipmaker Nvidia shows the company’s HGX H100 module, which can use as...

Associated Press

AI chips are hot. Here’s what they are, what they’re for and why investors see gold

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The hottest thing in technology is an unprepossessing sliver of silicon closely related to the chips that power video game graphics. It’s an artificial intelligence chip, designed specifically to make building AI systems such as ChatGPT faster and cheaper. Such chips have suddenly taken center stage in what some experts consider […]

1 day ago

Natalie R. Coles, vice president & chief development officer at Wilberforce University, poses on th...

Associated Press

US companies, nudged by Black employees, have stepped up donations to HBCUs

Natalie Coles will never forget receiving an unexpected phone call in 2020. On the line was Virginia-based Dominion Energy, offering to give money to Wilberforce University, the small historically Black college where she is in charge of fundraising. The company’s $500,000 donation went in part toward laptops and hot spots for students when the pandemic […]

1 day ago

FILE - This booking photo provided by the Clay County, Mo., Sheriff's Office shows Andrew Lester. L...

Associated Press

Judge agrees to seal court documents in Ralph Yarl shooting; suspect to be in court

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly came to his door last month is scheduled to be back in court Thursday, days after a judge ruled that court documents in the case will be sealed and kept from the public. The hearing for 84-year-old Andrew Lester […]

1 day ago

FILE - Susana Lujano, left, a dreamer from Mexico who lives in Houston, joins other activists to ra...

Associated Press

Revised DACA program to be debated before Texas judge who previously ruled against it

HOUSTON (AP) — A revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children is set to be debated Thursday before a federal judge who previously ruled the program illegal. Attorneys representing the nine states that have sued to end the Deferred Action […]

1 day ago

FILE - Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court case that lega...

Associated Press

LGBTQ+ Pride month kicks off with protests, parades, parties

NEW YORK (AP) — The start of June marks the beginning of Pride month around the U.S. and some parts of the world, a season to celebrate the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ communities and to protest against recent attacks on hard-won civil rights gains. This year’s Pride takes place in a contentious political climate […]

1 day ago

Associated Press

After sailing though House on bipartisan vote, Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal now goes to Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veering away from a default crisis, the House overwhelmingly approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending the deal that President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated to the Senate for swift passage in a matter of days, before a fast-approaching deadline. The hard-fought compromise pleased few, but lawmakers assessed […]

1 day ago

Sponsored Articles

...

DAY & NIGHT AIR CONDITIONING, HEATING AND PLUMBING

Here are the biggest tips to keep your AC bill low this summer

PHOENIX — In Arizona during the summer, having a working air conditioning unit is not just a pleasure, but a necessity. No one wants to walk from their sweltering car just to continue to be hot in their home. As the triple digits hit around the Valley and are here to stay, your AC bill […]

...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

5 mental health myths you didn’t know were made up

Helping individuals understand mental health diagnoses like obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder or generalized anxiety disorder isn’t always an easy undertaking. After all, our society tends to spread misconceptions about mental health like wildfire. This is why being mindful about how we talk about mental health is so important. We can either perpetuate misinformation about already […]

...

Desert Institute for Spine Care

Spinal fusion surgery has come a long way, despite misconceptions

As Dr. Justin Field of the Desert Institute for Spine Care explained, “we've come a long way over the last couple of decades.”

Tennis, or terriers? US Open’s home hosts famed dog show