It takes a special kind of tennis fan to appreciate Fabrice Santoro, and a more special fan still to play hooky from work in order to see him play. Mr. Santoro, a 34-year-old journeyman on the pro tour, is currently the 44th-best player in the world, according to the Association of Tennis Professionals computer ranking. He has an inelegant, open-toed style of play, with two-handed slicing ground strokes off both sides.  Watching him brings to mind a duck wielding a light saber.  But this is the time of year, the first week of the United States Open, that drives fans of Mr. Santoro  not to mention fans of the likes of Rainer Schuettler, a German player (No. 145 in the world) and Paul Goldstein, a former N.C.A.A. runner-up at Stanford (No. 97)  out in full force.  I come here every year to watch Santoro, said Miron Shulkin, a fan with a thick Israeli accent and a sunburn. Mr. Shulkin sat in the Little League-size stands of Court 8 at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday afternoon, quietly observing Mr. Santoro dispatch Albert Montanes (current rank: No. 46) in four sets. He is a lot of fun to watch. He plays smart. He has great hands.  Indeed. Mr. Santoro may be one of the few players who, for fun, is capable of hitting a perfectly executed drop volley off the frame of his racket, rather than the strings.  Unlike a lot of other major sports events  the World Series and the Super Bowl, for example  much of the play at the Open, which lasts two weeks, takes place during weekday hours. Yet many New Yorkers, not a lot known for a lax work ethic, manage a day trip to Flushing Meadows in Queens, where they join the tourists, retirees, children and full-time mothers on the stadium grounds.  Mr. Shulkin said that he skipped out on his job on Tuesday, not to mention the day before. I help a friend with a hedge fund, he said, adding that his line of work gives him a lot of autonomy. He paused to applaud a backspin lob that Mr. Santoro had hit from midcourt, which barely cleared the net then bounced backward onto his own side of the net. Even Mr. Santoros opponent, finally, cracked a weary smile.  This kid still doesnt know what hit him, Mr. Shulkin said of Mr. Montanes.  The outer courts at the Open, where lesser-known players contend in earlier rounds, are where youre most likely to find office-deserting tennis fanatics at midday. Another fellow who sat a few rows up in the bleachers at the Santoro match looked the part  worsted trousers, sports jacket slung over shoulder, briefcase  and turned out to have fled a conference at the Grand Hyatt.  The conference was getting boring, said the man, who added that he was in town from St. Louis. I look for a reason to get to New York during the Open every year. And I wanted to come today and see the Santoro match. His game is unique.  Mr. Santoro delighted his fans again yesterday. Though he lost his five-set match, against sixth-seeded James Blake, it was hard-fought.  On Wednesday morning, a pair of women in shorts and tank tops sat on the No. 7 train as it ran from Grand Central to Flushing. They were also AWOL, more or less, and they were planning to watch a friend of a friend of mine from London whos playing Rafael Nadal today, said one of them, Jamie Lewis, 31.  I sent an e-mail to my boss at midnight, said Ill be out tomorrow and you can reach me on my cell, and turned my computer off. The markets are crazy and I work at a hedge fund, so I thought Id escape.  Ms. Lewiss friend, who identified herself as Patricia, said she works for an Internet company and added, I called in sick. Cant you tell? She held the back of her hand against her forehead. I canceled some meetings.  Others were at Flushing Meadows by dint of a range of alibis and measures, and a lot of these involved the notion that because they were using corporate seats, or accepting the tickets as a gift from clients, or bringing clients, it counted as work anyway.  One man in shorts and loafers gestured to the young woman beside him on the No. 7 train and said that they both worked for banks, and shes my client. This explained his declaration that the Open is a good corporate event, but not the fact that he was hugging and kissing the woman throughout the train ride.  Colleen Channer and a friend, who were watching the Nathalie Dechy-Francesca Schiavone match from an upper row of Louis Armstrong Stadium, the better to simultaneously keep an eye on the match between David Nalbandian and Ivan Navarro-Pastor on the adjacent grandstand court, said that she had taken a vacation from her job at a law firm. But I have a friend whos an I.T. guy who told his boss last year that he was running a new program, and then he put the program up and came to the Open the rest of the day, she said.  Janice Johnson and her sister and brother-in-law had all taken vacation days from Merrill Lynch to come to the Open. But my nephews here with us, and hes missing tennis camp, she said.  The nephew, 14-year-old David Gibbs, said that hed watched Donald Young, Novak Djokovic, and Ana Ivanovic play over the first two days, and that his favorite Open match of all time was Pete Sampras versus Andre Agassi in the 2001 quarterfinals. Four tiebreakers, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, he said.  I was at that match, Ms. Johnson said. Amazing.  Phil Zrihen, who arrived at the Open late Wednesday morning with his wife, Melanie, said that hed shown up for his financial-sector job for one hour early in the day. My excuse is that the tickets came from the vice chairman, he said. When you have tickets to the U.S. Open, you go.  He added: But I got in trouble with a woman from H.R. because I was wearing sneakers. She said, Even if youre only coming in for an hour, you shouldnt be wearing running shoes. I told her: These arent running shoes. These are Converse. 
Many New Yorkers, armed with myriad excuses, are finding ways to attend the United States Open during working hours.