." I merely won and I wish whacks," Croatian ping pong celebrity Donna Vekiu0107 declares Friday afternoon of the US Open. She's only trumped Peyton Stearns-- as well as after stretching and bathing-- her following quit pre-press event is actually the petit Julien Farel pop-up beauty shop concealed inside Queens's Arthur Ashe Arena. "I had actually been actually hanging around all time to view Julian and also get whacks inspired through Margot Robbie." Much more than twenty years earlier, hairdresser Julien Farel approached the USA Ping Pong Organization along with an idea: a salon where ping pong gamers could pop in for a hairstyle, type, or even yet another form of self-care throughout the US Open, among one of the most high-intensity competitors of their year. "It took them 5 years to okay me," Farel, right now 16 years right into the beauty parlor relationship at the Open, tells me along with a smile. "I was actually quite persistent given that I recognized this would certainly be actually a perk for many sportsmens. And I was right. Right now, they wait for this moment to find in as well as receive a haircut." A number of the sporting activity's biggest names have actually sat inside this beauty parlor, which is actually just available in the course of the two weeks of the competition: "I cut Rafael Nadal's hair coming from long to short in 2010, that occurred on this site as well as it was a huge package. Everybody coming from Billie Jean Master to [Martina] Navratilova has actually partaken these office chairs. Our company possessed Coco right here straight after she succeeded last year's competition, too." Vekiu0107 as well as her brand-new booms, fresh reduced by Julien Farel.Photographed by Caroline Tompkins.