Sarah and I went to the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament in Cincinnati this past week. I became a tennis fan back when Kournikova was playing and have remained a fan despite her retirement in 2003. Sarah and I both watch quite a lot of tennis so we thought this would be a neat event to go to. This was my first tournament (besides WTT exhibition matches) and I must say it was a lot of fun. This is a combined men's and women's tournament and all of the top players from both leagues were there. It was really fun to see the players we see on TV all of the time play in real life.
What I was most surprised about was how open and accessible everything was. I watched the Maria Kirilenko (see below) and Schiavone (French Open champion) match from the fourth row and I had the entire row to myself. Andy Murray almost ran into me as I was meandering the grounds of the complex. Sarah and I sat 10 feet from world number one Caroline Wozniacki (see below) as she practiced. Think about this: Of all women in the world who play tennis (probably several million), Caroline is the best, and we were right next to her as she practiced! How often, in your day to day life, do you get the chance to watch someone perform their trade who is the best in the world at what they do? The answer is probably never. So the accessibility and closeness to the players was really neat. I highly recommend this event to any tennis fan who is in the area and is able to go. It was really a lot of fun and I think we'll probably go next year too.
One of the advantages of getting so close to the players is the ability to interact with them. I didn't really interact with them much because I don't really have any use for autographs and things like that, but I was able to get some great pictures. I posted a few of my favorites below.
Maria Kirilenko: A solid player but she never really gets past the very top players. I first noticed her in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. There is an obvious resemblance to Anna Kournikova.
Ana Ivanovic: Former French Open Champion.
Novak Djokovic: Current world number one player.
Caroline Wozniacki: Current world number one player.
Maria Sharapova: Three time Grand Slam winner. Yes, her grunt is as loud in person as it is on TV.
Li Na: French Open champion.
Rafael Nadal: World number 2 player and 10-time Grand Slam Champion.
Roger Federer: Sixteen-time Grand Slam winner, the most Grand Slams of any tennis player in history.
What is wrong with the old balls that you want new ones?
ReplyDeleteDid you get a picture with Maria Kirilenko like you did with Anna?
Joe
@Joseph: That is a good question. It is interesting to see how the players behave when it comes to balls. They will frequently ask for three balls but always give one of the balls back to the ball kid. I have no idea why they don't just ask for two balls to begin with. And some of them are very picky about which balls they receive to use for a point.
ReplyDeleteNo to the picture. To be honest I'm not really that interested. There are a lot of chances to get autographs and things like that but I don't really care about that stuff anymore.