So I'm a bit late on this post but I went to this year's edition of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati last minute. I did not think I would be going because I didn't have anyone to go with but last minute I found out some of my teammates from college would be attending (I see communication hasn't improved in my absence). It really was a fun day getting to see lots of players and some good matches. I'll try to caption some of these photos but I can only type on the HTML version of the text so I have to guess which photos are which.
Our first photo is of me and two of my teammates Jeff and Curtis watching one of the night matches.
The first player photo is of Ernest Gulbis. Although he is from Latvia, he acts very similar to one Victor Khristenko on our team complaining about the music and using colorful language. Watching him as a character was far more entertaining than the match which he lost decisively
In this region we have a match we watched on court 3 of Tommy Haas and Kevin Anderson. Tommy Haas is one of the oldest players on tour at age 35 but he rolled back the years in this match hitting some amazing angles with his one-handed backhand and firing a few stunning passing shots on the way to a straight set victory. Kevin Anderson is around 6' 7'' and a few of his wide serves came close to us as we were sitting in the first row in the ad corner.
Ok in this region we spotted on tour player, Nicolas Mahut, sitting in the stands watching one of his fellow frenchmen play. Jeff was sitting two spots away. Mahut is most known for being the loser participant in record setting 11 hour match with John Isner at the 2010 Wimbledon which I remember very well following on my iTouch (yeah people actually used those remember!?) well I was at school in Toledo Spain. Overall a poor showing for the french on this day as there was one smashed racquet, one default, and minimal effort given in another match.
Ok here we have the young Japanese player Kei Nishikori (yes I had to look up the spelling) playing Feliciano Lopez who is actually from Toledo Spain.
Referring to our poor communication I found Curtis wandering around the stadium. Jeff and I did not know he was going to be there. Thankfully he was wearing an extremely bright shirt and was easy to pick out of the crowd all day. I also wore a distinctly colored shirt for the same reason. No hating on the v-neck.
Ok in this upcoming video is Victoria Azarenka who is one of the strongest "screamers" on tour. I took the video to show you can hear her from the upper levels and then I exited the stadium to watch other matches.
Here are a few photos of one of my favorites, David Ferrer, playing young american Ryan Harrison. This match turned into a much better match than expected with Ferrer being pushed deep into the third set.
And here is the exciting section. While on one of the backcourts watching doubles I noticed a huge crowd around court 5, one of the smallest courts. I wandered over wondering what could possibly be going on and found myself about ten feet away from one Rafael Nadal. Since this is a bit more exciting than a doubles match with some guys I've never heard of I decided to stay. To be completely honest Nadal looked awful in practice. It was probably a combination of him working on playing closer to the baseline and thus spraying the ball everywhere and not really caring. The guy he was hitting with really couldn't keep up either. It was entertaining though at one point he winked at a teenage girl along the fence who turned a deep deep shade of red.
Ok so the other notable story was about Federer. I was told upon the completion of Nadal's practice session that Novak Djokovic would follow and then Roger Federer. With a lull until the night session this seemed like a great place to camp out. Long story short, Djokovic did not show and Federer did not show up either. I waited over an hour there with a phone turned off (because it was dying due to obsessive photography) and he did not come. It was a long hour not talking to anyone just staring at an open court. Eventually I gave up and decided to go get food before the night session. I went to the Mexican food stand to get a burrito because we all know I love Mexican food. They had a tv showing all the action on all the courts and I noticed someone was hitting inside the stadium court. I noticed one of the players had dark brown hair and a one-handed backhand. To confirm my suspicions I ran into the stadium and sure enough Federer was hiding in the biggest show court in the entire complex! So I ran up to the first row and snapped some photos, videos, and photos with me in the background. He mostly only hit serves and a few backhand returns but it was still awesome! Don't know how much of Federer we will get to see anymore.
Overall a very fun day I watched Sock and Raonic at night and that was a good 3 set match. Then I watched American Sloan Stephens upset Maria Sharapova on the TV and Federer beat Kohlschreiber late at night. My phone was long dead at this point. Then I did the late night drive home and got little sleep because I had to move my car for street sweeping (fines are $200!) but it was all well worth it. Now class has started but I am going to NYC to see my sister Katie and go to the US Open! Then USA Mexico. Then Buckeye Football. Tons to do at work and school I feel overwhelmed but thankfully many fun things to come as well.
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