If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I love tennis, clothes, being out in the sun, and that I also love my husband and my friends but my schoolwork cuts into the time I get to spend with them. The tennis tournament gives me the opportunity to combine all of these interests within driving distance of my home. While the tournament has never attracted the current biggest names in the game, I still get to see quite a few top 20 players and plenty of high quality play. The tournament is hot and outdoors, but it's still a pretty big social outing, and I enjoy observing all the different ways women choose to dress for the event. I get to spend several whole days with my husband, whose love of the game is not as strong as mine but whose love of me compels him to sweat patiently on the bleacher beside me long after he'd otherwise be ready to head home. For two years now I've also gotten to spend an evening at the tournament with Danielle and Anne-Marie, and having sixish straight hours to sit and chat with each of them is a luxury that's impossible during my regular in-semester schedule. I have to admit I'm a little jealous that some people get to take in their sporting events periodically over the course of an entire season (and I get to do this with Navy football), but there's also something exciting about allowing the tournament to completely absorb my attention for an entire week that must be my version of what others experience during the NCAA basketball tournament.
Another reason to love this particular tournament is that Andy Roddick loves it, too. He's won it three times, and he regularly says its his favorite stop on the US Open Series tour. Maybe that's because the crowd loves him, or because he thrives in the heat, or because he's usually the top ranked player at the tournament. Last year, he made it to the final and lost in the 3rd set tiebreaker to Juan Martin del Potro, whom you know went on to win the US Open itself. This year, he didn't do so well. He looked fine in his opening match, so I was glad Danielle got to see that one, but in his second match against Gilles Simon, he looked like this.
Honestly, the version of Andy that was on court that night was the opposite of everything I've come to love about Andy as a player and a person. I've seen him play badly before, but I've never seen him slump in his chair and bury his head in his towel. He's always the first one out of his chair on the changeover, but that night he was kept sitting there when the chair umpire called time.. each time. It was depressing. It was heartbreaking, really. I was actually relieved when he announced after the match that he can't figure out why he hasn't been feeling like himself and is going to undergo some medical tests. I hope it's mono or something that can be treated fairly easily. There's one thing I love about Andy more than anything else, and it's that he fights to win until the last ball drops. This wasn't that Andy.
That meant that this tournament also made me face the reality that Andy's best days might be behind him. I hope that's not the case, but his losses here and at Wimbledon combined to make me realize that I may not always be able to cheer for someone whose playing style, attitude, and personality I so deeply relate to and appreciate. And there might never be another active tennis player I like so much again. What am I going to do when that happens? I asked myself. Who will I cheer for once he's done? Will I lose my interest in tennis? These thoughts were even sadder than this sight:
Thinking about what the ATP will be like post-Andy was sad, but his early exit also helped me realize that one of the things I really love about the game of tennis are the stories. After Thursday night's rain delay, we got to sit in the third row up to see the match between Ryan Sweeting and Fernando Verdasco. I've liked Verdasco since his impressive showing against Nadal at the Australian in 09, and I was excited to see him post such good results this spring after he spent some time working with Andre Agassi's trainer. (I like this trainer even more after finding out that he says you "know yourself" "on the other side of tired.") Plus, Verdasco's not bad looking. Ryan Sweeting is 23 year old American who made his first big breakthrough in this tournament-- he made it in through qualifying, upset James Blake on stadium court in his first match, and beat Llodra for the chance to face Verdasco. We realized early in the match that we were sitting only one row in front of his coach, so I really enjoyed observing their interaction. I'm intrigued by the mental aspect of tennis as much as any other part of the game, so it was cool to see how Sweeting attempted to stay competitive against a top 10 opponent and how his coach tried to encourage him to keep his head in the game without breaking the "no on-court coaching" rule. Afterwards, I googled the coach, Dustin Taylor, and found out that he was recently named the head American coach by the USTA and he graduated from Lakeridge in 2000. Small world! Sweeting lost a close 2 set match, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he fares at the US Open.
We also watched the beginning of the Mardy Fish/Marin Cilic match on the grandstand court, and though I saw Mardy win in the stadium earlier in the week, it was extra cool to see him up close. He's having the best summer of his career (after losing something like 30 lbs and improving his fitness), and he lost this match in 3 sets, but he ended up winning the doubles title with Mark Knowles. Truth be told, I wish we'd stayed to watch this match play out rather than heading inside to see Andy Roddick crumble, but hindsight is 20/20, right?
Another storyline I was excited to see firsthand was the return of the Bryan Brothers to this tournament, which they've won three times. The weekend prior to the Legg Mason, Bob and Mike won their 62nd doubles title in LA (near their hometown of Camarillo), which broke the record for the most doubles titles won by any single team. Anne-Marie and I got to watch them compete in a close opening match with this past year's NCAA doubles champions from UVA, and Billy and I got to see them play a competitive quarterfinal match that they eventually lost, eliminating our hopes of seeing them win #63. I was never good enough at singles to learn much about the strategy involved, but I always did okay as a doubles player, so it is extra fun for me to watch the winningest team ever deploy the strategies I failed to execute in my own short-lived playing career. : )
One big highlight of the week was meeting Patrick McEnroe and having him sign my copy of his recent memoir, Hardcourt Confidential, for my tennis-loving grandmother. I sent him a message on twitter prior to his arrival in DC asking if he'd sign it for me, and he responded! to say he would be happy to sign the book. Billy spotted him on the grounds, and when I approached him, he was super friendly and even asked me if I was the one who had sent him the message. I managed to speak to him for a few minutes without shouting "OMG can you introduce me to Andy!? I know you're friends!", and he wrote a nice note to Gramma in the book, so it was a success! Also, I was surprised at how good looking he was in person, and I still can't believe he's only 7 years younger than his brother John. Maybe being a curmudgeon takes its toll on your looks, too?
After Andy lost and Verdasco was upset by Marcos Baghdatis in the quarters, I didn't have a vested interest in who won the tournament, but we got to see some high quality play in the semifinals anyhow. After 5 days in a row of sitting on the bleachers and driving about an hour each way, I decided that I'd rather watch the final between David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis on my couch at home.
When we turned on the TV on Sunday, Billy and I couldn't help but laugh when we realized that the TV feed had almost the exact same view of the court that we had from our seats. The match turned out to be a little more competitive than I was expecting, and Baghdatis put up a decent fight in the second set, but I wasn't surprised at all to see Nalbandian win. He definitely looked the most consistently strong throughout the tournament. I can't wait to see how everybody we saw does during the US Open!
Thanks again to Billy for the world's best birthday gift in the history of birthday gifts. And thanks to you for reading all the way to the end of this blog post, which has allowed me to relive the experience a little bit. Today's the first day P.L.M. (post Legg Mason), and I'm a little down about the fact that there's no DC tennis match to watch, but now I feel rested and ready for my upcoming semester. I even got a little bit of a tan! And hey, it's not that long before the Australian Open, right?!
Happy Birthday, Liz!! :D
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