(Our First) Western & Southern Open

Darren has been wanting us to attend the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati since we first moved to Columbus. It is the biggest tennis tournament in our area and hosts the biggest names in tennis... all the top players attend! This year, we jumped on the chance to get tickets and headed down the road to Cincy for some tennis...grateful for the beautifully mild weather we have enjoyed this summer. We prepared for our day by bringin water, sunscreen, sun hats & sunglasses.

We encountered some traffic on the way down, so we arrived late to our first match. The grounds were packed with spectators, but our box seats on center court were the perfect! The photo below is the actual view from our seats, not zoomed in. Darren & I commented that our seats were better views than what we got on television, which is pretty rare (for us) for a professional sport. Our first match was King vs. Azarenka who is ranked #2 in the world. Azarenka won this match in two sets. 

Love the photos like this!

 Seeing professional tennis players from fab box seats is amazing, but what really made the day wonderful was just being together as a family. Darren really loves tennis, and having our family at this tennis tournament was kind of a dream come true. I just loved the whole day, especially watching Darren with the kids. Our second match was Isner vs. a top-ranked German player who I can't recall the name of right now. Isner is an American player who is nearly 7 feet tall. He won this match and would go on to lose to Nadal in the finals. 

Our next match was Ferrer (#3) vs. Harrison. This was a great match. Harrison is an up & coming American player who really put a lot into this match. There were some amazing points on both sides of the net, but Ferrer took the match in the end. In between all this tennis, we were able to eat and wander the grounds. There were tents for merchandise and tennis-related organizations. There is tennis constantly being played, whether it is other matches on other courts or practices on other courts. Wandering around with the kids is a bit more difficult, and you never get to see everything you want to see, but we had a good time. 

All the huge tennis stars were on the practice courts, and we had hoped to see the likes of Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Sharapova & Williams, but... so did everyone else. We managed to find the court where Nadal was practicing and Darren snapped a few photos. Nadal would go on to win the tournament. I was able to catch a glimpse of him through the crowd, but the kids couldn't see anything, and it didn't really mean too much to them anyway. So, I took them to see the champions' garden, and we decided to skip the practice courts. It was a little disappointing to be so near to these tennis players and not go see them, but, hopefully, we will have the chance to do it again in the years to come. 

Degen took this pic of me...and Darren! Cute!

This was our last match before we headed home (already strategizing for next year!). Wozniacki would easily win this match in two sets. We had a great day of tennis!