Tennis Night in America

Last night, I went to Madison Square Garden for Tennis Night in America.  I first went in 2008, when my darling Roger played a match against Pete Sampras.  That was a lot of fun, especially since Roger won.  :)   I went back in 2009, where (I think) the Williams sisters played, and again for more ladies tennis in 2010.  Unfortunately, although I had tickets for last year's event of Pete vs Andre and McEnroe vs Lendl, I couldn't go post-surgery.  Dang it.  I did get to watch some of it on my laptop, though.  This year, I  struggled with whether or not I wanted to spend the money to go, then I thought I won't be able to see my darling Roger play forever (or Andy Roddick, for that matter), so I may as well go whenever I get the chance.  I waited too long to get a ticket, though; I would've been at least fifteen rows closer if I had bought the ticket two weeks ago instead of a few days ago.  Warning - my photos are horrible.  I may try to post a video at the end, though.  We'll see how that goes.

First annoyance of the evening:  when we went through the bag check line, they confiscated all water bottles.  Grrrr.  I hate paying though the nose for a bottle of water.  But, I did.  I wouldn't be able to sit there all night with no water.  So, I paid $5 for a bottle of water.  Oddly, they take the cap off the water bottle for you and don't let you have it.  I said, what if I spill?  The guy then dug through his little cart and found me a plastic cup with a lid and a straw.  So, at least I had confidence I wouldn't spill the water all over myself (or anyone else), but it was all strange to me.  Are they afraid we'll throw bottle caps?  Happily, though, since the bag check line guy was so intent on taking my water bottle with his superior attitude, he completely ignored the Hostess fruit pie that I had in the bottom of my bag.  So at least I didn't have to buy any overpriced snacks.  :)

The opening match of the evening was Maria Sharapova vs Caroline Wozniacki.  I haven't ever seen Wozniacki play live before, so I was looking forward to it.  I don't particularly enjoy watching Sharapova (or hearing her either!), but I knew the crowd would be into two pretty girls playing tennis.  Sigh.  Actually, it was a pretty interesting match.  Maria was sharp at the start, hitting very flat and fast, and keeping Caroline on the run.  For the first few games, Caroline was having problems even winning points.  I started to worry this would be a rout, but I think they both settled down after awhile and played a fairly good match.  And Maria was relatively quiet.  So, see, it CAN be done!  My seat was behind the court, and it was interesting to see how Caroline puts spin and redirection on her ball, whereas Maria is just hitting it as hard as she can.  They play at a pretty slow pace between points, though, so I think everyone (including Caroline) was relieved when Maria won in straight sets.

I definitely liked Caroline's outfit - it was very pretty and summery, kind of like her public persona.  She has worn some godawful ugly outfits in the past, so this was a nice change.  Maria always looks nice, and usually wears some variation of the same style, and this outfit was no different.

Caroline tried to insert some fun into the competitiveness, but it seemed a little forced (the dancing, pulling her golfer boyfriend on court), and Maria was having none of it.  She's not a naturally outgoing person and isn't very spontaneous, so most of her off-the-cuff remarks came off as a little snippy.  But, that's her personality, so you can't really fault her for it.  It was humorous to hear Caroline tell Maria that one of her comments wasn't very nice!  At least, I thought it was humorous.  I haven't read any of the press reports today - I wonder if it's blown all out of proportion to generate tension where there really isn't any.

.  After two hours, finally, my reason for going:  the entrance of the gents.  It was a cute way to enter, with glowsticks in the crowd and the guys going down the stairs into the stadium, high-fiving the audience.  I didn't get a shot with the pyrotechnics.  Oh well.  The crowd seemed really pro-Roger.  I thought everyone would be more for Andy Roddick, but to me, it seemed maybe 70/30 rooting for Roger.  Which doesn't bother me, of course!  Andy has had a frustrating year on tour this year, with lots of little injuries and surprising losses.  His ranking is down in the 30s, I think, so I kinda figured it would be a heavily pro-Andy crowd.  Not that people weren't rooting for him, just more people were rooting for Roger.  When Andy started winning, the crowd got really quiet, like the air was let out of the stadium.  Now, to be honest, I think people were also tired and, during the second set tiebreak, were conflicted on seeing a three set match!  We didn't get out of there until after 11pm as it was!

I was surprised that Andy was so sharp.  Maybe he was just relaxed and could let loose, since he knew it was basically a fun event and wouldn't really mean anything.  He can get so hard on himself and so tight that he becomes very crankypants on the court during a match.  It's hard to be an Andy fan sometimes when he gets like that.  But last night he was loose and fun, but still quite focused.  He played really well.  His serve was on and he was sticking his backhand.  I will say that it seemed like Roger was a tiny bit subdued.  Perhaps he was tired?  He flew in from Dubai on Saturday.  His service motion looked a tad wonky to me, too.  But maybe I'm just looking for excuses for him.  Perhaps the biggest problem was his too-big shirt.  Normally, he's the nattiest guy in town.  Maybe he thought he had to look more like Andy, so he wore a shirt that was three sizes too big.  I didn't enjoy it and hope he retires the look.  :)

These guys know how to put on a show.  Someone in the crowd shouted something about Rafa (Nadal), so Andy immediately rolled up his sleeves to show us his guns, then proceeded to play 'like' Nadal.  It was pretty humorous.  You can find video on YouTube if you're interested.  He wandered into the crowd, midmatch, to get Ben Stiller's autograph.  He was also funny when Roger would make a ridiculously good shot (which, thankfully, Roger is always eager to do) and tell him to stop 'showing off.'  Which Roger just can't help doing.  I was taking video and just happened to catch the point where the 'between the legs' shots happened.  It was a fun point.  I just think these guys realize it's a game and they're there to put on a show.  They play hard and give the crowd their money's worth, but don't go crazy.  You can also tell they have tons of respect for each other and for tennis, so that's nice to watch as well.

It was a well-played match, and pretty close.  Roger had his chances, but he was just a little less sharp with his serving and got broken a couple of times.  But spirits were high and good-humor prevailed.  Even from me, surprisingly.  I was just happy to be in the same room as Roger.  It must be really hard to be one of my boyfriends.  I'm so intense.  ;)

For an audience report:  the boys next to me could possibly have come to MSG directly from working out at Gold's Gym.  They were odorific, as it were.  And they said not one word to each other the entire night.  The family on the other side of me had an obnoxious kid who would not sit down for five minutes at a time, and I believe at one point, he was making fun of my faux red hair.  To her credit, the mother seemed mortified at his behavior.  Not that she or the father were trying to curb it.  Moving on...the ladies behind me just kept wishing for Roger and Andy to start making out.  I kid you not.  That's something I probably don't need to see in this lifetime, but hey, to each their own.

I had a great time and am ever so glad I decided to spend the money to go, even if Roger didn't win.  I just hope the powers that be never decide to invite Djokovic to this event.  I'll be compelled to stay away.  Blech.

OK, sorry, can't get the video to load, darn it.  Maybe I'll try again another time.  Just try to imagine the beauty and wonderfulness that is Roger.  Here, I'll post another photo of him.  Although it's from far away, you still can tell he's a winner... :)