The Legg Mason DC tennis tournament is no more. Apparently, Citi Group picked up the sponsorship, and named it appropriately enough the Citi Open. Other than the name change, everything else was pretty much the same.
The heat, sun and humidity were their usual extermem (though, at 95°, hardly the hottest we've had all summer). That is, until a storm rolled in and cooled everything off. This triggered an initial 17 minute rain delay (what seemed like 5 minutes of rain, and 12 minutes of court drying). After which, the players took to the court for a few minutes before the skies opened up again. This rain delay was long enough that Shira and I actually left early.
Like past years, we were provided with radios that tuned to a single station that let us listen in on commentary being delivered from the press box above. This definitely makes the matches more enjoyable, especially during the doubles match when the rules vary a bit from what I'm used to. And when I did want some pure tennis, I could just turn it off.
As for the actual tennis play, the doubles match featuring Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot vs. Sam Querrey and Kevin Anderson was fun to watch. Huey being relatively short, and the Kevein and Sam being huge, there was a sort of David and Goliath effect going on. The singles match between Alexandr Dolgopolov and Tommy Haas was also fun watch, especially considering that Haas is considered ancient in the sport (yet, he's younger than me, oy.) We only saw about an hour of play between the two before the rain kicked in.
We definitely had a good time. From what I can tell, though, the attendance at the event keeps shrinking. The rain didn't help this time, but this was far from a packed house event. I wish that would translate to cheaper tickets, but alas, I don't think that's how it works.
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