You all know what time of year it is – Cincinnati Masters time!
This year was extra special because my favorite, and hopefully yours, Rafael Nadal was back in action! I haven’t seen him there since 2016, so naturally I was freaking out like a teen at a One Direction concert. Also pretty exciting was the fact the Serena Williams was in attendance just a short while after announcing that the US Open will be her retirement tournament. Another interesting thing about this tournament was the absence of Novak Djokovic, due to the fact that he can’t adhere to the ATP’s vaccination requirements. No real loss there in my opinion. With all of those special circumstances, the rest of the player field was pretty well stacked and given that I attended so early in the tournament meant that I got to see a lot of amazing tennis.
Tuesday night was the end of the first round matches, but that brought a showdown between Serena and 2021 US Open champion, Emma Radacanu. Sadly, and expectedly, Serena really struggled during the match. At first I thought it was going to be a double bagel situation, but she managed to pull out more games in the first set than I anticipated. After that it was all over though. Similarly, Daniil Medvedev made quick work of his unranked opponent. Perhaps a more interesting match was one my dad and I caught on our way out on the much smaller Porsche court between Diego Schwartzman and unseeded Aslan Karatsev. They were both punishing the ball and we actually gave the edge to Karatsev as we headed out after the end of the first set (Schwartzman came out victorious in case you were curious).
The second day brought beautiful weather and some awesome matches! On Center Court we watched the tight match that ultimately saw Andy Murray lose to fellow Brit, Cameron Norrie, then the quick and punishing match between the victorious Radacanu over Azarenka, and finally just a short bit of Kyrgios against American Taylor Fritz. From there, I caught a little bit of matches featuring John Isner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, and Iga Swaitek. Aside from the matches, I also made it to practice sessions for Denis Shapovalov, Grigor Dimitrov, and most importantly, RAFAEL NADAL!!! Even more impressive was that due to some misinformation on the tournaments app, I only made it to half of Rafa’s practice, but still managed to snag a spot in the front row of the bleachers. Look no further than the photographic proof below.
Overall, I had a blast and was so happy to see Nadal in action again down there. Unfortunately, later in the day he ended up losing his second round match, but he was still there and I still got to see him and really, that’s all that matters. Better luck at the US Open in two weeks’ time!
