Earlier this week, my dad and I traveled down to watch some professional tennis at the Cincinnati Masters! I know that this is technically not a concert, but it’s the only sport and sporting event that I watch and attend annually, so it’s getting documented. Sadly, my favorite player, Rafael Nadal, wasn’t in attendance again this year, but I still saw a ton of great matches and up close and personal to other top players!
The Western and Southern Open, aka the Cincinnati Masters, is an ATP 1000 event, which means it’s one of the larger tournaments aside from the Grand Slams, so all the big names are usually in attendance. It’s only downfall is that it ends only one week before the US open, which is why sometimes the top players withdraw from the tournament depending on how they’re feeling physically. That was the case for Rafa this year 🙁
Either way, my dad and I always attend the early rounds so we can see more players, so we chose the night session on Tuesday and got to see Roger Federer in top form, while Serena Williams withdrew about 40 minutes before she was slated to play. Despite there being a twenty percent chance of rain that entire day, it rained 100% for about ten minutes…so after that it took about an hour for the court to get squeegeed and dried off before play resumed. After Roger’s match we headed over to the Grandstand to watch Kvitova lose, and then John Isner lose.
The day session on Wednesday was HOT, but there were a ton of great matches to sit in our shaded seats and watch. When we first arrived though, I managed to find the practice court that Alexander “Sascha” Zverev and Denis Shapovalov were hitting on, so I got pretty up close and personal there! After that, we headed up to our seats on Center Court to watch Simona Halep squeak out a win, and then watched Ashleigh Barty bring the hammer down on Maria Sharapova. Once those matches were over, we headed over the Grandstand again to catch Stefanos Tsitsipas lose a long match in a tiebreak. On our way out we also watched the end of Stan Wawrinka’s match, which he also lost!
Lots of surprising upsets in the early part of the week, which really clears the path for Federer or Djokovic to take home the trophy, and a potential repeat win for Halep! While the sweat is non-stop at this event, it’s always a must for me to attend! If you’re a tennis fan and live close by, I recommend stopping at this beautiful facility and expertly organized event!
