Do I Really Have to Leave Tomorrow?

Hi guys. So, after a wonderful night's sleep, I am over last night's ordeal and had an amazing time at the tennis today. Qualifying play started at around 10am at the tennis center in Rock Creek Park. Unfortunately the spectators' shuttle doesn't start until Monday, but the hotel Acura service chauffeured me to the tournament around 1pm. I didn't miss too much. Plus, while I was waiting in the lobby this morning, I happened upon an unoccupied Tomas Berdych, who was more than happy to pose for a picture with me and sign an autograph. This was definitely a good start for the rest of the day.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't spend anytime on Center Court today. Instead, I chose to enjoy the view of the practice courts. I watched a lot of practice sessions, including Michael Lloda, Gilles Simon, Julien Benneteau, Stanislas Wawrinka, Yen Hsun Lu, Viktor Troicki, David Nalbandian, Andrey Golubev, Rajeev Ram, Dmitry Tursunov, and probably a few more I forgot about.

Nearly all the players were happy to stop and sign autographs after their practice sessions. Stan Wawrinka was particularly fun to watch in practice as he was quite playful with his coach and spoke English the entire time. Although, he definitely wasn't pleased that someone screwed up his practice reservation. Gilles Simon did not seem at all happy with his practice this afternoon. If I knew any French obscenities, I'm betting that's what I was hearing from Simon's side of the court. Llodra was lovely as always. I've had quite the soft spot for him since I watched him practice in Rotterdam. Dmitry Tursunov looked like he was ready to kill someone after his practice. I got there at the very end after he was already finished, but it didn't look like it went well. His coach did hand out the practice balls to fans at the end though. Anyway, that was most of what I saw today, but I would like to follow this post with some fun facts.

Some Things You Probably Didn't Know:

Tomas Berdych has ridiculously blue eyes. I know they show him on TV all the time now, but this guy is a thousand times better looking in person. I even saw him play in person at the French, but this was still better.

Julien Benneteau has a picture of him and a woman I assume is his girlfriend as the background on his blackberry. No, I was not being a creeper. We road down in the same elevator this morning and he was holding his phone.

Even ugly players have pretty girlfriends.

David Nalbandian has the prettiest autograph I've seen so far.

There were puppies. They drew almost as large a crowd as some practice courts.

No one watches doubles practice.

Alright, I'm getting ready to head off for dinner, but I will definitely have a much more in depth tournament article for you guys on Monday.