Whiling away a hot summer afternoon ...

A couple weeks ago, just after my return from the Southwest after visiting Princess Butterfly and her family, HWMBO and I travelled to Washington.  As part of his birthday celebration, we attended the afternoon games at the Legg-Mason Tennis Classic, one of the tournaments that lead up to the US Open, which will be held at the USTA Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows in New York.  This year the dates run from 30 August to 12 September.

The afternoon was very hot, but that didn't stop any tennis fans.  Here is a shot of the ticket entrance.  HWMBO had dropped me off to pick up our tickets while he went to park the car.  All we had were our on-line receipts.  The car parks were far enough from the entrance area that free shuttle buses had been arranged to bring fans back to the ticket entrance, so I just waited for him here.  This year, however, we each had a cell phone - just in case.

The Legg-Mason Classic is a much smaller event than the US Open, which is one of the four Grand Slams of professional tennis.  In 2009, we actually travelled to Flushing Meadows with a group from the county.  And we managed to lose each other there among the huge mass of people.  Unfortunately, between us, we had only one cell phone and there was a lot of ground to cover.

It made for several very anxious moments, but all was well in the end.  Still, we learned a lesson from that and a couple of similar experiences.  Last year, at the US Open, we were able to watch one of the early matches of Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, this year's defending champion, who beat Switzerland's Roger Federer in the 2009 final. 

At 6'6", Del Potro towers over Federer and most of the other top seeds.  He also has a wicked service game. 

This year, however, Del Potro was injured earlier in the season.  It appears that he will not defend his title in the 2010 US Open, although there are conflicting reports.  Del Potro did not participate in the Legg-Mason Classic, but another one of Federer's nemeses, Tomáš Berdych from the Czech Republic, who beat Federer in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon earlier this year, did.

We were able to watch Berdych play Marcos Baghdatis, a Greek Cypriot, whose recent tennis matches have been nothing less than inspired.  Baghdatis beat Berdych soundly.

Over the weekend, Baghdatis went on to become runner-up in the Legg-Mason against David Nalbandian, another Argentine player.  We'll see what eventually happens at the US Open.  As a Swiss resident, I am also a Federer fan, so I will be wishing Roger well.