Saturday, December 16, 2006

Blackrock Masters

For all of you tennis fans out there this one is for you. The Blackrock Masters is the final tournament for the has-beens of the tennis world and is held at the rather swanky location of the Royal Albert Hall. We splurged and bought tickets and found ourselves occupying a box in the second tier with another couple. The atmostphere wasn't quite as loud and raucous as we are used to and I was feeling slightly underdressed in jeans while Steve and everyone else arrived in suits.

Royal Albert Hall













McEnroe was the first match and he lived up to his reputation - spoilt brat. We thought that he may have been playing up to the crowd the first couple of times, but after the 18th questioned call it was just tedious. The crowd did switch from pro McEnroe to pro Anders (the swedish opponent), especially after he aimed a ball at the very big organ. McEnroe still won.

McEnroe vs Anders













The doubles match that followed was an exhibition game where all the trick shots come out in a single set. It was easily the highlight of the night so far. The players were Bahrami and Gullikson vs Fleming and Willander. The crowd even livened up. Would have liked there to be another set.

Final match for the night was Marcelo Rios and Jeremy Bates. Basically just big serves and not interesting, especially after the doubles woke us all up. It also didn't start until nearly 11pm so the place was starting to empty and that included us.

Marcelo Rios warming up














We have entered the ballot for Wimbledon so here's hoping we manage some tickets!!

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