la Coupe Rogers

Bo's boss used to work for a tennis magazine and he offered us free tickets to the first round of la Coupe Rogers. It's one of the bigger tournaments and it's held right here in Montréal. In fact, every ticket came with two free rides on the métro. Rogers is a big telecommunications company in Canada that sponsors the tournament. The tickets were for the secondary stadium, not the main one, so I didn't see the biggest names (both Williams sisters and Davenport withdrew anyway), but the matches are usually more hotly contested on the Banque Nationale court.

As you can see, the stands are practically empty (because it was a Tuesday and because it was only the first round of play). Which means you can sit pretty much wherever you want as long as you're willing to move if the person who actually holds the tickets to your seat comes along. Here's one fellow spectator who seems to be considering her options very carefully: "Hmmm, now where should I sit?" I followed the shade a bit (there wasn't much of it to follow). But I moved around and sat closer to the action for a while too. Only a teeny bit of sunburn.

I arrived right as the first match was beginning, here's a photo of Maria Kirilenko, a Russian player currently ranked 20th in the world. She beat Anne Keothavong from Great Britain rather easily.

The second match I watched was Canada vs. the USA. Who do I root for? Jill Craybas, the 33 year-old American beat Sharon Fichman the 18 year-old from Toronto

in her first big tournament. If you look up to the pair of guys with hats on, that's where the ball is that Craybas is about to serve.

The last match I watched (Bo joined me for this one) was Flavia Pennetta, from Italy and ranked 18th in the world, vs. Olga Savchuk, who is Ukrainian. It was an exciting match. Savchuk, clearly the underdog, beat Pennetta 6-1 in the first set. Pennetta fought tooth and nail to win the second set 7-5 and kept the momentum just enough to eek out the third set 6-4. Pennetta was an excellent server and had at least a half a dozen aces, the only aces I saw all day. Here she is receiving.


It was a fun day. Next year the women will play in Toronto and the men will come play in Montréal, it alternates year to year. I may sign up to be a volunteer. Got me thinking a bit about tennis again. Yesterday I played for the first time in about five years (the 2nd time in about ten years or more!) with one of Bo's friends. I can feel it today. I'm not planning on waiting another five years this time. Anyone for tennis?