Letters for George: Tennis Lollapalooza

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tennis Lollapalooza

Dear George,

Thanks to our friends Paula and Frank, we got out to Cincinnati’s Western & Southern Tennis Tournament this week. This used to be the ATP, and before that the Tri-State Tournament, but now, for the first time, they've combined the men's ATP and the women's WTA tournaments into a single event, bringing in nearly all of the top pro tennis players in the world. The men's draw includes Djokovich, Nadal, Federer, Murray, Fish, and most of the other top-ranked sixty players. Likewise, the women's draw has included Serena Williams, Sharapova, Wozniacki, Zvonareva, Li Na, etc. Aside from the Grand Slams, Cincinnati is one of only five events in the world to combine top-level men's and women's competition in a single tournament (the others: Rome, Madrid, Miami, and Indian Wells). To accommodate the newly expanded tournament, the tennis center built six new courts, a grand entry plaza, and a bigger retail area. Last Sunday Katja and I saw James Blake vs. Marcos Bhagdati. Then Donna joined us on Thursday, and we watched Roger Federer vs. Blake and Jelena Jankovic vs. Francesca Schiavone. We had a great time, and it’s exciting to be out and about in the big-time tennis world. Here are some photos which give a feel for our adventure and how the Tennis Center is looking these days.

Love,

Dave

G-mail Comments

-Jennifer M (8-21): so fancy!

1 comment:

David L.October 10, 2011 at 2:17 AM
I played with Wilson Tennis Rackets all my playing life (roughly 45 years). I agree that they gave me a better life. I think now and then of resuming, but time well tell.
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MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

Sun., Mar. 10. Daylight Saving Time starts. Clocks move forward one hour at 2 a.m. // Sun., Mar. 17. St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrating one of Ireland’s patron saints and Irish-American culture in the U.S. // Wed., Mar. 20. Spring Equinox. One of two annual equinoxes in which the length of night and day are nearly equal. // Thurs., Mar. 21. World Poetry Day. Promoting linguistic expression through poetry. // Sat., Mar. 23. Purim starts. A Jewish holiday which commemorates Jews being saved from extermination in Persia. // (Source: wincalendar.com)

CINCINNATI NEWS

CINCINNATI NEWS

According to ratings by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, Cincinnati ranks 4th best in parks among the nation’s 100 largest cities. 88% of Cincinnati residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Neighborhoods where most people identify as a person of color have access to 4% less park space than those in predominantly white neighborhoods. Park amenities ranked high for Cincinnati in categories of basketball hoops, playgrounds, bathrooms, recreation, senior centers, and splash pads. Dog parks were much lower, only 1.6 dog parks per 100K people. Cities ranked higher than Cincinnati were Arlington, VA, St. Paul, MN, and Washington, D.C. (wcpo.com, 5-5-22)

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I have one pair of prescription glasses for reading, one for distance (driving, movies). I also have a dozen $1.00 reading glasses from the Dollar Store so I can keep my prescription pair permanently on our dining room table. Of course I lost my distance glasses two years ago. I’ve been sure they was somewhere around the house, but I’ve scoured everywhere. Last week I got ready to go to my writers group and picked out a pair of reading glasses from my bedside table. One had orange and purple rims, one green and yellow, and one dark brown. I chose the conservative dark brown pair. At my group I tried reading with them, but everything was blurry. I was sure they weren’t Katja’s glasses, but they certainly weren’t my reading glasses. Back home Katja suggested that maybe they were my distance glasses. I looked out the window, and the house down the block was in clearer focus. So my lost distance glasses have been sitting next to my bed for the past two years.

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Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888. His father, a prosperous businessman, sent him to Milton Academy and Harvard where he excelled. At Harvard Eliot studied philosophy, earning a master’s degree under George Santayana. He then studied linguistics, poetry, and philosophy at the Sorbonne and at Oxford University, settling in England after his studies, working as a banker, and writing poetry. Eliot published his first masterpiece, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in 1917, and he followed it with “The Waste Land” in 1922, a long poem that had tremendous impact on Western literature. Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted Eliot’s 1939 children’s book, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” into the stage musical “Cats”, one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948, Eliot died in 1965. (Tessitore, Extraordinary American Writers, 2004)

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We watched the total eclipse on TV, not wanting to risk our retinas. I read “An Ode to April” at my writers’ group and watched episode 1 of Ripley on Netflix (too scary for Katja). I went to the fitness center and did FaceTime with Donna. Katja and I ate out at Dewey’s (pizza and salad), Izzie’s (pastrami Reuben), and Lil Goodies (softserve sundaes). We took the tax info to our accountant, too late and requiring an extesion. Katja went to the Hair Salon. We wound up the week with Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office, a chilling PBS drama.