Tennis Weekend in Cincinnati

Two weeks ago I headed to Cincinnati for a weekend with my friend Erik.  We’re both big tennis fans, and so many months ago we decided to meet in Cincy (he’s from Cleveland) to attend the Western Southern Open.  The tournament is the largest in the Midwest and features both a men’s and women’s tournament featuring the top players from each tour.  I know, how could I have not gone to this event sooner?

We decided to get tickets for the Friday and Saturday day sessions, since that gave us the most time to see matches on multiple courts, and we thought both a day and night session might be a little tennis (and sitting on your butt) overload.  We were pretty confident we could find plenty of other things to do in Cincinnati to occupy are time, and we were hoping to spend some time planning our new Purdue blog, GoBoilers.net.  However, we had so much fun that we didn’t talk about our blog plans nearly enough.

We arrive at the tennis center, about 35 minutes northeast of Cincinnati well before matches started, as a heavy rain had just passed over the city.  While the staff were drying off the courts, we got to see the warm ups for players like Na Li (the eventual winner), Caroline Wozniacki, and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  At this quarterfinal stage of the tournament, matches were being played on their main court, grandstand court, and one side court with some bleachers.  Everyone had tickets for a seat on the main court, and ours were quite far away, so we decided to camp out on the grandstand court to get close seats (most are general admission there), and watch those matches.  The main court was featuring the men’s quarterfinals, featuring Novak Djokovic and Juan Marin del Potro playing lesser competition, so both were expected to win, and we had tickets to watch the men’s semifinal matches the following day.

On the grandstand court we found front row seats right behind the baseline.  I was quite excited.  My first tennis tournament and I was going to be sitting within arms reach of the players, with an amazing view.  The slate featured some great matches:

• Caroline Wozniacki vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, finishing up their previous round match that was rained out the night before.  Wozniacki’s boyfriend, golf star Rory McIlroy, was in attendance, and think Erik was more excited to see him than the tennis starlet.  Wozniacki, the former #1-ranked player, lost the match (and didn’t too well at the US Open last week).  She has the skill set to be a top tier player again, but not the consistency.
• Next was Venus Williams vs. Sam Stosur.  Williams made the tournament as an unseeded wildcard, after missing much of the year with health problems.  This was a fantastic three-set match that really showed both women on the top of their games.  Stosur won the 2011 US Open and has developed into quite the power player.  It was so much fun rooting for both women, and in the end Williams prevailed.
• The next match on the grandstand court was not as compelling to us, so we planned to venture into the main arena to see Serena Williams play Angelique Kerber, the 6th-ranked German. Our seats were quite far away from the action, but we made friends with a local couple we get season tickets every year.  They were planning to stay in the front row of the grandstand court, so they let us use their seats on center court.  We really appreciated their generosity, because the view was fantastic.  Unfortunately the level of play wasn’t.  Serena had a horrible match, losing in straight sets and throwing multiple tamper tantrums on the court.  She yelled at her racket, the court, the sky, smashed a racket into the court, and nearly cried multiple times.  I’m not sure the issue, but Kerber played great and with lots of class.  I’m definitely a fan now and rooting for her at the US Open.
• Since that match didn’t last as long, we were able to hurry back to the grandstand court to watch the final set of Canadian Milos Raonic vs. Stanislas Wawrinka.  Erik and I had seen Wawrinka play at our trip to Alabama for the US vs. Switzerland Davis cup match a few years earlier, and he’s continued to improve. Both men were unseeded in Cincinnati but have played well enough to earn seeds at the US Open.  Wawrinka won in three sets, which meant he’d play countryman Roger Federer in the semifinals on Saturday.  On the grandstand court, I was able to sit in the area reserved for special guests, including the family and coaches of the players.  That was pretty cool, but awkward as I clearly wasn’t supposed to be there.
• Almost all of the day matches had concluded, but we ran over to the third court to catch the thrilling end to the Bryan brothers three-set doubles victory. I’m a huge fan of the Bryans (twins Mike and Bob who have been one of the best doubles teams in the world for the last 10 years), and after the won, they showed off their recent trophy – a gold medal from the London Olympics.

This is how great our seats were!

This is how bad our center court seats were (actually, they were worse)

A view of the third court with bleachers

I was actually really impressed with the food offerings at the tournament.  They featured local restaurants with a high variety of food.  I had a delicious lunch of fried chicken and waffles from Taste of Belgium, with a maple syrup and chipotle sauce.

Erik checking out the ESPN set

Wozniacki and Pavlyuchenkova warming up.  Unusual to do so on the same court so long before their match, let alone on the same side (blame the rain).

Na Li (the eventual champion) practicing before her match

Wozniacki during her match

Golfer Rory McIlroy (left) watching his girlfriend lose.  Their box wasn’t too happy.

Wozniacki serving

Pavlyuchenkova hit with some great power

She needed to get more first serves in

Sam Stosur, who had a lot of fans in the crowd, despite playing against an American. Check out the guns.

Stosur with a big serve, Venus returning

Venus with the backhand

And stretching out for a forehand

Venus with an even bigger serve

Serena, during one of the few moments she wasn’t complaining

Kerber with the lefty serve

Serena hit some huge shots but was just really inconsistent

Bob Ryan’s gold medal!

Raonic serving

Wawrinka serving to Raonic

Raonic had a huge serve, as most of the top men’s players do.  I’d be lucky to get a racket on any of them.

After a hot day in the sun, and tons of great tennis action, we hurried back to our hotel to clean up, enjoy our complimentary beers at the hotel bar, and head into Cincinnati for some dinner and drinks. Erik did some great research and learned that the up-and-coming Over the Rhine area was a good spot. We enjoyed dinner at Senate (seriously the best poutine and gourmet hot dogs of my life), and drinks at a slew of unique bars with interesting back stories:

• Japp’s – this great old bar from the 1800’s that hadn’t changed a bit
• Neons – a huge bar and outdoor area, with lots of young college-aged people.  We made some friends from Chicago (did I mention the Cubs were in town?!) and played some bocce (we won, of course).

• MOTR Pub – live music, kind of a dark dive, but really fun
• Lackman = a mellow spot to end the night (the bars close kind of early in Cincinnati, so we stayed as long as we could)

The next morning we had breakfast at this great little German place, Oleg’s Tavern, before heading to the tournament.  Seriously, the food was fantastic and I’d definitely hunt the place down again if I was within 20 minutes.  We had some tasty goetta and spaetzle with our breakfast, where you are waited on by chef Oleg (a Ukrainian dude).  He’s a bit terse, but very happy when you like his food (even if your presence interrupts the soccer match he is watching).

At the tournament we had to sit in our upperdeck seats, but at least we got to watch two riveting men’s semifinal matches.  The first featured Novak Djokovic (the #2 ranked man in the world) against Juan Martin del Potro (#8 in the world and the 2009 US Open winner).  Djokovic won in straight sets and played incredibly well.  The second semifinal match pitted world #1 (and greatest tennis player of all time) Roger Federer against Wawrinka.  Federer also won convincingly in straight sets (although the first set did go to a tiebreaker) against his former doubles partner (they won gold at the 2008 Olympics), setting up what looked like an epic final match on Sunday.  We didn’t stick around to watch on Sunday (or pay the huge ticket price), but Federer destroyed Djokovic to win the tournament.

After Federer won, I sprinted (literally) over to the grandstand court to get a front row seat for the men’s doubles semifinal pitting the Bryan brothers against Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau, the Wimbledon runner-ups the last three years.  The crowd was really into this match, making it far more fun than the top-billed matches on center court.  After coming from behind to win a second-set tiebreaker, the Bryans eventually lost in three sets, but the match featured some huge points.  The crowd was disappointed by the result, but not the level of play.  The victors serving was so tremendous it was nearly impossible to get a point against their aces.

Djokovic vs. del Potro

Federer’s smooth one-handed backhand

Bob Bryan serving

Doubles action!

We were tired from another sunny day of non-stop tennis, but we didn’t let that slow us down and headed straight downtown to see the Cubs play the Reds.  We were able to get tickets on the street for $5 since the game was already in the second inning, and then we enjoyed some barbeque and free peanuts while watching the game from tabletops down the right field line.  We didn’t catch a home run, but we did cheer the Cubs to a high-scoring victory despite the enemy territory.  There were a lot of Cubs fans who made the trip, despite the fact that the team is horrible and playing many youngsters from the minor leagues.

We celebrated by walking across the river into Newport, Kentucky.  I’d never heard of this town, but it had the first Hofbrauhaus in the U.S., so I was in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the one in Munich (although I didn’t really care for the one in New York). On our way to the beer garden, we stopped into the Thompson House, and old mansion on a hill converted into a bar and concert venue.  There weren’t any shows on their three stages that night, but we did enjoy the ambiance of the place (although it had a dark, dingy, dirty frat house feel).

At the Hofbrauhaus we enjoyed some dunkel and Bavarian-style pretzels, as well as a laugh riot as we made many new interesting friends.  Unfortunately it would take another ten paragraphs to explain that in more detail.  Overall the trip was a great time with Erik, and I think we maximized the fun to be had in Cincinnati that weekend.  I can’t wait to do it next year, as long as our wives let us.

So GQ

The real highlight of Super Bowl week in Indianapolis was our opportunity to attend the GQ party.  Every year, GQ throws a large invite-only Super Bowl party in the host city.  Did I know this two months ago?  No, but thanks to an amazingly fortuitous work connection a couple weeks prior, Lynne and I found ourselves on the guest list.

The event was held at the Stutz Building, about one mile north of the Super Bowl Village, which kept the event a little mysterious and private.  Co-hosted by GQ and Lacoste, and sponsored by Patron, we knew there’d be a variety of celebrities in attendance, but since it was invite-only, there wasn’t a lot publicized ahead of time since they didn’t need to sell tickets.  All we knew was that QuestLove (from The Roots) was going to deejay, and LL Cool J would be performing.  Just as a frame of reference, buying a ticket to some of the other Super Bowl parties ran $800 - $1,000, and the reviews for those events were quite mixed since people were packed in shoulder to shoulder with little access to the famous folks.

We had a fantastic time at the event.  Celebrities walked the red carpet and got interviewed but then were fairly accessibly to meet.  We didn’t take that many pictures since it was dark and we only had Lynne’s iPhone camera, and honestly, taking pics seemed a little tacky since this wasn’t your average fan event.  They served a lot of decent hors d’oeuvres throughout the evening and sponsor Patron provided tons of fancy tequila cocktails. 

So what celebrities did we meet and see?  When we first arrived, Hines Ward was on the red carpet (I later had the chance to talk with him), and we quickly got our bearings.  The venue wasn’t that large, so it was easy to stand up top in the back and survey to see who you wanted to meet.  As we were doing so, I noticed that directly to my right was Purdue’s Curtis Painter.  I gave him a quick “Boiler Up” and handshake but really had nothing more to say.  I’ve met Painter before, and as we continued to walk around the venue I realized that no one was talking to him, likely because he’s not that famous in comparison, not as recognizable, and people in Indianapolis (who aren’t Purdue fans) probably don’t really like him.

Patron had set up a giant photo studio to get professional photos taken, complete with swanky props and Patron bottles.  We had a lot of fun doing that, and you can see some of the evidence below (way nicer than our iPhone photos).  Lacoste set up an area to create custom screen-printed Super Bowl shirts, so we made a couple and took some home for our generous babysitters who we kept up quite late.

Since Lacoste co-sponsored the event, Andy Roddick, one of their biggest endorsements, attended the event, and as a tennis geek I was quite excited.  I had the chance to say hi a couple times, but you could tell that he wasn’t too excited to be there.  It’s not like he wasn’t having fun (he really enjoyed LL Cool J’s set), he just seemed tired.  His wife, model Brooklyn Decker, on the other hand, might have had more fun than anyone.  She was very nice and apparently quite big pals with Erin Andrews.  Near the end of the evening I did try to get a picture with Erin but got shot down, boo!  She may or may not have been quite intoxicated (trying not to get sued here), and you can see she and Brooklyn have quite the red carpet conversation.  I actually lose major man points as upon her arrival, Erin and Brooklyn walked right past me (I had to help them get to Roddick in the front row), and I didn’t even realize who they were even as Erin stepped on my foot.  That’s how transfixed I was on LL Cool J’s fantastic set that got the crowd really enthused.

Ah, LL, what can we say.  He was honestly the nicest person we met the entire night, and I seriously think he was treated like the biggest celebrity there (maybe that’s due to his two gigantic bodyguards though).  Lynne was able to get a picture with him because he seemed to be the only celeb that it was cool to do that with, and even Roddick was getting his picture with LL.

I also got to meet Greg Jennings from the Packers (took me all night to figure out who he was), guys from The Roots (who were in attendance to watch their boy QuestLove deejay), and Troy Aikman (firmest hand shake of my life).  Troy spent a significant portion of the night chatting with Erin Andrews, quite closely if I might add.  They must be great friends (still trying to be careful not to get sued with what I write here).

Hines Ward didn’t seem to be having too much fun, and it was funny to see him (and others) avoid getting pictures taken with their dates, I suppose to avoid the gossip columns.  I also struck up a conversation with a gentleman as we waited for the restroom, only to discover it was the Lacoste CEO.  Yes, I already reached out to him about connecting with DC.org.

Other celebs we saw but didn’t talk to: JR Martinez (Dancing with the Stars), Terrell Owens, David Arquette, Joe Manganiello (True Blood), Peter Berg, Giants owner Steve Tisch, and former Miss Indiana/USA finalist Brittany Mason. We left as the party was winding down and apparently missed Adam Levine (Maroon 5).

Lynne and I were both disappointed that Jon Hamm (Mad Men) didn’t show up.  We had heard he might attend, and I had prepared a great opening line to meet him, but he got held up at the Playboy party, go figure.

On the way out we ran into Guy Fieri, which was fun, and I gave him a little secret ATO love (he’s an Alpha Tau Omega alum from UNLV), and he totally got it and replied, “You too…brother!”  Overall we both had a great time at this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Lynne did an admirable job keeping me from looking too stalker-ish.

You can see much higher quality pictures at the GQ site: (you can see Lynne and I in the front left of the first pic, in my tan blazer).

Pictures from the Patron photo booth

Son of Man, anyone?

Walking the red carpet (after all the famous people had)

 

Does “LL” stand for “Lynne Loves” Cool J?  He insisted that his sunglasses be on for every photo, but was far more down to earth when you talked to him

Even Andy Roddick was excited to get his picture taken with LL.  Check out one of his two huge bodyguards staring me down.

Brooklyn Decker looking happy the entire night

  Erin Andrews and Troy Aikman spent a lot of time talking

QuestLove was a great deejay

Super Bowl Spectacular

While most people on the coasts don’t give Indianapolis a lot of credit, the city sure can host an event.  Remember how great the 2010 Final Four was?  That was just practice for this year’s Super Bowl, and the city was as impressive as the 1985 Chicago Bears defense (OK, I’ll make that the first and last awkward football analogy in this post). Of course it helped that the weather was warm (50 degrees+) and there was hardly any rain.

On the Wednesday prior to the game, we made the short drive downtown to check out all the festivities. While the area around Georgia street was quite packed, we enjoyed seeing some of the free concerts, roman numerals on Monument Circle, ESPN studios filming live shows, and zip line (unfortunately there wasn't a chance to ride on it). What we didn't enjoy were the massive crowds (and it got far worse the other evenings later in the week) and the plethora of cigarette smoke and Bud Light - Super Bowl Village basically smelled like a giant bar, which made it a little kid-unfriendly.  Bud Light aluminum bottles were $8, yet people seemed to be OK shelling out that much money to drink horrible beer outside on the street.

(Apologies for the quality of the pictures – the only camera we had for this event was Lynne’s iPhone)

Eliza really enjoyed watching the ESPN shows being filmed in Pan Am Plaza, and she even waved to the camera and could be seen in the background on one of the shows.  Of course, her favorite thing about the ESPN area was seeing her favorite TV personalities, Wilbon and Kornheiser, on a gigantic screen.  They weren’t there live, but PTI (and all ESPN programming) was being showed on huge screens around the area.  I’ve trained her well, and yes, I rocked the Drew Brees Super Bowl MVP shirt, much to the chagrin of non-Purdue Indianapolis folks (the Colts lost that year), but with all the Patriot paraphernalia for them to boo, it didn’t get much notice.

Eliza’s other favorite moment was watching some cheerleaders perform on the street, which had been turned into a giant football field.  You can see the zip line overhead.

At the end of our evening, Eliza enjoyed all the music that was being played and loved running around the Monument dancing and yelling.  Meanwhile, we were more interested in watching Jimmy Fallon get interviewed inside the theater where he did his show on site that entire week.

And after all of that fun, it turned out that the thing that excited Eliza the most was something that can always be found downtown – the horse drawn carriages.  She loved seeing the large horses, petting them, and talking to them.

Here’s hoping Indy gets another Super Bowl in the next 10 years – as a non-native I can honestly say they greatly deserve it for running such a smooth show that seemed to keep everyone entertained.

You can see how we enjoyed the festivities without the kids in the next post…