Shanghai Tennis Open

Our friend Alejandro is a tennis junkie. Not only did he get a full-ride scholarship back in college but he also did a stint playing professionally in ATP. So naturally, even though he is now in China, he can't keep away. While the rest of us have been figuring out which bars or restaurants to try out, Alejandro has already made Chinese tennis friends. And when the Shanghai Open came to town, Alejandro was able to ask these Chinese friends to help get us student tickets for only 50 CNY! So on our Tuesday off from University, Jitka, Alejandro and I ventured out to The Qi Zhong Stadium which is an hour outside the stadium. I have never been to a professional tennis event, so it was a very exciting experience. We arrived early and we were first able to watch the famed Bryan Brothers (all-time doubles team record holders) warm-up. Next, we saw a frenzy of Chinese line around a court and discovered it was World No. 2 Novak Djokovic and World No. 3 Andy Murray warming up! I didn't get to see much over the swarm of Chinese heads but I was able to catch a glimpse and snap a few pictures. We were much more tactical when it came to the warm-up of Roger Federer however. We arrived at the court over 1 hour in advance to save our seats so that when the Swiss maestro finally came to the court, we were in the first row! The Roger fan club was in full force with posters and a big "roger" chant. His warm-up partner, Italian Fabio Fognini seemed less amused. Due to recent death threats, Roger almost did not attend the Shanghai Open. But in fear that Djokovic might overtake him in the rankings with a win in Shanghai, Federer decided to attend anyways but with an extra security force. These security guards completely enclosed the court. Luckily, after the warm-up, the fans still were able to convince Roger to sign a few autographs. I tried my best to get a signature on my ticket but was stampeded by other, apparently, more determined Chinese fans.

After the warm-ups, we saw quite a number of matches including:

• John Isner (USA) vs. Kevin Anderson (S.Africa)
• Radek Stepanek (CZH) vs. Lleyton Hewitt (GBR)
• Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) vs. Fabio Fognini (ITA) 
• Fernando Verdasco (SPA) vs. Juan Monaco (ARG)
• Feliciano Lopez (SPA) vs. Alejandro Falla (COL)
• Anderson / Querrey vs. Dolgopolov / Tsonga 
•  Berdrych / Zimonjic vs. Lipsky / Gonzalez

In total we spent nearly 12 hours at the stadium, saw 6 matches on over 5 different courts. It was a great experience and I'm very happy I got the opportunity to go (Thanks Alejandro!).

*Please note the following pictures were all taken from my iPhone and do not represent the best quality.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic

World No. 3 Andy Murray

World No. 1 and dream guy Roger Federer

Roger and his fans

If you look closely, maybe you can see a piece of me lying on the ground underneath all the pushy Chinese fans.

So I didn't get my ticket signed, but I got to wear Alejandro's hat long enough for this picture. (Roger's signature is on the right side)

Double's match with Jitka's favorite: Czech star Berdych

Doubles match between Anderson / Querrey & Dolgopolov / Tsonga

Final match of the day on center court: Fernando Verdasco (SPA) vs. Juan Monaco (ARG)