Two tickets to the River Oaks Clay Court Championships...$40
One night in a hotel...$120
One autographed tennis ball...Priceless!
Let me start at the beginning. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in March with the usual dinner out.
Part two of our celebration took place this past weekend. On Sunday, we drove to Houston, visited my mom and brother, played a little tennis, and ate dinner at the original, newly refurbished, Pappadeaux's on Westheimer.
Afterward, we drove by the site of my first childhood home on Skyline Drive.
The house is gone.
Standing in its place is this very nice, modern apartment complex.
And a very large radio tower.
Then we drove by my second childhood home, also on Skyline Drive, just a few blocks west. It still looks the same as it did when we moved 40 years ago. Thankfully, someone has finally replaced my "flower power" half curtains with some wood blinds!
Monday morning we did a quick tour of the Galleria, (including Niemann Marcus) before heading over to River Oaks Country Club. Once there, we strolled around the outer courts, watching some final round qualifying matches and a number of players on the practice courts. Shortly before noon we went to our seats in the West Grandstand.
There were fewer than 50 people in the arena at that time, and the M.C. (the man in the red shirt at the net post) was welcoming the spectators. He asked, "Who's here for the whole week?" and a few people clapped. Then he asked, "Who's here just for the day?" Thinking that Mark would also clap, I clapped.
Immediately, the man pointed to me and said he was going to hit me a tennis ball. A few minutes earlier I had seen him hit a ball to a man, who wasn't able to catch it. The M.C. hit the ball from his position at the net post right to me! And I caught it! It was a brand new ball with the US Open logo (but not autographed).
Then the players were introduced. We watched a doubles match featuring Xavier "X-Man" Malisse (left, below) and Michael Russell versus Ryan Harrison and Donald Young. Malisse and Russell won the first set fairly easily, then Harrison and Young found their game. The match went to a third set, which was a 10-point super tiebreaker. Harrison and Young prevailed.
During the match, I skimmed through the tournament program and discovered that the M.C. was Wayne Bryan, father of twins Bob and Mike Bryan. Bob and Mike are the top-ranked doubles team in the world. They played college tennis at Stanford for two years before turning pro. In their second year at Stanford, Stanford won the national team title, Bob won the singles title, and the twins won the doubles title. They represent the US in Davis Cup and have won 8 Grand Slam doubles titles.
After the doubles match, we decided to visit the practice courts again, hoping to see some "big name" players. We struck gold!
After the doubles match, we decided to visit the practice courts again, hoping to see some "big name" players. We struck gold!
On the first court we visited, Bob and Mike Bryan were playing practice games against another doubles team. We enjoyed watching them practice for 30 or 40 minutes.
Mark watching the Bryan Brothers (above)
Mike (left) and Bob Bryan
The next player we saw was 6'9" John Isner.
He was pretty easy to spot! Isner earned All-American honors playing at the University of Georgia and is currently the number two ranked American, behind Andy Roddick. He seemed to be having an off day, so we didn't watch him very long.
Next, we spotted 6'6" Sam Querry. Querry is the third-highest ranked American player and has a huge serve. He holds the record for the most consecutive aces in a match...ten, against James Blake. Querry was practicing with another up and coming American, Ryan Harrison. Harrison is only 17 and has already won one ATP tournament. While Mark watched them practice, I observed two women who appeared to be talking about Mark. He was up close to the court, while I was farther back, in the shade. After the practice was over, one of the women asked Mark if he knew who the players were. Mark said, "One of them is Sam Querry." Then the woman said, "Are you his dad?" Mark said no, and a man standing nearby said, "Wrong answer! You should've said yes and that you'd give her an autograph for fifty bucks!" We all got a big laugh out of that one!
And now, about that autographed ball...on our way around the grandstand, I spotted Wayne Bryan in one of the walkways under the grandstand. I asked Mark if I should ask him to autograph the ball he hit to me earlier in the day. He said go for it.
We had a great time!!
