Tennis Anyone?

Today my dad and I spent the afternoon at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. A guy in my dad's ward who works for the company that runs the tournament invited us to watch from the comfort of an air-conditioned box area.

I was only slightly familiar with the players in the afternoon singles semifinal match--Marcos Baghdatis (ranked 25th in the world, from Cyprus) (I think I've seen him play once or twice on television; Andre Agassi's final career victory--a grueling five-setter--came across Baghdatis in the 3rd round of the 2006 U.S. Open) and Xavier Malisse (ranked 62, from Belgium) (I had never seen him play)--but I enjoyed the match.

Malisse

Baghdatis

At the outset, Malisse appeared to have a superior serve and forehand, but Baghdatis was the more consistent player. He rolled in the first set, 6-2. There was some drama in the second set when Baghdatis, down 4 games to 3, suddenly pulled up during a point, grabbed his ankle, and fell to the ground. It appeared that he had twisted his ankle. After an injury timeout, however, Baghdatis returned to the court and managed to hold serve, tying the set 4-4. Baghdatis broke Malisse's serve to go up 6-5, but Malisse returned the favor in the next game. In the tiebreak, Baghdatis jumped out to a 6-1 lead before finally closing out Malisse, 7-4.

We watched the first set of the afternoon doubles match semifinal before heading home.

A song dedicated to Miriam and Tess:

Fast As You Can (Fiona Rides the Metro)