bublikking
New User
Ended up getting center court day tickets for Tuesday & Wednesday!! Cannot wait as well as the community day this Saturday
Cincinnati 2024 - Southern and Western Open
- Thread starter ClownCar96
- Start date
bublikking
New User
I’m desperate to see bublik
Just got back from Cincy.
Got there Sunday night and saw session 2 (Monday Morning), session 3 (Monday night), session 4 (Tuesday morning) and session 5 (Tuesday night). Tickets ranged about 80-90 plus fees. So around 100 a session. We mixed it up with two sessions of 300 tickests for Center Court, 1 session of 200's for center court and 1 session at Grand stand.
Outside of practice sessions for the big stars--Alcaraz, Sabalanka, Gauff, it was pretty easy to get access to the side courts (everything but Center and Grandstand) and on most of the side courts we were able to sit in the 1st to 3rd row. But be careful sometimes a first row seat is open because it is directly under the sun (so bring sunscreen and hats). The hard seats to get during the day were often the shaded ones or close ones.
For Grandstand and Center Court, we never had an issues getting into the stadium. Didn't seem to matter if you had a Grandstand ticket. Watched Kostyk vs. Mertens and we wound up sitting just next to the Players box. On center we tried to sit in the shade and respectfully moved out of seats if we were in someone elses. Grandstand probably got more crowded than Grandstand for the bigger matches. Foe vs. Fokina was a full house and having Grandstand tickets paid off their sitting right on the baseline. In Center, Saw a set of the Serve Fest for Shelton vs. Opelka and that got a little croweded, so just had to move once. Our 200 level seats for Kachenov vs. Cerundolo were great even though the match was a dud. Even 300 aint' too bad. Seems that Ushers were more concerned with helping you out than harassing you about tickets and would just come if there was a dispute.
On Center, Grandstand and some of the out courts they replaced a lot of bleacher seating with boxed seating with cushioned seats. Vary nice. But a little smaller seat for my bigger buddies.
The tournament shifted a day compared to previous years so the Final is on Monday and now qualifiying didn't end until Monday night. In the past we saw all round one action on Monday. But this year watched qualies in the AM with some round 1 and round 1 at night. So our Monday was lighter in quality and number of matches compared to Mondays in previous years. Tuesday was chock full of good matches. I'd also say that Monday night was just a lighter schedule after 6 not a lot going on outside of Center and Grandstand and I think Grandstand was a dubs match. So the value of what we got from a Monday night ticket was meh. During Monday day lots of qualy matches, so a lot to see just lower ranked players.
If they continue to shift the tournament this way, it makes going to the tournament harder for a few days. Coming from Chicagoland it is nice to drive out Sunday and get 2 days of first round matches. Now if we leave Sunday we get to see qualies--which is OK. When we leave Sunday and come back Wednesday, we only have to take 3 days off from work. If we wanted to shift a day, drive out Monday and come home Thursday, now I'm taking 4 days off. Not the worst, but not the best.
Regardless, overall I think they did a good job. A lot of people there, but rarely did I have to wait in long lines to get into courts. Food court got busy at lunch and dinner, but still not horrible lines. Most of the food I ate was good, a little higher than if you ate outside the venue, but not horrible. I enjoyed the Italina/Argentinian Place, the Taco place and the Greek Place. Ice cream was good too.
A little disappointing is there was no racquet or tennis equpiment vendors on site. The tennis store was just clothing from the various brands and Cincy swag. I bought a towel, some socks and a cap. I was hoping to see the RF01 from wilson there, but none on sight. My buddy also likes to try out the various shoes for fit since locally it is harder and harder to try on shoes at local retailers.
Favorite match I saw was Women's Doubles of Ekaterina Alexandrova/Sizikova vs. Babos/N. Kichenok. I believe it was on court 11. We sat on the first row of the baseline. Lots of great action. All 4 of them crushing returns and then several poaches. Coupled with them changing set up patterns to counter the returner or server. Babos got fired up at times. It was great stuff.
Moutet was fun to watch as he likes to act out. He was on a side court as was ticked off at all the music and announcers talking drifting onto the court. He told the umpire, "I'm trying to work here and there is a circus going on out there!" He wanted it shut down. His antics seemed to work and he beat Fucsovics. Both broke racquets at times of frustration.
Our last match was Putinseva vs. Dart. I didn't realize what a competitor Putinseva was. She seemed pissed at Dart and was dropping Fbombs at herself, her coaches and was ticked the courts were slippery. "The get Fbomb worse year after year" She also turned the corner to win. Man she can rocket the ball.
It is clear Cincy is still a great deal. Get to see a lot of tennis up close.
Got there Sunday night and saw session 2 (Monday Morning), session 3 (Monday night), session 4 (Tuesday morning) and session 5 (Tuesday night). Tickets ranged about 80-90 plus fees. So around 100 a session. We mixed it up with two sessions of 300 tickests for Center Court, 1 session of 200's for center court and 1 session at Grand stand.
Outside of practice sessions for the big stars--Alcaraz, Sabalanka, Gauff, it was pretty easy to get access to the side courts (everything but Center and Grandstand) and on most of the side courts we were able to sit in the 1st to 3rd row. But be careful sometimes a first row seat is open because it is directly under the sun (so bring sunscreen and hats). The hard seats to get during the day were often the shaded ones or close ones.
For Grandstand and Center Court, we never had an issues getting into the stadium. Didn't seem to matter if you had a Grandstand ticket. Watched Kostyk vs. Mertens and we wound up sitting just next to the Players box. On center we tried to sit in the shade and respectfully moved out of seats if we were in someone elses. Grandstand probably got more crowded than Grandstand for the bigger matches. Foe vs. Fokina was a full house and having Grandstand tickets paid off their sitting right on the baseline. In Center, Saw a set of the Serve Fest for Shelton vs. Opelka and that got a little croweded, so just had to move once. Our 200 level seats for Kachenov vs. Cerundolo were great even though the match was a dud. Even 300 aint' too bad. Seems that Ushers were more concerned with helping you out than harassing you about tickets and would just come if there was a dispute.
On Center, Grandstand and some of the out courts they replaced a lot of bleacher seating with boxed seating with cushioned seats. Vary nice. But a little smaller seat for my bigger buddies.
The tournament shifted a day compared to previous years so the Final is on Monday and now qualifiying didn't end until Monday night. In the past we saw all round one action on Monday. But this year watched qualies in the AM with some round 1 and round 1 at night. So our Monday was lighter in quality and number of matches compared to Mondays in previous years. Tuesday was chock full of good matches. I'd also say that Monday night was just a lighter schedule after 6 not a lot going on outside of Center and Grandstand and I think Grandstand was a dubs match. So the value of what we got from a Monday night ticket was meh. During Monday day lots of qualy matches, so a lot to see just lower ranked players.
If they continue to shift the tournament this way, it makes going to the tournament harder for a few days. Coming from Chicagoland it is nice to drive out Sunday and get 2 days of first round matches. Now if we leave Sunday we get to see qualies--which is OK. When we leave Sunday and come back Wednesday, we only have to take 3 days off from work. If we wanted to shift a day, drive out Monday and come home Thursday, now I'm taking 4 days off. Not the worst, but not the best.
Regardless, overall I think they did a good job. A lot of people there, but rarely did I have to wait in long lines to get into courts. Food court got busy at lunch and dinner, but still not horrible lines. Most of the food I ate was good, a little higher than if you ate outside the venue, but not horrible. I enjoyed the Italina/Argentinian Place, the Taco place and the Greek Place. Ice cream was good too.
A little disappointing is there was no racquet or tennis equpiment vendors on site. The tennis store was just clothing from the various brands and Cincy swag. I bought a towel, some socks and a cap. I was hoping to see the RF01 from wilson there, but none on sight. My buddy also likes to try out the various shoes for fit since locally it is harder and harder to try on shoes at local retailers.
Favorite match I saw was Women's Doubles of Ekaterina Alexandrova/Sizikova vs. Babos/N. Kichenok. I believe it was on court 11. We sat on the first row of the baseline. Lots of great action. All 4 of them crushing returns and then several poaches. Coupled with them changing set up patterns to counter the returner or server. Babos got fired up at times. It was great stuff.
Moutet was fun to watch as he likes to act out. He was on a side court as was ticked off at all the music and announcers talking drifting onto the court. He told the umpire, "I'm trying to work here and there is a circus going on out there!" He wanted it shut down. His antics seemed to work and he beat Fucsovics. Both broke racquets at times of frustration.
Our last match was Putinseva vs. Dart. I didn't realize what a competitor Putinseva was. She seemed pissed at Dart and was dropping Fbombs at herself, her coaches and was ticked the courts were slippery. "The get Fbomb worse year after year" She also turned the corner to win. Man she can rocket the ball.
It is clear Cincy is still a great deal. Get to see a lot of tennis up close.
bublikking
New User
I agree with you about the start date being on Monday, I believe it is due to this being an Olympic year the same reason Canada had qualifying same days as cincy so I really hope that it doesn’t occur next year. I also wanted to make it a point to agree with you about the apparel shop, I love looking at the rackets and tennis clothing every year from all the different brands but this year I was quite underwhelmed by the absence of any of that but I went to community day Saturday, Tuesday day session and Wednesday day session (today) and could not have had a better time!
We just returned from a couple days at Cincy, our 13th I think. Per management, Cincinnati will be two full weeks with an expanded field like some of the others Masters 1000s. I’m a bit confused as to why they’re building so many (10) new courts as there will very likely be fewer matches happening at the same time. An entire extra round might take an extra couple of days, not a week.
As I mentioned in the another thread, the new owner seems very focused on the upscale entertainment “experience” more than the tennis. Lots of the players have already expressed their displeasure with the two week format. They want more time in between tournaments for rest and/or training, not more between matches during tournaments.
It seems like fans will likely have access to fewer matches per session via the extended format and players will be on the road more, not less.
As I mentioned in the another thread, the new owner seems very focused on the upscale entertainment “experience” more than the tennis. Lots of the players have already expressed their displeasure with the two week format. They want more time in between tournaments for rest and/or training, not more between matches during tournaments.
It seems like fans will likely have access to fewer matches per session via the extended format and players will be on the road more, not less.
It normally starts on Monday. The qualifiers start the week before and through the weekend before the tournament starts. I agree things may have been off due to the Olympics being just before this event. Usually Montreal is before the tournament.
Normally ******* Tennis ( now called Tennis Point) always would have a bigger tent set up and sell tennis racquets and some equipment. A lot of times the actual racquet manufacturing reps would be there to answer questions and give the ******* Tennis employees a break from talking to customers about racquets and do their sales pitch, so to speak. They would go to an equipment trailer and get the racquets or some equipment they had. They even would do a run from the store and get what you want and bring it back to the event and you could pick it up as you were leaving. It used to be just a big tent but I believe they replaced that tent with a permanent building. Keeping it cool with portable AC units in that high of heat was a nightmare since it was just a tent. A permanent building was a better solution.
Glad you had a good time of your first time there. If you go back their again you will have a reference of what to do next time you go. Which I hope you do go there again. It is a great event and you can close enough to the players to enjoy it even more.
Normally ******* Tennis ( now called Tennis Point) always would have a bigger tent set up and sell tennis racquets and some equipment. A lot of times the actual racquet manufacturing reps would be there to answer questions and give the ******* Tennis employees a break from talking to customers about racquets and do their sales pitch, so to speak. They would go to an equipment trailer and get the racquets or some equipment they had. They even would do a run from the store and get what you want and bring it back to the event and you could pick it up as you were leaving. It used to be just a big tent but I believe they replaced that tent with a permanent building. Keeping it cool with portable AC units in that high of heat was a nightmare since it was just a tent. A permanent building was a better solution.
Glad you had a good time of your first time there. If you go back their again you will have a reference of what to do next time you go. Which I hope you do go there again. It is a great event and you can close enough to the players to enjoy it even more.
I think making it a two week event will have maybe less top players coming there ( making medical excuses and not coming there) and resting up for the bigger US Open coming up. When they made this a two week event years before it was women one week and the men the next week. The women's event did not draw much of a crowd. True, less matches per day per ticket means you will have to buy more tickets to see more.
I knew when this new owner bought this event it would not be the same event as it has bene in the past. He wanted to move it to Charleston SC. That is where he is from PLUS his daughter, Emma Navarro, is a pro tennis player. They came to an agreement to keep this event in Cincinnati for the time being IF the city and surrounding area gave consessions, inprovements into the facility in the tune of $135 MILLION.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...en-tournament-will-it-be-worth-it/ar-AA1opYQi
Yes, I’m aware of the Navarro purchase and ensuing bidding war. The corporate logos and non-tennis commercial presence is increasing at a much faster rate now. Great volunteers (and the equipment tent!) along with such easy, close access to players have always been highlights, not corporate boxes and babbling executives in leisure outfits. They even did away with the fan coin tosses this year.
I’m glad new attendees are still enjoying it - we helped a few ourselves- but as a long-time attendee, I’m concerned about the overall direction.
Yes, I'm worried as it expands the density of tennis over a few days will decrease. Making a two day visit of less value especially if ticket prices keep rising. Also, with 96 draw won't there be more low level first round matches and hence the bigger names even top 20-30 will be playing late in the week?
It was my 3rd time there.
1st two times we went Monday and Tuesday which would be Tues/Wednesday of this year. So many great players seen when we did that. Still good, but a little ligher on day 1.
Also, I believe the equipment shop is still a temporary building--seemed like a giant tent.
I was so hoping to talk to Wilson reps about Roger 01. Oh well.
LOBALOT
Legend
So I am a long Cincinnati attendee and we were there for the day and night sessions and from being a big supporter / fan of the event I am 
with the changes.
First as far as the store. The old retailer (yes competitor of TW) is gone. The shop is the tournament shop which is why you don't have the merchandise and reps, etc. there any more. Just event merchandise to line the pockets of the new owner.
The seating went up a lot in price and they were talking about the new seating they put on to "improve the fan experience". No the new seating went in to cram more rear ends in the stadium. The seats of course are narrower than before and the benches are gone. I am a 5'5" midget and my knees were wedged into the back of the seat in front of me. The seats are hard and uncomfortable / cheaply made. I had to stand on each changeover just to try to return my legs to a 5 pain level. The giant dudes behind me were either doing some form of the splits or had their legs draped over the backs of the chairs in front of them.
I think a memo went out as the food prices went up and the portions went down. I went to our usual sushi stand and my spicy tuna rolls went up to $21 for a box of 8 rolls that were about the diameter of dime, and an inch tall. Since they had rice on the outside of the roll you can imagine how much fish was inside it. Seriously it was about a 2" by 5" by 3/4" mass of food for $21 and was accompanied by a 1/4 tsp of wasabi and 1 pickled ginger shaving. They did have a store with 2 plum sized Empanadas for $18 or 4 tablespoon sized falafel for $15 which was just as crazy.
We payed $467 for night seats for center court. I am not a huge fan of Swiatek and I certainly wasn't going to watch her roll over some cream puff that shouldn't have been there to begin with. So we did our usual and headed to check the grandstand as Big Foe was there. They had the ropes up at the gate and there was about 80 people waiting to get in. Well first off I thought they had moved to letting fans in on even games. None of the Marshalls there knew that as we stood for 3 games all day and all night.
Secondly, when they let us in we looked up and all the seats were full (probably people with the same issues with the match at center court) and we looked to the left and there were 80 people heading our way from the queue at that gate as well so we ended up with a huge mass of humanity plugged up with no place to go so they just sent us back out of the stadium behind the ropes at the gate so I asked the Marshall what is going on. She said that new owner had switched the large end of the stadium that was general admission to fixed assigned seating to guess what? Make more $$$$. So there simply wasn't enough general admission seating to support all the people that were trying to get in. We gave up and headed to the Center stadium so my knees could continue to get abused and watch Swiatek pout around the court as she was pushed by that nobody to 3 sets.
We have day/night seats for tomorrow and tickets for the day session on Friday. We had planned on confirming the weather forecast and then buy tickets for Friday night. Forget that!
We can spend half the $500 on a great dinner (steaks for everyone!) and drinks and watch the night session in a nice comfortable chair or barstool and be able to walk the next day without pain.
with the changes.First as far as the store. The old retailer (yes competitor of TW) is gone. The shop is the tournament shop which is why you don't have the merchandise and reps, etc. there any more. Just event merchandise to line the pockets of the new owner.
The seating went up a lot in price and they were talking about the new seating they put on to "improve the fan experience". No the new seating went in to cram more rear ends in the stadium. The seats of course are narrower than before and the benches are gone. I am a 5'5" midget and my knees were wedged into the back of the seat in front of me. The seats are hard and uncomfortable / cheaply made. I had to stand on each changeover just to try to return my legs to a 5 pain level. The giant dudes behind me were either doing some form of the splits or had their legs draped over the backs of the chairs in front of them.
I think a memo went out as the food prices went up and the portions went down. I went to our usual sushi stand and my spicy tuna rolls went up to $21 for a box of 8 rolls that were about the diameter of dime, and an inch tall. Since they had rice on the outside of the roll you can imagine how much fish was inside it. Seriously it was about a 2" by 5" by 3/4" mass of food for $21 and was accompanied by a 1/4 tsp of wasabi and 1 pickled ginger shaving. They did have a store with 2 plum sized Empanadas for $18 or 4 tablespoon sized falafel for $15 which was just as crazy.
We payed $467 for night seats for center court. I am not a huge fan of Swiatek and I certainly wasn't going to watch her roll over some cream puff that shouldn't have been there to begin with. So we did our usual and headed to check the grandstand as Big Foe was there. They had the ropes up at the gate and there was about 80 people waiting to get in. Well first off I thought they had moved to letting fans in on even games. None of the Marshalls there knew that as we stood for 3 games all day and all night.
Secondly, when they let us in we looked up and all the seats were full (probably people with the same issues with the match at center court) and we looked to the left and there were 80 people heading our way from the queue at that gate as well so we ended up with a huge mass of humanity plugged up with no place to go so they just sent us back out of the stadium behind the ropes at the gate so I asked the Marshall what is going on. She said that new owner had switched the large end of the stadium that was general admission to fixed assigned seating to guess what? Make more $$$$. So there simply wasn't enough general admission seating to support all the people that were trying to get in. We gave up and headed to the Center stadium so my knees could continue to get abused and watch Swiatek pout around the court as she was pushed by that nobody to 3 sets.
We have day/night seats for tomorrow and tickets for the day session on Friday. We had planned on confirming the weather forecast and then buy tickets for Friday night. Forget that!
We can spend half the $500 on a great dinner (steaks for everyone!) and drinks and watch the night session in a nice comfortable chair or barstool and be able to walk the next day without pain.
There was/is a lot of confusion about seating arrangements and allowed/disallowed fan movement during matches. We received an email announcing the movement changes but didn’t see any information about it at the tournament and heard no announcements. Understanding and enforcement was very uneven among the ushers and Marshalls and fans were getting frustrated with each other while trying to participate in the same space under different sets of rules.So I am a long Cincinnati attendee and we were there for the day and night sessions and from being a big supporter / fan of the event I am
First as far as the store. The old retailer (yes competitor of TW) is gone. The shop is the tournament shop which is why you don't have the merchandise and reps, etc. there any more. Just event merchandise to line the pockets of the new owner.
The seating went up a lot in price and they were talking about the new seating they put on to "improve the fan experience". No the new seating went in to cram more rear ends in the stadium. The seats of course are narrower than before and the benches are gone. I am a 5'5" midget and my knees were wedged into the back of the seat in front of me. The seats are hard and uncomfortable / cheaply made. I had to stand on each changeover just to try to return my legs to a 5 pain level. The giant dudes behind me were either doing some form of the splits or had their legs draped over the backs of the chairs in front of them.
I think a memo went out as the food prices went up and the portions went down. I went to our usual sushi stand and my spicy tuna rolls went up to $21 for a box of 8 rolls that were about the diameter of dime, and an inch tall. Since they had rice on the outside of the roll you can imagine how much fish was inside it. Seriously it was about a 2" by 5" by 3/4" mass of food for $21 and was accompanied by a 1/4 tsp of wasabi and 1 pickled ginger shaving. They did have a store with 2 plum sized Empanadas for $18 or 4 tablespoon sized falafel for $15 which was just as crazy.
We payed $467 for night seats for center court. I am not a huge fan of Swiatek and I certainly wasn't going to watch her roll over some cream puff that shouldn't have been there to begin with. So we did our usual and headed to check the grandstand as Big Foe was there. They had the ropes up at the gate and there was about 80 people waiting to get in. Well first off I thought they had moved to letting fans in on even games. None of the Marshalls there knew that as we stood for 3 games all day and all night.
Secondly, when they let us in we looked up and all the seats were full (probably people with the same issues with the match at center court) and we looked to the left and there were 80 people heading our way from the queue at that gate as well so we ended up with a huge mass of humanity plugged up with no place to go so they just sent us back out of the stadium behind the ropes at the gate so I asked the Marshall what is going on. She said that new owner had switched the large end of the stadium that was general admission to fixed assigned seating to guess what? Make more $$$$. So there simply wasn't enough general admission seating to support all the people that were trying to get in. We gave up and headed to the Center stadium so my knees could continue to get abused and watch Swiatek pout around the court as she was pushed by that nobody to 3 sets.
We have day/night seats for tomorrow and tickets for the day session on Friday. We had planned on confirming the weather forecast and then buy tickets for Friday night. Forget that!
We can spend half the $500 on a great dinner (steaks for everyone!) and drinks and watch the night session in a nice comfortable chair or barstool and be able to walk the next day without pain.
Some of the new, more expensive seats are nice but I agree that the smaller, cheaper ones were uncomfortable and a lot less flexible, making it more difficult to find and fill seats on the outer courts in particular.
Well we are about to head to the event this morning for the first time, and our first pro as well. Looking forward to the matches as the lineups look really good today. Fresh eyes on the whole thing so I will report back on our experience, we are there day and night and going to see as much as we can.
LOBALOT
Legend
What enforcement?
We had about 50 different people in the seats next to us. No idea who actually purchased the tickets.
At one point ladies pulled up folding chairs and sat in the aisle.
I liked that the new box seats make it clear where to sit and your seat. But you are right they are on the smaller side and having the cupholder on the back of the seat was a place my knee frequently bumped into. The tall guys in our party were constantly standing up between changeovers. But I felt a padded seat was more comfy than a bleacher.
On Mon/Tues maybe crowds were less than yesterday, Because we got in everywhere, but on Center Court almost no one sat in there seats trying to find shade and then people moving out as actual seats were claimed.
Also, agree no Marshalls were letting in people during the first 3 games on any of the side courts or Grandstand but it seemed the 300 level was pretty much open the whole time.
On Grandstand to add to the confusion, I believe the seats on the umpires side of the court, the seats on both baselines were ticket only, but the ushers told us the side opposite the umpire were fine to sit in. My guess is eventually they will all go to ticketed seating.
Part of me wishes they just increased the price of all seats and make them all general admission. That way the stadium would always have a full lower level which would make it look better for TV and have better energy in Center Court. Drives me crazy how many of the prime seats are left empty through most of the tournament.
A lot of time in the early rounds, Center Court is sparsely full as Lobalot mentioned since often it is a big name vs a no name and it can be quick and lackluster. I remember 2 years ago Rybakina was to play Shariff and I swear I was the only one in there--plus the Marshals wouldn't let us sit in the 200s--so we left. Center Court is big enough that if the stadium energy isn't right it the match can seem to dull out. The match fades into the backround as the drone of everyone talking fills the air. With Shelton/Opelka people were wowed enough by the bombs that is was pretty good crowd. Plus Shelton brings energy to the court and crowd (Swiatek does not). But in the Khachanov vs. Cerundolo match the atmosphere got pretty flat once Karen was dominating. Whereas Grandstand and the smaller courts almost always have good energy.
I hear the complaint about the food, agree some of the vendors seemed to skimp on portions. Prices just seemed in line with today's crazy world of events and inflation. I wasn't happy but I wasn't surprised.
On Mon/Tues maybe crowds were less than yesterday, Because we got in everywhere, but on Center Court almost no one sat in there seats trying to find shade and then people moving out as actual seats were claimed.
Also, agree no Marshalls were letting in people during the first 3 games on any of the side courts or Grandstand but it seemed the 300 level was pretty much open the whole time.
On Grandstand to add to the confusion, I believe the seats on the umpires side of the court, the seats on both baselines were ticket only, but the ushers told us the side opposite the umpire were fine to sit in. My guess is eventually they will all go to ticketed seating.
Part of me wishes they just increased the price of all seats and make them all general admission. That way the stadium would always have a full lower level which would make it look better for TV and have better energy in Center Court. Drives me crazy how many of the prime seats are left empty through most of the tournament.
A lot of time in the early rounds, Center Court is sparsely full as Lobalot mentioned since often it is a big name vs a no name and it can be quick and lackluster. I remember 2 years ago Rybakina was to play Shariff and I swear I was the only one in there--plus the Marshals wouldn't let us sit in the 200s--so we left. Center Court is big enough that if the stadium energy isn't right it the match can seem to dull out. The match fades into the backround as the drone of everyone talking fills the air. With Shelton/Opelka people were wowed enough by the bombs that is was pretty good crowd. Plus Shelton brings energy to the court and crowd (Swiatek does not). But in the Khachanov vs. Cerundolo match the atmosphere got pretty flat once Karen was dominating. Whereas Grandstand and the smaller courts almost always have good energy.
I hear the complaint about the food, agree some of the vendors seemed to skimp on portions. Prices just seemed in line with today's crazy world of events and inflation. I wasn't happy but I wasn't surprised.
bublikking
New User
The outside courts during Tuesday and Wednesday dominated even grandstand
I was there Sunday thru Tuesday for all three day sessions. First time for me. Objectively, my experience was a bit different. I had 1899 club access which was a nice perk which included food and drinks in the club but it wasn't anything overly extravagant.
As for for general food access, I simply accepted that the prices were going to be high and monitored how much I was spending. Though the venue is small enough, I hated that there were no food/drink vendors outside of the central food court. On Sunday, the lines for food and drink were CRAZY!! And I wasn't even standing in any of them. I was just cutting through to get to various courts.
I was also disappointed in the tennis shop. Specifically, that they weren't selling (at least I couldn't find any) large tournament bath towels. Only smaller "hand" towels for $20 each. The bath towels are the only piece of memorabilia I value from a tournament since it's a practical souvenir. The hand towels will work but I just really like the large bath towels I've gotten from other tournaments.
Some of the positives were seeing kids repping their local high school or youth tennis programs and people were generally on their best behaviors. Navigating the tournament was easy once you got your bearings relative to the center/grandstand.
As for matches, I was on the front row of the Moutet/Fucsovic match. He's pretty comical. His comment complaining about the female announcer on another court in the distance saying that "She's been going on for 20 minutes! I can't forget her voice!" I recall that Gaston and I think Cazaux, who'd just lost to Nishioka, were also at the Moutet/Fucsovic match.
Overall, I liked the tournament but it's going to take another visit or two to figure out if I love it. Truthfully, I'm not wow-ed by any tournament experience these days. It's a lot of work to get to and be present at any tournament when it's not your local/home tournament.
As for for general food access, I simply accepted that the prices were going to be high and monitored how much I was spending. Though the venue is small enough, I hated that there were no food/drink vendors outside of the central food court. On Sunday, the lines for food and drink were CRAZY!! And I wasn't even standing in any of them. I was just cutting through to get to various courts.
I was also disappointed in the tennis shop. Specifically, that they weren't selling (at least I couldn't find any) large tournament bath towels. Only smaller "hand" towels for $20 each. The bath towels are the only piece of memorabilia I value from a tournament since it's a practical souvenir. The hand towels will work but I just really like the large bath towels I've gotten from other tournaments.
Some of the positives were seeing kids repping their local high school or youth tennis programs and people were generally on their best behaviors. Navigating the tournament was easy once you got your bearings relative to the center/grandstand.
As for matches, I was on the front row of the Moutet/Fucsovic match. He's pretty comical. His comment complaining about the female announcer on another court in the distance saying that "She's been going on for 20 minutes! I can't forget her voice!" I recall that Gaston and I think Cazaux, who'd just lost to Nishioka, were also at the Moutet/Fucsovic match.
Overall, I liked the tournament but it's going to take another visit or two to figure out if I love it. Truthfully, I'm not wow-ed by any tournament experience these days. It's a lot of work to get to and be present at any tournament when it's not your local/home tournament.
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Sunday was the first day so maybe they didn't have them out yet. I walked the entire shop and couldn't find anything other than smaller towels that were clearly not the bath-sized towels. How much did you pay for it?
The towels I saw over near the glassware were the smaller towels that were clearly not bath towels. They were $20 each where as the larger bath towel sizes are normally at least twice that price.
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silentkman
Hall of Fame
I think $32 and it was pretty big.
