WESTERN & SOUTHERN TENNIS OPEN , A COMPLETE MUST READ REVIEW INCLUDING GRAETERS ICE CREAM BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 16th August 2014

WESTERN & SOUTHERN TENNIS OPEN , A COMPLETE MUST READ REVIEW INCLUDING GRAETERS ICE CREAM BY RICKY DIMON |

Photo by cincytennis via Instagram.

Cincinnati delivers the goods, as usual

By Ricky Dimon

It has been another picture-perfect week at the Linder Family Tennis Center for the Western & Southern Open. It is true that there may be some other tournaments that are more prestigious so to speak, but it is hard to beat the Cincinnati Masters in terms of fan experience.

Once a somewhat non-descript stop on the tennis schedule, it has really taken off since being expanded to a joint tournament (women & men). Both tours playing simultaneously means bigger names playing on outer courts, where the common fan can watch them play up close, and generally much more hoopla. It also means more space is required, which resulted in a new show court (Court 3) and–perhaps even more importantly for hungry fans!–a much bigger and diverse food court.

New this year is the ice cream supplier, Graeter’s. It was founded in 1870 in nearby Cincinnati, which is actually 20 miles south of the tournament site–which is in Mason, Ohio.

Photo by anaivanovic via Instagram.

The weather, as usual, has been borderline flawless–even for Graeter’s. It’s hot enough for ice cream, but not hot enough to make fans uncomfortable as can be the case in, say, Atlanta or at the U.S. Open when you are stuck in sunny spot and can’t afford to take a break for a few games lest your seat get swiped by one of the other zillion fans in attendance. The crowds got a little lucky this week, as well. Monday’s forecast called for a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms from morning until night, but nothing more than a one-hour rain delay in the early evening ensued.

With a field of 56 players, matches always seem to be outstanding from the start of the week to finish. Draws of 96, such as in Indian Wells and Miami, also have their benefits–obviously one being that there are more players to see. But that also fosters either relatively uninteresting matchups in the first round and lopsided scorelines when seeded players pounce on lesser competition in the second and third rounds. There are no such issues in a 56-man field, in which some ranked inside the top 50 do not even gain direct entry.

Take this year’s event as an example. World No. 14 John Isner and world No. 17 Kevin Anderson had to face each other in the first round. World No. 16 Marin Cilic squared off against world No. 19 Feliciano Lopez right off the bat. Those are matchups worthy of Labor Day weekend status at the U.S. Open.

True to form, there have been entertaining, competitive matches the whole week. On the men’s side, there were a whopping five third-set tiebreakers in the first round. Three other contests went to 7-5 in the third. In the second round there was another final-set ‘breaker (David Ferrer vs. Julien Benneteau) and both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were pushed to three sets. Exactly half of the eight quarterfinalists (Ferrer, Julien Benneteau, Fabio Fognini, and Andy Murray) saved a match point earlier in the event.

Is all of this a precursor of things to come for what will hopefully be a memorable championship weekend? We will soon find out. Whatever the case, it will go down as yet another wildly successful Western & Southern Open in which attendance records are once again being shattered.

Editors note: Ricky’s favorite flavor is ” Moose Tracks ” followed by cookies dough ( also Svens favorite ) & cookies and cream.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Cincinnati Masters, Ricky Dimon, Tennis, Tennis News, Western & Southern Open

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10sBalls_com says:

August 16, 2014 at 3:13 pm

@CincyTennis OPEN, A COMPLETE MUST READ REVIEW INCLUDING GRAETERS ICE CREAM BY @RD_Tennistalk http://t.co/EKF0LXvSIq #tennis #cincinnati
RD_Tennistalk says:

August 16, 2014 at 3:59 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: @CincyTennis OPEN, A COMPLETE MUST READ REVIEW INCLUDING GRAETERS ICE CREAM BY @RD_Tennistalk http://t.co/EKF0LXvSIq #ten…