MEDIA TREATED GREAT AT NITTO ATP TENNIS FINALS AND SOME MORE OF RICKY’S THOUGHTS FROM LONDON

Written by: Staff on 15th November 2018

MEDIA TREATED GREAT AT NITTO ATP TENNIS FINALS AND SOME MORE OF RICKY'S THOUGHTS FROM LONDON |

Photo by 10sBalls

By Ricky Dimon

As members of the press, we are treated pretty darn well for the most part around the world. Sure, we don’t get enough money on our media pass at a lot of places (especially not at the %#%* Open!!!!) and Indian Wells went from the best to the maybe worst, but we still can’t complain.

And if there is one place we definitely can’t complain about, it’s London. As usual, we are getting treated like royalty over here at the Nitto ATP Finals. Hot lunches with all the trimmings. Starters. Salads. Soups. Beautiful fresh hot food. We need it to work these 16 hour days. Dinner again amazing hot meals.

The highlight, of course, are boat rides from the hotel dock to the O2 Arena and back. Players, their families, their pets, their coaches, and others also take the boat. It has free WiFi so we can do our work both on the way to and on the way back from the tennis, but it’s more fun to take in the atmosphere and leave the laptops in their cases for the while.

My favorite boat passenger so far is Kevin Anderson’s dog, but the list of favorite’s is a long one. I have shared a boat with probably half of the players at various times. John Isner and his team were among only a handful of people on the 11:00 PM boat home on Wednesday night.

Highlight No. 2 are the meals. The dining room is free (even drinks–beer and wine, too, are free!) and you can go to lunch or dinner at pretty much any time (lunch is 11:00 to 3:00 and dinner is 5:00 to 9:00).

Favorite meal so far: anything with rice and some kind of chicken, preferably curry.

Photo by 10sBalls

Favorite dessert: blueberry muffin

Photo by 10sBalls

Favorite ice cream: strawberry cheesecake. I love strawberries and I hate cheesecake, so I was skeptical…. But I had to try it because they had run out of cookies & cream and chocolate. I was lucky they did, too, because the strawberry cheesecake was all kinds of epic.

Favorite Moments • besides all the rest. Hanging out with Kt Kim of Solinco strings or Fred or April taking us to the Queens Club for breakfast and a personal tour.