Well, that was interesting.
Personally, I’ve never been to any “pro” tennis event. Growing up, my parents played a lot of tennis and ergo I watched a ton of tennis. A ton. Granted, being under the age of 10, I never fully understood what I was watching.
Well, about twenty years later, I get it.
Sort of.
Myself and Jon Marshall took in a Wrold Team Tennis match-up between the Washington Kastles and the Springfield Lasers (No relation to Lupe Fiasco’s latest album).
It was interesting.
World Team Tennis is a bit different from classic tennis. The rules are basically the same, but the scoring is more like volleyball than anything else.
Games are played to four points, and sets are played in five games. It’s singles and doubles, too. Basically, the first to four points wins the match, the first with five matches wins the set. But, each game is tallied and the “winner” is the team with the most games won.
It’s pretty inventive. And really something that the casual fan and a general audience can understand and enjoy. The crowd was surprising, too. While it took a lot of juice to get them fire up, the crowds presence was felt.
The biggest surprise of the night, though, wasn’t on the court. Okay, well it was. But it wasn’t anything any tennis player did or said.
It was the cheerleaders. That’s right. I wrote, cheerleaders.
Before the start of the games, eight – count ’em – cheerleaders greeted the players onto the court. Let it be known, as a regular sports (football, basketball, baseball) fan it was a pleasant surprise. It made it feel like home.
And the tennis was pretty good, too. The games came down to a tie at the end and the entire thing was decided on a men’s double match played to five points.
For the record, the Washington Kastles won. And the cheerleaders were happy.
It was interesting. And I liked it.
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