I became a tennis fan in the early nineties. This was when, as I think, some of the better male and female players existed; Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Coran Ivanisevic and Monica Seles. After the retirement of so many champions, I’m sorry to say that I’ve lost some interest in the game. That’s why I was so excited to attend the 2011 Champions Series at the Well Fargo Center in Philadelphia on September 24th.
The Champions Series is a mini-tournament for retired professionals. There are eight tennis players who compete in the 12 city tour. They do play two semifinal matches and one final match to accumulate points. The top three players at the split end tournament $1,000,000. In Philadelphia, the first semifinal was played by Agassi and Jim Courier and the second semifinal by Sampras and Jimmy Connors.
The match against Agassi and Courier was exciting. As the match is spectacular, there was a lot of joking between the two opponents, teasing the ball boys/girls and bonding with the crowd. It was nice to see this different side of the players, because if this was Wimbledon, you’d be sitting in an arena filled with serious spectators and super-focused players. He held his tent against Agassi, but in the end, Andre proved too much and beat Courier 6-3.
Unfortunately, the pair against Sampras and Connors was lackluster. I’ve seen Sampras play tennis a million times so I know how good he is. Against Connors, the audience could tell Sampras was taking it easy and trying to give fans a competitive fight. This is not a horrible thing to say, Connors; certainly not. For someone who is years and who hasn’t played a match of tennis in 10 years, well he performed, and even got three or four really excellent shots. Maybe Connors didn’t eat his Wheaties in the morning and passed out at night. In the end, Sampras won 6-4.
At last everyone wanted to see the match; Pete versus Andre! This was a dream come true for me. Not only did I have the honor of watching these two play in person, but now I got to play against them. The electricity coming from the audience was amazing as we watched these two legends warm up and prepare to add yet another match to their long time rivalry. Who cares if it wasn’t a US Open championship? These two brought their best game and in an exciting match that went to the breaker, Sampras was 8-7 ahead with the victory (5).
The Champions Series has been a lot of fun and it gives people like me the opportunity to finally see in person the player we’ve watched over the years on our television a>. If the tour is coming to your city, consider checking it out. For more, please go to http://www.championsseriestennis.com/
