Missy and I spent nearly 6 hours at the ATP tournament in Cincinnati (were women playing tennis there?). The matches were supposed to begin at 11:00am, but due to a torrential downpour, we didn’t show up in Mason until 12:30pm. Instead we started our morning at Jungle Jim’s (largest grocery still in the US – see first photo). When we finally made our way to the tournament grounds, we encountered a swamp instead of a parking lot (see second photo). However, after the clouds cleared, we saw some great tennis matches — Nishikori vs Youzny, Thiem vs Millman, Dimitrov vs Lopez, Opelka vs Tsonga, Isner vs Raonic, and Granollers vs Vesely. Some of the matches were power-serving duels with very few rallies (Opelka vs Tsonga) while other matches were pure finesse with many slices and approaches to the net (Dimitrov vs Lopez).
I’m making a prediction that the 18 year old, 6’11” Reilly Opelka from Michigan becomes the highest ranked American men’s tennis player within the next four years. He already has a serve almost on par with John Isner, but he appears to be much more athletic with a relatively complete repertoire of tennis hitting capability.
