US Open Warmup at Indianapolis

I decided to take advantage of our new location in the midwest by getting tickets to one of the US Open Series tournaments in Indianapolis. After our trip back from the west, the 220 mile trip seemed like a walk in the park.

We left late morning on Wednesday and checked into our hotel a few blocks from the venue. We had tickets to the evening session on center court so, with a few hours to kill, we checked out a big arcade place called Gameworks. We had visited one of these before in Seattle and the kids had a great time. This one was fun too but maybe not quite as fun since the kids are three years older now.

After a great greasy meal at a Steak-n-Shake, we walked to the Indianapolis Tennis Center praying that it would not rain. It was humid and warm with all the tell-tale signs of coming rain.

Here's a photo of the venue before the matches started. We had a great view of the court as you can see. We actually moved down closer after a while.

Andy Roddick, current No. 4 in the world, beat a Russian, Evgeny Korolev in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. At least we got to see him play with a good vantage point for 65 minutes. Seeing his blistering serve up close was frightening. One of the things you miss when you watch tennis on TV is the amazing sound the ball makes when it hits the strings. The pros hit with such spin and pace!!

The second match of the night was a great doubles match and, to be honest, it was the more entertaining match of the two we saw Wed. night.

The next morning, we thought about going to the Indianapolis Zoo before the afternoon tennis started but alas, we got up a bit too late. We did manage to take a nice long (several mile) walk around the zoo and got a decent breakfast at a Speedway gas station (no joke).

Thursday really looked like rain but we were very fortunate again. It poured overnight and we woke to very wet roads and dreary conditions outside. Incredibly, it did not rain on Thursday and we had a FULL day of tennis on center court. We watched three singles matches in a row with some breaks in between for strolling around the relaxing venue -- nice shops, over-priced food, etc... This tournament is so much smaller than the US Open in NYC. It was not crowded and you really had great access to everything without having to fight the crowds. No waits to get the decent but expensive food.