Ready for some tennis? by Melis A. '08
Three days left until the official start of the US Open tennis tournament! What's your prediction?
Three days until the US Open officially begins! As an engineer, I’ll give some numbers:
– 125 = number of years the US Open has been around
– 1,100,000 = prize money for the Men’s/Women’s tournament winner
– 4 = number of Grand Slam tournaments, the US Open is one of them (along with the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and French Open)
-1998 = last time that any guy won back-to-back US Open titles (Federer won last year, he’s looking to win again)
Ok, that’s enough pretending that I know about tennis… I am predicting a Federer vs. Roddick final (would anyone like a wager?) Speaking of Andy Roddick, at the beginning of August, my roommate, Anna, came to visit me and we went to see a semifinal match of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. We crossed our fingers that we would be able to see Andy and fortunately we did! He played Paradorn Srichaphan, a 26 year-old from Thailand. After the first set, where Andy slammed four straight aces, we got a little worried that we had wasted our money on a blow-out. But luckily Paradorn learned to read Andy’s serve and the game heated up. In the end, Andy won 7-6, 6-2 (and he later beat James Blake for the championship.) I must note that the action that got the most audience support was not a record breaking serve, but when Andy changed his shirt between sets. C’est la vie.
I’m including some pictures; some of them were taken at the end of the game as the players were exiting the courts. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any signatures, but we were happy just to hear them and see them up close.
By the way, if you’re interested in playing tennis at MIT, you have plenty of opportunities. There’s a tennis gym class (all levels), men’s and women’s varsity teams, as well as plenty of intramural teams.
Hey Melis!!
Wow I just registered for a MyMit account and I saw your blog!
By the way Roddick lost 7-6,7-6,7-6 first round to Muller. I’m predicting that Federer will win against Hewitt or Agassi.
I love love love tennis! Do you play for the team [I’m sorry if this is said somewhere in your blog and I have happened to miss it] and if one would like to play, is their a certain level requirement? I play tennis for my highschool but I can let you know that I’m no “Serena Williams” when it comes to tennis. I just love the game and give it my all. But it sure did bring a smile to my face to read how there was tennis classes offered! That just makes MIT even better [I didn’t even know that was possible until a second ago, ha.]
– Monica
Hey Jisung! I know Andy lost, straight tie-breakers, too! I think your prediction is right… I didn’t really expect Muller to be so good, though I guess he’s had a record of unexpectedly beating top-ranked players.
And to Monica: I don’t play for the MIT team, unfortunately, I’m not good enough and it’s a big time committment. I’m not sure if there’s a certain level requirement, you should talk to the coach (Carol Matsuzaki) or go to http://web.mit.edu/wtennis/www/index.html. And I’m glad you’re excited about the tennis class, I may take it this quarter (I’m waiting see the results of the lottery!)
I also love tennis, and if I get into MIT, I would try out for the MIT team. I tried looking for some mention of the name of the men’s tennis coach, but I couldn’t find any. Do you know his name, by any chance?
Hi Joe. I looked on the website for MIT’s men’s tennis team and it seems the coach’s name is Charlie Maher and his email address is [email protected]. You might want to talk to him before applying. Hope this helps!
Thanks Melis! I really like tennis. It’s my favorite (and only) sport.