This past week has been fascinating to say the least. I have not travelled out of the State of Florida since last August when I represented Tennis Life Magazine at the Cincinnati Masters Series. First we flew into Logan Airport in Boston only to travel directly to Cape Cod. There I was able to spend a lot of time reading Pete Sampras' new book which is great so far. It is a very detailed account of his career and also. For the most part we did a whole lot of stress free activities in the Cape. All was great except for when we attended a fair/carnival and I attempted to climb the rock wall and win $100. This is quite an easy task for someone of my athletic build, strength and experience except that my left shoulder gave out 2/3 to 3/4 of the way to the top and proceeded to dislocate itself (I am still suffering in agony and pain to this day). It was kind of funny because the kid running the booth kept asking if I was going to sue him. Now that I think about it I just might. Then the next day at lunch the waitress spilled an entire drink all over my shorts so to say the least, it really has not been my week.On the bright side Cape Cod is not too far from Newport, Rhode Island, which happens to be a really cool city that I really enjoyed and would even consider summering there sometime in the future. It looked like a spot for the "rich and the famous" with antique cars, huge mansions, great mom and pop shopping, ferraris, lamborghinis and yachts all around. Also, in Newport there is the International Tennis Hall of Fame which has more tennis information crammed into a small area than I have ever seen. The museum is not that big and I wish it could have been spread out over some more real estate or more rooms. There was also a detailed account of Mark McCormack (IMG) 2008 HOF inductee, and how he influenced tennis and the fame and money of where it is shaped today. Even so it was like a small peice of heaven to me and I only wish I could have had more time to read and watch the old school footage (i.e. Jimmy Connors) there, because it is difficult to find classic matches. It is highly recommended to visit for any tennis fanatic or anyone avid fan or anyone in the business. The museum was an old-time casino back in the late 1800's so it has some beautiful architecture. I only wish that they kept a part of the casino because some gambling would have been fun also. One fun fact is that Newport hosted the "Championships" from 1881 to 1915. The tournament moved to Forest Hills, NY and was renamed the US Open, which is now located in Flushing, NY. Did you know that? How did they ever let that go?? The majority of the courts at the facility are grass and really well kept with some red clay courts and a few hard indoor courts. There is also another kind of hard indoor played with wooden racquets in the "players club" called "royal tennis" with four walls and harder balls which was really interesting to view and it is nothing like racqetball or squash and is played with a net in he middle.
The whole experience was amazing. There was a junior tournament on the grass courts which we were able to watch and it was entertaining to watch the kids misjudge the balls because the ball would just die on the grass if it was not hit hard enough, and there was a lot of that going on. It was my first time seeing grass courts LIVE but I believe there are some in Ponte Vedra, Florida at the ATP which is close to home. Unfortunately there was a pro tournament in Newport, RI that happened just a couple weeks earlier that was won by Fabrice Santoro in singles and Americans Mardy Fish and John Isner in doubles which we missed but would have been a pleasure to watch.
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