Advantage Nadal

After arriving at the North Greenwich station, my anticipation was rising as I could not wait to enter the newly built 02 Arena. I have heard nothing but great things about this massive bubble arena, but all of my expectations were blown away upon my entrance. Immediately I was greeted with the many photographs of past concerts and performances by world celebrities such as Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and the Black Eyed Peas. But this night I was going to a different kind of performance, I was going to a tennis performance between two of the best players in the world right now. Last Monday was the second night of the ATP Final World Tour tennis tournament. This particular tournament is very prestigious because only the top eight singles and doubles players are invited to play a round robin tournament. On Monday American Andy Roddick, winner of the 2003 U.S. Open and currently ranked number eight in the world was playing against world number one Spanish Rafael Nadal, winner of the French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open all in 2010.  Once I walked into the arena the young kid in me came out as I grew increasingly impatient until the match finally started.

Since I grew up playing tennis and everyone in my family either played in college or played competitively I was fortunate enough to have seen many professional tennis matches throughout my life. The stage (tennis court) in this arena was massive and beautiful. I have never seen a court with so much extra space and seating directly on the court for the player’s entourage to sit. Also the way the advertisement board changed during I thought was interesting because in most tennis matches there is no electronics near the court because if the ball would hit the screen it would probably damage the screens.  In addition to the electronics, between every break when the players are resting there was an intricate lighting scheme on the court that grabbed my attention. In addition to the lights, music was always blasting to keep the audience interested.

When the match started, it was clear that it was going to be a battle. Neither player wanted to lose and were competing at very high level. Obviously I was cheering for the American Andy Roddick as he is one of my favorite players but I knew that he was going to have a battle. Roddick won the first set but unfortunately he lifted his foot off the gas and Nadal took advantage winning the last two sets smoothly. Throughout the match, all of the Spanish fans were the performers as they constantly were shouting out Spanish cheers and were holding up the Spanish flag in support of Nadal. Unfortunately for Roddick, he did not have the same support as the Americans were clearly outnumbered.

In the end it was great performance put on by Roddick and Nadal. The setting was magnificent and the performers were even better. It was a four star performance and always kept me at the edge of my seat. I would highly recommend attending a professional tennis match to any sports fan. 

-Matthew Elefant

UC Berkeley