This summer, Mark and I were going to miss our traditional Winston Salem Open outing, so we decided to kick it up a notch and go to a professional tennis tournament in Washington DC!
We left early in the morning and got to DC by 11 am. The tournament is called Mubadala Citi Open.
It was SOOOO hot! I mean, brutally hot. I don't know how these players are surviving playing on the hard courts (which make it feel like it's a few degrees hotter).
We watched a few matches during the day:
Cobolli vs. Davidovich
Shelton vs. Nakashima
Michelsen vs. Hong
We also watched Azarenka win in three sets. She is just annoying to watch because of her high pitched grind.
Because the tournament is held at a pretty compact site, it's very easy to run into pros when they are walking from the gym to their locker room to their hotel shuttle or trainers. We saw a couple of players during their practice hours (like Sabalenka and Rublev), but Mark managed to only get a picture with two players--ironically Shapovalov AGAIN (he has a picture with him from 5 years back) and Cabolli (but Mark says he doesn't like that picture so I am not posting it;).
By the evening hours, the heat has definitely decreased but now it was just very humid, as you can see on our faces.
For the evening matches, a lot more people show up. That means we can't just sit wherever (but we sort of could during the day). When we finally figured out where our seats are, we realized that the banner advertisement for the sponsors is blocking a lot of the bottom of the court view. I quickly ran over to the ticket booth asking them if they would consider giving me another pair of tickets so we could actually see the court. There was no harm in asking, right? Well! They searched and searched but because the event was sold out, all they could give me was handicapped seats but with an amazing view on the lowest level! Of course, we both were so grateful. Another example how being proactive and advocating for oneself actually works.
So we ended up watching the match where Tiafoe, the DC native won in a tight match.
And then watched the first set of Rublev's match.
It was getting late as in 11 pm and we still had to get to our car (using a shuttle that stopped running eventually) and drive to the hotel (booked for free, of course).
The following morning, we woke up and walked across the street from our hotel to a cozy breakfast place. It's a different feel in the city. Every time we visit a bigger city, Mark tells me he doesn't like how busy it is around us.
So we drove to the Washington DC temple which was just minutes from the hotel!
The temple was closed for a cleaning, but the visitors center was open! We talked to the missionaries there--two sister and two elders. One of the elders was from Ukraine! He was so excited to talk to me! It meant a lot to him I could tell. It was truly Heavenly Father's way of showing us both he is aware of us and aware of how much these little touches-miracles matter.
I wasn't there when Robert took the kids to the Open House, but Mark remembered it vividly.
Mark and I were also able to watch a video about a young guy who was a high performance athlete debating on whether he should go on a mission. It was cool to hear his experience and testimony and how happy he was that he did choose to serve a mission. Pretty sure Mark’s eyes are closed on this picture, but it’s cool anyway!
After the temple, we drove down towards Richmond. Mark was playing a tournament that weekend in Midlothian, VA. It was an L5, on clay.
Mark had some really great wins and played solid tennis. In singles, though, he lost in the semifinals.
Mark played doubles with Brandon Bao this time. And they won the whole tournament!
That's me, intently watching under my fabulous peacock sun umbrella.
Mark has to stencil his strung rackets because he has a sponsorship from Solinco who makes his strings. 
30 seconds in the changeover pass very quickly.
It was a great tennis weekend! Lots of memories made and skills learned.
After such a hot day at the tournament though, Mark is a bit hesitant about fulfilling his dream to go to the Australian Open when he graduates HS. So we'll see, we might have to settle for Rolland Garros in Paris as it's usually not hot at all in May. This whole worry about being hot makes me laugh because this kid plays in 100F heat with insane humidity and somehow survives.
So time will tell what we will be doing in 2027.
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