Adventures with Yo and Mo: VIP Tennis in Toronto

When I was a kid I loved tennis. I took lessons and watched all of the matches I could on TV. Alas I lack any hand-eye coordination , so tennis was not really my forte, but I can appreciate a good player. Last night I had the treat of watching Justine Henin and Andreja Klepac at the Rogers Cup event in north York. I went with my BIL B and my sister M and our friend D, who is the only real tennis fanatic among us.

As many of you know B and M move in different circles than we do, so it is always first class and great seats when you hang with them. We had VIP passes. However not all VIP passes are the same. At our first encounter with a VIP tent we were denied access. Horrors of horrors we had to walk from the free VIP parking to the stadium (about 5 mins) when we were denied a ride on the VIP golf cart.

Once we arrived at the stadium we had to wait in line with the rest of the regular folk even though we had VIP passes. At this point I was beginning to wonder what VIP actually means and why anyone would pay extra to be a VIP.

True to M and B form (well really just M, B is very punctual) we were running late (their daughter once complained that she was always late for Montessori, always the last to arrive, branded as a latecomer at 4), and we needed food before we sat down to watch the match. This is where the VIP status started to kick in. We were able to by pass the hoards at the regular food booths and enter a special tent (which B's company owns - and the reason we were VIPs) to get some special food. Not the regular hotdogs and popcorn of the plebs, but carved roast beef, freshly made pasta or a glorious salad bar. Here we are (Mo and M) enjoying the VIP high life.

But back to the match, the real reason we were there - tennis.

VIP seats rock. We had a great view of the court and the play. When we finally got to our seats (tennis etiquette dictates that you have to wait for between play to head to your seat), it was tied at 2-2 in the first set. Earlier in the day when we were making arrangements for getting to the game my sister mentioned that we were really lucky because Justine Henin was currently No #1 in the world of women's tennis and she lived up to her ranking.

The match was great, with some good rallies and some blistering serves (187 mph). In the end Ms Henin crushed Ms Klepac 6-3, 6-1. As the close of second set neared, my sister leaned over and and asked "if she wins this is the game over?" It was then I realized I was sitting with someone who does not really appreciate tennis. This fact and the time we were in Paris during the French Open. B had tickets for the centre court final and M made him give them up because they had gone the day before and it was "too hot" to watch tennis. While on my left was D, who was enjoying every minute. At the end of the match M decided it was time to head home. She had seen the best in the world crush another opponent and it was getting late (9:00pm her bedtime). D stayed on to watch another match. Everyone laughed when I asked if people do the wave at tennis matches. They might not do the wave but they do have goofy mascots who try to get the crowd to dance, cheer and clap.