We eventually made it up to the Tennis grounds where the Cincinnati Open Tennis Tournament was going on. As Keith “Uncle K-Train” Jensen (Taylor’s Dad) put it, “I couldn’t get you very good seats so I got you some horrible seats… in the first row…. Right behind where they serve”. Haha What a man!
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| Me and Maria Sharapova in the background |
So we went early to watch the doubles semi-finals, where the Bryan twins lost, something that never happens. We then headed to the main stadium for the matches we came for: the Semi-finals for the Ladies. First was Maria Sharapova vs Vera Zvonareva. Now you need to understand that Maria Sharapova was my first Tennis crush. She is amazing. So it was very nice to be sitting first row right behind her. I cheered loud for her. J She was very focused, and I probably didn’t help much. Haha she lost the first set, but came back to win the next 2. So after the match, she is walking out towards the exit in our general direction and I shout out “Great Match Maria!” and she looks up at me and kinda gives me this cute little shy smile thing as I continue with “I love you!!” haha brilliant. So she totally wants me is all I know. Haha
So after that, Garrett and I went out to the ESPN set and watch the interview, then afterwards, Chris Fowler, who is ESPN’s host for both Tennis coverage and College football Gameday, is standing 2 feet from me. So I start talking to him about BYU football. Legit. He seems to think things could be good for BYU. So this day just keeps getting better.
Earlier in the match, I was watching these ladies serve and wondering how fast I could serve since I’ve never clocked my serve. So I notice they have a serving radar booth out on the grounds, so I decide to try it out. I watched maybe 10 people go while I was in line and 91 was the fastest I saw. The guys behind me are placing bets on who can break 100 between them two. So I get up, not knowing if I can only hit it 70 mph or 110. My first serve was 93 and they clapped a little, but then my second one… clicks in at 100 flat! Haha they went crazy. Later I went back with the fellas and got 2 98’s, 2 99’s, another 100, a 102 and a 106. So 8 of the 20-25 balls, 8 were 98 or better. I’d say that is statistically significant. TJ got the second best with one 98 mph ball. The people behind us that time were all drunk and loving that I could hit triple digits. Haha they were rooting for “the guy with the head band”! ha
So I’m stoked to know how hard I hit, plus breaking 100 was tight. But I thought that was the end of the greatness of the night. But oh no- I was wrong. So during the next match, near the end there was a stop in action and they did a fan cam- something that I don’t think is normal for tennis. So I get up and start dancing a little with the Mitch dance move (a little hand wave with the body and head moving with it). It was solid. I wasn’t sure if the ESPN and house cameras were the same, so I pointed at one of the ESPN crewmen and he turned his camera towards us. I later heard we were on TV dancing thanks to that point.
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| Us four doing the Mitch after the match |
But another camera in the mean time had picked us up and they left us on the stadium jumbotron for probably a minute. Haha it was nice. All 4 of us were just doing the Mitch back and forth. left and right… left and right…. So they turn the camera off and every one cheers and claps for us. Haha so naturally I start bowing, then I turn around to sit down and Jelena Jancovic is walking right towards us to play again and she is laughing at us. Haha. So now I am once again hyper, so later when Jancovic comes to use her towel right by us (like right by us… I could have reached out and touched her) I say, “Hey, come give us high fives when you win!” and she laughed and shook her head at me. It was great. So that was 2 players who acknowledged me.
The match ended and then Pam Shriver, from ESPN, walks by and I shout out her name and she looks up and winks, then realizes that we’re the dancers and turns and say “Great dance guys!” as she walked away! Boom baby! Then the ball boys exit right by us and, we assume because they liked our dancing, toss us three balls! Haha Then Jancovic starts leaving the court so I holler out “Jelena!” and wave, and she turns around and waves bye to us. Haha Then we took our balls to her exit and I snuck in past security and got two of them signed by her, but couldn’t manage the third. Haha So it was turning out to be pretty solid.
As we were walking out, we had probably 10 people comment on our dancing- “Great Dance, guys” or “Will you be back tomorrow?!” and stuff like that. We went to a little after party and were given complimentary drink tickets on the way in. So we go up to the bar and ask for 4 sprites, and the bar tender looks at us like were crazy, rolls her eyes and gets them, after clearing up that “You know you can get any drink here, right?” haha yes, we do. We did an encore dance on the dance floor, then headed out. The best part was the guy we were by whenwe left asked us how we got the tennis balls, and I said, “Did you see those fellas on the screen dancing?” and he gets all excited and exclaims, “That was YOU?!” and laughs, “I took pictures of you!” haha so he whipped out his camera and shows us. Hopefully he will e-mail me those pictures.
We then headed home. Well as if today wasn’t good enough yet, we have been playing the license plate game the whole trip, and we were down to 7 states left. Well, we saw New Mexico on the way home, and despite the last second lane changes needed to confirm the plate, we still made the exit. Perfect ending to a perfect night. Once again, the Jensen’s hooked us up big time. I cannot say “thank you!!” enough on behalf of all of the fella’s. Tonight took an amazing road trip and was way more than the cherry on top of our tour. It was probably the highlight of my trip. Thank you so much Uncle K-train and Aunt Nan!
Scoreboard:
Jumbotron appearances: 6
Balls from the game: 8 (Mitch, Taylor and Garrett- Tennis; Garrett-DC; Taylor-DC; Nicholai- DC; Mitch-NYM; Taylor- Balt)
Promotion items: 4 (All- T-shirt in Pitt; Mich- Bobblehead in Pitt; Garrett- Hat in Cle; Mitch- backpack in Cle)
Stadium hours: 34 baseball + 5 at tennis
Rainouts hours: 5
Extra innings: 6
Car hours: 40.5
Miles: 2222
States: 12
Cars acquired: 1
and Shy smiles from cute athletes: 1
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