So instead of our weeklong trek to the hinterlands for Cincinnati’s W & S Masters 1000 tennis tournament, last year friend Diane and I went to the US Open in Queens.? This year, we decided to go to the other summer Masters 1000 tournament (just below the Grand Slams in importance), which is in Canada.
The tournament is called the Rogers Cup, and is held simultaneously in Toronto and Montreal, one city for men, one for women, switching each year.? This year, the women were in Montreal, the men in Toronto.? So off we flew to Toronto – which I am sure is a great city, but which we saw little of – since the tournament is at York University, way north, and quite a trek by any of the many means of public transit (street car, subway, bus, taxi) available.
And – we learned that our Cincinnati tournament is way world class, head and shoulders above our northern neighbors.? In size, in food, in stadiums, practice courts, shopping – everything.
One difficulty, not having to do with the facility,? was that the tournament started the day after Olympic tennis ended, so Roger Federer and several other top players opted out.? Several Olympians who came anyway lost in the first round (Del Potro, Tsonga).? Andy Murray, gold medalist, came, played and won one match, and sustained a knee injury.? The other major player who came, Novak Djokovic, won the tournament, almost de facto.
Then the entire day on Thursday was rained out – Djokovic, to relieve the boredom, actually came out on court with an umbrella for a bit of practice.? Which made me like him a bit better – only a bit.? 😕 >
Since we were leaving Friday afternoon, we spent Friday morning in the city – a $60 cab ride from our hotel to Chinatown and Kensiington Market / University of Toronto, which was fun.? We wanted to ride the streetcar to downtown, so we could see it all – but the tracks on that line were being torn up and replaced.? So we took the subway, which was very good.? And ended up only with enough time to walk the lakefront – beautiful – before we took twice as expensive a cab ride to our hotel and then on to the airport.
I guess I’ll google, wiki or youtube a virtual tour of downtown.