The Legg Mason Tennis Classic lasts 9 days. End of July into August. Usually the weather is typical Washington - hot, hot, hot, humid, humid, humid.
This year, the weather was actually quite lovely. Relatively speaking. Mid-80s, relatively low humidity.
Except today. Today was the finals. And today it was nearly 100 degrees and very humid. The mens finals started at 3 pm. My dad and I met at the Metro at 2 pm to take the shuttle bus up to the Fitzgerald Tennis Center. At 2 pm, the temperature - according to my iPhone - was 95 degrees. Sitting in the sun, surrounded by a bunch of other hot people, it felt even hotter. I had thought that by 3 pm when the match would actually be starting, the sun would be going down and the temperature would be falling as well. Wrong!
Andy Roddick won the first set pretty handily - 6-3. Yea! Maybe this match will be over in a shorter period of time, and we can all get out of the hot, hot sun. My 82-year-old father couldn't take it. He had to get out of the hot, hot sun. I decided to stay. Once the first set ended, I thought, "Well, this won't be too much longer. I can do it." It was 3:48. Time to start cooling off, right.
Well, Juan Martin Del Potro won the second set 7-5. 7-5 means that they played 12 games. 7-5 is as many games as you can get in a set without having tiebreaker. Long set. And most of those games were reasonably long - though Del Potro did win a couple at love (Roddick didn't win any points). Not good. Long set. As long as they get. Still hot. Still sweating.
But the fact that Del Potro won the second set also meant that the match was going to go to three sets. Three sets, not two. Longer. Hotter. By now, it was well after 4. The sun was going down, but not fast enough for those of us sitting in the bleachers under it. Still hot. Still sweating.
So then they played the third set. 1 game to 1 game. Roddick broke Del Potro in the next game - 2-1. Yea, we were back on track. Maybe Roddick would pull this off quickly again. Then Roddick lost in the next round, and they were back to 3-3. Then 4-4. 5-5. 6-6. Now for the tiebreaker.
At least Legg Mason has a tiebreaker in the final set. The last major that these guys played was Wimbledon. Wimbledon doesn't have a tiebreaker in the final set. It was Roddick vs. Federer. And it took FOREVER. It was wonderful to watch. Amazing actually. 18-16. It's a record. But I am glad that I wasn't sitting there watching it with the temperatures in the 90s - of course, Wimbledon is in the UK. So it would have been 90 anyway. But I can't imagine sitting there for 5 sets and then having the last set go 18-16. If the temperature was 90. I would have been tempted to leave. But I was glued to the TV. Not sure I would have been glued in the heat - but probably. So I was grateful that Legg Mason only goes for three sets and no tiebreaker.
Tiebreakers for those who don't play tennis are scored 1 point at a time (unlike the rest of tennis, which goes in increments of 15 points), and the winner has to get to 7 points first. Del Potro ended up winning 8-6. That's because the winner also has to win by 2 points. In other words, you can't win 7-6. So not only did they play to three sets. They also played pretty much as many games and points as you can before you get to a winner. The tiebreaker could have gone on longer, I suppose. But 8-6 is pretty good.
The match ended about 5:20. I wasn't paying that close of attention to the time, actually. But I did notice, that even at that hour, the temperature was still pushing 90.
Hot, hot, hot. Heat, heat, heat. Sweat, sweat, sweat. And tennis, tennis, tennis.
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