Tennis Anyone?

Driving to West Vancouver for the Vancouver Tennis Open Championships

Yesterday started early for us.  We left home @ 8:00 am for North Delta where we would join our good friends, Mariette and Lorne, for a day of watching quality tennis.  The occasion was the  Odlum Brown Vancouver Tennis Championships being held at the prestigious Hollyburn Club in the city of West Vancouver, BC.

The very fancy and prestigious Hollyburn Club.

Neither of us had ever seen live tennis action.  This would be a first.  Our friends were comped four tickets for this event and we were privileged to have a private box to ourselves.  Our friends are clients of the Odlum Brown firm.

The Odlum Brown Vancouver Open is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It is currently part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour, and of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's Circuit. It is held annually at the Hollyburn Country Club in Vancouver, Canada, since 2002.

Lorne and I checking out the small private boxes.

Mariette anticipating the start of the first tennis match.

The first match - featuring Canadian female tennis pro, Heidi El Tabakh.

Heidi El Tabakh (born September 25, 1986) is an Egyptian-born Canadian professional tennis player from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her highest WTA singles ranking is 149, which she reached on February 22, 2010. Her career high in doubles is 173, which she reached on February 8, 2010.

The second match featured  a Czechoslovakian player against American, Bobby Reynolds.

American Tennis Player,  Bobby Reynolds

Professional career

Reynolds led the Vanderbilt Commodores to the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship final in 2003, and was named the tournament's MVP (he defeated fellow future pro Amer Delic of Illinois in the team final, but the Commodores fell 4–3 to the Illini in the championship). That same year, he finished the season number one in the nation in singles. He was also named ITA National Player of Month a record three times in '03, and named Southeastern Conference Player of Year in '03, finishing his final season with a 46-7 singles record. He owns school records for career wins (99) and single-season wins (46 in '03). Reynolds attended Vanderbilt for three years and majored in business, but left in 2003 to pursue his professional tennis aspirations.
He reached the third round of the Australian Open in 2005, defeating Nicolás Almagro and Andrei Pavel before falling to Spaniard Rafael Nadal. In August 2008 he beat world # 42 Marc Gicquel of France, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4. On February 2, 2009, he reached his career high singles ranking when he reached 63rd in the world. In 2006, he teamed with Andy Roddick to capture his first ATP doubles title at the RCA Championships in Indianapolis.

He is coached by former pro David Drew.

Reynolds won his match.  Fun player to watch and his serves were often at speeds of 124 - 126 mph.

Reynolds in action.

Beautiful sunny day.

Mariette and Jeanette managed to keep the sun off with the umbrella.

Never having experienced live tennis play before, it was a real treat to view the sport in person.  It is a very good spectator sport.

We took in the first half hour of another match but left to head back for home and to stay ahead of the afternoon rush hour traffic.

Lorne found some partial shade.  And that was our day.  We trust yours was a good one too.  Thanks for dropping by.