On the many trips in the subways here, just as you are pulling into a station, there are all these advertisement signs on the walls, ranging from upcoming movies, fashion lines, TV shows and sporting events. The one that has been very prominent at nearly every station was the poster for the Rogers Cup tennis tournament. once again my sporting fascination tempted me to want to go and as Mel had never been to a live tennis match before I thought it would be a great opportunity. Before I even had an opportunity to look at tickets, one of my carers told me that she was working with a client who was actually a volunteer at the tournament and was able to get tickets to anyone who wanted them. She made me "an offer too good to refuse".
I have been to the Australian Open every year for as long as I can remember, and a highlight was going to see Roger Federer play in the men's singles final with John Shawcross a few years ago. But I always loved summer and being able to go to the open, either inside Rob Laver or out.
It was going to be a very hot day the day we were going, and unfortunately due to the lost bag of luggage (which included all my clothes) I didn't have any shorts or T-shirts to wear, so I was hoping we had some shade where we were sitting as I knew we were in for a long day. Mel packed her book just in case the days play got a touch on the boring side.
The tournament is played at York University, and when we arrived off the bus we have to weave our way through the entire grounds to get to be tennis arena. It was actually hard to believe that a university had the facilities to cope with the Canadian Open, but yes here it was. A 5000 seat stadium with scattered outside courts surrounding it. It was set up exactly like the Open with merchandise tents, food stalls, games and fun attractions all open for the public to enjoy.
We had a great day's play ahead of us with a schedule that included Nalbandian, Soderling, Murray, Monfrils & of course the showpiece Federer.
The tennis was fantastic as Nalbandian, Murray and Federer all advanced through to the next round with good wins.
We had great seats, which unfortunately were in the sun, but we were able to move into the shade halfway through the day when we found some vacant seats on the other side of the stadium. It made it much more bearable to sit and watch.
We also met another lovely couple that were from out of town. The gentleman was a C6 quadriplegic and he was there with his wife also. During the day we would both move into the hallway to get some shade and relief from the sun and we would go in to the obligatory chat about our abilities and non-abilities and compare stories. It was interesting to hear of the different types of rehabilitation techniques and health standards over here compared to Australia.
All in all it was a great day and Mel loved her first experience at the tennis. The book didn't even come out of the back of my bag!
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