Day 1 At The River Oaks Country Club

Back at my "home" tournament this year! I didn't spend as many days beneath the scorching sun taking in live tennis as I would have liked thanks to poor planning at work. How dare my boss schedule so many big projects the week a tennis tournament rolls into town?!

As expected, I had a wonderful time! The draw was much better this year than 2011, and I'm really kicking myself for not taking the whole week off.

I wish I had the time to get these pics up sooner, but again, work gets in the way of my fun. My mother and I were there for days 1 and 2. 

My mother LOVES Dr. Ivo, and was really unhappy that she didn't get to see any of his singles matches. We caught him practicing on Day 1 and saw him play doubles on Day 2. Ivo's doubles partner, Frank Moser, provided lots of laughs because he wears shirts with his name on the back. Giant polka-dot shirts with FRANK at the top. Because guys in the locker room are hell-bent on stealing Moser's fashion thunder? Wish I had a pic to show y'all... 

While I didn't get to see Feli, I finally found Pico practicing late in the afternoon on Day 2. I almost missed him because there was no horde of squealing women gathered 'round his court. Unfortunately Ryan Sweeting and Michael Russell stood between me and Pico. Thank goodness I got a better camera than the one I had last year. ;) But I did see lots of Horacio, and that made me very happy.

The River Oaks Country Club made some improvements this year! More seating in the food court, a free standing bar, and new scoreboards in the stadium court and the biggest outside court, court 3. Now...if only they could get some shade sails going on the outer courts! 

It was a SCORCHER this year. No reprieve on Day 1...not even a light breeze. I'm pretty sure my butt got cooked on the outer court bleachers...and they were made of wood! On Day 1, it felt like there just wasn't enough sunblock. I was miserable sitting in the stands... I can't imagine how miserable the guys playing on court 3 were. The match we watched out there went 2:46 in that sun.

Man, I've got farmer's tan to boot!

But I really did have a great time. =) Didn't take very many pics, but feel free to look through them below. 

Men's Clay Court 2012