Roddick, Legg Mason Classic Arrive In D.C.
Washington tennis fans have just barely had time to digest the Washington Kastles' triumphant World Team Tennis championship. But on the heels of their dramatic victory, it's time once again for a longer-standing rite of D.C. summers: the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Play got underway this weekend in Rock Creek Park in the annual tournament, which is the third event in the Olympus U.S. Open Series, a sequence of six linked North American tournaments leading up to September's grand slam in New York. The week-long event features a men's singles and doubles draw, with the championship matches to be played on Sunday afternoon. DCist will be there all week to bring you the good stuff.
The story of this year's tournament is Andy Roddick. The highest ranked player participating in the tournament (at #5 in the world), it is the American's first action since his epic, heartbreaking loss to Roger Federer in the final at Wimbledon. Roddick nearly went up two sets to love in that match and took the world's #1 to a record 30-game final set before falling, a gritty performance with flashes of brilliance which undoubtedly earned him a few extra fans as he returns to Washington. Roddick -- a three-time Legg Mason champion, most recently in 2007 -- was slated to play on Tuesday, but this weekend's rain a scheduling conflict has pushed his opening match back to Wednesday evening.
The remainder of the draw features nine of the world's top 20 men's players, including defending champion Juan Martin del Porto and Mardy Fish, the next highest-seeded American after Roddick. Australian Lleyton Hewitt, who won the event in 2004, plays tonight against wild card entry Donald Young. Twenty-three-year-old American John Isner also highlights this evening's draw. Missing in action: the top-seeded doubles team, brothers Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States, withdrew at the last minute due to a hip injury the latter suffered while winning Sunday's doubles championship in Los Angeles.
The Legg Mason is played at William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center, by the Carter Baron Amphitheater in Rock Creek Park. While not quite as convenient as the parking lot a mere block from Metro Center that hosts the Kastles, limited on-site paid parking is available and the tournament provides free shuttle service from the Van Ness Metro station and several nearby picnic lots. S-line buses also run to the tournament along 16th Street. Prices for single session tickets start at $35 for early-round matches (which begin at 4 p.m. and run well into the evening), and are available through Ticketmaster with a $5 per ticket fee. A word to the wise: there's no fee if you buy in person at the Fitzgerald Center box office, which you should be easily able to do for matches today and tomorrow.