Charleston Open

I bought us tickets for the Charleston Open. It was our third time going to the Charleston Open and I think we'll make it an annual tradition. I thought I bought tickets for Saturday, but Thursday I realized that our tickets were actually for Friday! Thank goodness Spring Break started Friday. It actually ended up being a blessing because because Friday's weather was perfect and Saturday ended up rainy.

Sand sculpture

Kids get in free with a paying adult and they have all kinds of free activities for kids at the tournament. It's a very family friendly event. Parking is also free and you can get a general admission ticket for just $35. 

Service Speed

Target Practice

Baylie with one of her idols - Ons Jabeur. 

We got to see four matches and could have seen five! That's incredible. And we got to see some of the best players in the world. I was really disappointed that Victoria Azarenka had lost the day before because I've always wanted to see her play. She would have played Jabeur and that would have been an amazing match.

First we watched a doubles match. It was Americans Alycia Parks and Nicole Melichar-Martinez lost to German Laura Siegemund and Russian Vera Zvonareva. (Russian athletes are not able to compete under their country's flag because of the war in Ukraine.) Later that day, Siegemund and Zvonareva lost to Americans Desirae Krawczyk and Danielle Collins who went on to win the tournament. We could have watched that second match, but were watching a singles match. In hindsight, we should have taken the time to watch a bit of both.

Parks had a crazy fast serve!

Baylie loves tennis.

Jalen wasn't as excited, but he was a good sport about it.

The first singles match we watched was Belinda Bencic and Ekaterina Alexandrova. Bencic - last year's champion - ended up winning. Baylie was able to get an autograph from Alexandrova. 

Next we were excited to see Ons Jabeur again when she defeated Anna Kalinskaya. I would have loved to have seen her play Azarenka, but it was still a good match.

Whenever I leave my phone...

I had always wanted to see Madison Keys play, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it was a little disappointing. She had moments of brilliance, but lots of unforced errors. She also just seemed to have a very negative demeanor on court. She ended up losing to Daria Kasatkina

Again...

After the games were over, we went to see the other big court (where we could have watched the other doubles match). They let the kids go down on the court, which they were pretty excited about.

On the way out, we walked by the glow in the dark court where they play night games. We didn't stay to see it lit up, but it looked cool.

We all wore sunscreen, but I think it was out of date. I got a bit burned. Baylie also burned her face.

We had a wonderful day and the next day it rained a lot. We were glad we went on Friday instead. We love the Charleston Open and plan to go every year!