THIS IS MY SECOND TIME WITHIN A YEAR TO WATCH AN INTERNATIONAL LAWN TENNIS TOURNAMENT. The first one was in June at Wimbledon (UK) prior to my departure to US where I explored the tennis ground for the whole day – watching some of the promising players in the sport of tennis. It was a lucky day for me when a close friend of mine based in Los Angeles got extra free tickets for the show, including the semi-finals for singles and doubles. Unexpected, I watched Andy Murray for his debut performance in the tournament as an alternate player for the last minute pull-out of another favourite Serbian player, Novak Djokovic (currently as second for singles ranking).

The tournament started in 1927 and it is now the longest-running annual professional sporting event in LA (California) employing 25,000 people with 15,000 agents across the country. For 2010 event, it was held in UCLA campus from July 26-August 1 prior to the US Open tournament in New York. The ticket cost ranges from $20 to $60 with special group package discounts for the whole duration of the tournament. Sam Querrey (US) and the twin brothers Bryan (US) successfully defended their titles for both singles and doubles, respectively.
Past tournament champions include the following: (Singles) 2009 – Sam Querrey (Doubles) 2009 – Bryan & Bryan; (Singles) 2008 – Juan Martin Del Porto (Doubles) 2008 – Bopanna & Butorac; (Singles) 2007 – Radek Stepanek (Doubles) 2007 – Bryan & Bryan; (Singles) 2006 – Tommy Haas (Doubles) 2006 – Bryan & Bryan; and (Singles) 2005 – Andre Agassi (Doubls) 2005 – Erlich & Ram.