On Wednesday I went to the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne with a friend of mine who enjoys a beer just as much as I do, we’ll call her Lerndawg.  I enjoy tennis but I wanted to make it more interesting so I placed a very modest wager on the Tsonga vs. Djokovic match at 3pm.  We got there a little early to watch Serena Williams take on a young Chinese phenom named Na Li.

To get to the stadium you have to park either two miles away and take a shuttle bus or you can get a parking pass for $50 to park across the street.  Unfortunately, since TML doesn’t pay me anything, we were stuck parking two miles away and had to take the shuttle.  We also brought along some goodies.  We got on the bus with four mini Heineken kegs, six egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches (from Fresh Market, the most wonderful place in all the land- article coming soon) and a huge bowl of kiwi.  Our first thought was that they wouldn’t let us on the bus with all of this but it ended up not being a problem.  Once we sat down we cracked open two mini kegs and devoured a couple sandwiches. 

By the time we got to the gate, Lerndawg was still going at the mini-keg, about three-quarters of the way done.  We weren’t sure if they would let her enter the tournament with an outside and already opened beer.  Not really caring one way or the other because the beer was getting a little warm, we attempted to go inside.  The ticket lady did not say anything, and luckily she didn’t go through the bag to see if we had any other goodies.  We walked in with two full mini-kegs, the open keg in her hand, and an entire kiwi farm!  It was great. 

We sat down as the Serena Williams vs. Na Li match was beginning the second set.  We cracked open the last of the kegs and started pillaging the kiwi farm.  Serena had lost the first set 6-1 and was looking to make a big comeback.  As the game progressed I noticed that many of the people in the crowds were not wearing shoes.  The lady to my left and the man to my right were both barefoot! 

(In the very right of the picture of the guy on the right you can see another dude just wearing socks.  I originally tried to get a picture of him in his socks but it was too far away, and then I realized that this dude in front of me had no shoes OR socks on!)  What kind of fans do they allow in these events?!  As I start to wonder this, I remember that they let Lerndawg and me sneak in almost four gallons of beer and a kiwi tree.  I decided not to judge these shoeless people and enjoy the match. 

The sounds that a tennis player makes are all too familiar.  Serena and her “NNNYAAAHHH!!” grunts and Li and her “neh” grunts.  For the entire second and third set I didn’t see Li hit a ball into the net.  Not to say she didn’t commit any unforced errors, but all of those errors missed long, nothing short.  Serena ended up winning in three sets and advanced.  After the match we walked around and enjoyed the festivities the Sony Ericsson Open had to offer, such as Jack and cokes, and eventually made our way back to the stadium court. 

Finally, the match we were all waiting for.  Tsonga and Djokovic.  Tsonga as the +105 underdog and Djokovic as the -160 favorite at the time I placed my wager.  I took the positive payout because I didn’t really care who I was betting for one way or the other, I just wanted to make the match more enjoyable.  Plus, its more fun to say “TSONGAAAA” than “JOCK-ITCH!”.  Tsonga had about 15 unforced errors in the first 4 games and lost the first set miserably.  We decided to leave after that set because it was brutally hot and my knee was as red as a country ham.  I told my brother what we brought in and that night for the Roddick/Federer match he brought in three bottles of wine.

We saw this girl on the way out-