This is a bit of a selfish post. I needed to put it together so I had a one stop spot to pull these posts up and I kind of needed to remind myself of what the hell happened over the course of these past five weeks. I plan on writing up some posts about my experiences on the road so if you have any questions or are curious about anything, feel free to ask in the comments.
In case I need to re-familiarize people with the story: I basically did the blogger version of the US Open Series this summer, attending Stanford (with a press pass), San Diego, took a week off to hang with friends, and then made a very rash decision to keep it going, flying to Cincinnati for the ATP tourney (with a press pass), then New Haven (press pass), then on to my first Slam in New York, where I stayed around until both Ana and Sam lost.
So here's a collection of my favorite posts. If I've left one out that you enjoyed, feel free to remind me in the comments.
Stanford
- My daily reports: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Days 7-9.
- I single handedly fucked up the draw for Dinara, Ana, and Masha.
- I attended my first All-Access Hour with Mono, Lena, Sam, and Aga, which was so much fun.
- Caught some great practice video from Masha (here and here), Ana, and Sam (here and here).
- Steph and I were the first to see the besties be besties.
- FD Photographer Emeritus' Greatest Hits: Aga's shorts, Dinara and Vika, Dinara's modeling shots, Sam being Sam, kids spazzing over Ana, Sam and Pop, and Ana fistpumping Leather.
- Though I didn't do too bad with my camera either: Sam, Lindsay, Dani,
- I got to sit in on my first press conferences and it took everything in my power not to just pop some popcorn and sit back: Masha, Vika, Ana, Sam, Aga, Mels, and Vika and Mono.
- Masha was involved in some crazy entertaining matches.
- And Vika won.
San Diego
- After Stanford, Steph and I drove down to San Diego. And I got punchy and talked a lot of nonsense in the car.
- My reports: Here, here.
- FD Photographer Emeritus' Greatest Hits: Dinara looking adorable, players roaming the grounds, lots of MaKiri,
- Dani got into it with Lynn, Kleybs wrung her sweat out on Sneki,
- I reunited with Sam, short-lived as it was.
- ZOMG, I totally forgot about "I Love You Facebook!"
- Remember when Bepa got busted by Coq au Vin?
- We discovered MaZheng. And it was glorious.
- And Sveta won.
Cincinnati
- I made a really impulsive decision. And I went to Cincy and arrived just in time for the ladies final.
- Cincy was basically about hot boys. Here, here, here, here, here.
- Fernando gave us an awesome new motto.
- I said hi to Andy. In the creepy way I do.
- I got to sit in on Andy and Rafa's pressers.
New Haven
- I somehow made it to New Haven in time for Sam and Franny's pressers. And the rain.
- Marcos and Vezzie proved how awesome they are.
- Dinara and Sam had some pretty big wins, for entirely different reasons. And then...they didn't. But that didn't stop it from being a pretty successful trip for me.
- I caught brief glimpses of Mel, Blah, PetKo, and Tommy.
- And I bore witness to a really awkward frat party.
US Open
- I popped my Slam cherry..
- Daily reports: Qualies, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 5, Day 7,
- I totally Serbed out. Hard.
- I saw me a whole lotta Sam.
- And a whole lotta Ana.
- I caught this series of pictures, which might be my most favorite thing ever.
- I even waded through the pit of people and sweat to take some Rafa pics.
- I caught the PetKo dance.
- I left New York depressed.
- And most importantly, I became besties with Robbie and Genie.
