Tennis greats at Madison Square Garden

For Christmas, I’d given Tim tickets to a tennis showcase at Madison Square Garden featuring John MacEnroe vs. Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi vs. Pete Sampras. We weren’t disappointed.

Back in September 2010, my college friend Addie told me that she was planning a trip to New York in February 2011 to see this showcase. Tim hadn’t mentioned anything about it, and since I knew he was eager to see MSG, I bought tickets immediately. We met up with Addie and her husband Kurt at a nearby restaurant for dinner before the matches.

MacEnroe took the court first against Lendl. While he played pretty well, it didn’t take long before we could tell something was wrong with his leg. Turns out that he’d twisted his knee and ankle during their warm up earlier that day. He didn’t want to cancel but didn’t play longer than 45 minutes or so as he didn’t want to hurt himself further. At least he came out in the short shorts from his early days on the tour.

Next up was Agassi vs. Sampras. We were both excited to see this as Tim has loved Agassi since the 80s (and has the Nike ads from back then to prove it). And I hate Sampras, a.k.a. Monkey Boy. Unfortunately, it looks like Sampras is in really good shape and Andre’s hips are worn down by decades on the pro circuit. Agassi was hitting well but couldn’t beat Pete’s serves, so he lost 6-3, 7-5.

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