Court Coverage: Court Coverage: Italian Open Tennis

The Italian Open surprised me! After attending so many tournaments in the past year, I never know what to expect from each one...some things seem so different on television and every venue has it's uniqueness. The Foro Italico grounds are beautiful; there are roman statues all around and flowers line the stadiums and walkways. It all fits perfectly and adds to the ambience of the red clay courts.

This tournament was my main purpose for visiting Rome this time, so I only went for 2 days and purchased whatever tickets were available. Late purchasing them, in early April, I was able to get some tickets directly from the tournament website. I purchased 1 day session for SuperTennis Arena (the second stadium) and one night session on Center Court. Center court was completely sold out for the other 3 sessions I was able to attend and SuperTennis Arena was sold out for 2 of them.

Third party sites also had plenty of choices, but I decided to to play it by ear and purchase those if I wanted to see the specific matches playing on either court. Roger Federer had decided to play at the last minute after he and his wife welcomed twins, so I was excited and planning to buy tickets to see him. But, when I was on the train to Rome from Naples, he lost unexpectedly in his first match. There was only one other match in the stadium the next day that I was interested in seeing, so I chose not to spend extra money on Center Court tickets.

The two main stadiums require a separate ticket for entry, but all other courts are included in your grounds pass. Center Court is pretty big and the upper level seating is pretty far away from the match. It was not like New York, where the higher levels can be way too far, making the players look like ants. I compare it more to the main stadiums in Miami or Indian Wells. If the matches going on were "must-sees" for me, I might have paid more for the lower level seating. SuperTennis Arena is small and did not have a bad seat in it. I think I would have been happy with whatever seat I got there.

Stadio Nicola Pietrangeli was my favorite court at the Foro Italico. If yore a tennis fan, I'm sure you have seen pictures with the roman statues surrounding it. This court is sunken into the ground with old coliseum style seating - all cement. People sit anywhere they can and it can be a little cramped, but I never felt uncomfortable because it t has the greatest atmosphere and it seems like all of the exciting matches seem to end up here. Fans are always crowded around it, sometimes with standing room only. The spectators seemed to all love tennis here and were so respectful, relaxed friendly, and into the matches. All of the outside courts had a great atmosphere and the set up enables you to watch a couple matches at the same time from certain courts.

The food at the tournament was awesome! Since it is in Italy, I don't think that is needs much explanation. They had so many food stands that I rarely found myself waiting in line for anything and some of them had sit down service. There was great variety and Italian food is always delicious :)

One complaint I have is that the entire website is in Italian, with no translation option, making the entire process quite confusing. It took a lot of translation and time figuring out what the emails said, how to pay for the tickets, and where to pick them up. Is it really that hard to have it available in multiple languages? Especially for events that are so international? Most tournaments do. Then I checked the US Open site and was mad at them for not having other language options either!

The weather was confusing. The first day, it was so hot whole watching matches and I was surrounded by clear blue skies. When the night session came, I was freezing cold and everyone was wearing jackets, scarves, and boots. The second day was chilly and plagued by spits of rain, so be prepared for anything here, no matter what the forecast says.

Shopping for tennis gear was pretty decent, with a long row of stores between the two stadium courts. All of the major brands had small individual stores here to buy racquets, shoes, and clothing of the players. The only thing that was a little disappointing was that there was not a lot of tournament specific items. They had a lot of clothing from Australian, who supplies the ball boys and line judges with their uniforms, but it seemed a little awkward to buy a souvenir from the Italian Open that said "Australian" all over it.

Compared to other tournaments located in major cities, getting to the Italian Open is not that convenient I stayed about 2 miles from the Foro Italico, where it takes place, but my only options for getting there were to walk or take a taxi. There was no metro station close to it and the bus was not recommended by the hotel for this situation. The grounds are located in a more residential area and there are a few restaurants around, but not a lot. It also seemed like parking was either minimal or nonexistent, with scooters and cars parked along the sidewalks.

The Italian Open was a lot of fun and definitely worth going to for a day or two!