Austin, TX — With a crowd of hometown supporters behind him, Austin native Andy Roddick took home the PowerShares Champions Shootout title last night at Cedar Park Event Center. The 2003 U.S. Open champion defeated his former Davis Cup captain, Jim Courier, 6-1 to remain undefeated this season in PowerShares play.
A few members of the MyTennisLessons team were in attendance to watch their fellow Austinite play alongside tennis legends Courier, John McEnroe and James Blake. Little did we know that one of our team members owns perhaps one of the only copies of Blake’s victory over Roger Federer in the 2008 Olympics. As one of Blake’s biggest fans, he was hoping the former world No. 4 would upset Roddick in the semi-finals, but the latter player defeated his opponent 6-3.
Perhaps the most exciting match of the night was the semi-final between McEnroe and Courier, which culminated in an 8-6 tiebreaker that included plenty of racket throwing and yelling on McEnroe’s end.
All four players, McEnroe and Roddick in particular, were engaging with the fans, as they poked fun at their opponents and riled up the crowd. At one point, one of our team members attempted a slow clap for Roddick. After a small portion of the audience slowly joined in, Roddick turned to our group and joked that he appreciated the effort.
Our team had fun watching some of the former greats battle it out on the court and we’d recommend attending a PowerShares match if the tour comes to your city. The series has six more stops in the United States, among them Boston, Dallas and Minneapolis.In addition to the men who played in Austin, tennis legends Mark Philippoussis, Michael Chang and Pete Sampras are set to play in future matches, depending on the city. Purchase tickets at PowerSharesSeries.com.
