Ira On Sports

Saturday at the Miami Open. - I saw a great match where American Mackenzie McDonald (teal shirt) - who beat Nadal in Australia, upset #16 seeded and former Wimbledon finalist Italian Matteo Berrettini 7-6 7-6 (white shirt)I watched it on the small court 1 in a fantastic seat. Then I went into the grandstand and watched Canadian and #5 seeded Felix Auger Allassine (blue shirt )defeat Brazilian Thiago Montero also by the score of 7-6 7-6. Tennis is truly an international sport with fans from all countries cheering on their local stars.

I love the early rounds at tennis tournaments because almost all the players play on the small non-stadium court with no assigned seats.  The Butch Buchholz court at the Miami Open, named after the tournament’s founder, seats less than a 1,000 and is perfect to watch tennis.  I sat in the front row behind the baseline – the best place to watch tennis (that is why the Royal Box at Wimbledon is behind the baseline) on Friday to watch three of the top 15 players in the world – Denis Shapovalov (blue shirt) from Canada, Jannik Sinner (maroon shirt) of Italy, and Tommy Paul (orange shirt) of the USA win their second round matches.  

Some great pics of last night’s game with some major star power in the audience: and were in da house 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🤩

Pictures of Japan and their star Shohei Ohtani defeating the USA and its star Mike Trout - and Ohtanis teammate on the Angels in the Wolrd Baseball Classic .
Trout has won 3 MVP awards and is considered the best hitter in the game and Ohtani has won one MVP award and is the first player since Babe Ruth to pitch and hit. Loandepot stadium in Miami was packed and evenly divided between Japanese and USA fans. Japan had a 3-1 lead going into the 8th inning when USA and Philees slugger Kyle Schwarber launched a monster home run off Japanese legend (and Padres pitcher) Yu Darvish. Darvish got the final Ohtani, who was the DH for the Japanese had a hit and a walk (he also hit 435 for the series ) came in to pitch in the top of the ninth with a 3-2 lead. After Jeff McNeil of the USA walked , Ohtani was able to get Dodger superstar Mookie Betts to ground into a double play. Then Mike Trout came to bat. Ohtani threw 100-103 mile per hour pitches to trout and the count was 3-2 and then Ohtani threw a slider by Trout for the final strike and out. It was like out of scripted movie. This game was one of the most watched games of all time because most of Japan was watching the game. The Japanese fans, who are silent when their pitcher throws, erupted and Ohtani threw off his hat and glove.