The Fiser 52: Week Seven - Cellular South Cup

One of the events I look forward to the most each year in Memphis is the professional tennis tournament. It always falls right around Valentine's day, so I always drop monster hints to Sarah that I want tickets for V-day. Fortunately for her, I didn't have to drop any hints this year because one of our clients is Cellular South and our company was contracted out to work the tournament for them. This meant an all-access pass for me, and tickets for Sarah. Here is a rundown of the week's activities:

Cellular South VIP Party - We kicked off the tournament week with a VIP party at the Racquet Club. Sarah and I scooted over to the Racquet Club after we saw Jersey Boys at the Orpheum and got prepared for the party. I was working the registration table while Sarah and my co-worker's wife went into the party. After we got everyone checked into the party, Grant (co-worker) and I were small talking and just happened to look up and who do you know was in front of us...Maria Sharapova! Talk about star struck...words couldn't even come out of my mouth. After she was escorted into the party, I rushed in there and got in line with Sarah and got this picture taken:

Gray and Grant working the VIP Reception (Gray is hidden by the sign!)

Pictures Courtesy of Cellularsouth.com

Working - All week I worked at a table placed outside a room that was being used for the Cellular South hospitality lounge. At first I thought it was terrible and wanted to be inside the room b/c the hallway was about 2 degrees, but I quickly came to enjoy my new cubicle. What I didn't realize until lunch time was that my new "cubicle" was located in between the players locker room and the lunch buffet. There is nothing like pecking away on a spreadsheet and someone asking you where the lunch buffet is and looking up to realize it is Melanie Oudin and her entourage standing in front of you. James Blake, Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and John Isner were others that I saw from my "cubicle". Not a bad group of co-workers in the office!

Matches - I only got to catch glimpses of a couple matches during the week, but Sarah got to watch some. The best match of the whole tournament was the Andy Roddick, James Blake match. It went three sets with Roddick winning in a close third set. Here are a few of our pictures from the matches: