The quick turnaround from a boozy Thursday night to a late breakfast meeting at Cafe Brazil was almost too much. Obviously, I always stay below the .06 alcohol line, just to be safe, so the previous evening's drive home was smooth, curb to curb for my gals. Nothing would ruin my mind more than a rookie, late night traffic cop asking me to recite the alphabet backwards--stay moderate, my friends, be in touch with your blood. However, the Wolf/Tiafoe match was at noon, it was time to get down. The delicious empanada breakfast hit right on, the Vantaggios were fed, caffeined, and grooved, ready for Quarterfinal Friday at the Dallas Open.
Think of the mid to late 80s tennis team of McKinney High School with a Berkner soccer punk thrown in when you think of the Vantaggios. The tennis underground, the Kings Of The Courts, flashing modern fabrics and colors that pop, in it for the Grand Slams, in it for all peace loving tennis peoples: the grassers, the clayfolks, the hardies, and even the carpetshags. Regardless of surface! We all grabbed tallboy Stellas (with complimentary tallboy koozies) and found our way to section 101. A roadie named Bart, who looked official, said we could sit anywhere until we got kicked, we moved down nice and close.
Upstart American JJ Wolf and Francis Tiafoe, a US Open semifinalist in '22, started the action at noon. A three set, two hour banger, it became JJ's biggest win of his career, we howled his every ace, others began to howl, too, Francis glared at us. He matched Tiafoe's strut, he matched Tiafoe's serve, he matched Tiafoe's cool, it could've gone either way, but Wolf was the bear this time around, he survived and arrived. In the next match, Isner put the beatdown on Ecuadorian Emilo Gomez, the son of former French Open champion Andres Gomez. Frankly, it was boring to watch the greatest server in the history of tennis again, but we take him for granted, he will go down as, we will look back and remember, it is obvious to all, Big John is Big John, deal with it.