Nike Clash of the Champions

Tonight I was able to attend the Nike Clash of the Champions tennis exhibition event held at the new Matthew Knight Arena. This including watching Victoria Azarenka vs Maria Sharapova in Woman's singles and Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer in Men's singles. The men and women also joined forces to play a lively game of mixed doubles.

Of course you could tell this was an exhibition as sometimes the players took points off, but this also led to the players going for certain shots you'd rarely see in an actual match. Federer must have tried 4 of the 6 between the leg shots during the course of the evening.

A pair of former UO quarterbacks also made their debuts as line judges in Joey Harrington and Dennis Dixon. Phil Knight seemed to be the toast of the event, which makes sense, since he built the arena and was obviously the force that drew these Nike athletes to Eugene.

The players played to the crowd often talking to court side viewers and even turning down multiple marriage proposals and kegger invites. But the crowd favorite had to be John McEnroe, who not played up his image as a rebel but also jumped in the judges chair for the mixed doubles match before taking Federer's spot for two points.

It was a fantastically fun time and I can only hope more events like this come to Oregon in the future.

Results
Azarenka over Sharapova 4-4 tie breaker 5-0
Nadal over Federer 7-5
Federer/Sharapova over Nadal/Azarenka 6-3