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As mentioned yesterday, I went to the National Bank Open. It was annoying; my mobile device at home that morning was able to show the tickets, but when I got there, it wouldn't. Fortunately, the ticket wicket was devoid of a queue so I was able to get them to SMS me the tickets and when I clicked on the link in the SMS, the ticket was shown.

For the first match, which started at 11h, this is what the stadium looked like:

A scattering of people strewn throughout the stadium, mostly in pairs. It may be hard to see in the photo, but in the upper most seats on the far right of the photo, those seats are in shade. That whole 'bowl' section of the stadium was in shade for much of the 11h-15h period, depending on where within it you were sitting. Those sections, from left to right are 217-221. So what I'd say is for a future day time ticket, buy the ticket in a low row in sections 217 or 221, and a middle to high row in sections 218-220.

New this year, to keep people from congregating, they had a way to order food from the app that was made for this event. I ended up using it to order a gourmet turkey sandwich and a Pepsi. They put the order in a brown paper bag and then one of perhaps a dozen teenagers who were hired for this bring the bag directly to where you are seated. This is a nice feature that I hope continues in future years.

There were three matches in this early part of day session and after the first match some people left, and after the second match, more people left. This is what the stadium looked like during the third match.

The third match ended at about 16h35 and we were compelled to all exit the stadium which is something that may only hold true this year. I just sat in the shade just outside the stadium, reading my book and went back in when they allowed people to go back in. I had tickets for the evening session in a different section and this session had as its first game Bianca Andreescu against Harriet Dart. Bianca is our top Canadian player and Harriet ousted one of our top Quebec players in the first round. It was a tight match going the full three sets.

In the top image you can see Bianca in the orange one piece suit on the left and Harriet in the dark one piece suit on the right. You can see that there were way more people for this match. It had been clearly advertised that Bianca would play so that was a big draw. It started to lightly rain very close to the end of the match, but then it held off so that they could finish. The rain then started again and really picked up so the second match scheduled did not end up being played.

Where I was sitting on this side I'd have had the sun in my face for the beginning of the match and longer still, had not the cloud cover come in. For the evening session I think I'd prefer to be anywhere in section 223 to 227 in the early rounds and in sections 325-328 in the later sessions.

The ticket ordering website compelled me to buy two tickets at a time for this year's tournament; there was no way to buy single tickets. Next year, if single tickets are able to be bought, I'll consider perhaps going to three day sessions and three or four night sessions. If they have a ticket plan where 5, 8 or 10 session packages are available, maybe I'll consider that.