Some people, if you were to ask them, would say that the most exhilarating moment in sports is the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the winning run at the plate. Others would say it’s penalty kicks at the World Cup, the final two minutes of a basketball game, or a last-minute Hail Mary. Ask me the same question, and you’ll get a different answer.
For my money, the most exciting moment in sports comes at the end of a tennis match. Unlike soccer, football, or basketball, tennis isn’t a sport where you can run out the clock. To win, you have to earn the last point and, until that happens, a comeback is never out of the question. Despite matches sometimes lasting for hours, time isn’t explicitly a factor in tennis, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, and there is no stronger evidence for that than the strong connection between some of the world’s leading watch brands and the sport of tennis.
This past weekend, I got to experience that connection firsthand with a visit to the Mubadala Citi DC Open, where Rado was serving as the tournament’s official timekeeper. With Rado’s clocks tracking the passing time both on and off the court, there was no better host to welcome us to Rock Creek Park, or with whom to celebrate one of my favorite sports in one of my favorite cities.
Though Rado’s relationship with tennis extends back much further (well over thirty years), this is only their second year partnering with the Mubadala Citi DC Open. But just because this partnership is new, doesn’t mean Rado hasn’t used it as an opportunity to reinforce their tennis bona fides. Last year, the brand used the DC Open as an opportunity to share a special edition of the Captain Cook, a very special green edition with tennis-ball-colored accents produced in partnership with British tennis player Cam Norrie.
This year, Rado is celebrating tennis with a new limited edition, and while not wholly tied to the DC Open — it is more of an ode to their general commitment to tennis — the Washington, D.C. tennis tournament was the perfect opportunity for the brand to show off this latest release, along with a host of other stellar picks from their collection.
This year’s tennis watch follows a familiar recipe as last year’s Cameron Norrie edition while swapping out the prevailing green colorway for a handsome blue. All the classic hallmarks of a Captain Cook remain, from the rotating anchor to the broad arrow hour hand and inward-sloping bezel. Even the tennis-ball-colored accents make a reappearance. If you’ve gone hands-on with any of Rado’s myriad Captain Cook releases of the last few years, this watch will feel familiar, and that’s not a bad thing.
Other standouts Rado brought out to play included the Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Skeleton in its trio of colorways, the Anatom Automatic, and a full quiver of fun and quirky True Squares in various configurations. Honestly though, with some of the world’s best tennis players playing tennis right next to us, it was hard to focus on the watches.
The Mubadala Citi DC Open is — and long has been — a very special tournament. It’s far from the biggest tournament on the planet, but it represents a key piece of the calendar leading up to the U.S. Open, one of tennis’s four major championships held each year. The intimate tournament was first held way back in 1969, and early supporters included Arthur Ashe, one of the true icons from the earliest days of tennis’s Open Era.
Since then, the tournament has evolved, becoming the only joint ATP-WTA event at the 500 level (bigger than the tournament in Challengers, but smaller than Grand Slams like the U.S. Open, or Masters 1000s like the Canadian Open currently at play in Montréal). Tournaments like the Mubadala Citi Open often land under the radar, drawing in local crowds and devoted tennis fans, but rarely making the top line of SportsCenter or breaking into the broader public consciousness.
It’s the perfect fit for Rado, a brand that has been quietly killing it just below the surface for years, but which hasn’t quite managed to break through. That may all be poised to change though, and in the same way that tennis has been getting more popular every year, Rado is poised for a hell of a run. Rado
