Let’s start at the end, shall we.

Something quite unexpected happened on Day 3 of the DC Open. Off Season was put on the big stage.

I thought it would be an early day for me. After recording my quick hit for this GPOS, I was planning to go home after what was a very long day.

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The Naomi Osaka cookout took up most of my day, Venus Williams and Diana Shnaider debuted as a doubles pair, and more. But let’s start with how a tee I designed with my friend Yevheniia, who designs all of Ground Pass’ merch, ended up on Frances Tiafoe on center court in his first round match against Terence Atmane.

Hailey Baptiste, who is an Off Season athlete, was coming to watch the night match. I have been filming with her for Off Season while in DC, so I thought B-roll of her at the match would be great for the upcoming episode, which you can find here. While I was packing up someone in the press room asked me if I had seen Frances Tiafoe walk out in a tee with Hailey Baptiste on it. I asked what shirt, because as far as I knew there was only one shirt with Hailey Baptiste on it, and it’s the one I made as our first Off Season player tee. And it couldn’t possibly be that one, because I didn’t give one to Frances Tiafoe. Right. Right?!

But lo and behold, as Frances Tiafoe got to his bench and took off his Lululemon hoodie, there was the OFF SEASON logo on the front and the Hailey graphic on the back. I have never felt more paralyzed in my life. What to do, how to capitalize for the benefit of the show. But in the end that’s not me. I don’t know how to guerrilla market, as they say. So I did what I planned to do, stayed and filmed Hailey for the DC episode of Off Season, and decided to wait until the end of the match to maybe ask Frances how he got the shirt.

But the match didn’t go well for Tiafoe. He lost to Terence Atmane, someone he has played three times this year alone and beaten all three times. The matches have always been close, and I had actually called Atmane to win this one. If you listen to the pre-tournament podcast I recorded with Ava Wallace, you will remember we talked about the pressure Tiafoe probably carries trying to win this tournament. This was a tough first round draw.

Both players came into press, and while Tiafoe was very down on his game and level (don’t worry, I didn’t ask about the shirt), Terence Atmane was more positive about his level and how hard he had to work to win the match.

Below is the full audio of their press conferences for paying subscribers.

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Frances subsequently withdrew from the tournament, citing a right wrist injury. And probably a lot of disappointment.

Going back to the start of the day, Naomi Osaka’s cookout was such a moment. Something I have never seen at a tournament before. Naomi held what ended up being a meet and greet with fans in one of the food areas on site. She talked to fans, took photos, signed autographs, and basically hung out for an hour. As I said in the video, this could not happen at a bigger tournament, and it’s what makes tournaments like this so special.

Leylah Fernandez talked about how she approaches being a defending champion.

"But my coaches have done a great job throughout the weeks working together saying, Hey, we're coming in here to earn it. We're not here to defend anything because we're not a defensive team. We're an aggressive team."

And Venus Williams expressed what it’s like to feel joy on court.

"Yeah, I think I said to Diana in the middle of the match, I was, like, Now we've reached the fun zone, like, we're having fun. I think we got there today where we were having fun with the challenge of the game, because it's most certainly a challenge."

If you would like to pick up a Hailey Baptiste shirt, you can here.

Follow along on Instagram and YouTube as I keep sharing things from the tournament there.

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