In January of this year I was in Switzerland skiing with some friends, when a friend sent me an Instagram reel of a cool looking dude wearing our glasses walking into the Australian Open to the tune of 50 Cent "In Da Club". (Go shawty, it's your birthday...")

I searched him up and realized that he was Andrey Rublev, the Russian, number 5 ranked men's singles player in the world; not bad!

Over the next few days, several people sent me videos and pictures of him rocking our glasses, and his team actually reached out to us because there was so much interest from the fans.

As the Universe would have it, I was already set to fly to Bali, much closer to Australia than anywhere else I ever go, in just a few days, so I offered to pay a visit so we could connect and discuss in person.

I went to watch Andrey's match in the quarterfinal against Jannik Sinner. It was a tough match and I was on the edge of my seat, only made tougher by the fact that I had just flown for 20 hours from Zürich to Melbourne via Dubai, and the match didn't end until 2 AM!

His team had generously invited me to join them in the coach's box, so afterwards I received a stream of text messages of people seeing me in our signature Sunset Lenses on international television.

It was actually the first tennis match I ever watched in my life, and I came to really enjoy it.

The day after the match, we connected and hit it off, and Andrey offered me to join some of the next tournaments, which I gladly accepted.

So in May I went to Paris for Roland-Garros, the French Open, an experience which filled my soul with the inspiring spirit of Parisian charm. The beautiful city, the clay courts, the food, the river, and the buzzing Olympic preparations. it was an amazing time.

Just a month later it was time for Wimbledon! Flowers of white, violet, and blue; people dressed in white suits and gowns; green grass galore; tennis heaven. Andrey had an early exit, but fortunately I was able to support another player wearing Ra Optics, Elena Rybakina, world number 4 in women's singles, who made it all the way to the semifinals in great form.

I enjoyed an amazing week and a half in London, indulging in the beautiful sites, sounds, and parks, and even tasting the fabled strawberries and cream of Wimbledon for just (which strategically haven't gone up in price since 2010)!

Wow!

And now, I've made it to the U.S. Open.

The reason for this post is that I am so happy that I've been able to purchase a hat from each of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments in the same year, the same year that I attended my first tennis match and the same year that I became interested in tennis at all.

It's amazing and exciting when the players in a sport who travel all around the world so constantly derive such significant benefit from using your products. And although not everyone travels as much, performs as hard, and has as many late nights as a tennis player, we all suffer to some degree from the same modern condition. So for Ra Optics, tennis is a window to the world, and it has been such an amazing year.

For me, 2024 has been the year of tennis, and purchasing this hat from the U.S. Open was my "Grand Slam".

Thanks so much to Andrey, Elena, their coaches, teams, and all of the other amazing players and people who I've been so fortunate to connect with and support this year in the world of tennis. It's the first, and it definitely won't be the last!

And I feel so blessed for all of the lessons I've learned from such a beautiful sport. I should probably pick up a racket! 😂🎾🏆

Thanks so much to everyone in the Ra community for your continued support of our mission of enlightening the world and spreading the Science of Light.

Matt Maruca
Founder & CEO
Ra Optics