Hey Tennis Friends!
It was a great day for live tennis in Carson! Too many matches to recap them all, but here are some illustrative pictures:
Here’s what it looks like from the front baseline row. In the foreground is the radar gun configuration that lets us know the speed of the serves. Despite the deceptive perspective in the picture, it’s actually only about the size of two fists. In the background is American Bethany Mattek taking on her Chinese rival in the quarterfinal, Meng Yuan. This was the come-from-behind match of the tournament, and, sadly, it wasn’t even televised!
In this afternoon’s match, Bethany won the first set 6-2, but was down 0-4 in the second set. Afterward, she acknowledged that it was someone in the crowd who yelled out to her, “move your feet” that got her to get it together, and pull out a match-winning 7-5 second set comeback! I swear, I had nothing to do with it! It was actually some guy who was sitting about five seats away from me.
When Bethany told Andrew, the stadium emcee who did the on court interview, that it was that guy’s “move your feet” that made her turn it around, I nearly fell off of my seat, since that seems to be my catch phrase out on the courts!
The ESPN television coverage began today. Here’s what being on camera looks like to Cliff Robertson and Mary Jo Fernandez. This was taken behind their broadcast desk. Nothing but bright lights in your face!
Alright, I know that this picture is a little blurry, but the height difference in this doubles team was too funny not to point out. On the left is Eva Hrdinova, who is listed at (a conservative) 6’3″ . On the right is little Vladimira Ulirova who is listed at (a generous) 5’5″ . That’s a NINE inch “official” difference, that sure looks like at least a full foot!
Not only is Valimira closer to the camera in this shot (so, by perspective, she should look taller than normal), but Eva is hunching over just a little so that she can here the Czech communication.
They were playing Ai Sugiyama and Ayumi Morita (both 5’4″), from Japan, and it looked very funny out there. After they split the first two sets 4-6, 7-5, Hrdinova/Ulirova beat their opponents, making it to the semis, in a nail-biting third set 12-10 tie break.
I was afraid that if Eva had fallen down, the other three would have started shooting little thread ropes over her body to secure her to the ground!
I’ll see you next time, with more tennis, . . . outside the lines!
– Marcus Tennis
