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Hey Tennis Friends!

Alright, I have to admit it, . . . today’s photo is actually less LIVE than the others, as it was taken yesterday.

The Pacific Life Open has a promotion with Fila and Tennis Warehouse that enables the attendees to sign up and compete for the prize of playing with WTA or ATP pros. The winners get an outfit from Fila and a tennis racket from Tennis Warehouse. Then they get to play on one of the match courts with the pros. The best part (for me) is that I get to be the chair umpire for the seven point tiebreak.

After fudging my way through bad jokes, poor commentary during play, and misread scoring, the players come up to shake hands with the flunky chair ump. Saturday, along with the winning patrons, it was ATP Tour players Paul-Henri Mathieu, and 2007 Countrywide Classic singles winner Radek Stepanek (pictured below). They had just taken out the American team of Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey in two tough sets 7-5, 7-6.

It was pretty thrilling for me as I had watched him win that tourney last year when I had gone nearly everyday. I could tell from day one that he was going to win that week, and I shared that story with him. He then quickly left the court . . .

Yes, I actually had to put a jacket on for the cooler night temperatures this evening! That’s Sania Mirza signing the balls after winning her three set match over Shahar Peer 6-7, 7-5, 6-3. If you look at the match timer behind her, you can see that the match lasted just over two and a half hours!

I’ll see you next time, with more tennis, . . . outside the lines!

– Marcus Tennis