This week, I played three mornings, reporting for work at 7am – playing with a new partner, preparing for the little tourney this coming Sunday. 起早贪黑 work from down to dusk is an understatement -:)
Today is windy, the wet ground under the blue skies is sure very pretty!
12.24.2019 … a sound sleep …
It’s the semi final at China Open 2019.
After getting lost & seeing the sunset, I finally made it to the Open via subway/Metro. But first thing first: there is NO cross road from the Lincui subway station to the stadium. You run as fast as you can while the cars non stop coming. I never said living in Beijing is easy.
See the multiple outlet power strip on the rail – in the red circle … Oh my.
And yes, the railing obstructs our view.
We watched the women’s singles Caroline Wozniacki losing 4 and 2 to Naomi Osaka who went on to win the tourney. Dominic Thiem beating Stefanos Tsitsipas, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1 to win men’s title.
Tickets are plentiful but I couldn’t purchase because the site didn’t seem to be available. The Diamond 钻石球场 is the main venue, is nearly empty. The upper level is $54 (¥380) and $115 (¥800) for the box seats, day or nigh session. Tickets for the Lotus 莲花球场 is $15 (¥100) for the whole day.
The stadium is only a few years old but there are signs of aging or poor workmanship. The forecast is a sunny day but there is NO blue skies. This lady is wearing a massive mask.
The first pair up is Murray vs Berrettini 母雷 对 杯雷踢泥, followed by Dominic Thiem won over Richard Gasquet and Sloane Stephens vs Zhen Saisai. Murray has many fans. After the match, he tossed his sweat drenched t shirt to the crowds and two men broke into a fight over it. A team of security men came out almost immediately … Murray tossed them another.
There are curtains by the entrance to the seats. For what?
Another odd ball is Sofitel: instead having a plain stand to promotion their brand, they’ve a food concession. The water is regulated by the sponsoring brand. So when I ask for two bottles of water, the girl said they don’t have it. A guy nearby came over, said to her, “sell her this brand but put them into two paper cups.”
Why any organizer would make water supply so difficult? Especially when there isn’t a water fountain – China’s tap water is not readily drinkable…
A woman dressed in red came out with two women in toe, holding a gold plate with balls. Thiem signs them and hits out. Because the stadium is so empty, two of the balls falls back to court – no one is there to catch them.
Beijing Open – getting there was some story.
中国公开赛
赶到现场的经历也挺刺激的
一个路上兜
一个地下跑
相遇就是缘分 [玫瑰]
几乎空空如也的赛事
网站也不行
球童需要训练 – 没眼力见
5⃣️ 怪她吗？艳阳天的预报 但是没有蓝天
7⃣️ 帘子是干嘛的？
后面一个爱说的小姑娘 她重多的经典之一是 “…外国人的味道 …”
二个男粉为了争母丢的汗水浇灌的衣服 … 大打出手 😱 五个保安立马出现 [奸笑]
Day 11, Oct 2: BTV, Beijing TV board cast the Bianca Andreascur’s match against …. At 6:40pm, Anderascu has the match point, the announcers say, “we’ll see you tonight.”
What is this??? A point a away from the match, they cut it off.
This year, it runs from Sept 30 to Oct 6. (2016 is here) For some reason, the Tickets tab is NOT working. And the Draw has winners already. Pretty funny -:)
Oct 2: the match results are not posted and updated. This might be the only tourney that girls are paid more than the boys: $1,523,256 v $733,990, according to wikipedia.
Hiking the Great Head @ Bar Harbor, Maine and a little yoga seems fitting.
I’ve never cheered for Nadal the swarthy as I do now, as he’s battling for the 2019 US Open title… but at the same time, feeling for the other players who retired without winning a grand slam title. The following four won 78 grand slam titles in 20 years, out of 80 opportunities (… somehow I felt my math isn’t right … and btw, doesn’t Daniil Medvedev look like Fredo in The Godfather?) but here it is – after Nadal won the 2019 US Open:
Medvedev’s speech at the trump ceremony summed up nicely and it’s heart felt … good for him …
The fourth chickened out right before the match, so we played threesome. The first set was singles line for us and doubles line for the lonely player. We lost. Then they decided to play the singles line altogether … it was fun and we managed to win 3-2 over five sets.
The weather is glorious – the little wind (probably from the hurricane Dorian) at times could stir up some mishit. The autumn is here with my flowers.
🎾 3-2, a win with an unfair advantage
12,580 steps 步
赢的也没啥好高兴的：我们2人对1人
有几个小鲜肉真的就是那么牛 🐂
赢的挺辛苦💦
小建议：三人行时 打单线 🎾 有趣
今天的香蕉🍌软硬适中
俺秋天的花
可以吹吹牛
是同一丛 只是光线不同 – 春天刚刚开时是白色的
8.19 @ quailing round
What a journey for TT. Born in 1996 and turned pro in 2012 and earned $1.7m prize so far. Her body shape has been an issue to a point that USTA withheld funding – a mean thing they did to her. But now she made into the sweet 16 and everybody begins talking about her … that’s the reality and life, I suppose.
Her game is serve and volley, which is rare, and is being coached by Donald Young Sr. – father of Donald (1989, 2004, $4.6m) – I used to have high hope for Donald Jr. but that doesn’t seem to be happening now that he’s 30 years old. Hope TT would be a successful player than Don.
Tonight, TT’s opponent is Canadian Bianca Andreescu (2000, 2017, $2.4m) is equally in chubbiness.
Wayne Coffey, Special for USA TODAY Sports | Sept. 2, 2019 |
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — She is a minority of one, standing alone among all 256 singles players who began the 2019 US Open.
Taylor Townsend looks different. She plays different. She is a left-handed serve-and-volleyer, a player of color, a big-bodied woman who has powered her way through humiliation, despondence, long stretches of losing and enough toxicity to overflow a landfill.
But there she was in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night, a 23-year-old qualifier, deeper than she’d ever been in a Grand Slam, squaring off against No.15 Bianca Andreescu of Canada in the round of 16.
Chrissie Evert, 18-time major champion in singles and ESPN commentator, first saw Townsend’s abundant gifts when she was the No. 1 junior player in the world, when Townsend was training with the USTA at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. Evert watched in wonder as Townsend ousted Simona Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion and No. 4 seed, in the second round, charging the net 106 times in the process. She was impressed again when Townsend did much the same thing to Sorana Cirstea in the third round, channeling the unrelenting aggressiveness of her tennis role model, Martina Navratilova.
“I couldn’t be happier for Taylor,” Evert told USA TODAY Sports in an interview in the ESPN suite. “For her age she’s gone through a lot more than other girls. There were a lot of people who didn’t believe in her and gave up on her. At the end of the day she’s kind of giving it back to them.
“I want her to hold her head high and walk like a champion. It’s such a great story.”
Taylor Townsend reacts after beating Simona Halep in the second round of the US Open. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports)
Few athletes have experienced more extreme highs and lows than Townsend. Her astonishing hands and athletic gifts helped her become the first U.S. junior to finish with the year-end No. 1 ranking in 30 years. She won the junior singles and doubles titles in Australia, and the doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open. There wasn’t a doubt among anyone that she was, in Evert’s words, “the next it girl” in American tennis.
The USTA, however, had concerns that Townsend’s fitness was not where it needed to be to compete at the highest levels going forward – so much so that player-development executives, headed by then-general manager Patrick McEnroe, withheld funding for her to travel to such competitions as the U.S. 18’s nationals and the US Open.
“Our concern is her long-term health, number one, and her long-term development as a player,” McEnroe said at the time. “We have one goal in mind: For her to be playing in [Arthur Ashe Stadium] in the main draw and competing for major titles when it’s time.”
Townsend had to come up with her own funds to travel, but the money was much less of an issue than the stigma that came with the decision. While the USTA insisted it was acting in Townsend’s best interest, the decision was criticized by many, including Lindsay Davenport, a player whose physique was also under scrutiny when she first came on tour, as well as Serena Williams, who tweeted, “Women athletes come in all different sizes and shapes and colors and everything.”
Though the USTA later reversed itself and reimbursed Townsend for the funds, her fitness and body shape were now part of the tennis discourse, and she was still in her mid-teens. It wasn’t easy, at all. Her performance suffered. She won only four matches in 2015 and seriously considered quitting the sport.
“It’s really hard to deal with that kind of stuff, when personal issues are publicized,” Townsend said. “That’s always attached to you. You have to kind of maneuver through those things. It’s been a long road. A lot of haters, a lot of people who weren’t sure. I’ve heard it for a really long time that I was never going to make it, that I wasn’t going to be able to break through or do this or do that.”
Evert said she had deep compassion for the burden Townsend was carrying.
“She’s a great athlete, (but I do) think in the past her fitness has been the elephant in the room. (It has made for) a rough road, emotionally, confidence-wise, and with tournament results.”
‘Keep your head down and keep working’
Townsend’s rank bottomed out at 394 early in 2016. Instead of playing in the main draw of Grand Slams, she had to play the qualification round just to get in; that’s what she did here, winning three matches just to get into the field of 128. With such a low ranking, her only playing options were $25,000 challenger tournaments in the tennis hinterlands, trying to rebuild her game and her belief in herself.
It was a long process, but she started to climb. Serve-and-volley games, with so many strategic intricacies and different shots to make, almost always take longer to develop. By the summer of 2018, Townsend reached a career-high of No. 61, and finished the year in the top 75.
“You keep your head down and keep working and you see what happens,” Townsend said.
She had another breakthrough of sorts at Wimbledon this year, making the second round, holding a match point against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, before getting too cute with a volley and losing in three sets.
That fired Townsend up to bring her best at the Open, and under the guidance of coach Donald Young Sr., she has done that.
Kathy Rinaldi, a former top-10 player and the USTA’s head women’s coach, said that everyone in USTA player development is thrilled for Townsend’s showing at the Open.
“I’m not going to go backward (and talk about the withdrawal of funding),” Rinaldi told USA TODAY Sports. “It was so long ago. I have a great relationship with Taylor. She’s an incredible athlete and she’s got all the tools. She’s the type of person who can not only light up a court, but also light up a room.”
Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a tour veteran and doubles specialist, had made her living off of volleys. She admires Townsend’s hands, and her tenacity, and believes there is an important lesson here in body stereotyping.
“There’s not one perfect image that makes what we think is a really good athlete or tennis player,” Mattek-Sands told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not like, ‘Okay, if you like this, you will play like this and be a superstar.’ There are a (lot) of body shapes on the tour now.
“I like that diversity on the tour and I like people knowing about that diversity. I think in the U.S., and hopefully around the world, there’s just been a lot more awareness around what’s considered perfect and ideal, and what’s amazing about you, no matter what size, shape, color you are.”
Evert is interested to see how things go for Townsend from here.
“I think this tournament has empowered her. For Americans who have followed her journey, the ups and downs, she deserves some bright moments,” Evert said.
Townsend said she is much better now at embracing the day-to-day challenges of the tour, to “keep plucking” every day. She believes now more than ever that she belongs at this level.
“Ultimately everyone’s journey is different,” Townsend said. “Some people’s happens quicker than others. Mine took, what? Six, seven years? You know, I feel better than ever before. So, I mean, I’m just thankful for where I am now and kind of the things I had to go through in order to be here and appreciate where I am.”
