“The Tennis Partner is the second of Abraham Verghese’s books. Published in 1999, when he was a physician practicing internal medicine in El Paso, Texas, this is an autobiographical memoir, and Abraham Verghese writes of his experience moving to El Paso in the midst of an unraveling marriage. Once there, he meets and eventually becomes a mentor to David Smith, a medical resident at the hospital where Verghese worked and a brilliant tennis player recovering from drug addiction.”
Abraham Verghese (1955-) has an interesting journey: born in Ethiopia to Orthodox Christian parents from India. His elder brother, George Verghese, is an engineering professor at MIT and his younger brother, Phil Verghese worked at Google as a software engineer.
~I’ve 19 hcp: ♠️A, ♥️Q43,♦️AKQJ742, ♣️K7.
~ My P has 11 hcp: ♠️KJ10 5, ♥️K, ♦️653, ♣️A9853.
Since we only have 3 aces, I could only go for a slam, if I were bid. Because of 3♦️ bid, my L played ♥️10 who has the ♥️A too. My P’s singleton in ♥️, rendered her ♥️A useless.
The format: 8 players a group, round robin, playing 7 matches; rally scoring to 15, win by 1 point.
The top four players with the highest points, go to play off: round robin, 3 matches, rally scoring to 11, win by 1 point. The score points decides #1, #2 and #3.
I won 3, lost 4 matches, finished 7th in total points: coach put me in Tier 2 – I’m at Tier 3 level – who kept saying don’t think about tennis … think pickleball -:)
April 16, 2025 at 11:06 pm
· Filed under Musing, Tennis
So, the British tennis player – wild card – Harriet Dart (1996-; 2015, $2,891,681) becomes overnight sensation due to her comment on her opponent Lois Boisson (2003-; 2021?, $127,741) at R32, “… Can you tell her to wear deodorant, … she smells really bad …” @ 2025 Ope de Rouen: she lost to the French, 0 and 3.
Rouen is a small city on the Seine river, in the NW corner of France, population 116,331. It’s a WTA 250 tourney (April 14-20), winner takes home $275,094, which is far better than the Sarasota Open.
Before leaving, I watched briefly R32 Mark Lajal (the hairdo!) & Wu Tung-lin‘s match. Lajal’s team erupted thunderously, when Wu Tung-lin missed his backhand put away at the net. It was the second set and Lajal won it 7-5, forcing the third, who ultimately won 6-4.
Patrick Maloney (no wiki page) is an American, obvious I’m rooting for him. Then the chair umpire said, “ma’am please don’t clap for free error.”
Maloney asks, “is that a rule?”
Ump said, “No, just not a good etiquette.”
Mmmm… How about the screaming pig? Is that a good etiquette? How about Lajal’s team members?
My last usta sanctioned competition was nearly 10 years ago (2016?), if my memory serves me right. This one is for real: us vs Sun, another community.
… I’m so not competition ready! …
The format is usta’s: best of 3 sets; 7 point tie break for the first two sets, and super 10 point tie break the third set – both use Woman’s.
There are 9 matches/courts: three each of men’s, women’s and mixed doubles. I played 2nd line of mixed doubles with Kevin W., lost to Tracy R and Wayne K.: 3-6, 2-6, the worst outcome of the mixed doubles bracket. Our club lost 2-7 over all.
We got off to a good start, leading 2-0. Then the heavy set, 6′ Wayne asked if I touched the ball.
I absolutely did NOT. I was not even close to the ball. I despised dishonesty. He said, “oh, I heard something.”
Maybe your own breath?
They’re slow, procrastinate, have water break on even games. If they just take a sip and return to court I won’t say a thing. It’s 1pm and hot. But they linger … When I serve, he said he isn’t ready.
“You play at server’s pace.”
He said he doesn’t know any usta rules… so he’s type of person who likes to have the last say, for the sake of saying something petty. I don’t like quibble too -:)
Maybe that’s his strategy, to disturb and it worked. We began to play their game, which is slow lob and backboard, that everything comes back. I then suddenly realize why I don’t like to play with women. I don’t have the patience. This shows, I’m def not competition ready.
The last game of the last court: Helene P. / Neal P. def Y/Gu
“The Tennis Partner is the second of Abraham Verghese’s books. Published in 1999, when he was a physician practicing internal medicine in El Paso, Texas, this is an autobiographical memoir, and Abraham Verghese writes of his experience moving to El Paso in the midst of an unraveling marriage. Once there, he meets and eventually becomes a mentor to David Smith, a medical resident at the hospital where Verghese worked and a brilliant tennis player recovering from drug addiction.”
