March 22, 2012
March 22, 2012
More pix in gallery
When I got to the court at the GN South High School, found this lonesome tree. Why did they cut it?
May 22, 2011
Dec 22, 2008
Oct 23, 2010, on court at Great Neck South High. More pix in gallery.
Autumn is here ..
It’s a windy weekend and we were still out there playing, tennis. During a point, I saw this little greeny landed in front of me. It was so distracting because I wanted to take a picture of it. I probably double faulted twice to end the game. it’s a little cutie, isn’t it? Then I saw another cutie .. no worry my partner and I managed to win the set despite few double faults.
叶落归根 yeluo guigen falling leaves settle on their roots – a person residing elsewhere finally returns to his ancestral home. Where is my root, Beijing or New York?
In the middle of the game, I began hearing funny noise, little echo when I hit the ball. I didn’t think too much. But at the change over, I randomly looked at my racket and told no one in particular that my little thing’s 
acting funny .. then I saw ..
the crack
And
the loosened string
Oh my lord ..
It cracked.
How did that happen?
I don’t have a habit of hitting any one with it, or anything with it.
Probably out of old age then. It’s been with me for a while, a long while, was a left over from my kids.
Now I need to go shopping for a new one.
What should I buy?
My scores
Player Record for bagels; women and mixed doubles:
tennis basics
According to Wikipedia:
Tennis is a sport that people usually play individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racquet that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent’s court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return.
A tennis court measures
http://www.bctennis.com/articles/TennisRules.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_court
usta basics
USTA divides the country (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam) into 17 regional sections. Each section “maintains its own staff to administer USTA programs, establishes its own tournament schedule and issues its own rankings.” They are employees of the USTA.
- USTA Caribbean
- USTA Eastern
- USTA Florida
- USTA Hawaii Pacific
- USTA Intermountain
- USTA Mid-Atlantic
- USTA Middle States
- USTA Midwest
- USTA Missouri Valley
- USTA New England
- USTA Northern
- USTA Northern California
- USTA Pacific Northwest
- USTA Southern
- USTA Southern California
- USTA Southwest
- USTA Texas
USTA Eastern has six regions:
- Long Island
- Metro: New York City five boroughs
- New Jersey
- Northern: Albany
- Southern New York: Westchester
- Western: Buffalo
Each region appoints a Local League Coordinator who has a steady day job but plenty free time in front of a computer screen to manage the region from A to Z, as the side gag. They have their own rules, in addition to the USTA’s. Under them, are the flight coordinator to run each event: Manhattan mixed doubles 7.0. They are all compensated. The mass emails show many work in real estate, IT, government and event planning – a profession that provides abundant screen time.
USTA organizational structure:
- USTA
- Lauren Bull, Adult League Manager, www.eastern.usta.com
- Deborah-Rose Andrews, Local League Coordinator – Metro (Cathy Miller of Long Island)
- Sheila Astudillo <astudillo@columbia.edu>
The timeline of a Metro season
Met Manhattan mixed 2013:
- Sept 22, 2012: Call for Captain
- Oct 1, 2012: to email the coordinator that you want to captain a team
- Oct 4, 2012: preliminary roster due
- Oct 25, 2012: the captain’s meeting
- .. match schedule and rules sent to the captains ..
- Nov 5, 2012 – Feb 6, 2013: the regular season
- Dec 15, 2012: Registration deadline (sign up for a team)
- Feb 25 – Mar 3: the Flight playoff
- May 5: the Regional playoff
- May 31 – June 2: the Sectional playoff
- ..: the National
Metro Summer 2013:
- Apr 30: Call for Captain
- May 7: email the coordinator that you want to captain a team
- May 7: preliminary roster
- May 21: Captain’s meeting
- Apr 10 – Jul 14: the regular season
- July 1: Registration deadline (sign up for a team)
- July 23: the Local playoff (Manhattan; Queens, etc.)
- Aug 2: the (Metro) Regional
- Aug 9: the Sectional
- Oct 25: the National
LI mixed doubles 2013
- 9/30/2012: email from LLC
- 10/12: deadline to register a team
- 12/14: must have three men/women registered on the team
- 10/19: schedule: suggests the weekend; 2 captains work out the details
- 11/11 – 4/26 the season
- 1/1/2013: registration deadline
- 5/5: playoff
The rating
To level the playing field the USTA developed a rating system, NTRP (National Tennis Rating Program). The definition of each level determines where one could play. The lowest level is 1.5 who is just starting out with the ability to get the ball into play to 7.0 like Serena and Roger. The 7.0 I’m writing about is the combined rating of two players. It could be 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/3.5.
The Metro region rules:
- MANHATTAN 2013 Mixed Doubles Season Local Rules
- 2013 Manhattan Mixed USTA League Playoff Regulations
Day 10 at US Open 2010
I’m weak: 10:40pm flight out to Asia and I haven’t packed yet, but when the US Open is calling, I dash off to Flushing in no time. It’s day 10 of the two weeks long tournament. A glorious sunny day, cerulean blue sky n all that.
Jordan and I watched women’s doubles quarterfinals between Y. Chan and Jie Zheng vs Bethanie Lynn Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy. The Chinese pair won over the Americans.
Zheng Jie’s coach (can’t recall his name but he looks very familiar) in white cap came over to rally us to cheer for Zheng Jie.
“I’ll count to 3 .. you’ll say 郑洁加油” .. make an extra effort.
True to his words, he would shout in good Mandarin
“一,二, 三, ..”
We would chime in with “郑洁加油 ..” The echo worked: they won, despite 64-mile serve.
Zheng had double fault and her second serve came at 64 .. but the China dolls managed to win with persistence and remarkable retrievals. By 10th day, most matches were done, courts became vacant
.
The qualifying rounds
US Open Day 3
Room with a view
Le Meridien (Starwood) on Nanjing Road East in Shanghai. A great location, but the lobby is less than desirable. Stacks of moon cakes piled high, in prominent displayed near the entrance, and were being handed out. AT first I thought it were the guest who stays at the hotel. But after I walked a bit on the street did I realize what’s going on. Still, I didn’t understand why the hotel would want to get on distributing moon cake business.
The living room looks out to the east and the bathroom looks out to the Bund and beyond.
A while back, in a mocking article on New York magazine projected that by 2020, Americans would rush to China to find a job, like cute white college grad waiting at restaurants or being baby sitters who speak perfect Mandarin. Well, I don’t know if we need to wait that long. At one lounge at the hotel I spotted a tall and pretty cute blond among waiting staff. Was she a trainee of some sort, or just a back packer who would do anything to stretch her stay at a foreign city. Would people feel odd if a Chinese waiting at a hotel in Zambia?
This xiao long bao juicy dumpling tastes pretty good.
According to friends playing tennis in Shanghai can be a hassle and expensive proposition. So I largely wrote it off. Didn’t bring my gears. But then thought what’s the heck. Let’s try. Tried to line up with a coach who would provide me with a racket .. .. but that didn’t happen.
Then I spotted a tennis court from YZ’s apartment
“Yes you can play here.” He assured me.
I spotted few courts from this hotel .. don’t remember its name .. sorry senior moment ..
When I went to pick up Auntie Ida I found a cluster of courts in her gated community.
And the courts were empty too!
A few memorable times/places
If one doesn’t play tennis, would not understand our craziness ..
- Grand Central
- Red clay
- Grass at RI
- US Open
- Westside
- Tile in Nicaragua
- South Beach during a pit stop
- Center Court at Hilton Head
- Let it snow: Bay Terrace & Ally Pond
- Singing in the rain 2013.09.22,
- Early bird weekends
- Courts around home
cost of league
Fall 2013-4
$20 per hour: MEN’S DOUBLES LEAGUE, Sunday Mornings at SPORTIME Syosset – in a 16-man 3.5 doubles league. Rotation of players scheduled by league director. Staggered starts of 7-8:30am and 8:30-10am on har-tru clay courts. Cost is $550 for 18 weeks.
