tennis, life and a few things in between

William is taking lesson with a coach whom I saw from time to time when we arrived. His younger bro was running around the court, and his parents and an uncle [?] were milling around the court, sitting on their lawn chairs with cooler on the side, looking on. Quite an entourage.

“How old is he?” I asked as his mother was picking up balls near me.
“6.” He looks small for his age. I’ve estimated him to be 3 or 4 years old.
“Which school does he go to?” I was quite enamored by his bravado.
“What do you mean school?” The mother questioned me, rather sternly, with an accent.
“?? School .. where he attends ..”
“Normal school?” She asked. I began having this sneaky feeling they were not my neighbors.
“Yes, regular school he goes.”
“Oh, we are not from here.” She said. Paused for a second, then added “We’re from from Middle Village [in Queens]”.
“Does the coach live here?”
“No, he doesn’t.”

The tennis courts at school were packed with players when we got there. While playing, I saw more cars came and left, few players decided to wait for a court. It’s been a struggle with the courts, many non residents come to play which isn’t allowed but they come anyway. Two weeks ago, the same coach was giving lesson to another family. The father came to me chatted briefly [with an accent]. It turned out, his daughter attends high school at Francis Lewis, also in Queens.

Our schools are for residents only. It used to be free but for about 10 years ago, they began to charge a meager fee to use, $10 per year. Before Mr. Fred Gunn, the athletic head retired, he would police the school often and checked IDs, now schools have young kids doing it. With newly renovated courts, players come in doves. Not sure if those non residents feel embarrassed when they were asked to leave. It’s kind of ironic that we’re paying high taxes, plus the $10 to play while non residents come to play for free.

Yesterday morning, after I finished my game, the courts were packed with the school team. I ran into Don in the parking lot. He said DQ called for a game.
“She said there are new courts. .. ”
Both of them aren’t residents. Come to play as a guest is fine ..
Not sure why didn’t they go to Andy’s house where no IDs are needed.
There is a group of dads (all immigrants) that play in a park near by for years. I sometimes play with them because they start at 7am. For a few years they seemed to disappear. When they resurfaced, they told me they were at a high school next town with new courts.
“Initially it’s fine with the school. But when our group mushroomed to more than 10 players, we took 3 of 5 courts school guardians began playing us visit.”
They moved back to the park where we used to play. The park belongs to the county. The majority of the players in this group are from Queens. Beginning this year, the park opens late and some times would post a guard at entrance checking IDs.
It seems to me that the ethnic players tend to form a larger group to play. I have never found that many native players to play at one time – even 4 considered hard to arrange. All the large groups I play with were all immigrants.

Where?

Oh .. over the rainbow .. fading out of US Open.

Due to delay of day time matches, USTA decided to move Dinara Safina / Petra Kvitova match from the center court to Armstrong. The match begin 10:15 p.m. That’s really late. Night session tickets, although starting times are never guaranteed, but it usually aims at 7pm.

“From my side, I can say, I’m No. 1 player in the world, why did they move me?” Safina said.
..
“They just told us, ‘We’re switching you to Armstrong.’ And basically that’s it,” Safina said. “And I think it’s very unfair.”

Weeeell, sweetie, you have to understand we don’t care about you and your number one ranking. You’re basically nothing. You have to pay me to come to watch you. I can’t believe she dared to flaunt her #1 ranking.
Serena has every right to mock her lack of slam title by saying
“Oh, she won in Rome.”
You know Belly Dancer, you really have to earn the respect from us. OR, you can be as cute as Anna Kournikova.

Big chuck of tuna without a slam title .. you think we’re idiot or what? We don’t want to watch you.

Kvitova didn’t seem to mind. Asked after her victory about the court change, she said: “Yeah, doesn’t matter for me. I’m not (a) star, so …”

The USTA made a right move by moving her. After all, James Blake has more drawing power.

What’s silly is her brother Marat Safin defends his kid sis over her world No1 ranking. Hmmmm … true that she didn’t design the ranking system that reward the quantity over quality, but let some one else points that out .. may looks much better than the bro goes to bat. .. Oh, no one has pointed that out yet?

Maybe it’s time to soup up the ranking system.

Marat’s comment only stirred up more attention to his less deserving sister. Watching her play is a real pain in the back, never racking .. unpleasant, not entertaining, unless you enjoy taking pleasure upon others’ misery.

I’ve been playing well for the past two days, won 4 sets yesterday and 3 sets today. Our 3rd set yesterday, we were trailing 5:1 .. but we hung tough and pulled it off at 7:5. Despite my tender right ankle and shaky back – my back went last Friday .. I’m happy with my tennis. .. Weather have been nice, I can sense the autumn and smell the foliage 🙂 .. ..
Happy long weekend.