tennis, life and a few things in between

The little tree John Robert Isner in action.
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Jana Hunsaker Memorial Wheelchair tennis tournament at National Tennis Center, June 11, 2010

The 2010 Jana Hunsaker Memorial was held last week, June 10-13 at USTA. They had about 54 players competing for US$10,000. Men’s singles champ would take home $1,760 while the Lady’s $1,000. The top 4 gentlemen singles players are

1. Yoshinobu Fujimoto of Japan
2. Yann Mathieu of Canada
3. Paul Moran of USA
4. Stephen Welch of USA

This picture was taken while Paul was playing Joel Dembe in the Quarter final. He beat Joel 6:4, 7:6 (5). Pumpkin balled for the match.

I watched Steve Welch vs Anthony Anderson match. They traded many amazing shots. One of the players who were watching told me that Welch is the top dog in the USA and played a challenge match against Howard Stern the radio host about 4-5 years ago.
“He (Steve) kicked his behind big time.” 🙂

The wheelchair community is rather and pretty tight knit. Steve and Anthony would high five each other at change overs. At one point, Anthony cried out loud,
“You got to be kidding Steve!!” as he was trying hard but unable to save one of many incredible shots.
The few players I asked, all had played tennis before they became disabled.
“Would a wheelchair player has advantage if he played before became disabled?”
They said it’s a debate.
Oh well ..
There was a big dude in the red t-shirt who was the only one talked about his injury – a fall into a ditch. As an ignorant AB – their way of referring us, the able body – I didn’t know what to think/do around them but curious. In fact, they’re very self efficient and able – dumb of me to even think otherwise. The first day in the parking lot, as players arriving with their gears – sitting in a wheelchair and pushing their tournament wheels, I offered my help timidly: didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Only two players accepted my help.

All grand slams have the top 8 to play. The Wheelchair US Open is held in St Louis each year.

At last week’s lesson, coach Dai told girls there’s one trick that kids employee: late calling serve out, when the two failed to call out each others serve loudly and in a timely fashion.
Pumpkin delivered a serve that’s 3 inches out. Bev returned it. Pumpkin didn’t know if to continue or stop. Then she lost the point.
Dai called the girls over, explained:
“Many kids use this as a tool to cheat. When the serve’s out, they’ll return it and when it felt going out, then would they call it out. Otherwise they’ll insist it’s in. It’s good.”
He said .. “to continue to play as it is a good unless the opponent calls it out.”
The two are friends; neither them are crafty enough to cheat. They knew each other since toddlers. Pumpkin used to call Bubbly since she was too young to pronounce her name correctly. I guess it’s bit hard asking them to call out on each other. They’re not tour pro yet. Just some kids who love tennis, and doing it recreationally.

Pumpkin’s serve and backhand

Poor babe, it’s a sweltering afternoon at North Middle