Li Na is playing quarter final against Kim Clijsters, losing first set 6:2 and trails Kim 4:5 in the second. The announcers kept saying that Li doesn’t seem to have a plan. Li’s path to tennis actually began with badminton:
From the central China metropolis of Wuhan, Li was a badminton player when she was 6 but her coach kept noticing that she looked as if she were playing tennis. By the time she was 8, her coach asked her parents if she could switch to tennis.
She’s currently #1 ranking female player in China. Her outfit is ok, but the white bra partially shown on her back, unevenly. Can’t she find some thing that’ll fit under her deep pinky purple top? And does Hannah Storm feeling cold in her striking blue tank top? She looks great .. while Mary Carillo in a dress shirt with scarf. It’s only little over 60 degress out there.
September 8, 2009 at 10:36 am
· Filed under Sports ·Tagged tennis
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.
