For two weeks each year, world of tennis is in New York (but only part of New York is all about tennis – that’s what I love about Noo Yawk: rarely a single person or event can dominate the city. My Big Apple has depth).
Few of the magazines that I subscribe to have profiles on the players.
Food & Wine
Money
InStyle
The Economist
.. ..
I have to admit that I don’t get to read every one on my coffee table page by page – too many. (What was Irene thinking to sub to so many magazines? No wonder nothing gets done in my house and in my life … boooo hoooooo … ) I shall check other mags to see if there are some coverage..
– Food & Wine could write about how the players’ entertain ..
– Money could write about how they manage their earnings ..
– InStyle .. seriously many female players could use Anna Wintour. Madam Wintour has a new movie out, The September Issue
– The Economist .. hmmm .. what angle would they use?
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Bob and Mike even share two houses; a car; and a bank account.
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I am happy to say that the media has finally come around to cover doubles. Or the Twins’ limelight is due to lack of top ranking American players? In any event, I love to see them play and love doubles game. When will the net work cover more? I would think they would stick around to air Williams sisters’ final at Wimbledon, live not tape delayed.
Serena has a book out, On the Line, when she talked about her depression over her sister’s shooting death in 2003, her weight issues ..
Any one noticed Maria Sharapova’s hideous outfit at the 2009 Open – like my bed quilt, and it has an tail at the back, plus her head band too that Brad Gilbert called it discoy. The Nike dress is very Gypsy.
Poor Tsevtana Pironkova of Bulgaria is being disabled on the center court by the Gypsy although she looks able, just couldn’t do a thing to Maria.
Not sure why Madonna would want to get into human right business. She got booed in Bucharest for defending Gypsies.
Anyone traveled to Europe would have either encountered them or had seen them. One year in Paris subway, as I was making my way up the narrow stairs, I suddenly felt the handbag on my shoulder became light. I looked to my right and saw this dirty-faced little girl. She ran toward downstairs like a rabbit.
My purse’s zipper was opened.
Ha.
My wallet was stolen.
A couple I befriended during my trip to Budapest was with me. The wife was a tough cookie. She chased the girl immediately and caught her by the train track. The wife demanded my wallet.
The little girl looked up at her with her two palms up.
Since our French wasn’t really functioning, so she pushed the girl for the wallet.
The station was deserted during the late morning. There was another girl who’s bit older, like 8 or 9 stood across the platform.
“They must be together.” The husband suggested.
“Give me the wallet.” The wife asked for the last time and began to body search. When that failed, she slapped the girl. Then she saw the girl’s right arm was not moving to rebuff her.
She forced the girl to lift her right arm .. .. found my wallet.
That wasn’t the end of her detective work.
There was a lone Japanese man in suit, pacing the platform. He too lost something – pocketbook with his business contacts.
“Not your wallet?”
“No .. “ He didn’t even know who to get to his next meeting without it.
“No money in it?”
“No money.”
The Mrs. Detective pointed to the garbage can.
“Check the can.”
Yup, it was discarded there.
While we struggled, the innocent husband went to the street and hailed a police.
So the four of us spent another two hours in the Paris’s police station.
How romantic.
Man is from Mars. They’re clueless.
Another time Golfer and I just arrived at Venice. As soon as we got off the taxi, a little Gypsy stole his wallet from his pocket.
A tall Italian guy came over, padded his shoulder, and pointed to his pocket.
“Where is my wallet?” Golfer asked.
Mr. Tall pointed to a girl who’s running away.
Perhaps he sensed we were completed FOBs and disoriented, he ran after the girl and was able to retrieve the wallet.
Guess what Golfer said aside from thanking the hero?
“She gave back to him probably saw those Amex travelers checks.”
Hellooooo .. Mr. !!
No, Mr. Tall forcefully grabbed it from her.
… Further prove man is from Mars… I’m resting my case here.
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Anyway, Ms. Gypsy took the match at 6:3 and 6:0. During the after match interview with Pat Shriver she said her dress is inspired by Frank Gehry, the Canadian architect, complete with Tiffany earrings.
We hosted the Chaoyang Tennis Association 北京朝阳网球协会 from Beijing today at Roosevelt Island Racquet Club. Chaoyang is quasi governmental club, the players’ trip is paid for by the club or the government (not sure if I got this right..). The Sunday game was arranged by the USTA, United States Tennis Association. About week or two ago, USTA reached out to Bill, the 4.0 captain asking if any of the Chinese clubs/players would like to play with them .. so we got involved. USTA reserved and paid two courts at the Island fm 10-12 noon.
The arrangement leading up to the day was bit confusing. I have expressed interest to meet/play with the BJ team since, well they’re from my hometown. But I wasn’t on the list. When I questioned it, the organizer shot back a nasty e-mail to the group ..
irene,
can you tell any of these names are females?
部分赴美冠军名单：
2.5组：穆伟——李鉴树
3.0组：林耀海——王天民
3.5组：戚扬——李强
4.0组：杨林——蒋屹
4.5组：苏启仲
5.0组：陈曦——杨涛
Well, I haven’t seen this Beijing list before and now that I’ve seen it I couldn’t tell their gender .. but I did see the organizer put two our girls down for 2.5 .. hence I asked.
What did I ever do to this organizer to deserve being scolded in public? I don’t like the feel of it. Tennis is just a game, should be fun and enjoyable. Few in the group seem to have more spare time on hand, like to play sissy and politics. Can we all act like A MAN, have bit more tolerance? As if Irene wears pants here.
It’s just so amusing, few in the group likes to make a small match-fire into an inferno then come in as a hero or the problem solver, it doesn’t give the person more right to lay claim on this club. This club belongs to everyone. No one should try to stronghold it as a personal guild.
Then the last e-mail informing us that Beijing would only have 6 players on Sunday so our list scaled down to 6 players as well. I was not on the rotation. I understand. No problem. I just wished the organizer would mention if we could go to meet them regardless on the playing list. There was none.
The night before, one of the players I contacted earlier for car-pooling said he’ll pick me up at 9:10am the follow day.
Didn’t he know he’s no longer needed?
He was being cut as well. When I asked him, he paused. Either he or other players received other instructions or they just decided to go.
If it’s the former, it proved the organizer in deed playing politics here. If it’s the later, it shows poor organizing skill, very confusing.
I decided to go knowing well I was not invited and unwelcome.
My intention was to check out my hometown players and also being from the same city that would make them feel more comfortable. It’s beyond me that the organizer failed to see eye to eye with me.
As it turned out, the Beijing team sent more than a dozen.
Our group had more than a dozen showed up.
The CatsNY got two more courts to accommodate the mass.
I have always favored an open forum (vs e-mail) for group activities where it’s easier to keep truck of what’s up and been done (with polling feature), that way can also reduce e-mail traffic. Of course, the big downside, the organizer would obviously lose ‘control’, the ability to manipulate.
I was dumbfounded to hear a tennis rating could be licensed. The BJ players told me that as an individual they didn’t pay to be rated, but the club paid. The USTA even sent a representative to Beijing to do the rating.
“Was there training involved?” I wondered.
They didn’t know.
“Was the person white?”
“Yes. She was.”
“Does she speak Chinese?”
“No .. “ but there was an interpreter.
Why can’t the Chaoyang club read the description and rate the players themselves? Can’t they find a knowledgeable player to do so?
A down payment for a future alliance?? But tennis being so international, USTA certainly doesn’t represent the world of tennis. It’s only one of few major components. There are Wimbledon and Roland Garros. .. with the Aussie in the distance.
One of the members mentioned that the Chaoyang club did consider and decided to reach out to the Americans. The USTA logo is prominently displayed on their site.
I didn’t have complete score but BJ won most matches. Few players ..
Li Qiang 李强 (top .. serving) is a 46-year old PhD candidate at Beijing Athletic Academy, 北京体育学院. He works at Normal University, my mom’s Alma mater. His path to tennis was during his teaching years at Dongbei Nongye Daxue 东北农业大学 Northeast Agriculture University where he was a martial art master, or kung-fu master. When school wanted to start tennis program, they turned to him who knew nothing about Love 40. With innate athletic ability, he learned the game then taught. He was HelongJiang Provincial single champion.
This couple (pic above .. husband to my right wife to my left) work at Beihang 北航, 北京航空学院 Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The wife visited Moscow in 1992 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and brought back two tennis racquets. They both plagued into the sport, and primarily play at Beihang where they work and live.
The PhD team (to my left .. Dad and his girl). Dr. Dad is professor at Beihang’s Research Center for Condensed Physics and Materials Physics – phew .. may I get my PhD degree now ?? after I copied down this long string of alien stuff from his business card :). Dr. Daughter is a life cycle analyst, taking the title of Director at the Dairy Management Inc. in Chicago. She doesn’t play but came down to see dad for a few days.
Wang Jihong is the correspondent. Yes, the BJ club came armed with a 26-year old journalist who writes for Tennis World Magazine.
..
Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to everyone on the Beijing delegate.
We filled three tables at East Buffet in Elmhurst for lunch. It happened the organizer sat at our table who hardly said anything throughout the meal. Speaking the same dialect doesn’t mean you’ll have common language.
This McDonald ad was opposite to the East Manor Restaurant in Elmhurst, New York. Not Beijing .. mind you.
The 4th Casio digital camera I purchased is Exilim EX-S5 with 3x optical zoom (picture above, left). I ran into Larry at the US Open who just purchased his Nikon Coolpix S630 (right). His last camera got stolen.
The EX-S5 is slow – the shutter speed.
The flash tends to over bright the picture
The battery/SD card door sleds open easily without intend. Actually Casio has improved over the years because the previous ones’ battery slot had no guard like the later models. I lost my second Casio’s (after breaking the screen/LCD I still managed to use it) battery while riding for the MS Tour in the city.
Look at the pictures above .. my decision to dump the Casio is wise, isn’t it?
.. my g/f thinks I’m abnormal .. to prove that I’m a third sex, a man who wears pants .. neither gay or lesbian, so here I found one good looking dude – a GQ model? to show off, with Larry’s lens .. hi dude, look my way pleeeaaassse?
.. .. and I think she likes tennis ..
.. .. maybe just a little ..
No?
I’ve seen him few years ago, in SI. The large picture was taken from above while he was about to strike out a powerful serve. It captured the motion beautifully, as well as the greenish eye color. Really cool.
“Please do better than James Blake.” I remembered thinking to myself.
After the BBQ, I returned to collect Pumpkin at USTA. We agreed to see one more match. Donald it is.
We were waiting for the break to enter the court. One young Asian boy holding the huge fizzle ball elbowed his way to the front while his dad looked on.
The Donald won the game in 2 sets.
I went down to take a picture, hoping for a frontal. Couldn’t forget his eyes.
The Asian boy was down there too. I heard the father telling him in Chinese
“Get his signature. He’ll be a star.”
I laughed to myself.
At age 20? Not likely.
I wished he were in top 5.
USA is really lacking behind.
Where is the next generation of players?
Couple of good looking players .. Ksenia Lykina of Russia in blue trim, and Andrea Hlavackova of Cze in one piece and the phantom of … fill in the blank 🙂
Kai-Chen Chang 張凱貞 in black skirt of Taiwan vs Sharon Fichman, in black top of Canada.
Chang was leading 5:1 when we arrived. Then she lost that set in tie break. Second set she was 3:0 when I returned. Quickly it became 3:3. Somehow she held her ground and won. I left for a BBQ before she finally took the match at 6:1 in 3rd set.
Sharon looked to her coach all the time, finally the coach left.
Be independent girl. You’ve got to figure out a way to handle the situation .. to win.
The guy who dispensed opinion of the Canadian said that the top 100 can make a comfortable living.
I remembered Tony said 50. Guess each one’s standard of living differs.
Zhang Shuai was about to take the Court 8. Pumpkin didn’t want to mingle with us, so she stayed, reporting Zhang’s match .. who lost 6:2 and 6:3.
Zhang Shuai (21 January 1989) is from Tianjin, ranked 6th in China in 2008. She’s playing Irina Buryachok (07/05/1986) of Ukraine on court 17 at 2009 US Open, Qualifying Round on Wednesday August 26, 2009. She had bit trouble closing out the first set .. but nevertheless won in two sets.
She looks like a very promising player, has right physique; very easy on the eye. Chinese girls are definitely making an inroad in tennis.
Any one still remembers Hu Na 胡娜 who requested political asylum in the USA in 1983 now settled in Taipei? Taiwan? I’m skeptical of people from China end up in Taiwan – most likely they can’t make it in the open world.
Zhang and Buryachok’s match was very enjoyable, both are sleek and pretty, and don’t grunt. We spotted Irina miles away. Her outfit is striking, she wore them well. They traded many long rallies, corner to corner. Many seemingly impossible shots only followed by stunning returns. Up close and personal, those girls hit so hard and accurate. Pumpkin loves Zhang’s backhand.
All baseline.
Bit boring.
I MISS Boris Becker, Patrick Rafter, Pete Sampras ..
.. Wondering if Zhang Shuai has changed her name? Huang Shuai (the school girl who rebelled against her teacher during the Cultural Revolution) was the name she was born with ..
What about Peng Shuai (born in 1986)?
..
..
A quick serve game from Zhang below..
I went with Pumpkin plus few more friends and kids. Ran into countless buddies. Sandy told me ..
“I figure it out, your daughter looks like Mu Lan.
The couple who sat next to me,
“She’s your daughter?” the wife pointed to Zhang Shuai.
Then few moments later, Pumpkin reappeared across the court, sat down with other kids.
“That must be your daughter.” The wife said triumphantly.
ha ha ha ..
This couple’s daughter who’s working now played tennis in high school, and had reached the national level.
“Did she get scholarship?” I asked, thinking of the Lady Red last weekend.
“No.” The Ivies do not dole out athletic scholarships.
“Where did she go?”
“Cornell.”
The wife added that it required 3 hours of practice daily. “No money no play.”
She told her daughter .. the mothers 🙂
The weather was nice. The SheaCitiField commuter parking lot, that was free during the qualifying round in the past is now charging $18. The commuter rate now is $4 (used to be $3 for many many years) and has to be in before 9am. Used to be 10am on a game day. The parking lot E is still free. There is a miniature golf attracting many spectators who got bored with tennis overdoes.
After the game’s over, Zhang is patient with autography seekers as well as photo requests. One man in his 30 or possible 40s asked,
“你府上是那里？” Where are you from.
She paused, because the usage is kind of old, deferential to a senior.
“From Tianjin.”
Irene’s thinking: man, get hold of yourself.
The other night ESPN put this 2004 US Open semi final match: Serena Williams’ loss to Jennifer Capriati at Flushing Meadow. I watched it on TV live at time. The dingy who perched high on the chair during the match must be blind n retard – she was Mariana Alves who’s from Portugal.
I’m just wondering where is she now. Who’d use her again?! – the Open dismissed her.
Reportedly, the US Open apologized to Serena afterward.
Serena acted with class on the court, kept her cool too.
Unlike the Stupid Question Queen at French Open.
I had to shake my head, that year, it’s Capriati’s turn to win, after Serena was out. For a few years in a row Jennifer would run into Steffi Graf in the semi. But during the semi match, Capriati didn’t seem to be able to play, at her full speed. Jinxed? It wasn’t Jennifer’s fault. I wasn’t sorry to see her losing the match.
Anyway. The Williams are still in. Hope they’ll capture few more slams, regardless being ranked #1 or not.
The tryout at the USTA for the upcoming US Open was held on June 25, more than 400 showed up. It just reinforced my believe that people who run the tennis events are less capable. The event’s scheduled at 3pm:
The registration begins at 3 p.m. and tryouts start at 4 p.m. at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
We arrived at 3pm. Immediately saw a friend of ours.
Go wait on line, out side of Court 7.
The line was huge.
Weather was extremely nice, bright sunshine and the sky was actually blue.
The line didn’t move a bit for the next hour except grow longer.
All I could think was …
‘Darn, we’re missing out on a dry day to play …’
Because New York has been raining a lot lately.
Global warming?
People watching?
At about 4pm, the skipper who ran the show walked briskly by. I tried to ask her if the birth certificate is needed (Charlie told me so but I forgot …).
She was very abrupt. “I can’t stop [walking].” She said and continued her walk.
I shout my question if birth certificate was needed.
She yelled abck:
“No, you don’t need anything to registier, today.”
The registration finally began.
Someone passed a single page of flyer to the waiting crowds that indicating the requirement. 14 years old and up are eligible to work there. Good.
Then why didn’t they pass the registration forms as well?
What they did was … every one passed by the first table to pick up a numbered card and was given a form to fill, then proceed to another row of tables, hunch over it to fill. All those could have been accomplished while they waited on line.
A huge sum of time was wasted.
They were like newbies, as if it was their first time to do so.
There were swamps of media on hands too. The girl in the third pic (unaltered) from left is real, and really thin. American Beauty? More like an eyesore in my eyes: malnutrition. She might born that way but lord don’t send her to a sport event or have her legs covered. She doesn’t project a healthy image. Well, unless you compare to the obsess .. ..
Ok, I knew tennis is popular and there are huge populace stands at attention to be associated with it. But do they really have to (or want to) abuse fans’ good will?
We were in the middle of the line up. But Pumpkin got a card numbered 425. Clearly it’s a screw up. The twin sisters were there too, and more than 20 spots behind us. One of them had #418.
Many parents were complaining too.
They had few pro ball boys/girls demonstrated their crafts. This dream girl did the Center Court – not centerfold. She has the speed which the net ballperson needs. With a strong throwing arms, one could do the baseline.
We ran into many acquaintance aside from the twins.
Peter’s daughter was there.
Franklin was there with 3 of his buddies.
The two adults evaluator or recruiters took their time with each candidates (about 5 minutes), mostly kids, the very end.
Pumpkin was second to the last, 2nd of the twins. They explained the tasks and conferred with them. The two adults were patient. There were youngsters feeding the balls to the net and the tryouts try to copy what they saw earlier, or what they saw on TV since most of them are also tennis bums.
Having said the above, I wondered if it’s fair for all when the candidate is clearly not going to make it. (So so American, bending backward to be fair ..) I have no intention to embarrass anyone but do we have to watch her trying?
It was a very long day. We didn’t leave USTA till 7:20pm.
Ok, I’m overkilling this post with pictures.
SO … allows me here one more, just 1 more …
The Kodak moment came at the end: capturing my kids in the USTA is priceless ..
Today isn’t my day. I just lost a watch. Not A watch. THE watch. Lucy’s, given to me by Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Winnie in 2005, after her funeral. It was very thoughtful of them. I rarely wear it and today took it to change battery. I probably did not buckled it tight afterward. When I sat down to eat, realized it was no longer on my wrist. I traced my footsteps back to the store, but didn’t find it. I just wanted to slap myself and scream.
It could have been a nice day. I won three sets this morning with a James (what’s his name?) against Clay and a lady. Then Power came and he teamed up with the girl (I got dumped .. wa wa wa) .. somehow we gave them a bagel.
Then I saw Charles Zhang was at Next court, threesome. So I went to play with them. I haven’t played with Charlie for a few years. He improved tremendously. The very first time we played was few years ago, one morning .. Sunny and I had a date to play doubles, as we were about to strike the first ball, Sunny spotted an Indian male player who dressed in black, looking really cool and looking for a game. So dear Sunny told me,
“Irene, you go play next court.”
I looked around, next court? There were only two guys playing.
Sunny was busy with the new MIB, as he was hitting, he spotted Charlie, who was looking for a game, with his racket on his shoulder wandering around the Cunnigham Park .. ..
“You,” Sunny was busy hitting and telling Charlie,
“You go play with her.”
So that’s how we met.
I was pretty mad at Sunny who got me up early to the court and dropped me like hot potato for MIB :). That’s very Sunny .. but I love him anyway – unrequited. Ya, I have no life.
Charlie is pretty cool: he has not been playing for long, about 10 years or less (I think 7 or so) but as soon as he started to play, he’s been taking two weeks off every year to work at USTA during the Open. We are talking about the dedication and craziness about the game. He’s really a solid player now and won’t be taking a cast off from Sunny any more cause he has large playing base now.
The guy I was teamed up with, IF my memory served right, was a coach from Shanghai whom I took a lesson with once, about 13 years ago. He was odd. First he said he couldn’t run because he had more lessons to give, “too tired” was what he said. Then he took the shading site of the court because he didn’t want to stand under the sun. I think he probably just got here. I never called him again.
I didn’t know the other guy’s name but saw him around. He and Charlie were nice, didn’t smack down on me. We actually had a break then the fourth guy arrived.
Btw, I just cheched, thank lord my head is still on my shoulders. I kicked myself so hard for losing the watch, it hurt! I probably won’t have the good fortune at finding it this time around. Not sure I was hungry or mad but ate extra dumplings and stuff that I didn’t know the name. Emergency room next?
.
Bob and Mike even share two houses; a car; and a bank account.
