Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

One day in the life of… A tennis stadium

BETWEEN SHOTS The cool Rafael Nadal and young autograph hunters with Carlos Moya

Me (Obsessed tennis fan): “Oh my God, that’s Nadal! In the flesh! Right in front of me!”

Me (Journalist on the job): “Act professional, act professional.”

I reign in my inner rabid fan with some difficulty and watch a little while longer, before reluctantly moving away into the player area.

A group of players have just arrived from The Park in a sleek black Mercedes official car and saunter in wearing brightly coloured shorts and flip flops, carrying their racquet bags, laughing, chatting, yawning, iPods earphones dangling — if I didn’t know better, I’d think they were on holiday.

In fact, that’s pretty much the mood in the stadium grounds now, at noon — of relaxed, laid back activity — just a couple of hours before the first match of the day. Like the players who’re limbering up with a gentle jog or by tossing a ball back and forth outside waiting for practice, the stadium itself is in the process of slowly warming up for Phase I of the day — matches that start on the side courts from 2 p.m. onwards.

Young volunteers — 11th, 12th standard students and college kids — man the Player Services Desk where players stop to check on their practice schedule. And nearby, some others — there’s about 16 of them in all — are putting together ‘match bags’ with the tennis balls and towels they will be carrying on to court before the start of each match.

Across from the desk, Shivakumar Palani, a fixture at the Chennai Open since its start 12 years ago, leisurely works his racquet stringing machine as players stop and pick up their racquets (strung to their requested tension) from his assistants. He does an average of 30 racquets a day, he tells me laconically, his eyes never leaving the slowly spinning racquet, his fingers never pausing as they deftly guide the strings.

Outside, I see a big group of fidgeting young men in green T-shirts and shorts — the tournament’s 55 ball boys — being reminded of their duties (and most importantly, to keep their cell phones turned off) by Dr. Narasimhan, the chief of linesmen and ball boys. Not that they need much reminding — the men, who’re mostly grounds staff and markers in local tennis clubs, have been training for the Open since early November.

At 2 p.m. on the dot, with the volunteers, ball boys, linesmen, and umpire in place, the matches begin on the side courts. The match on Court 2 is quite entertaining—by the time we’ve reached 2-2 in the first set, one of the Russian players has flung his racquet twice in annoyance and kicked the ball into the net once in frustration.

But the sun is so hot by now that I feel like I’m baking in the virtually empty stands, and I decide to take a walk around the grounds, leaving the temperamental player and his long-suffering racquet to it. Outside, I see Russian World No. 19 Mikhail Youzhny who seems to have swung by to look in on the match, and I have a brief “Oh my God, that’s Youzhny!” moment (but I’m getting better at controlling it by now).

The stadium grounds are gearing up for Phase 2 of the day now — the centre court matches from 5 p.m. onwards and the coming of the crowds. The food stalls are being set up, camera, mike and wiring checks are going on at the centre court, security is getting tighter and orange T-shirted ushers are fanning out. The laidback air of the morning has evaporated, giving way to bustling activity and frayed tempers — I’m terribly in the way now as I poke around asking questions.

The bowl-shaped stadium of 5,300 seats fills slowly but steadily and by the second match of the evening, a doubles match featuring crowd favourites Nadal and World No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis on opposite teams, it’s buzzing with energy.

Nadal seems especially popular with kids—the air is filled with shrill, earnest shrieks of ‘Go Nadal!’ and ‘Vamos Rafa!’— and their enthusiasm is so infectious that I have to hold myself back from hollering along with them from the press box.

Outside, I chat with a group of young diehard autograph hunters who’ve been at work collecting players’ signatures since 4.30 p.m. (it’s past 7 p.m. now). Each has a notebook and every player’s scrawl has been carefully labelled (including a neat ‘Dunno’ for a few). I point to Youzhny who’s just emerged from the player’s area and feel my work here is done when they run off happily to gherao him.

It’s late at night when I decide to get going; the stadium is still pulsing with life. But I know that today was merely a warm-up for what it will be like during the semi-finals and finals this weekend.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail