NASDAQ 100 Open Volunteer Report: Day 1

After getting incorrect directions from about five other volunteers, I finally located the volunteer office (trailer). Inside, I got 2 NASDAQ t-shirts (girls size Large - sigh), a Fila jacket, and a Fila hat. This will be my official uniform for the next few days (we provide our own pants/shorts). I also got a list of all the rules (DO NOT TOUCH GUESTS!!!) and a form to go get my credentials, which were another walk around to the G gate area. For the ladies, this walk means you get to wander past the Miami Dade Fire Rescue guys - and they are pretty easy on the eyes. :) My credentials were just a badge to get me into the proper areas for my post (Safety, which basically amounts to "Security") - with a really horrible photo of me on it. I was pretty excited to see that the posts for Safety people are in all kinds of areas that can be cool - from court access to locker rooms to the player box.

I had a few hours to kill before my shift started (6.30PM until close), so I had some food and wandered back to the hotel. In that time, there was a damn deluge of rain - I kid you not, there was a foot of water in some parts of downtown Miami. On site, several lakes sprung up and I meandered through one, soaking my shoes. All the tennis was obviously suspended, and it took about an hour for the rain to start to let up. After that, showers kept messing up the court drying process.

So, I arrived for my shift and signed in - this entitled me to free fake money to get some munchies after I was done working. My first post was to work the court entrance for Court 1. This pretty much involved standing at the entrance and only letting folks through that had the correct badge - such as Anna Smashnova and Lourdes Dominguez Lino, who were up on that court first in order to finish their rain delayed match. I also answered a lot of questions for people standing outside, who were trying to find any tennis to watch while the main courts were dried.

The Smashnova/Dominguez Lino match was over really fast because Smashnova retired after the first game they played. Then came the rain.

Up next was Gilles Muller and Max Mirnyi, but the sprinkles just kept coming. The rain was not so bad that I felt like I had to take cover, unlike earlier in the day, but it was enough to prevent the match from getting started. I was able to take a break during this rain delay and munched on some pizza. The volunteers have a special eating area so we don't hog up the outside tables, and this gave me a chance to talk to the folks I was working with. This alone was well worth the volunteering effort.

Once we were done with break, I was assigned to the Women's Locker Room inside the stadium so that another volunteer could take a break. The locker room is very strict access - even parents of players can't get in. Sania Mirza and Anna Tatishvili were both getting ready for their match together on stadium court while I was there. For the most part, the players ignore the volunteers except to show their id cards - but lots of coaches (who are allowed in, but don't always go in), family and others will ask if a certain player is in the locker room or wait outside. I also saw the male players wandering by - Tim Henman was pretty much all over the place. It is interesting to see the players go out - I'd figure they'd stay the heck away from each other, but they didn't.

My next assignment was to go to the player box and make sure people didn't go into it who weren't supposed to be there. I saw Henman up here also, as people were in the box for him. This is a great post - you can watch tennis and do your job. I ended up seeing most of the first set for Mirza/Tatishvili and it was also the first time I got to see instant replay in action. I can say that the crowd loves it, and I think they get noisier about "bad calls" to try to push the player into using instant replay. (Of all the uses I saw last night, not a single one ended up being a corrected call - but I did miss quite a bit of the women's stadium court match).

Sadly, a far more boring job awaited me and I was asked to head on back down to the Locker Room. This job got pretty mind-numbing - you have absolutely nothing to do. I got to know the security and cleaning staff a bit, because they were also stuck down there. :) Meanwhile it became obvious that the women's match was going to run quite long. At some point, some wonderful soul brought me a Red Bull - probably around 12.30. The women's match finished up with Tatishvili winning, and her sister and mom (?) were down by the locker room - everyone was so excited for her! They were telling me how she hadn't had a good win like this one to build her confidence. This sure made me wish I had seen this match! And no, there were no tears or yelling or anything else coming from the locker room - sometimes you hear about a player getting completely out of control, etc. Both players were extremely nice.

It was about this time that Henman was jogging around the halls and warming up. I didn't see Marat Safin until just minutes before the start of the match, when he jogged around also. Henman looked so relaxed all night, but with Safin being his typical reclusive self, I couldn't pin down what would happen. I did have a feeling that my earlier post about Safin owning Henman could be wrong.

With the press sessions over for the women, I was done for the night - I just had to make sure everyone left the stadium at the end of the night. I opted to stay and watch Henman/Safin - and I had an awesome seat - one of the tunnels that the players come out to go on court. And, sure enough, Henman just took off - beating Safin in straight sets. I'm much more of a Safin fan, but Henman deserved that win.

Volunteering turned out to be very close to what I expected - the only downsides are that when people don't show up it is really hard to get rotated out of a position enough to prevent brain meltdown. Overall, it was well-organized, and my favorite part by far is getting the behind the scenes feel for the event.

This blog post has been brought to you by Red Bull. Without it, I'd be dead.

Disclaimer: This is my experience volunteering and doesn't reflect anything about anyone or the event. Go have a hissy fit elsewhere.