NASDAQ 100 + Volunteer Report: Day 3 [Part Two]

Saturday, March 25 [afternoon] - I had a chance to watch Jamea Jackson practicing [photo]. She seems to be putting in a lot of effort to make some progress, and my feeling from watching her play and interactions with her coach at the Nas was that they were also working on her ability to mentally stay in a match.

Roger Federer [photo] was up next on my list, and he was easily shaking off Arnaud Clement of France, who seemed very frustrated during most of the match [photo]. I did think that this pro-Federer sign was cute - especially since I don't think I saw a single other sign during the rest of the tournament. Flags are the thing to bring (and much more so if you support Argentina).

My last bit of entertainment before it was time to get over to the volunteer tent was watching a women's doubles match - Anastasia Myskina / Dinara Safina vs. Ai Sugiyama / Daniela Hantuchova. Since it was on a high number court, I stood near the fence and took my pictures [photo] with all the people piled up to trying to get seats. Unfortunately, no one was leaving their seats, so it was standing room only - I just weaseled my way to the front. I was on the side of the court with Myskina/Safina, and the linesperson I was standing behind apparently made a terrible call by NOT calling a ball out. Myskina was pretty mad - you could just see it in her eyes [photo]! She called out to the linesperson and the chair umpire that the ball was clearly out, at which point all the people around me began murmuring in agreement and nodding their heads - which only got Myskina going even more. When no overrule was made, she yelled out "How can ten people right there see the ball was out, but [the linesperson] couldn't!?" In perfect English, by the way, in case you haven't heard her interviews. Whew! I would not want to be on the receiving end of that glare! That was one of the highlights of the entire trip for me - Myskina has a lot of spark to her game, and she continued to give the linesperson a little bit of the usual crap when she made a call.

My next few stops were pretty much photo opportunities - Mauresmo / Kuznetsova vs. Golovin / Dechy were playing on the next court over [photo, photo] - you could tell that all the women were friendly with each other, which is not something you always see. The end of the match was a lot of warm hugs and smiles.

Time to volunteer - at this point, I am still in my Safety post, which involves checking credentials in restricted areas. I collected my fake money at out meeting, which buys us food from any of the vendors. The $8 can get you enough food for a few hours (even with the crazy running around that volunteering sometimes entails). You have to use it up the night you get it, because they change the color of the money daily, so I bought my usual cheese pizza and scarfed it down. I was assigned to start out on Court 2, which was getting to be home for me.

Since the weather was great throughout the day, there were no delays to make me think that this would be a long night. When I got there, the aforementioned Mauresmo/Kuznetsova vs. Dechy/Golovin match was just finishing up, and Max Myrni and Olivier Rochus were set to be on court next. The changeover is actually pretty fast -about 15-20 minutes assuming all is going well. I was stationed at the entrance where the players were coming in, and part of Myrni's entourage came in and started talking to me and the volunteer with me. He was a nice guy. Most of his comments were centered around how Myrni really needs to focus on singles and work harder at that instead of spending his time in doubles. Myrni came in, and man, I am really really short - that guy is huge!

After that match, it was time for Philipoussis vs Nieminen - and the ladies were just swarming out front to get to Mark Philipoussis! I didn't have to kick anyone out of where the players come into the court, but I got a ton of questions about when he would be arriving, would he be entering the court through that particular spot, would he sign autographs. Most of those types of questions I don't know a definite answer to, but I do my best. When he did show up (another tall guy!), his escorts shooed away the autograph seekers. I guess my best advice is to try to get autographs after matches, and from the player who wins. The losing player is NEVER in a good mood, and doesn't often spend a bunch of time signing. I still think practice sessions are the best time to get autographs in general.

Once this ended, we did the usual clearing of the court since it was the final match. I was able to head over to the Stadium, where I had just missed Maria Sharapova send Na Li packing. I spent the rest of the evening watching Andy Roddick defeat Alberto Martin of Spain from one of the four on court entrances - that was so cool! I was literally standing 10 feet away from Andy Roddick, and I was also right next to where his coach (his brother, John) was sitting. John is an intense looking guy - he didn't seem to be watching that match to kick back and have some fun. Roddick also is one of those players who occasionally will make a comment or two to his people during a game - when he was serving well he turned to them and said it has been awhile since that happened throughout a whole game. His brother also cheered him on and seemed to be trying to give him a lot of mental confidence. But no coaching. :)

After it was over, I wandered out onto the center of stadium court - what a great feeling!