Chapter 12

Smashing tennisballs

Talkington and I scored some tickets to the Kremlin Cup finals. In the tennis world for all your non-tennis land lovers (pirates actually have evolved and now play tennis) there are 5 tiers of professional tennis tournaments. Grand-Slam, and than tier's 1-4. The higher the number, the worse the money,points and prestige. The Kremlin cup is a tier 1 event so its important for these players to come to this event. And also its something to do in town.

Not wanting to bring a typical airhead model with me as a date to tennis, i had an extra ticket and wanted to bring someone along. I met a friend of Cracker a few weeks back who just moved to Moscow. His family owns this company that was going public so now he's about to make a tonne of money and not have to work again and he's only 30-something. Anyways this friend of cracker's name is Tim and is a really nice guy. I invited him out with talkington and talkington's lovely model date.

We are watching the tennis in our amazing seats at the Russian Olympic Stadium from 1980 Olympics (the one the USA didn't show up for). The plus side to the venue is that its in the city, but its a really old run down soviet sports hall. Whats funny is that they have the tennis courts in one corner of the arena and have this curtain and bleechers to block out the rest of the place that wasn't being used.

We are sitting there, killing our backs and patiently watching the women's final match. I like watching women's tennis maybe more than the mens. Besides obvious reasons, its a shorter game and they tend to be more unpredictable, while Federer of Swizterland make the men's finals very one sided. We watched ms Pierce win with ease and than went to the stadium resturant to a bite to eat and also as an excuse to stop sitting in those uncomfortable seats (we are all old men!) At this resutrant it took them 2 hours to serve us and only one of us got food. We got up and left because we were getting really really hungry.

On our way back to the arena, my date tim sees a poster and realizes that S. Stozer and her partner were playing in the women's double's final that day. It turns out that my new friend rents out rooms in his house to professional tennis players during Wimbledon to cut down on costs for them. Ms. Stozer was a struggling Australian tennis player 4 years back when she started to stay with tim every summer in London. She's come a long way since than. She's now ranked 63 in the whole world in singles play and is one of the top double players in the world. This year she won the australian open and the US open in NY this last Sept.

Anyways, tim had her number on his phone and tried texting her before the match. obviously she was busy getting ready to win $200K and a major tennis tournament. She came out to the court and I started to shout out to get her attention but Tim stopped me. "Farhan, if she see's me here, she'll get so confused and spooked that she might lose the match!" At first i thought that was ludacris, just like the MTS cheerleaders in the stands. (MTS, cell phone company, had cheerleaders to cheer for their CEO when he handedout trophies....gosh to run a company!). I than thought about it more and decided to keep my mouth should and let her win.

Happily so, she won and than while in the locker room wrote to us that she wanted to meet up at her hotel afterwards for dinner. New friend tim and I were really excited about that and left talkington and his model to continue their discussion about how tennis balls are green to themselves.

We got to the Sheraton and stay there for most of the night. We were hanging out with her and her aussie friends, her partner and her female tennis couch. Her couch is dating this professional golfer that won the US open golf tournament. Supposdely lebianism runs rampant in female tennis and golf. This is what they told me so I'm not being a jerk here. I normally play it cool with "celebraties" but I just had to askher 1K questions. How was it to win the US open, do you get to keep that huge fake check? How is it to travel the world 11 months of the year? Do you hate the lifestyle? Is it wierd that its on the internet how much you made this year in winnings (so far $600K for her) Do you get neat things from sponsers? One of her sponsers was SonyErickson. She had the same cellphone I have. We talked about cellphones and Sony Psps for a while. Gadgets keep you company when you travel the world.

She and her friends started to gossip about the tennis world and about other players and all the dramas. It turns out that professional sports sometimes is like high school. Well it makes sence since most of these people are like 15 when they start and they stay in that mentality for a while. So many rumors and emails and induendo. "I hear she called her a bitch, I hear she thinks you are a slut.....I hear she thinks your forehand is so Marie Jean King...." It was all absurd to hear.

It was nice to talk and socialize with her and her friends. Tim had a great time catching up with his tennis friends. We stayed out really late and both were shattered the next day at our jobs. They reminded me of all the Aussies I met in London. They were so hospitible and direct. I moved out of my apartment in London at the end of November in 2001, and stayed with my aussie friends for a while. My friend Janelle kept my luggage at her place while I stayed in their living room. She lived with 8 people in a house! Those guys were great. I wonder where they are all now? Ms. Tennis invited me out to Wimbildon next year, come see some matches and hangout while she tries to win. Its amazing how differnt we are but how we could still relate to each other. Its funny how at the end of the day, we are all just people with jobs, missing family and loved ones, and like the same electronics. Its just that she has a killer forhand, and I can barely beat chad at tennis.

posted by RU ETL @ 1:25 AM