Tennis Prose




Jan/11

31

A Tennis Weekend At Key Biscayne

The chance to play on the same courts of Crandon Park in Key Biscayne where Nadal, Sampras, Federer, Murray, Kuerten, Agassi, Kournikova, Hewitt, Safin, Serena, Hingis showed us the magic of tennis. How can you pass up such an opportunity? I signed up for the USTA 35’s event. So many memories of the Lipton, Nasdaq, Sony Ericsson, Rios becoming #1. Looking forward to this new experience.

If you have never been to Key Biscayne, it might be the most exotic tennis tournament location in the United States. Palm trees, blue waters, purple courts, deco architectured stadium, just a fantastic landscaped layout. In the back of the grounds, you can even find red clay, green clay and a grass court, which you can play on for $11 an hour.

The draw looks tough, I do some research and find there’s a couple of players with ITF senior rankings and 5.0 ratings. My first rounder is against a guy nice named Tim from Fort Lauderdale. The weather is absolutely perfect, low 70’s, sunny, no wind. We play on court 8. Dressed in all black adidas, Tim is a fierce competitor. He has two friends there to support and encourage. But Tim has trouble with my variety game and defensive speed. During our match on court 4, none other than Donald Young starts a 3 hour practice session on the next court with Teimuraz Gabashvili. Jay Berger is there coaching DY. It’s a thrill and inspiration to see DY. You can only feel and play better when you see an artist like DY performing his magic just a few yards away. Gabashvili was crushing the ball.

I win against Tim in straight sets and because it’s only an eight man draw, the next match is a semifinal.

The opponent on court 1 is a tall guy from Argentina named Juan. He just moved to Key Biscayne this year and plays regularly on these courts. As usual, I start out throwing mostly slow balls at him which works. Juan yells at himself in Spanish after simple misses. I build a 3-0 lead but he toughens and it becomes a struggle. Finally, a perfect lunging drop shot touch shot at net earns the first set for me 6-2.

But Juan becomes much more consistent and takes the lead in the second, 3-2. He then has two break points to go up at 15-40 to go up 4-2. Finally I decide I have to go for something to change up the flow of this match as he now has the momentum and edge on our long baseline rallies of slow high balls where we are both camped out on the backhand corners content to test each other’s patience.

I connect on a good, flatter forehand down the line which he mishits over the side fence. This shot changes the dynamic of the set. I ended up winning this game and all the rest. From that point on, when Juan attempted to go for his forehands off my slow feeds he missed them all (two or three) and frustration sets in. I win the second set 6-3. Afterwards, Juan tells me he hit for two hours with pace with a friend (his first round match was won by default) and my game just totally threw off his rhythm.

Around the courts there are some interesting characters. One senior player from England is wearing these weird black and white thick striped socks up to his knees. But he has a huge serve and nice game despite those horrific stockings.

One player can be heard screaming just a one-word venting of F***!!!, probably half way to South Beach which is about five miles away. While watching the former Paraguayan Davis Cupper Ricardo Mena compete in the open, a guy responds to my comment that these two contestants look like ATP pros. He tells me the players today have no heart compared to a guy like Mena. They are soft and eat popcorn and junk food and are not ripped with six-packs like Mena.

I fruitlessly try to argue that Nadal and Federer and Murray are machines but he insists Mena could whup them all. It’s no use debating, this tennis fan is stubbornly convinced. Mena (who subsequently goes on to win the final 64 61) really does appear to be a world class player. As does his opponent who can’t quite keep up with Mena’s guile. “If you can’t put away volleys like that, you’re dead meat,” he says to himself. “You have to do something, you can’t rally with this guy, simple as that.” From the five minutes I saw, he would need a miracle to beat Mena.

You should have seen the power of this Jamaican or Haitian guy. Just absolutely pulverzing every ball – and his opponent in the open SF was a good player but basically a retriever in this match.

I see a guy named Jimmy from Tampa who I played at the historic St. Petersburg Tennis Club money tournament two years ago on green clay. He beat me 7-5 in the third. His buddy Greg recognizes me and calls me “the biggest grinder of all time.” I take that as a compliment, I guess.

The 35’s final is set for 10 a.m. on Sunday. My legs feel okay but not fresh with that jump you need for a long battle against a stronger player. Though they do feel a lot better than 10 o’clock last night. The opponent is named Pablo who has come here all the way from Buenos Aires. He has an ITF senior ranking so he must be a wrecking machine, He won his semi in a 10-8 match tiebreaker against the guy from England. Pablo’s English is not that strong but he is a very nice guy and looks like a former ATP player. His form is classic Argentine, one handed backhand like Gaudio, topspin forehand like Coria, good knee bend on shots, slight grunt on all shots, nice serving motion, and good clean contact with every ball. He’s wearing all Nike white shirt, dark blue shorts and light blue Nike Ballistec 3.3’s with “Delpo” inscribed on the back.

I serve first and fall down 0-30. Fight back to about four game points and save about five break points until he finally takes the marathon opening game. The first four games are all long deuce battles. He leads 3-1 but it could just as easily be 3-1 or 4-0 for me. Someone from the bleachers says to “Make him run.” But I don’t know if the stranger is talking to me or Pablo. I wish I could play long points but the gas tank isn’t there today. My serve is poor today also. I don’t know how long I can last and Pablo doesn’t miss unless you hit a special shot. He wins the first set 6-1.

At 1-2 in the second, I’m serving and build a 40-love lead, to level it at 2. But I end up blowing the game. He nails a running forehand down the line which hits the line square to draw to 30-40. I try shortening the points. I hit some great shots which make me feel like a pro but it’s not enough to beat Pablo who is smart and consistent. The first point of one the final games I forehand chip the return down the line deep and the surprise causes him to miss the pass by a foot long. I keep trying to attack his serves on the first ball but he never misses again and blisters them all for passing shot winners.

Out of ideas and legs, the match ends moments later with Pablo crushing a screaming one handed backhand winner cross court off a Dolgopolov-high drop shot which wasn’t intended to be that high. Pablo and his wife react to the match point winner with a celebration, almost like he won an ATP event, they are very happy. It must be a very special feeling to win a tournament on these prestigious courts. Heck, it’s amazing just to be here.

Pablo says he won his first match 63 75 which I didn’t know. Hat’s off to Pablo, for that his legs were still so strong to play so well in the final after surviving two more challenging matches than I had to. He deserved and earned the victory. He says this was his fourth time playing this tournament.

We took some photos and exchanged contact info and became friends.

Later that day I biked over to South Beach and Flamingo Park to eat my post-match meal, a tuna sub from Subway. By the way, the sandwich maker was from Chile. She said she never saw Marcelo Rios play but her father is “crazy for tennis.”

At Flamingo sitting at the table with me was a player named William from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. We talked tennis and he said he runs a club that has three green clay courts which are perfect. Canada also has a young female up & comer along with Milos Raonic, her name is Rebecca Marino from the Vancouver area. She is tall and has a big serve. William makes an interesting comment about when he once spoke with the former pro from Vancouver Glenn Michibata who told him, the difference between most of the players on the ATP Tour is “one or two mistakes” a set.

While changing his old school Stan Smiths to new white and green Barricade 5s, for his hit with Christian from Broward County, William said he had attended the Vina Del Mar, Acupulco, Toronto and Delray Beach events.

Stan Smiths, Barricade 5, Key Biscayne and Flamingo Park symbolize the old and the new memories and experiences which punctuate this perfect tennis weekend in Miami.

5 comments

  • Dan Markowitz · January 31, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    Nice going, Scoop. You’ve got to feel good getting to the finals of an event like that. Interesting you say you can hit for only $11 an hour on all those different courts, grass included? That is a great deal. Hope to maybe make it down to Miami for the Masters as I will miss Delray this year.

    Congratulations, and nice read.

  • Pablo Corti · February 1, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Dear Friend thank you for the generous words addressed s my people and I congratulate you on your outstanding quality as a narrator. Big Hug. Paul

  • Richard Pagliaro · February 2, 2011 at 2:49 am

    Great article and photo. Well done, Scoop. I love playing on those Key Biscayne Courts. Beautiful courts and always think about all the great Orange Bowl matches there.
    There’s also public har-tru courts right before you get to the Key Biscayne courts and they’re great as well. Flamingo Park used to have the huge black and white photos of the old orange Bowl champs as well.

  • Mark Sanders · February 4, 2011 at 2:48 am

    Looks like your training in the tough conditions of the Wayne NJ Tiger Bubble must have paid off. Once you have won in a freezing cold bubble with poor lighting and ridiculously fast skidding balls, you can then win anywhere.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 4, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    I don’t think I ever won the title at the Tiger Tennis bubble, about 0-7 in finals there!

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