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Sarasota Open Is Magical Experience
No comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Aside from the sensational tennis being played by all the dynamic players like Stefan Kozlov, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Matija Pecotic, Tennys Sandgren and many others this week, the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open ATP Challenger has been nothing short of fantastic.
I heard one volunteer Chris say to another Malika, “When I wake up in the morning I CANT WAIT to get to the tournament.”
Another volunteer commented, “Next week when this is over, back to boring life!”
There are 240 volunteers signed up to work this tournament in all capacities, ballpersons, hospitality, security, miscellaneous, DJ, etc.
The new tournament director Bruce Flory, formerly the TD at Cincinnati was personally approached and thanked by players Gerald Melzer and Joel Josef Schwaerzler for running a fine event. Flory said three players routinely thanked him after each Cincy Open – Federer, Nadal and Roddick.
Every single match on stadium court all week so far has been a competitive, close match until yesterday’s Kokkinakis 62 61 win vs Alexander Ritschard. And even that one was an interesting duel because the Swiss 30 year old busted out of the gates with a 2-0 lead and almost got to 3-0 but the Aussie survived after telling himself twice, “Wake up, WAKE UP.”
One of the beauties of Sarasota Open is the accessibility of the players. I actually witnessed one player, here without a coach, make a friendship with a random fan, who started to sort of semi coach and cheerlead this player with his son. After the match they both analyzed the match and why the player was able to turn the tables on the other. The player was so appreciative he invited the son of the fan age 9, to the player’s lounge and gave him a Gatorade. You should have saw the look on the face of the kid as he experienced this and being thanked by the player for his support. Priceless.
That’s all I can say now as I’m in a rush back to the tournament to hit with a player and coverage business. This tournament is so special and raw and thrilling a book or documentary film can be made out of it and it would be wonderful too.
