Day 8: Walking with Purpose

Watching Isner about to beat Yang at Lotus.

ATP and WTA play is in full force, with the men in the first round as the women enter the second.  Several big players and returning champions were out yesterday in the first round, including last year’s winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.

It’s another completely gorgeous day, and Isner’s up first against T.H. Yang in one of the first matches of the day on Lotus Court.  After our meeting with the ATP/WTA officers to confirm our requests, we snuck out to Lotus to watch a few sets.

Getting ready for Yang's serve.

Nailed it.

 Where do I send my resume for the Umbrella Holder position?

The tension is rising among some of the top contenders, but mostly everyone has been very patient with press even after a loss. I’m officially hooked on tennis, if I wasn’t before—now that I’m getting to know each player I’m taking every match so seriously! I feel like I’m the one out there.

Prepping for the day! Once the matches start there's no time for second guessing.

I was worried about the volume of media requests we had coming in yesterday, but everything went pretty smoothly, and before I knew it we were down to the last match between Kirilenko and Dulko! Things get crazy at times and I need to know that our schedule is tight and the media is prepped and ready when the players get off the court. 

 All of the multi-tasking I did as business manager/student/intern last semester paid off--I'm used to doing a million things at once for extended amounts of time! I think I've easily made over 500 phone calls in the past few days. I love working with media and I'm learning a lot from watching the officers prep the players for each interview.


 Some are definitely more skilled than others at handling tricky or private questions. There was even a "rookie" that came with us for Vera Zvonereva's press (who is a pro) so that she could learn how to handle everything. 

At the CCTV flash interview backdrop waiting to get a player from the tunnel off Lotus.

The other girl I work with also ran a half-marathon--and we were joking that we are using our endurance training for this job--I can count on one hand the amount of times I sat down over the whole 12+ hours were we there!  We had to stretch when we got home from all of the running around we do--we basically circle the entire stadium continuously locating media and walking players to press.




 No complaints from me!!!