“Maria spoke to me!”
TENNIS
Story by Lai Jun Wei. Pictures by Ng Cheng Cong and Lai Jun Wei. © Red Sports
Singapore Indoor Stadium, 30th December 2007 – At the post-game press conference last night, Uncle Les asked Maria Sharapova and Anna Chaktevadze whether they had ever been ball pickers. While Sharapova said no, Anna said “I applied but they actually turned me down!” which made everyone in the media room laugh. But while most eyes were on Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze last night, few may have noticed that the boys and girls manning the lines and picking the balls were Singapore’s national age-group tennis elites.
They were quite excited and a little nervous earlier in the day during the tennis clinic with Anna Chakvetadze. To prepare for their duties, they showed up at the Singapore Indoor Stadium at 4 p.m. to practice. While some line calls were made in a rather soft voice and one ball picker dropped the ball in his haste, the group on the whole did admirably and did not crack under the pressure of officiating a professional match. One of the linesman, Sylvester Wee, even confidently called an out for a ball hit by Maria Sharapova without fear of challenge.
“It’s something new. It’s also quite interesting and it’s a new experience for me. I think it was rather fun,” said Sylvester, a 17-year-old student of Raffles Junior College. When asked about the ‘out’ call he made, he commented that he felt that he made the right call and that was most important. His shout of “out!” received applause from the crowd. Sylvester also came close to being hit by the ball several times. The older athletes were selected as linesmen while the younger ones were ball pickers.
Red Sports also caught up with Brian Koh, 15, a singles tennis player and part of this year’s B Division championship winning team from ACS(I). He served as a ball boy for the game and had the opportunity to throw balls to Maria Sharapova. “So how was the experience, being able to throw balls to Maria Sharapova?” asked Uncle Leslie. “It was quite exciting,” said the shy 15-year old boy. When asked if he had a chance to talk to Maria, he replied with a smile, “Yes. She said thanks when we passed her the balls during the warm-up.” Not many youth athletes would have the chance to talk to sports stars like Maria Sharapova and he must feel like the luckiest guy right now.
As we were waiting for the press conference to begin, we spotted the young athletes huddling near the entrance with tennis balls and entry passes in hand. Like every other fan, they were also waiting for Maria’s autograph. They made so much noise the organisers shut the door to the corridor, to loud protests of “WHY?”
I spotted another athlete with an outsized tennis ball in his hand. Leong Chee Jun, a 17 year-old of RJC was waiting for Maria’s autograph. I noticed that his tennis ball had several other signatures on it. Chee Jun had been a ball boy at the 2006 Australian Open where he had the opportunity to see professional tennis players from all over the world. His tennis ball boasted the signatures of Patrick Cash, Svetlana Kuznetsova and David Sanchez. With the addition of Maria’s signature, Chee Jun’s ball would likely become a family heirloom.
The guys then pointed me to a fellow youth athlete Ooi Shimin who also had tennis balls in hand. I tried to interview her but she declined. Some cheeky male teammates started telling me all about her, resulting in her turning to me to say “Don’t listen to them. They’re just seeking cheap thrills.” After getting word that Maria was exiting the stadium via the other exit, she turned down my request for an interview and ran off with the other athletes.
Cheng Cong and I ran behind the youth athletes as they dashed down the corridor screaming “Maria!! Maria!!” As they reached the exit, again they saw the doors closed on them as Maria moved off to a waiting car to bring her back to the Fullerton. With their faces pressed against the glass door, and their calls of “Maria! Maria!” it seemed like a bunch of crazed fans had broken in. It was enough to get Maria’s personal security guards to the door to check the situation out. As for the athletes, their wait came to nothing as they stood there with dejected faces and unsigned tennis balls.
After failing to get Maria’s autograph it was now the time to get Anna’s. They hurried back to the conference room with us two Red Sports photographers in tow, only to be shooed away again by the organisers for making too much noise. Thwarted again, they left without any autographs. At least they have the memory of being ball pickers and linesmen for the two Russian pros.
Ed’s note: If you know the names of the two ball pickers not named, just drop it in the comments section. We’ll update the captions. Thanks.
Related posts:
“I watched Maria Sharapova LIVE!”
Sharapova and Chaktevadze serve up exhibition tennis for Singapore
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