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
all the tennis girls all damn cute. hahahah
but most of them all damn smart too and got so many hot tennis guys. obviously all of them will date them.
Ready to go … (Photo © Leslie Tan/Red Sports
His name is Eugene Tan at least i think that is the way it is spelled.
[…] “Maria spoke to me!” […]
[…] “Maria spoke to me!” […]
She’s cute, the girl :” A ball girl executing her duty. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)”
Haha, she’s really cute.
TENNIS rules!
Hey Chee Jun. Which picture was it that we mixed up your name and Sylvester’s? Is it in this post?
please change my surname to LEONG instead of NG.. and theres another photo that u got mixed up with me and sylvester..
I think it’s unkind to criticise our youth tennis players. And it’s also missing the point.
The two Russian girls were probably paid 6-figure sums to show up in Singapore to play one game. Nobody shows up to play unless you pay them to do so. When Michael Chang came for the Heineken Open, he was also paid a six-figure sum. I worked in Heineken back then. He didn’t show up because he loved Singapore. He got knocked out in the first round for two years straight.
Maria Sharapova Live, with its concert-like name was an exhibition match with concert-like tickets. A one-off. It was global tennis packaged as entertainment for people to pay $1,000 for courtside seats. Tomorrow it could be World Wrestling Entertainment.
All these are more tourism projects than sports projects. They put Singapore on the tourism map, attracting the wealthy tourists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand to fly in to watch.
After Maria and Anna leave, the youth tennis players go back to the constant struggle of balancing studies and sports. So I say we should support them in whatever way we can. No need to tear them down. Save our criticisms for folks who see us as mere consumers, who extract money and time from us and leave us the poorer for it, who have no long-term interest in the grassroots development of our sport and just move on to the next business opportunity.
Exactly. We are one of the weirdest nation in the world. Our newspapers hardly have any news of our local athletes, whereas it is filled with every scandal and reports of overseas sports. Instead of watching our own teams play, we watch foreign teams head butt each other. Rather than wear a Team Singapore jersey, we put on Liverpool or Arsenal jerseys and cheer on for the latter.
Flashback to some time ago. Singapore vs Liverpool. There were comments that the situation was so ironic. Singaporeans cheering for the other team. The only reason why our Singapore athletes might not have been able to rise up is simply because Singaporeans simply do not support people of their own. This blog has clearly demonstrated that. Even if these athletes did not perform up to international standard, they should not shoulder the blame. Rather, we should encourage them and urge them to improve and push themselves to a higher level.
So youth tennis players, Red Sports supports you all the way!
A ball girl executing her duty. (Photo © Ng Cheng Cong)
she is lee su ling from tkgs. 🙂
Yeah agree with you jun wei. The tfn forum had a lot of notsonice comments as well that I’ve found appalling. Though I think this is what that will inherently set redsports apart because we seek to encourage rather than tear down and it is the former that will take the sport forward.
Constructive and knowledgeable criticisms are essential and welcomed too, but from what I’ve read so far, the criticisms all sounds rather cliche almost to the point of wanting to criticise just for the sake of, so I hope our tennis youths will be able to see through that as well and take them with a pinch of salt 🙂
Seriously, I’ve been in both Australian Open and Wimbledon, I don’t think there is such a thing as a “fantastic” or flawless line-judge/ballboy or girl and there are always bound to be a handful of contentious or erratic calls – or in any sport for that matter! Moreover with hawk eye in practice now, I’ve already seen a lot of line calls being overruled by the new technology.
I think people forget (or don’t know) the difference between an exhibition match and a grand slam or WTA open! its an important fact that our tennis youths showed their support at an exhibition event by stepping up as linejudges and ballboys/girls – getting prof lines people would have defeated the purpose of an event like this altogether, which you’ve rightly pointed out its for exposure and maximising it at all levels. It is about a spirit more than anything.
I’ve worked at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and I’ve learnt that what would *truly* make a country a sporting nation (or even just the progress of a sport in a nation) is when citizens at all levels take a positive and proactive approach/attitude in a sporting event, which cannot do without volunteers!
If the -ve feedback of our youth participation at this event is by any means a preview of the abuse a youth can potentially get being part of a sporting event, it only serves to dampen the spirit of sport in Singapore altogether (especially with YOG in mind). Lets hope redsports will make a difference!
i have been in this game for 25 years and seen singapore tennis develop from lela zainal to now…
i think its a wrong idea of getting a country’s number 1 player to be a line offical or ball person is encouraging. what kind of exposure are you talking about? a player is always a player. the organising body should explore them by getting professional players to conduct workshops or hitting sessions for our players. this would be so much more encouraging rather then getting them to sit on a chair and call the lines or running and chasing around around for the yellow ball which is not their forte.
i have been a line official for the Spore Henieken Open. if you ask me how do our line officials perform during the MSL match? i can tell you is.. below standard.. line calls are not loud enough, and wrost still, out balls are not even call or signal.. you think 2 practise sessions is is enough to do a good job at a tennis match with 9k spectators? no way man… and STA got their bunch of umpires who are all qualify… i think they should fix the bill better.. get the right person to do the right job.
pardon me, everybody’s entitled to his/her opinion.
I happened to get referred to a blog talking about the game. Well, what intrigued me was that there were some rather critical comments of our tennis youths who served the roles as ball pickers and line judges. I feel that this experience is a great opportunity at exposure for them and we should in fact encourage them. Even though if they were not like those at the professional Grand Slam events, we should not put them down like how this blogger did.
So for those who support our tennis youths, please go to:
http://www.regentville.com/2007/12/maria-sharapova-in-singapore.html
to show your support.
[…] “Maria spoke to me!” […]
[…] “Maria spoke to me!” […]
Hm. Maybe you could sign up to be one of the ballgirls/ballboys for the Grand Slams. I’m not sure how it’s done but I heard teens get an opportunity. Chee Jun was a ball boy for the Australian Open. Maybe u can ask him, then u might even get a chance to be on the same court as other tennis greats. =D
oh man. i wish i can one of those ball girls. it would be an opportunity of a lifetime to just be in the same court as her !! :DD