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Shanghai blog
Nalbandian's elevator tragedy; Rafa's elevator music Continued
"Sandra, are you still worried about the laundry," a voice sounding very much like Patrick McEnroe came from behind me (I was hard at work at my desk, of course). It took me a brief moment to figure out where he came by the information and the answer was "Yes, I still find it quite fascinating," and then we agreed that it would be a highly unsettling sight to see laundry hanging out of the windows from Patrick's apartment building in New York. Patrick was clearly happy to have signed another two-year contract with the USTA to stay on as Davis Cup Captain, and he knows that there's challenges ahead, most especially when the U.S. travels abroad and faces the daunting task of playing clay-court specialists on clay. But an upbeat Patrick said, "We'll keep fighting the good fight." Now let's step back to Tuesday night when British colleague Alix Ramsay and I were waiting for the elevator to get up to the stadium for the Roger Federer and Roddick match. The elevator arrived, the doors opened and there's Rafael Nadal with a bunch of security types who we assumed would step out of the elevator so those of us waiting could go in. Oh no, that was not to be the case. One of the dudes with Rafa decided it would be just great if Rafa autographed the elevator. I'm not joking. A pen was handed over but it just wouldn't work on the elevator wall. Someone saved the day and handed over an indelible blue Sharpie-type apparatus and the elevator at the Qi Zhong Stadium now bears the permanent mark of Nadal. Polite as always, when he finally left the lift (as the Brits refer to elevators), Rafa made sure to acknowledge us - a well brought up guy as we've found on numerous occasions. Former player Heinz Gunthardt, who might be best known as being the coaching voice behind Steffi Graf during her career, is here doing television commentary for Swiss TV. He was one of the journalists that joined in on a tour of Minhang District (the Qi Zhong Tennis Stadium is located in the Minhang District) Ancient Town. One part of the tour was to visit the Buddhist Temple, and part of the tour included climbing seven flights up this tower that featured a Buddha for a different purpose on each floor - Chinese Buddhism has a variety of Buddha's such as one for health, one for seeing the angels, etc. Anyway, on the way up Heinz asked if I was okay since I guess my breathing was getting a bit loud. I assured him that it was just my allergies acting up from the waft of incense that was burning all over the place and explained it in terms a Swiss would understand, telling him on my vacation in Zermatt this year, I hiked the Underrothorn to the Oberrothorn, which is the highest hiking trail in Europe that does not require mountaineering equipment. Of course, by the time we reached the last Buddha, Heinz didn't care what Buddha he was because he had decided on his own that he must be the Buddha you pray to for fitness since it takes some stamina to climb up to see him. ATP head honcho Etienne De Villiers shared a glass of champagne with the media on Thursday night and, while it was not meant to be a press conference, did chat on a few subjects. De Villiers is dedicated to the shorter two-out-of-three sets format for ATP matches. He strongly believes that they are more in line with today's young culture, saying, "The average attention span is 90 minutes. We live in a world of immediate gratification." De Villiers, however, believes that the five-set format is what sets the Grand Slams apart.© TennisReporters.net 2006
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