39892BC1-29EA-428E-9DA6-3FB3E9ABBC2B
By Tim Smith
© Natasha Peterson/Corleve
(August 18, 2010) None of the following is fiction. It's a day-by-day account of my experiences behind the scenes and behind the wheel as a driver for the players at the Farmers Classic tournament in Los Angeles. I decided at the last minute to volunteer for the tournament and picked the transportation department since that would offer the most face time with the players.
So here is how things went down on Day 1, the Friday before the tournament started.
Arrived at noon, immediately got assigned to Travis Parrott. He needed to be driven to a Subway for lunch. Real nice guy, just coming back from injury, plans to play two events prior to the open. He also tells me Novak Djokovic, who would have been the top seed, has just pulled out of the tourney. The grounds were buzzing with the news.
After bringing Travis back to the tourney site, I get assigned to go pick up Arnaud Clement at the hotel. While waiting for Clement, Ernests Gulbis is standing outside waiting for a taxi. I tell Gulbis that if I weren't picking up Clement, I could give him a ride. His coach tells me they only need to go to the Beverly Center and since I was a bit early I said "let's go." There was a third guy with Gulbis, I ask who he was and he introduced himself as Papa Gulbis! All three had just returned from Argentina. At one point I told Gulbis that he has all the talent in the world, now all he needs to do is win. At which point the coach told Gulbis that he should hire me.
Got back to the hotel, picked up Clement and coach. Spoke to them at length and asked if he would do me a favor. Told him my friend Scotty is a big fan and would he leave him a voice-mail. Clement said sure, called Scotty, got his voice mail and Clement left the following message: "Hey Scotty, it’s Arnaud. I know you’re in San Francisco. I’m gonna play tomorrow in LA I’m waiting for you, your support. So I hope you’re gonna be here tomorrow. Bye Bye, Scotty." I still don’t think Scotty has deleted that message.
Got back to the tourney site, got assigned to take Somdev Devvarman to his hotel. On the way, Somdev asks if we can stop at Subway! A very alarming pattern begins to emerge. However, both Travis and Somdev were nice enough to ask if they could also buy me a sandwich which I thought was very cool. Then I asked if Somdev would talk to my friend Dry who is a big fan and he said sure. So I called Dry, he answered, and put Somdev on the phone with him. I think Dry was in shock the whole time.
Got back to the tournament site and had to give Igor Kunitsyn a ride to the courts where the qualifying matches will take place on Saturday.
Got back to the tourney site and had to drive Teimuraz Gabashvili to the hotel. He had no coach with him, said he just flew in from Ft. Lauderdale this morning. Very smart guy, asked him what it felt like to beat Roddick at Roland Garros and he said it didn't matter beating Roddick as much as getting to the fourth round of a Slam.
Now so far all of these players or their coach sat in the front seat.
Next I had to pick up two scrubs (a term of endearment for players relegated to the qualie draw) who shall remain nameless. Both decided to sit in the back seat even when I asked if one of them wanted to sit up front. Amazing that scrubs feels such a sense of entitlement.
Got back to the site and had to escort Karol Beck to the credentials office and he wondered why the office was so far away.
Finally had to take Marinko Matosevic back to his hotel. He kept asking me to floor the Mercedes. I told him I already got a $400 ticket a couple of years ago and it is still on my insurance. He offered to pay for any ticket I would get and any insurance increase and for a moment I did floor the car going down the 405.
Strangely enough the hotel used for the players playing the qualies is no where near the tournament site and takes forever to ferry players back and forth in L.A. traffic.
Tomorrow I get to do it all again. Possibly the best tennis day ever.
Day 2
Day 2 was scrub-tastic as it was the first morning of the qualies. It was a "short" day in that I ran into Dudi Sela, Nishikori, and Jami Baker who are all about my height, which is no more than 5' 7".
It was a busy morning driving Karol Beck (whose mood seemed to have improved greatly and was actually talkative) and Gilles Muller in the same car from the hotel to the courts. Though Muller is really tall and needs the legroom, he chose to sit in the back with his wife and let Beck sit up front. Muller and his wife seem really sweet.
Next drove Kei Nishikori to the Sycamore courts for his qualie match. In person he appears really young, short, quiet and shy.
Next picked up Santiago Giraldo from the hotel. He asked about the home prices in Bel-Air. A lot of the players seem obsessed with the Mercedes and home prices in L.A.
Then took Jamie Baker to his qualie match. He was all alone, no coach, nothing. Gave him a bit of a pep talk telling him that he had prepared well, he is ready, now all he needs to do is just go out and win. And he won, despite dropping the first set. He is a very unassuming guy, liked him a lot.
Took Horacio Zeballos to the credential office since I knew there was no way he would find it himself. Though he has been on the tour a while, he is very unassuming and almost gentlemanly. When the player's girlfriend thanks you, you just know they haven't bought into their own success.
Picked up Horia Tecau at the hotel. I asked him why I did not know who he was, and he said he is Robert Lindstedt's doubles partner and suggested I didn't know him because I do not follow doubles that closely. True. I mean the guy just did make the doubles final at Wimby. Major egg on my face, but he didn't seemed to mind.
Since he is Romanian, I asked about the controversial Victor Hanescu match at Wimbledon. He said he was there for it and felt bad for Hanescu. Also mentioned that the umpire for that match was some British guy who is universally hated on the tour and also suggested the umpire falsified the match report as to the fans taunting Hanescu. His other thought on the match was that Hanescu made a huge mistake when he didn't call the tournament referee when the chair refused to make announcements for the fans to behave properly. Tecau confirmed that the rowdy fans were using the word “gypsy” as a slur against Hanescu. Still at the end of the day, he admitted that Hanescu should have never let the matter get to him on court.
Finally I had to drive a scrub who shall remain nameless and his girlfriend back to the hotel. But they wanted to eat lunch first. Surprisingly their choice did not include Subway. He wanted Mexican, she wanted burgers and so wanted to go to two different places. Finally they settled on burgers. Before getting out of the car they contemplated if they should eat inside (while I waited for them) or bring it back to the car. Thankfully, in a momentary show of courtesy they decided to eat in the car. Now once inside the burger joint, the girlfriend decides she wants pizza instead and takes forever getting her personal pizza from a place down the street. Her toppings of choice, lettuce and bacon. Stinks up the whole car. Worst of all, before getting out of the car, even as a basic courtesy they fail to ask if I wanted anything. Parrott and Devvarman can teach these two something. On the way back to the hotel, she is leafing through the tournament book, gets to the player/boyfriend's photo and coos "who's this handsome guy, oh it's you." This moment leaves me to swallow my own barf.
Anyway back at the tournament, Travis is practicing as I watch. As soon as he sees me, he smiles and says hello. Such an awesome guy.
A few minutes later, Clement and coach walk past me. As soon as Clement sees me, he starts sort of singing, "Scotty, Scotty, how is Scotty"? Even though he had just lost a match 6-4 in the third, you couldn't tell by the levity of the moment. In fact, it was the coach who gave me a thumbs-down signal letting me know Clement had lost.
On Saturday night the tournament hosted an exhibition for the Agassi foundation featuring Courier (who is getting married next month) and comedian Jon Lovitz vs. Michael Chang and rocker Gavin Rossdale, followed by Andre Agassi vs. John McEnroe.
For the doubles, everyone was having fun except for Rossdale who was actually trying to win the match. Surprisingly he has a decent serve but no other strokes. Not a fan, and am sure after last night, I never will be.
Next up was Agassi vs. McEnroe. Surprisingly the stadium was almost completely full for this exo. From the start it appeared both players were playing for real. Though I suspect McEnroe was playing to win while Agassi was holding back quite a bit but there was none of the usual hit and giggle banter, neither player was mic-ed. Agassi wins the first set 6-4, and is leading 4-0 in the second. McEnroe smashes a racquet in anger, and his dampener flies off the strings.
Before going further, may I remind you this is an exo.
Someone in the crowd says something to him and McEnroe preceded to yell at them. Not sure of the exact words, but he used the F-bomb at least twice. He would curse out the fan, move to the service line, turn around and walk back in the direction of the fan and curse him out again. He did it three times in a row.
At the changeover he smashed another racquet. Before the final changeover he already starts stuffing his bag as if ready to leave. Finally after losing 6-2, he refuses to do the usual post charity banter interview with Wayne Bryan who was MC-ing the event and walks off the court without signing autographs. Agassi was left holding the bag to thank the fans for coming and supporting his charity.
Nice going McEnroe, it really was a disgusting display of character for this to have happened at a charity event.
OTOH, why is there drama in these exos every time Agassi is involved?