Playing on Center Court at Farmers Classic
Playing on Center Court at Farmers Classic | 
Los Angeles, CA – I had the chance to participate in a fun LiveBall event hosted by Steve Bellamy and his crew from the Palisades Tennis Center. They took video footage from 5 cameras around the court and the ten minute game took place on Straus Stadium in front of the night crowd right after Michael Russell upset #1 seed Benoit Paire. Luckily I’ve played in front of a lot of fans before but never had I played at Straus with so many onlookers. Let me tell you, the nerves hit me strong right before the game began but I eventually conquered them. (What’s the secret? Just loosen up your hand, move your feet, smile a bit because of the situation, and just hit the ball to a target!)
It was a little “king of the court” game which puts 4 teams of two people on the same court, all vying for the most total points won. My partner, Chanelle Van Nguyen, is a current sophomore at UCLA and plays #4 on the women’s team. Being the only female out on the court, most of the guys tried to pick on her at first but found out she could play good ball – so they started hitting to me instead!
After missing some ducks on top of the net due the night air, the UCLA Medical helicopter, all the flashbulbs from the hundreds of cameras, etc… we started to get the ship going in the right direction. The action was so fast it felt like the ball was traveling faster than it actually was. You’re so nervous to not miss in front of everyone but the feeling that was actually more powerful was the fact that when you did try to go for your shot, your normal power left your arm and racket. You’d think that you just punched a volley away and you’d find opponents easily reacting and getting balls back! I’m sure adrenaline had something to do with our opponents’ superhuman reflexes tonight… Mike Thoeresz of the Palisades Tennis Center in Palisades, CA was the master ball feeder and made life incredibly tough for teams to win enough points to move to the “king” side of the court. Eventually we got over and started winning a lot of points but the clock was our enemy and ran out before we really hit our stride. My personal philosophy on losing situations like these: At least give them a good show to watch even if it’s in a losing effort. If the tennis is entertaining, it doesn’t matter if there’s a winner or loser because in the end, tennis and the fans win right?
I can’t recall looking around at the stadium while I was playing, I’m sure it was still there and the people were still in their seats… But from a player’s perspective, you really lose track of where you are and what’s going on outside the lines. If you ever have the chance to do a VIP hitting clinic or some kind of session on a main show court/stadium, take the opportunity, hire a little kid to be a photographer and have a blast. I guarantee you’ll have more fun than you would on a normal club or public court – trust me, I just did it.
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