Courtsider?

A courtsider (or court-sider)? Does anyone know what that is? No idea? Well, it's a new term for me in the tennis world. I learned this over the past week at Williamsburg that I thought I would share. I learned about it by overhearing the tournament director and ITF supervisor talking about someone with hands in his pockets and clicking and electronic device in each hand. So my friends and I thought someone was cheating, and us being curious asked what was happening. The ITF supervisor said that these 'courtsiders' are people who are paid a lot of money to go to tennis tournaments, watch matches while helping cheat the system of betting on tennis. Sounds interesting doesn't it?

Supposedly in the US it is illegal to bet on matches, but in other parts of the world it is legal. And you can only bet on a tennis by who wins and loses, so this 'courtsider' sits next to the court with a device in each hand, and when one player wins a point he clicks a button in one hand, and if the other player wins a point he clicks a button in the other hand. These clicks feed a certain person inside information on a live match, therefore giving him/her a greater advantage of picking a correct winner.

In addition to sitting and watching matches, they also have a room in the tournament hotel and when they see a player who is taped up or have ice everywhere, they asked the player what's wrong? if they are ok? are they going to play? just basic questions and the player doesn't think anything of it and says the truth, and the 'courtsider' takes this information and sends it to whoever is paying him, because that is more information that could determine the outcome of a match. So it is just crazy to think of the extremes people go to to bet on matches, and at a 10k? I mean really?! The smallest pro tournament! Isn't there the WTA going on in Asia right now? I just thought the whole thing was wierd. But now you guys know some inside info on what happens behind the scenes of tournaments.

Williamsburg, VA

So I finished my last tournament last week. Again I lost first round 3 & 3, but again I thought that I played well, my opponent just played better. I mean for my second tournament back I thought that I was hitting the ball well, I just don't think I constructed points well enough for the way my opponent was playing. That will come with time I guess, but I thought compared with my match from the previous week, I thought I played a lot better. I wasn't bailing out of points quickly like I said I did in my last match, the points were longer, I felt like I was moving around the court well. So I mean it's only a small step forward but it's a start. On the doubles side, myself and doubles partner Kirsten Flower made it to the semifinals. We played really well the first two rounds, playing doubles. A lot of girls seem to play singles when in fact it's a doubles match. What I mean by that is doubles is all about being aggressive, coming to the net, and finishing the point with a volley winner or overhead winner. Most girls nowadays don't like to come in to the net because they don't practice volleys or they just are not comfortable volleying. So when I say they play singles I mean they sit at the baseline, never coming into the net, and just hit cross court until someone misses. The way Kirsten and I played was serve volley, or return look to get to net, and finish with a volley or overhead. So that's what we did. In the semis when came up against two girls that were unpredictable. They played similar to how we played. So the score ended up being 3-6 6-4 (10-5) in their favor. We didn't play bad, they just hit some better shots on crucial points and that was the difference. So nothing to get mad about. I just now know to be a bit more attentive while at the net, because they caught me off guard a few too many times, and that's unacceptable to me. So I'll be sure to work on that for the next tournament.

Trivia Night

So I just wanted to tell you guys a funny story. Myself and Kirsten Flower went to go get dinner in the downtown area on Amelia Island the other night during a freak monsoon. We decided to try a simple Italian restaurant but when we went inside the patio the main door was locked. So the owner came out and said they were closed for the evening due to flooding. So we ended up deciding on the Irish pub called O'Kanes next door (didn't feel like walking in the rain). We get inside and the hostess seats us in the bar room and tells us that it is trivia night. Meanwhile, we could have cared less about playing trivia, we just wanted food. So the woman in charge of trivia (Angie) comes over asks us if we wanted to play and we just decided sure why not, it would give us something to do before our food comes out. So just to paint a picture for you, me and Kirsten were the youngest people in there, we were the only table of 2 players, and we had the stupidest name for our group (not going to say, involves tennis though). Other tables had between 4 and 6 players, both male and female players, and cool kick-ass names like Sparta and It's the Freakin' Catalina Wine Mixer (from Step-brothers for those that don't know). So we are already thinking we are going to lose. The rules were simple, no using cellphones to check answers, no going to the bathroom with phone to check answers, no phone-a-friend. Simple. There were 6 rounds of 3 questions the categories were movies, tv, music, geography, vocabulary, and sports. And for each question you either had to give yourself 1 point, 3 points, or 5 points, and you could only use each of them once in a round. So Angie said if you know the answer use a 5 if you have no idea about an answer but a 1. So simple stuff. Here were some of our lucky guesses.
Which Hollywood character has been played by Russell Crowe, Sean Connery, and Kevin Costner? Me and Kirsten just looked at each other like who the hell knows. And then while Angie was coming around to collect our answers I remembered that Russell Crowe just starred in Robin Hood so I put that down and we got it right. Lucky guess #1

Hawaii consumes the most per capita of what Hormel food product? Again we had no idea of the answer until I remembered in the movie 50 First Dates that they keep talking about Spam. "Why don't you choke on your spam!" And Adam Sandler is given a box of Spam and Reese's before sailing off to Alaska. So we put that as an answer and got that one right too. Lucky guess again!

In 1744 who created the first mail order catalog? By process of elimination (1776 was the whole Declaration of Independence so we tried to figure out who was around at that time, and who was old enough to be around during 1744.) We thought Ben Franklin was so we chose him, and again another correct answer.

There was a halftime question and that was to name the these artists best selling album in the U.S. Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, and The Police. We only got Thriller and Born in the USA. The others were IV and Synchronicity. So with these we got an extra 4 points. And at that time we were in last place.

Some other answers were blood, Puerto Rico, Baltimore, John Elway, and Ozzie Guillen. (We only got the first 2 right.)

Then the final question of the night came and you could wager 1-16 points, if you got the question right you got however many points you wagered or you could lose those points. We decided to just go all in for 16, we had nothing to lose because we were in last anyway. But the question was to put these Johnny Depp movies in order from the earliest to the most recent: Ed Wood, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Edward Scissorhands, and Donnie Brasco. As soon as the question was read Kirsten's face lit up because she knows all about Johnny Depp, she has see all his movies and has even read his autobiographies. It was Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, and Donnie Brasco. Perfect for 16 points!

Then when all the scores were totalled up Angie was read out all the scores and it turns out we came in 3rd!!! From last to 3rd. We were so excited and all because Kirsten knew everything there is to know about Johnny Depp. It was great, we even got a gift certificate to O'Kanes so we got a free meal. But Angie said it is very difficult for a group of 2 players let alone of the same sex to win in trivia. We felt like rockstars the rest of the night. hahaha.