Monday, August 3, 1998
Tennis fanatics enjoy watching, being big part of favorite
sport
SIDEBAR: Successful tournament needs fan support to compliment
outstanding competition, athletes
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Fans, short for fanatics, are defined as enthusiastic devotees
or followers. Only fans can fill the Los Angeles Tennis Center
(LATC) with energetic rah-rahs and occasional boos. Only fans are
willing to offer their time and services for the opportunity to
experience their favorite sport first-hand.
Included in the tens of thousands who have visited UCLA during
the week-long Mercedes-Benz Cup tennis tournament were countless
spectators and hundreds of volunteers of all ages.
Barbara Bruin, 65, and Faye Bellamy, 58, are Angelenos and
tennis fans. They volunteered as stadium ushers and at the same
time, they got to watch world class tennis for free.
"The main perk is to see some good tennis without paying to
watch. And it gets you out of the house," smiled Bellamy, an
Australian native who volunteered on her day off from work.
Bellamy was rooting for fellow Aussie Patrick Rafter. "I’m sad
Patrick Rafter lost the singles, but maybe he’ll win the doubles
championship with his partner Sandon Stolle."
Bruin, like Bellamy, is on her sixth year of volunteering at the
tournament. She’s been playing tennis for twenty years.
"I just enjoy the whole thing," Bruin said. "It’s fun being out
here with other volunteers and meeting people. And when you have
the time, why not?"
By day, Adam Krikorian is the UCLA water polo assistant coach.
By night he’s a tennis fan. Friday night, Krikorian and his
girlfriend, Anicia Mendez, who played for the UCLA tennis team from
’92 to ’95, spent the evening cheering on former Bruin tennis
players.
While Mendez is obviously a tennis fan, Krikorian enjoys
watching tennis for its individual competition.
"It’s something different than a lot of team sports in that
there’s just one person out there fighting by himself," Krikorian
said. "It’s tough mentally and it’s interesting to see individuals
react in competition without team members."
While Patrick Rafter was considered the favorite in that
quarterfinal match, the young couple were a handful of supporters
of fellow Bruin alum Justin Gimelstob.
They got the last laugh when Gimelstob upset Rafter that night.
Unfortunately for them, another former Bruin standout, Eric Taino,
who teamed up with Adam Peterson, lost the quarterfinal match to
Jeff Tarango and Daniel Vacek.
Twelve-year-old David Noorvash started playing tennis four years
ago. When he saw some kids ball-boying, he asked his dad to find
out how he could be one. And last week, he found himself retrieving
balls for some of the world’s greatest tennis pros.
Noorvash and other ball kids got together and giggle over how
close they got to their favorite players
Noorvash, for one, got to ball-boy for both Rafter and Agassi –
but he said his favorite match was the triple tie-breaker against
Kenneth Carlsen and Guillaume Raoux – 7-6(7), 6-7(1), 7-6(3) –
which Raoux won after a grueling two hours and 45 minutes. He says
the players are really nice to the ball kids – most of them, that
is.
"When Rafter’s on the court, it’s a lot of fun," said
13-year-old ball-girl Sunday Tsai. "But Agassi was not as much fun
as I expected."
Tsai, whose favorite tennis player happens to be Rafter, is here
for three years straight as a ball girl and plans to do it again
next year.
Here’s the twist. Although she lived in Los Angeles three years
ago, she now lives in San Francisco and came all the way down just
for this tournament. Now there’s a fan.
All these fans, plus thousands more, came to the LATC to watch
their favorite sport live and in person.
Almost everyone had a favorite player he or she rooted for, but
only one came out on top. Nevertheless, it was all in good fun and
just about everyone left the stands satisfied and with renewed
enthusiasm for the game.