The Bermuda Open

Each weekend, I usually try to spend at least a couple of hours playing tennis. Instead, this weekend I spent two afternoons watching it in the surroundings of the Coral Beach and Tennis Club as the Bermuda Open came to a close.

Although it’s one of the fixtures in the ATP Challenger series, the tournament doesn’t attract the world’s biggest tennis stars. The highest seeded player this year was Peruvian Luis Horna, currently ranked number 60 in the world. Briton Greg Rusedski was the only player I’d heard of before, but even he’s ranked 105 these days. It made choosing a player to root for a somewhat arbitrary decision. In yesterday’s semi-finals I found myself cheering for American Kevin Kim in his match against Italian Martin Vassalo Arguello primarily because his Asian appearance appealed to the affection I’ve had for that continent ever since working in Hong Kong eight years ago. In the other match, between the aforementioned Luis Horna and Frenchman Stephane Robert I placed my loyalties with Horna only because, as a self-respecting Englishman, I couldn’t bring myself to support anything French. Kim lost; Horna won.

Both semi-finals were played in hot sun, the umbrellas employed by both players and spectators to create some shade contrasting amusingly with their role at Wimbledon, where they’re usually keeping the rain off. But come today, the warm sun had been replaced by a chilly wind and heavy grey clouds and an uninvited rain shower delayed the start of the tennis by an hour. Last year bad weather also affected the final day of the tournament, delaying things so much that by the time the singles final had finished there was no time left to play the doubles and it had to be decided on the toss of a coin.

I was hoping this would mean the exhibition match scheduled to start the afternoon would be cancelled and we’d get straight onto the singles final. Fortunately, that wasn’t to be. Instead we were treated to six games of a played-for-laughs doubles match between veterans of the game, including former English tennis champion John Lloyd. It provided an amusing appetiser for the more serious business ahead.

By rights my loyalties in the semis meant I should have been supporting the Peruvian today, but I switched my support to Vassalo Arguello, despite his unpronounceable name, because of a desire to see the underdog win. It was an excellent, hard-fought match, with Horna claiming the first set 6-4 and Vassalo Arguello grabbing the second with a similar score. When the Italian broke Horna’s serve in the third set to lead 3-2 it seemed victory was within his grasp. Horna became increasingly agitated, questioning the umpire’s decision twice, throwing his racquet to the ground, slapping himself on the face and finally smashing a ball out of the court in disgust, an unsportsmanlike fit of pique that earned him a number of boos from the crowd.

In the end Horna’s skill won out and he took the final set 6-4, to the evident disappointment of the two Italians from Little Venice sat next to me on the bleachers. Having shivered my way through the final set, my shorts and T-shirt hopelessly inappropriate for the weather, I was just glad to be able to get back to the warmth of the car.

Comments

[Eric on 26.04.04 at 08:08]

My fiancee and her mother were at that all weekend as well. I on the other hand chose to sleep late and stay inside - just as well since I likely would have burst into flames had I been there (given my propensity to burn easily).

My fiancee's little sister was even a ball girl this year, although I couldn't tell you which matches she was involved with... whatever the proper term is for doing such things.

I hope it wasn't your cell phone that apparently went off during one game, getting nasty looks from those in the crowd. :)