Last week, I had a huge surprise! My good friend, Karolina, offered me an honest-to-gosh media pass to a real live tennis tournament, the Farmers Classic! What a privilege for such a humble beaver as myself! The opportunity was simply too great to pass up! Though I’ve never had a chance to play tennis (it’s tough when the ball is half as big as you are), it’s one of those sports that I really do enjoy watching. Plus, who knows? There may be just a bit of history behind it!
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The Farmer’s Classic, or Los Angeles Tennis Open, is the longest running professional sporting event in Los Angeles, having delivered its first serve at the Los Angeles Tennis Club in July of 1927! That year, the trophy went to “Big Bill” Tilden, one of the most successful players ever to be forgotten. The club produced champions for 57 years until 1984 when the Olympic-caliber Los Angeles Tennis Center opened at UCLA, and the likes of John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi took over. This venue was my destination.
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Since I had never used a media pass before, I had all sorts of questions, which the nice folks working the event were quick to answer. For instance, my badge had the number 5 on it, for “On Court” privileges. That meant I could not only access the media and interview rooms, but also sit right on the court to take pictures! All it took was a flash of an ID, and I could step right past the guards and the “Authorized Personnel Only” signs! I was actually authorized personnel!
Of course, it would be silly to think that the media has unlimited access to everything. I learned straightaway, for example, that no one was allowed to enter the stadium while the ball was flying, only during breaks when the players switched sides. Also, I was not allowed into the box seating areas, the locker rooms, or under the bleachers, not that I’d want to be under the bleachers anyway. Above all, there was to be no obstruction of views or loud conversations. So, I had to go into Stealth Mode!
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The pass gave me access to a full week’s worth of matches! I went first on Monday, the 23rd, for a singles match between Paul Capdeville and Igor Kunitsyn, in which Mr. Capdeville triumphed 6-4, 7-6. The lighting at that time of day made it tricky to take good photos, but I did my best. It improved somewhat for the doubles match between Tobias Kamke/Bjorn Phau and Colin Ebelthite/Jonathan Marray. The former two triumphed in the tie breaker before leading into a break of several hours, during which I decided to head home and return once again for the finals on Sunday!
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That’s when things really got exciting! I arrived just as the singles match ended, making Sam “The Samurai” Querrey the 2012 Singles Champion with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Ricardas Berankis! I felt awfully bad for missing the match, but I still wanted to meet Mr. Querrey, who’s ranked 38th in the world after elbow surgery back in 2011. That meant waiting outside the locker area for about an hour, media pass notwithstanding. Meeting players without a previous appointment is a bit of a gamble. There is a cordoned off area for young fans to have hats and tennis balls signed, but that’s only if the players are in a good mood and not in a hurry. Luckily, I had this media pass and Mr. Querrey’s own good humor on my side!
It turns out that Sam Querrey has been playing tennis for over twenty years, earned 7 singles titles and 4 doubles titles, and has played against today’s Top 3: Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal! That’s pretty impressive for this SoCal native, who isn’t a heck of a lot older than I am!
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Next came the doubles match with some great plays by Xavier “The X-Man” Malisse (#67) and Ruben Bemelmans (#122), who beat Jamie Delgado and Ken Skupski 10-7 in the tie breaker. These two Belgian natives really worked well together, earning plenty of recognition for their matching hair buns!
You may be wondering how all of these folks got ranked the way they did. Well, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has set up a point system based on performance in at least four Grand Slam tournaments, 8 ATP Masters World Tour 1000 tournaments, and the best six results from a number of other world tour categories or the Olympics. The Farmers Classic counts as an ATP Masters World Tour 250 tournament, which means that our victors earn 250 points toward their overall ranking, and everyone else gets smaller amounts based on the highest round reached before they were defeated. It’s really a cool system!
By the end of the week, despite some slight sunburns and long waits, the Farmers Classic turned out to be a really neat experience. Having a media pass opened up a whole new type of adventure that I would love to explore further. Maybe once I get a few more viewers on my blog, I’ll be able to get my own media passes! Wouldn’t that be great?
Love all!
