This was a difficult day. Last night few slept a spectacular thunderstorm swept through the valley, I have never seen anything like it, lightning flashed and thunder cracked almost continuously until dawn. The lightning flashed so intense and so close that it was an erie blue, and then there was the strange smell of lightning, that other world fresh smell was in the air. The rain came down in sheets …when I dozed off morning came too quick. It was peaceful and strangely calm, almost as if nature was apologizing for raising hell all night. The humidity is so heavy and horrible that it was actually chilling.
I headed to the Ford Hall this morning and looking at the wide-eye campers I could tell they were terrified last night. Inside the dining hall the storm dominated the morning conversation. I can tell this is going to be one of those days. I sat with Bevin this morning and she said the little girls were up all night. She had three little ones in her room all night. She has a great mother instinct and I bet the girls were thankful for her being there.
After the storm only courts 12 and 13 were unplayable, Mr. B came and got me right after breakfast and Tom Sheridan and I, along with Vrana and the Dickinson’s were up at the hard courts drying them off. We had them ready to go by 9:30...because of the extreme heat. It was already in the mid 80s by 9:00 am and its going to be a scorcher today.
We were down 20 balls yesterday, I told Sheridan that Mr. B will be pissed so he and I went through all the dorms at the first break and recovered 14 balls. It always happens early in the session, counselors hoarding the new balls for their matches. So we’re down just 7 and that’s an acceptable loss. Sanderson and I have a reputation as the ball police and we nag everyone, this ball thing is our obsession. We check balls out from our room and if they don’t bring them back Tom S. hears about it and they get extra duties. The system is working and Mr. B is happy.
After work today Bevin and I played Eric and Pat. Riley dominated play even though I hit away from him. He has a deep service return and he hops to the net for the volley which he seldom misses. Its impossible to break his serve, they beat us 8-2. Bevin played well, she hit great lobs and served well but they stayed in the point. I was frustrated but weathered the storm. Crestfallen Bevin and I walked back to Tippets Hall, she was bummed that we lost and said we needed to put the lobs over Pat…I agree.
Mr. B talked about the backhand today and the one thing I really liked is the fact that the key to a good backhand is the other hand…you need the other hand to pull the racquet back and to change the grip. Mr. B says you have to read early, get the racquet back early so you hit through the ball. We talked about under spin and topspin and then he lapsed into a great story about BJK and how in the early days she dominated because she could hit pace, top spin and under spin equally in the course of a rally.
FXB says the women on the tour were too used to seeing flat, hard strokes. All of the sudden BJK was on the scene and she forced the game to deal with her and deal with different speeds and spins. BJK plays very much like her brother pitches in the majors, both masters at mixing it up, he said. FXB said more than once he chocked down chuckles from the sidelines as he watched confused opponent after opponent walk off the court in defeat. He's told me a few times that BJK at Wimbledon was a shark in bloody water. He loved her approach shot saying she fielded it like a shortstop charging and then would spoon the ball down the line breaking away from the opponet he said only Margaret Court had a chance handling that shot because she had the timing and reach on grass. FXB said BJK didn’t play their game, she played her own game, that she had her own drummer and 20 years later she‘s still winning, still a genius and still a shark.
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