Scottsdale – Episode 3

Wednesday - Andre Agassi v Marcos Ondruska was the night match - scheduled for 7.30.

But first off

Another caged practice session. You know you just cannot get too much of a good thing :o) He's most definitely in excellent shape! Although he was in a cage, he still managed to play up to the crowds peering in. (Me at the front - of course - well Im small - people take pity on me - ha! Ive found the benefit at last! And it only took XX years!) Andre is a first class natural entertainer. This morning's chosen escape route again was via the back gate - made mental note to self to go round the back tomorrow!

Spent the rest of the day camped out by the practice cages and on the open courts as per usual. By this time we'd struck up (and in Sara's case rekindled) friendships with the South Americans Nicolas Lapentti and Mariano Zabaleta. Although Mariano had lost his match against Carlos he was constantly out and about practicing ready for Indian Wells. That Guy LIVES on a Tennis court. You may think Im joking but seriously, he put in at least 5 hours per day in Scottsdale on the courts while we were there working on his serve and fitness. Even when it started to get dark, we always found him in the corner with his Coach Eduardo Infantino attacking the baseline with tennis balls. He was also not shy when it came to having his picture taken either!

Nico played Andrew Illie that afternoon. Front row seats, we gave lots of support and Nico won (after losing the 1st set). Nico had a sidekick with him who said he didnt speak English earlier on in the week. After this match Nico stayed on court, to sign and talk to Sara, his sidekick was with him again so this time I decided I WOULD find out his name! Universal sign language worked wonders! WOW Calo has the most amazing smile - he came out of his shell as these two English Girls were paying HIM attention!. Calo was also Mariano's training assistant that week too - so the poor guy got to see quite alot of us!

Right, then OK time for some serious stuff.....

7.30pm Andre Agassi v Marcos Ondruska!

At 7.30 sharp the announcers announced the Players to the court, First off Marcos Ondruska (big applause) then we had a 10 minute opening speech listing all of the grand slam wins and all major acheivements of Marcos's opponent! THEN Andre stepped on the court! Wow talk about a popular guy! The noise was incredible. Scottsdale is a lovely intimate Stadium. It was packed to capacity.

The match had a great friendly feel to it (as I know for a fact Marcos was really looking forward to playing Andre!).

At one point Andre just stood there and lightheartedly said "Fine Marcos, you serve from over there if you want but I'll receive it here if that's ok with you!" Poor guy had got his sides mixed up. Ah but what goes around always comes around as two games later MR PERFECT swiped a ball and missed completely - the guy just looked at his racket in pure disbelief - crowd at this point were trying really hard not to laugh - he went just to a corner and pretended to cry. Came back and served an Ace - as he does. As I say it was a great match. Andre won - sorry I forgot the score! Too much fun.

Marcos left the court for a well earned rest (he was in the doubles too) and Andre stayed and presented a trophy to the Tournament Director on behalf of the Players as appreciation of how much they enjoyed playing in Scottsdale (but WITHOUT the rain!).