Game, Set, Match

I’m sitting courtside with Aidan watching Yang play the finals of the Side Park woman’s tennis championship when Aidan asks me if I think “mommy will win”. Yang’s opponent, a tall and strong Canadian was about to go up 2-0 and in convincing fashion. My unedited response was “no, she’s getting blown off the court” but I edited it for Aidan’s consumption to “mom’s opponent is really strong so far but your mom competes really well”.

Aidan then asked me if I thought the chair umpire (who was standing on a step) would favor Yang. I asked why and Aidan said because the mom was Chinese like the chair umpire. I played with Aidan a bit and said his mom was Canadian just like her opponent to which Aidan said because mom looks Chinese and the opponent did not (she was and I guess still is white).  I told Aidan that umpires are trained to be impartial, not to favor one side. Aidan said, maybe favor mom just a little bit then. Yang, serving right to left landed a perfect ace, fast, low and wide. Unreachable by her so far invincible opponent. I got a great view of it because it was the side of the court Aidan and I were sitting on and it was clearly in. “Out!” yelled the chair umpire and Yang was soon down 2-0.

Elisa was on my lap watching as well – Lydia declined so she could play with a new Indian friend of hers – and I swear Elisa said “you’ve got to be frigging kidding me” when a shot by Yang’s opponent landed two feet long and was not called out. Ok maybe it wasn’t Elisa but me mumbling and maybe I said something harsher than frigging. A few more horrendous calls later .. both for and against Yang .. and a few more gentle curses and the tournament organizers took notice and added line judges who ended up being of little value. What did help was Yang started to just call obvious balls out or in on her side – as if there was no judge and the judge echoed whatever she said.

Elisa got a bit bored so we wandered out of the courts and into the surrounding park. Elisa playing the fountain, me keeping an eye on the game. I handed over Elisa to Cui Ayi who was getting some shade under a tree. I noticed Cui Ayi had on some really nice tennis shoes. Nike Frees. The ones my brother wife’s Jane left here when she visited. Must be the most comfortable shoes in ayi history.

I got back to the court and Yang was losing 3-1. At least lunch would come soon. Elisa yelled from through the fence “jiāyóu mommy, jiāyóu mommy”. What I had missed when I was away was Yang had changed her strategy. Instead of trying to match her opponent forehand for forehand, power for power, she went conservative and mostly just blocked or sliced her returns.  This also helped combat the wind and resulting unpredictability of ball flight and some of the weird bounces on this court. The wind and the court and Yang’s steady play led to mistakes by her opponent and tennis like most sports until you get to an elite level is mostly won by the player or team making the least mistakes. Points started to pile up and games going in Yang’s favor. It was 5-3 Yang, then 5-4 after the Canadian played a particularly strong game. In the 10th game, at deuce, Yang won the advantage by calling a shot “out” and the umpire followed. The Canadian then hit a routine volley into the new and Yang was champion.

Not that I thought it would end any other way.

Yang at the awards ceremony – it was a small three round tournament.