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1998 Legg Mason Tennis Classic Report #1 (by Yuan-Kwan Chan) Sat., July 18: This was the start of qualies weekend, and unfortunately I don't have much news. All I know is that Michael is here in DC already, and he practiced this morning. I missed the warmup because I arrived late. Wayne Ferreira is also here. Several of the top draw, including Agassi and Courier, are not because of the Davis Cup tie in Indianapolis this weekend. Hopefully I will have more news soon. Sun. July 19: Today was a much nicer today, temperature-wise. I began it holed up in the air-conditioned confines of the Tournament Office, answering phones as usual. One of the cool things about the job is that we get to go through the same entrance as the players and officials. I also answered phone calls from Filip DeWulf's uncle, an anxious fellow who wanted to know when his 5th seeded son would play; a player named Bernard(?) Martinez, who was stuck in Mexico playing in the Mexico-Bahamas Davis Cup tie and wanted his first match rescheduled; and another player named Paul Harsanyi, who needed his match time for the following day. I even got shifted to the Special Events section, where I had to witness the poor DC United mascot, Talon, sweat away in his stuffy eagle outfit, as well as watch littlekids unsuccessfully pile imitation Oreos in search of a prize. But enough about all that. You want to know the good stuff. Had I not haphazardly decided to meander outside around 12:30-ish, I would not have run into my little mom rushing towards me, pointing towards South Court 3. Who was there? Who else? Michael was hitting against local boy and Stanford standout Paul Goldstein. They were actually playing points, but nothing serious. Michael wore a white Reebok t-shirt and shorts similar to his star & sky "boxers" (I swear, that was what they looked like-Reebok, give him better practice attire! : ) ). Carl sat to the sidelines on a chair. Later, a Caucasian guy walked on the court, and he was wearing a curious shirt. It was black, and on the front there was a small Reebok logo (the sign, but no words) to the upper left side. On the back was a blown up version, in white print, of Michael's "Jesus Loves You! M. Chang" autograph. After Paul thanked Michael for practicing with him, Michael packed up his racquets as Carl and the Caucasian guy tested out some racquets on a device called "Alpha." I'm not sure what they were doing, but my guess was that they were checking the string tension. It appears that Michael is no longer playing with his Longbody racquet, and has instead switched to the Michael Chang Titanium. Michael, of course, was mobbed by autograph seekers. I had towed along about 20 copies of the Discover Card print ad (the one where Michael is standing and has a tennis net draped around him like a king), and decided to play the role of Good Samaritan by passing a few of them out to people who merely had torn sheets of paper or ticket stubs. A lot of stupefied looks, but what the heck. (I still have about a dozen more, which I will disseminate this week.) Michael signed some stuff, and started to move forward. I thought he was done, but he kept signing until he reached the South Suites entrance. I could kick myself because I was actually walking alongside him for a couple of minutes, but no one there was willing or able to take a picture. Drat. So I decided to back to the Tournament Office to seek some AC, only to discover that Michael was walking towards me. The South Suites entrance empties into a corridor which leads to that entrance I mentioned in the first paragraph. Yikes! That's all the news about Michael so far. There were other cool things that occurred. Earlier in the day, Wayne Ferreira held an autograph session, and I handed him the picture of him and myself that was taken at the '96 Legg Mason. He looked pretty surprised and asked, "Where did you get that?" I said that it was actually taken here two years ago, and he said, "That's great!" I mean, I think I too would be pretty miffed at having to sign free magazines with Anna Kournikova on the cover after a while! :) Michael is now the top seed because Greg Rusedski withdrew with an injury. Jim Courier took the last wild card and is in the main draw. Since Michael has a bye, I don't think his second round match will be earlier than Wednesday. Talk to you later from the humid Nation's Capital!
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