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1998 Legg Mason Tennis Classic Report #3 (by Yuan-Kwan Chan) Tues. July 21: I didn't really bump into Michael that much today. He practiced this morning, but that was about it since he wasn't scheduled to play today. As for my volunteer role in the Tournament Office, it was already wearing rather thin. For some odd reason, ProServ decided to assign some kids to answer calls to the general tournament hotline, and they were driving everyone up the wall. I got some interesting phone calls, including a couple from Kelly Wolf (one of Michael's agents) and Harold Solomon (who used to play tennis professionally and is now Justin Gimelstob's coach). One of the photographers for the ATP Tour came upstairs and hung out with us for a while. Apparently, there was little to no AC in the Player's Lounge, where there were a bunch of "players and their groupies (girlfriends)" were hanging out in 85 F temperatures. Lovely. The photographer did tell some interesting stories about his travels to ATP tournaments. Apparently, Michael really isn't that well known in mainland China, or at least in Beijing, which used to have a tournament (which Michael won three times). In Hong Kong, on the other hand, the situation is completely different, because it is probably one of the only places where Michael requires bodyguards-->although his popularity on the former British colony has supposedly dwindled over the years as well. I watched Jan-Michael Gambill and Andre Agassi practice, meeting a girl named Shannon in the process. Her mission at every tournament, it seemed, was to waste as many rolls of film on cute guy tennis players as possible. We were busy snapping pictures of a shirtless J-M, which my little brother found endlessly hilarious. And then, the storm struck. The grey clouds had drifted towards us ominously, like a sci-fi movie. Suddenly, particles and trash start whipping around. Specks of dirt and dust flew into my eyes, and everyone was running around screaming as if in a Chinese fire drill, seeking cover. The rains poured, the thunder and lightning was perilously close, and the power got knocked out. My brother was somewhere, as was my friend Ron, whom I had give a free ticket to. (He ended up not being able to see much tennis, but I made up for that by giving him Friday tickets.) The power never got regenerated, and most of the players decided to hang around outside. Since I had access to the interior of the stadium, I found excuses to go inside since Jan-Mike and his folks were sitting on the couch. It was darker and warmer inside than outside. Andre Agassi, Brad Gilbert, and Brad's son Zachary hung out in the Tournament Office. A rather amusing incident occurred when Andre asked for directions to the nearest restroom, and my brother (who was eating his dinner in the office) had to direct him. However, it wasn't amusing for the fans, who didn't get to see any more tennis because of the power outage.
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