High heels with a thunder
A new tournament is always thrilling to explore. You don´t know how the court would look like from the stands and how close you are actually getting. This week I´m watching WTA Finals in Singapore for the first time. But before I got to the arena, I fortunately checked the other programme during the day. The doubles draw ceremony was much bigger event than I could have imagined. I got almost the front row and to my surprise there was Martina making the draw. The older Martina, I mean. Because the younger Martina is still in the doubles draw. The players were all dressed up, wearing high heels. Except for Martina, who was wearing black jeans, that´s her style.
Just as they had got the players into the stage, a massive thunder burst just above, but fortunately the area was covered. Martina quipped quickly into the microphone: “We are lucky that this is an indoor tournament!” During the ceremony I found out why Martina is so integral part of the doubles tournament: she designed the winner´s trophy. Or at least she was part of the team in doing that. And the trophy was named after her. Many think she is the best doubles player ever.
And then the first look at a Singapore Indoor Stadium. From afar, it looks like an oriental creature. From inside, it looks very modern and the seats are comfortable. What is different from many other arenas is the lightning. As in the theatres, the lightning among the audience is kept very low during play. And even on court the lights don´t shine as bright as in other tournaments. When I watched from the TV in previous years it looked like there was no audience at all!
What we got yesterday was pretty straightforward compared to the day before. Angie Kerber showed her best play, whereas Simona Halep made too many errors. I don´t know why, but their strokes seemed much slower than on TV. It was the movement which caught the eye, especially Kerber´s.
In the second match Madison Keys played at her best, and her Serena-like serve was often untouchable. If she can keep her powerful strokes under control, she should have bright future at the very top. Looking forward to today´s matches!
Tennis-Minna 