Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

At the YMCA, it's Pat Cash versus a posse of little boys

Susan Muthalaly

Excited youngsters thrilled to play with the former tennis star

CASHING IN: A young tennis enthusiast makes use of a rare opportunity to get his basics right under the supervision of Pat Cash in Chennai on Sunday. — Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI: For former tennis star Pat Cash knew this was a moment to delight in. A posse of little boys, jostling the line to rally with him at the Triangle Tennis Trust courts, YMCA, Nandanam, was proof enough.

At the tennis clinic conducted as a sidelight to the Chennai Open, Pat's word was law. When he said, "Move over to the right," the queue of youngsters moved with surprising agility. They took turns to return his volleys, and scuttled away with big grins on their faces as he yelled after them, "Good shot, well done."

And when one boy finally hit a target set by the Australian, there was a collective gasp as Pat took off his hat and pulled off the trademark black-and-white checked headband. He made a show of squeezing sweat out of the cloth and handed it to the delighted winner, who carried it as if it was the Wimbledon trophy. So much for the tickets to the Chennai Open being sold out. Tennis enthusiast Vivek G was at the stadium bright and early to pick up tickets for the semi finals. He went home disappointed as the organisers said all the tickets were sold out. But much to his dismay, his friends Ram and his wife who went to the stadium main gate at 8.20 p.m., during the Carlos Moya-Radek Stepanek match, managed to get in.

"We were told tickets were sold out. But we asked around until one policeman pointed us in the direction of a man. He immediately took out Rs 250 tickets for the coveted pavilion seats and sold it to us for the printed price," Ram said. The `salesman' obviously took after-sales services seriously, because according to Ram, he offered to show them to their seats. At the gate, "... he whipped out an official pass and ushered us in."

One youngster spent the first set of the Moya-Stepanek match on Saturday evening yelling, "Come on Moya!" But during the second set, Stepanek was putting up a good fight. Our young man obviously thought Moya wasn't listening to him and his furious "Come on Moya!" So he switched to yelling, "Come on CARLOS Moya!" as if to ensure that all the other Moyas in the stadium didn't think he was addressing them. And he continued this way till Moya won the match 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.

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