?

The time when I got to get my hands on tennis is about 17 or 18.

Playing them for fun while not knowing the whole rules is interesting as well, but never thought one day I would be a ballkid as the volunteer.

Just hope that won’t be too late.

Things turns out to be, quite different.

I may just be too serious about this matter at first. Things just went well I suppose.

I. Rules

First things first, as a ballkid (caddy), it is needed to be clear about the rules of tennis, about how the game is played. We serve the players while minimizing our influences to the field.

The full rules are too long to retell, so I’ll just keep the essential parts here. Mainly about switching sides and turns of serving.

A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets. A set consists of a numer of games (usually minimum 6), which in turn each consists of points. A set is won by the first side to win 6 games, with a margin of at least 2 games over the other side.

Switching sides

After each single numbered game, players should have a rest and then switch sides, in the first break, players are not allowed to sit down and the time is shorter. A regular break has 90 seconds.

In a tie-break, switching sides will take place after each 6 points.

Switching server

In every game, the server remains the same (single player), and sever changes in the next game. The first server will be decided at the beginning of the match.

In a tie-break, each player will serve for two points alternately (other than the first point).

Summary

So, actually, there’s no need to distinguish when the ball should go on which player’s side, just memorizing the orientation should do the work. The side where ball goes changes every two games. Considering the time to replacement of ballads, there’s similarity to situations in a tie-break, with the diference of points and games.

And in real tie-break, after single numbered or multiplier of 6 points, balls change sides.

Remember the things above and run quickly, you’ll be a good ballkid.

Ep. 1 Exciting Hangzhou

Never get the tatse of such naming. It’s odd.. such translation.

This reminds me of the days of ZJOI when I first started to write something in blog back in 2016. That was quite distant.

Maybe it’s better to review things in chronic order, at least to some extent.

Wed.

Regular training. I don’t like to sit there and listening to … that kind of boring talk for nearly the whole morning. The bus ride is a little to long still, and the driver seemed to have a bad driving habit, which made me get carsick. Nothing others I assume.

Thu.

The set in hotel is out of expectation. If that were true, the environment is really good. At least it would be a nice place to live. But not sure the conclusion would be the same after nearly two months. First there is no separate washing machine in every room. Then the desk in room is really small, not convenient at all. The frame of TV set is too suitable to get it out and connect any HDMI port on it. Maybe there’s little possibility left to use TV mode of NS.

Actually the given clothes are not bad. Just it’s a little pity that the hair style cannot be like in casual days. Though it could be hard to pick up a set.

Thankfully, I had good rests during nights. Though it was a bit of hot. Not sure if I set the AC too high. At first, I intended to play three houses at night, after all, the plot would be come to an end. However, I just failed to take weariness into consideration. As long as I got onto bed, I soon became sleepy. Never though I could fall asleep so soon. So in the later days I gave up this idea, and planned to sit on sofa chair and tried to do some left homeworks.

At the first day of match, I only brought some draft paper to do calculations, which I soon found my work hardly progressing. It was sunny, so that day’s match ends early, which left me just staring at the notes and could do nothing others.

Maybe it’s enough for such mundane daily routines.

It was quite surprising that on the first and second day, we and the other two group were supposed to use court C1, the semifinal field, and the first time we got there, the staff were cleaning up the court. With such chance, some of us tried to use the squeegee. Kinda dumb considering how we move clumsily along a line. So, naturally, not long after we hanged there for a while, we were called to move up to share court with other groups. The second day, we were locked out of C1, because they said the court was cleaned so cleanners temporarily locked the door. Of course we got into it after some time on messaging and calling. According to the coach, they should have known that the court is needed to be in use.

I mean, the point is, it is quite bewildering. Didn’t expect that the management inside the stadium was kinda … in a mess, or maybe that is how things really goes beneath the surface? I cannot tell.

Besides, I…

I think I can say that I saw something incredible. That, at least to me, is something valuable and cannot get from ordinary days withou seeing anyone else. I am shocked at the way of expression, the confidance and that kind of mindset.

Kinda envious about that.

I’m seeing things I doubted and searched for, and I got a satisfying answer. I don’t care if that is pretension or not, it exists, and that’s enough for my long last question.

And to be more precise, I think there could add one more threshold to the evaluation. I almost though I was wrong, but it turns out to be the very same. Things still goes like ever before, the model needs to be complicated to fit it.

Yet, there rises another question. It’s about gender. Not meaning the self-awareness that kind of stuff. I think it has something to do with the environment. Maybe just, I’ll have more clue after further observation.

Introspection

Though I hardly got the wrong side, but I kept checking information about points and side, which actually slows down my process of grabbing balls. It is not good to have different index in mind, but previously I have not set one for myself, I got to figure out certain brief standard.

I think I ran fast enough, at least faster than many of them, but I haven’t managed to find out a proper point of time to slow down and reach out for the ball. Because of this, as far as I can remember, I had missed at least three balls and then gotta turn back for another second to get it in hand. This is no good.

The third is the cooperation with my teammates, especially when I was runnng back and trying to catch ball from either side. That mistake really made me sad.

And I think there’s currently no more.

Records end here. Hope I’ll have chance to have another one.