Part one of (hopefully ) three; 2005 China trip Masters Cup to Xian

Tennis Masters Cup 2005 site (Qi Zhong Stadium) : Construction to Opening...


External views as of July 1st, 2005






Nearly finished exterior as of Sep. 02

The retractable roof... June 3rd and then Sep. 02, 2005


























The interior: Left (as of June 3rd), below (as of Aug. 10th... can u see the bracing for the roof :O ) and far below (Sep. 2nd)












My sis, Nan on the site tour on Aug 10th and then in the chopper for the aerial photo on the 11th


















Oct. 26 Artificial surface (decoturf?) is being installed... they laid down the surface but they had to drill the holes for the net






below: Nov. 4 Doubles net up and ready to go...

























Left to right:
Leo ...Director of Facilities
Nan...Director of Special events
Lisa... Client/sponsor services
Me... Director of Court Services
Don... Tournament assistant
A day or so before players started arrivin (Federer and Agassi were the first), some of the senior staff relaxing in the tournament director's office




The two big boss men...
Charles (Managing Director) and Michael (Tournament Director of Heineken Open Shanghai)
"testing" out the newly installed surface.

Both ex-pro players remarked, "it played fast..."










Later on that day, Michael is giving a tour to a group of tournament volunteers. The volunteers came from Universities around Shanghai and worked for various departments from transportation to court services to logistical and facilities support



The Shanghai Hilton was the official hotel for the tennis tournament so they needed something big in the foyer.... like a 30 foot bannerThe funny thing that i jus remembered... the HSBC champions golf tournament was happening at the same time and the players for the golf and tennis events were both staying at the Hilton so there was a chance that you could see Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal,Vijay Singh or Andre Agassi or another famous golf or tennis player if you happened to go through the foyer at the right time. So with all the VIP's around, the Hilton had brought out their x-ray detector and they were scanning all bags and using a metal detector and hand wand on everyone as they entered the hotel (more intense security than some airports I've been in). I had just finished a long day at the site setting everything up to be ready for the players to arrive the next day and so my sis and I went to hotel to pick up my bro (director of transportation... in charge of over a hundred brand new identical silver Mercedes...) for a late supper at midnight . As I was working hard doing setup, I was looking rundown and dirty in my ballcap, T-shirt and ragged but comfy Converse athletic shorts and carrying my beat up hiking knapsack; basically, i look like a bum. When I entered the hotel there was a lineup of about 10-15 rich people/coaches/pro players waiting to go through the security. I didn't know any different so I shrugged and went to the back of the line and waited for about 10 seconds. All of a sudden I get a hand on my shoulder... I turn around and there's one of the big Hilton Security guards looking at me and then he reaches out and ...vigorously shakes my hand. I get pulled through the security line and I get ushered through, past all the quizzical, impatient, and pissed off people in the line. I shake hands with a number of the guys and laugh inwardly as I go further through the foyer to our tournament desk away from all the well dressed guests. What everyone else didn't know in the line was that, I had worked at the Hilton for Heineken organizing a fun money casino in a previous year during a Heineken open tennis tournament of Shanghai. There was a time during that event where there was a near riot and I took control of the security and managed the crowd til it calmed down. Ever since the head of security and a lot of his staff have given me the utmost respect and in this instance, I got superior treatment and a laugh at some rich people's expense. Also, I had partied with the GM of the hotel (Voldermar?) in 2004 (see entry waaaaaay below) and so my good deeds came back to repay me later...


Every singles player in the draw had one of these made and I placed them in each of the dressing rooms for the players to take home, play with , break , etc. Unfortunately, many of these were broken during the 2 weeks and I think only 2 of the players got to take an intact one home. This one had the head break off... we did the "gnome" thing and I don't know where the head is right now but WE got some great photos... talk to my bro, Bruce.








So, this was the court services office before everything got crazy. Tha's my buddy, Jean, helping me to organize the towels. All the towels were monogrammed, so they had to be sorted according to the player that would be using them... hence the pieces of paper on the walls.


Sharon, Iggy, and I discussing court bookings for the next day... I don't know what Iggy's title was but he was generally the direct contact with all the players or coaches when it came to organizing who got what court and at what time...




So I didn't even take many of these pics; they're mostly jus a compilation of shots my sis or bro took while the stadium was rushed to completion for the event, starting Nov. 11th last year. I got so many stories to tell, from how the concrete walls were still settling throughout the event (causing major cracking in the plaster of the dressing rooms... some VVip players had to be moved last minute before they noticed the "creeping" damage... could have been a black eye for the organizers) to some of the challenges involved with "breaking in" a new facility (water had never been run in some of the showers... try turning on 40 showers in ten different dressing rooms for an hour and watching then go til all the gook was out of the new piping and my glasses were steamed beyond belief... also, new location of the stadium meant, no taxi's going out to the 'burbs to pick us up after the setup days 2 weeks before the official event... you try hail a cab in rural china at 2am; it's not fun...) and even the physical rigors endured by staff and volunteers working up to 20 hour days to get everything looking shipshape, just in time for the big show (Leo, Alex, Richard Lu, etc, the "sunup to almost sunup again" boys... working relentlessly to get sponsor signage, furniture and site logistics up to running conditions... you guys were amazing). I wanna tell all the stories but I don't ever tell them like I really want to cuz as time passes, the details seem to fade and the hardships don't seem to be as challenging as they were when we were in the middle of overcoming them...

So I'm reminding myself here to tell the story of what happens in the back spaces of a professional tennis tournament in my next few posts and how amazing and inspiring it can be to work with the best of the best...
I've done it now for a number of years (worked with the best... sponsors, athletes, managers, etc.) and it gives me great confidence that I can do anything... now if only I knew what I really want in my life , the rest would be easy....

China Trip 2003 Part 1 Kunming

So finally! It took 25 minutes but I finally got the 1st 5 photos of my 2003 trip to Yunnan province in China onto this site. I've been trying to get these photos up but I lost my home internet access and not having time or opportunity to put these up, I just haven't gotten to it til now.

The first photo is of a fort that was placed equidistant between two ancient pagodas in the city of Kunming where we flew in to for the start of our trip. The pagodas were of some significance but I never got a good photo of either them (too dark, no good angle on the shots) . From the top of the parapets, you could see each pagoda 500 meters to the east and west of this fortress.

The next 2 photos are of the famous nine dragon pools in NW Kunming where the intial water works for the city were established. The pools were used by the people in the area as far back as memory can tell.
The next photo is of a very old temple (300-500 years ? i think) and I can't remember the name of the temple but I do remember that my siblings and I got a few shots inside the temples even though they weren't officially allowed ; )

This last photo is of the start of our road trip that would last for the next 8 days. This is taken in the front seat of the "bus" that we took from Baoshan to Ruili; actually just a large van with an aisle down some very narrow seats but it got us where we wanted to go (barely). I remember that we had left Shanghai with the temperatures hovering around 10 ° C but we flew into the aiport in Baoshan after one day in Kunming and got hit by a blast of tropical air at 32° C as we stepped off the plane. The tarmac was just a hot plate and we were the "frying Pons" at that moment.

Just cuz I felt like it, here's a photo of my team from the Polo Open 2003 of Shanghai at the wrap party for the tournament volunteers.

All of my tennis photos are listed below but I'm trying figure out how to organize them better... like making a folder on the sidebar with "Tennis" listed as the major index... Still trying to figure this blog thingy out.

I Played Texas hold'em for the first time with real players...

Played my first Texas Hold'em tournament at a friend of a friend's (thx for hosting Qi{?} ) house yesterday night. I wasn't even going over initially because I was going to work later on at 11pm (long story...) but I decided at the last minute to go cuz I heard there might be cute girls going. There were over 15 people and more expected later so I joined one of the tables to catch a game before I went to work. I joined the "experienced" table cause the buy in was only going to be $10 each w/ no additional re-buys. 2 of the experienced players even went to play at the "newbies" table in anticipation of gettting some free money but I felt like "what the hell" ...go big or go...to work.

I'd only played for my first time online for a total of 5 hours while at work over 2-3 days before I was caught by my boss and then I stopped playing for a while... (didn't want to get fired). Other than that , my only experience w/ texas hold'em is watching all the games that get constantly repeated over and over again on TSN and Thescore. So really, I was a total noob to the game, unless you count all the 10 years of my misspent youth, gambling w/ my brothers and friends during all the lazy summers growing up in Saskatchewan.

So anyways, when I got there, I started playing for fun with my new roomie and a few of the other early arrivals to the party. I got my ass booted a numbers of time and dropped out each and every time my hand "would" have won. Thankfully, no money was on the line cuz we were just practicing for the real action that was to start when all the rest of the players rolled in. I practiced with Qi's two brothers who were reputed to be the most experienced players and I lost a couple of hands to them going all in on full houses and getting stomped w/ the straight flush on the river or when i bluffed on 7-3 offsuit and one of them called my bluff and I lost BAD!

After about 5 practice rounds ( I went all in on all of the rounds at some point and lost every time) and the arrival of a number of the aforementioned cute girls, we finally had enuf players to start the 2 tables. We had one total new player (a girl of course :o) but the rest of the 6 players had some experience w/ poker, even if it wasn't texas hold'em. I got off to a good start by taking down a big pot in 2nd hand by betting modestly early and then betting a lot at the end to bring in as much money as possible from the rest of the table. It didn't hurt that I had a full house after the flop (pocket 4's... i think to start w/ a 4 flopping with another pair). After that I took down a few pots here and there and eliminated 2/3's of the table myself w/ a couple of all-ins. After my run of bad luck in the practice hands, it seemed I couldn't lose in the hands that I stayed in during the real game(I also made a couple of good lay-downs with only minor wounds).

Finally, after we eliminated the other "experienced" players, I found myself heads up with the 2 brothers. I had only went up against one of them in an earlier hand and got my ass booted before I folded out at the river. Now, it was me versus both of them and I was shakingly nervous. I think I had a slim chip lead over the younger brother (~150 for me and 130 for him... it didn't look like that big of a lead) and the older brother had 1/4 of my stack as well, so I wasn't feeling too secure. We took down our respective pots on the button for a few hands and I tried to get the 2 brothers to fight each other 1st with the hope that the weaker (but the more savvier one in my opinion) would weaken his younger sibling but that didn't happen. Finally, I got the older one to nibble on a minorly expensive bet of 30. After my initial raise of the blinds (6/12) he went all in. I think he must have noticed how much my hands were vibrating when I pushed in my bet cuz he was fairly quick about making his decision to go all-in. After staring at my 2 queens for half a second I called his Ace-King/Jack? (suited) on the all-in and won with something on the turn.

I was totally shaking with adrenaline after I pulled out that hand, but the job wasn't finished. I still had his younger brother to deal with. I think he had killed off 2 players while I dealt the deathblow to every other player, including his bro and his sis (who was actually very good... the sis, Qi, I mean...oh ferget it). We only exchanged two quick fold'em hands before I saw he bet heavily on a flop that I never should have decided to hang in for with a suited 5-3. He was trying to initially slow play his pair of jacks but we put in over 100 chips in the pot with the 1st round of betting because I turned agressive after my inital bad decision to stay in. I guess I felt so heavily invested in the pot, I didn't want to let go of my "bluff". He bet all-in after the flop and I asked for a chip count and found that he had 71 chips left to my remaining stack of about 140. With a loss or fold by me at this point, he could bully me right out of the tournament just like I had done to most of the other players. I hesitated only a second before I called. The problem for him was that a 4 and a 2 showed up on the flop and I decided to gamble on getting a card to make a straight. Like most of the night, I had the luck and a 6 came out on the turn.

I wanted to explode and jump around when I saw my straight come but instead I waited for the meaningless river card to drop before I smiled broadly and shook my tough opponents' hands like I had done this lots of times before. That was my first texas hold'em tournament and I netted a pot of $80. God, I was shaking with excitement and pent up energy after the win.


I think I might play some more.... :)

Jiri watches as one of Mark's serves goes by... so this turned out to be jus like the real match where Mark dominated... as you can see I only got fotos durin the semi and the finals...that was an indication of how busy I was durin the rest of the week. Alas, I worked my butt off and didn't get much in the way of photographic proof. Oh well, the bosses saw and that's why I got invited back this year... I forgot about the thingy wher the BLOG publishes from most recent to oldest so to see these pix in the chronological order, ya gotta start from the Maters' cup poster foto and go upwards to this to see the 2003 mens & womens tournaments in Shanghai in correct order. The fotos below, again, go from the bottom, startin w/ da press conference to the blowout party after the 2004 Heineken Open. 

Still durin warmups... Mark goes fer a return of Jiri's serve 

Jus b4 da final, Jiri warms up as I take da foto from behind da player bench. 

So unlike the women's tournament in the previous week, I didn't get much of a break durin the men's event this followin week . Somethin about not goin into the women's dressin room the previous week (alas!) and havin to be in the men's dressin room addin towels, drinks and toiletry supplies all during this week(DOH!). After Jiri had won his semi, Mercedes had an event where they got a kid out of the crowd and they had a race on court immediately after the match. The kid had an early lead and he got too excited and ran his car rite off the court into the umbrellas shown at the far edge of the court by the media pit. The funniest thing was that the Mercedes rep went teeearin across the court in a panic of flailing limbs to rescue the car in case it was damaged and to keep the event going. After he checked out the model, he gently put it back on the court where the kid launched it again with a squeal of mini powered fury in a bid to catch up to Jiri, who had now gently eased his car up to the finish line. Jiri just slid his car over the finish w/o breakin the tape as the kid drilled the $1000 dollar model into the pilon with a major THUMP! (Not in picture... here comes the Mercedes rep teeearin onto the court again...) Oh ya, that's Allison Lee, there ATP media/player handler w/ da vidcam... Hiya Alli 

Special Olympics charity event during the mens' tourney. The official photograher was late so my sis asked me to grab my camera to take a few shots...of course, just as I start snappin, look who appears out of nowhere to ruin my perfect shot....jumped rite into my shot, he did, indeedy. 

So second shot of Elena accepting the honors... she was nice but I really didn't get to talk to her much... she was pretty quiet ... offcourt 

Elena Dementiava had jus won the singles crown and me sis was oncourt fer the trophy/cheque presentation... I had time in between putting up the press barricades and later removing them for the doubles match to take this pix

Shararpova, Canas, & Vinciguerra at the Heineken Open "Opening"

Promo stuff... gotta get the gifts and then laugh for the camera....

My buddy, Guillermo on the left, Andreas Vinceguerra(?), Maria and da guy from Heineken whose name I shud remember but don't (cuz I've been up fer 20 hours) 

Maria stayed a few extra days after the women's event and so in exchange for this promo for the mens' tourney, she got a free hotel room (we paid) while she practiced in Shanghai preppin fer da Japan Open (which she won). The guy in the background in the pink shirt is the second member of the team supreme, Charles "da Ham-mer !" Smith, da Managing director. As usualy, deres Michael in da front gettin all da attention. Dat's my sis w/ da camera...

One craaaazy show... didn't know if I could say it looked good but the girls were kinda cute. Choreography suked tho... 

The GM of Shanghai Hilton (our sponsor) and swiss player, Emmanuelle Gagliardi, hangin out in the TD's (tournament director's) office at the borrowed foosball table.