By some measure of good fortune, courtesy of my friend at Scrumpiness.com, I was invited to the Maria Sharapova Live exhibition match. The last time that I watched a live match between top tennis players was many years back, during the Heineken Cup, which Todd Woodbridge won the Men’s Singles. Naturally, I was rather excited at the prospect of catching the current Golden Girl of tennis from Russia, who is ranked fifth in the world. I was crossing my fingers that the seats will be near enough for us to take some pictures of the ladies in action, but since they were free, just had to hope for the best.
Unfortunately, the evening started off with torrential rain, while I was making my way over to the indoor stadium. My shoes and socks were literally soaked by the time I reached the Kallang Macdonalds, where we were supposed to meet. And due to the forever-ongoing construction work around that area, the massive traffic jam did little to help matters, when we left Macs for the stadium carpark even though it was really within a stone’s throw away.
By the time we made our way into the stadium and found our seats, it was already 8pm, just on time. Ah… Singaporeans always keep to the Chinese wedding dinner tradition, and the event started late. First thing that hit both of us, was that the seats were a little too far than what we imagined it to be. And, we were seated at one of the ends that faces one of the player’s back, with a horrendous net hanging in the air, supposedly to capture any high-flying balls. Hmm… that’s going to be a bit of a problem. Needless to say, the conditions were less than ideal for taking pictures of the event.
When the host walked onto the middle of the court, they started playing loud music that I thought will only happen in a concert, a boxing match or WWF wrestling match. If I remember correctly, at some point Queen’s “We will rock you” was played. The host started introducing the ladies, and he really made it sound like some sort of boxing match. I don’t know where the organizers got the guy from, probably on a tight budget. The ladies were briefly interviewed after they walked onto the court, and then they hit some autographed tennis balls into the crowd. I think on hindsight, that must have been the highlight of the entire event.
Finally, when the match started, it seems like everyone was cheering on Maria Sharapova who raced to 6-0, winning the set, seemingly without breaking sweat. Anna Chekvetadze, apparently could not get into any sort of rhythm. She seemed to be playing like an amateur, and at one point was visibly frustrated with herself after failing to return an easy forehand. I believe many spectators got bored, like me, and it was interesting to see that some people started cheering Anna on. The funniest moment came when some joker shouted, “Anna, mai gan cheong!”. I dunno where did that come from, but I would not blame the poor girl if she thought the Maria fans were being nasty, although it was nothing like that.
The second set proved to be much more exciting, with the smaller-sized Anna, putting up a fight. I think her game improved visibly when she went 2-1, and she even went ahead 5-2 at some point. Unfortunately, she failed to capitalize on Sharapova’s mistakes and allowed her opponent back into the game, leveling at 6-6. Final score Sharapova 6-0, 7-6. Overall, a rather disappointing and lifeless tennis game, best forgotten as a practice match between two players preparing for the coming Australian Open. The linesmen, who are supposed to be Singapore’s budding tennis players, were rather pathetic, because they kept forgetting to shout “Out!” when needed. Twice, the players turned around and almost shouted at the linesmen to do their jobs. More disappointing, however, was that my shots were pretty bad 
Scrumpiness and I decided to take the opportunity to take some pictures at the Waterfront, just for kicks. I did not even know there is Brewertz at the Waterfront now. Not a bad place to hang out with some friends, if you do not like the crowded places in town.
After all the action, we were starving and quickly settled on our old haunt – Five Star Chicken Rice at Katong, for dinner-cum-supper. Here’s a picture of my “signatured” dish. Yummy!
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