VIEW AND DOWNLOAD WORLD TENNIS GAZETTE VOL. 13 NO. 1
By JOHN MARTIN
SAN DIEGO — Reader alert: I don’t have the remotest idea where this is going. And there’s a reason.
My USTA press credential letter identifies me as a “REMOTE PHOTOGRAPHER” of the 2020 US Open,
Just how remote it doesn’t say. I imagined dialing up Rent-a-Drone so I could shoot top seed Novak Djokovic’s opening match from above Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Or aiming my Canon 35-millimeter camera at a freeze frame of a Tennis Channel shot of Serena Williams’ serve. (see strange shot below)
That pretty well exhausted my photo ingenuity. I decided I better get busy studying the media web-page that allows me to follow dozens of matches at the same time.
For a remote journalist or even the close-up kind, it’s a remarkable tool. This is an Internet screen that tells me everything from a player’s date of birth to their fastest serve speed since their date of birth and every dollar of prize money earned this year and over his or her career.
In case you’re wondering, Novak’s prize money stood at $143,631,560. Serena’s winnings sat at a mere $92,720,122.
I found those totals after making maybe a dozen clicks through the fact-crammed media-only guide sent to reporters, whether onsite or remote. It’s a fabulous compendium that keeps brigades of elves busy far into the night.
This year, as you know by now, things went bonkers. Asterisks * became like fruit flies attacking the record books. The biggest fly attached itself to Novak Djokovic.
In the middle of trying to form a new players union and keep alive a year-long winning streak, he absentmindedly slammed a ball against the throat of a lineswoman, earning immediate disqualification. Apologizing to the woman and the world, Djokovic skipped the required meeting with the press and earned a $20,000 fine as he flew home by private plane to Monte Carlo.
The incident threw the tournament into turmoil, which included another dispute: how to fairly adapt medical rules protecting everyone from the pandemic.
That’s why one third-round match, (Alex Zverev, Germany versus Adrian Mannarino, France) was delayed 2 hours.