John Farley Spotlight: Women's Quasi-Professional Tennis Association

Departing from its usual Spotlight on just the WTA,  the Spotlight from time to time will fall on the Women's Quasi-Professional Tennis Association (WQPTA) which began a few years ago at the Emery Mills Lawn and Tennis Center in Emery Mills, ME. The Center is mostly lawn but does have two courts, a clubhouse, and a bird sanctuary. The Center is host to numerous tournaments throughout the year with an international field of players from as far away as Canada.

The Lawn and Tennis Center is about to begin the main draw rounds of its first Slam of the year - the Emery Mills Open - consisting of a 64 player field, 48 from the qualifying rounds, which took about three weeks to complete because bears kept coming onto the courts and disrupting play, and 8 wildcards drawn from players on the ITF Challenger Circuit who have shown to be Challenger-Circuit challenged.

Both courts have Hawk-Eye technology, but it is a bit different from the familiar WTA Hawk-Eye system. Each court actually has a real, well-trained hawk which hovers over the court during play. If there is a challenge, the hawk flies down and scratches out with its talons the perimeter of the ball's landing allowing the chair umpire to make the proper call. However, there was an incident at the last tournament at the Lawn and Tennis Center during a semifinal match when Fern Flebsky, down 4-5, 30-40 in the third, challenged a call on a baseline shot from the second seed Agnes Gronsk. Apparently the hawk got distracted by a mouse in a nearby field and was not available to help the chair umpire make the call so the call of "in" stood. Flebsky, who lost the point and the match, was furious and has since stopped giving her donations to the bird sanctuary.

The Lawn and Tennis Center also installed an advanced technology for retrieving loose balls on the courts. Each court is equipped with a vacuum system that runs down one side of the court and sucks the loose balls from the court, then delivers them to the ball kids at each end of the court by way of a
concave-designed ramp like you might see in a bowling alley. This way you don't have ball kids running around on the courts. However, occasionally the vacuum system sucks the shoes and socks off the feet of the line judges and they have to go and get them from the vacuum retrieval system. The WTA, Spotlight has learned, is considering the system for all its tournaments.

Frank Freen, the Lawn and Tennis Center tournament organizer and maintenance supervisor, had this to say to Spotlight in a recent interview:

"We have a strong field for the Open this year. Fanny Rallots is back with her unique ambidextrous playing style. As most fans know Fanny plays no back hand - she just switches the racket from hand to hand for the forehand shot. The courts and grounds are in good shape for this year's Open and we're hoping soon we'll have a net on both courts. We were also able to purchase an elevated umpire chair for one of the courts. We selected the "Pliskova Proof" model, which has steel plates on the sides and a transparent racket-proof plastic bulb for the chair umpire to sit in. Our opening ceremony entertainment will include Sandy Kettam who can serve three balls at a time, all for aces, one landing on each of the deuce and ad courts and on the deuce side of the court next to it. We're looking forward to record-breaking attendance this year. The weather looks good."

Spotlight was on hand for a few of the finals of the qualifying rounds. In the morning opener on Court 2, which is the one the players prefer because it has no net, Angie Rebrek, who also plays no backhand (she plays only the forehand - if she can't get around on the ball she just lets it go by), won by retirement when her opponent Azur Ugum, after eating four bananas during the sit-down, was unable to get off her bench and return to the court and resume play. Over on Court 1 later in the morning there was some confusion among the players and the chair umpire about how many sets had been played. They decided only one set, not two had been played with Mona Pelah winning 6-0 over Niki Avoklubic. So they played another set with Avoklubic losing again 6-0, but it was brought to their attention by a spectator that indeed two sets had been played before with Avoklubic losing 6-0 in the second set. So Pelah ended up winning 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 over Avoklubic. It is the first bagel hat-trick in the history of tennis in a best out-of-three format. During the post-match interview, Avoklubic said that the next time she played she was going to use a racket. In a late afternoon match on Court 2, with the score 6-4, 6-5 in favor of her opponent Anna Atnok, Lucille Avorafas, a local player, had to leave because she had a roast in the oven, so the completion of the match was squeezed into the evening session.

We congratulate The Emery Mills Lawn and Tennis Center for hosting the WQPTA events, which hold an important place for certain players in the game. The John Farley Spotlight will now gladly turn its attention back to the WTA.

Anyway, that's how I see it.