| John McEnroe in an umpire's chair? That was the most bizarre vision during an afternoon of music and tennis inside Arthur Ashe Stadium during Arthur Ashe Kids' Day presented by Aetna at the USTA National Tennis Center.
McEnroe, a four-time men's singles champion at Flushing Meadows, was back on center court to officiate the headline match of the afternoon between fan favorite Andre Agassi and up-and-comer Andy Roddick. But after Roddick, 18, went up 6-5 in the super tie-breaker, first-to-10 wins exhibition, Johnny Mac got an itch to play.
"Get up here," McEnroe ordered Roddick, who took his spot in the ump's chair on this sun-splashed afternoon -- and promptly watched Big Mac lose the lead he'd built.
The amiable exhibition was one of the highlights of the afternoon as thousands of youngsters flooded into the stadium after a morning of fun and games on the tennis center grounds. Musical groups O-Town and L'il Bow Wow (not to be confused with rapper L'il Kim or '80s new wave band Bow Wow Wow) set the audience in a frenzy, as did a spirited mixed doubles match pitting Americans Jan-Michael Gambill and Serena Williams versus Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Switzerland's Martina Hingis. Although Hingis, a fomer women's singles champ here, hit a beautiful backhand winner to put her team up 4-3, the Yanks recovered to win the first-to-five match on a sharply hit winner by Gambill.
Hingis earned a measure of retribution -- and $18,000 -- during the AMEX Challenge. Playing on behalf of the charity Martina's Kids, Hingis hit nine balls into the targets, outdueling Agassi, Hewitt, Williams and a tandem team from O-Town. Agassi finished second with $16,000, which will benefit the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, an organization that assists at-risk youth in southern Nevada, where he resides. Hewitt earned $14,000 for the McGuinness-McDermott Foundation, which assists critically ill children in Australia, and Serena won $10,000 for The Players That Care, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for ovarian cancer.
Players earned $2,000 for each target hit during two 30-second rounds. The O-Town gang used their combined two minutes to nail a total of three targets for $6,000 (which should perhaps be used for tennis lessons for the band). Switching from racquets to microphones, however, proved a deft move, as the five-man band played a pair of hits that kept the teens and pre-teens shrieking.
Written by John Walters. |
