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In the new
Stadium, Manu Gagliardi serves for the Women's Doubles title
with partner Dinara Safina.
Crowds of new Chinese tennis fans (most seeing tennis for the
first time) cheer for their newly adopted women tennis
professionals.
Hundreds of pencils and scraps of paper are prepared for the
struggle for hastily scribbled autographs after the match. |
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At the Luxilon
booth, crowds gather to inspect the strange but apparently
essential
accessories of the new sport.
Watching one of Luxilon's professional racquet stringers at
work, several wonder if they have to buy this complicated and
expensive-looking equipment and learn these new skills in order
to participate in their newly embraced sport. |
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Next to the
Luxilon booth, rows of shiny black cars line up ready to whisk
players and VIP's
in air conditioned and heavily-tinted isolation to the
tournament's sponsor hotel - the Shangri-La -
30 minutes or 1 1/2 hours away depending on the state of Beijing
traffic... |
Just a few feet
away, on the other side of the canvas screens erected all around
the perimeter of the tournament site,
the sounds and smells of the local neighborhood permeate the
tournament.
Sounds of bustle and activity: car horns, bicycle bells and
occasional loud conversations.
Smells of spices and dinner and other odors less easy to define
or identify.
I wonder if the tournament's neighbors were as oblivious of
the International event going on in their backyard
as the participants seemed to be of their neighbors on the other side of
the flimsy screens. |
I am curious
about life on the other side of the screen. So is Bob Daelemans,
CEO of Luxilon,
He volunteers to join me to go and meet our neighbors.... |
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Navigating the
long alleyway that leads to the neighborhood from the main road
outside the tournament site,
the first impression is one of purposeful but frantic activity.
The faint sounds that reached us at the tournament site have not prepared
us for the sheer volume of people and traffic.
The lack of cars and trucks do nothing to lessen the effect.
The apparent recklessness of the bicycle riders seems just as
likely to result in bodily injury to the unwary pedestrian. |
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To start our adventure in the
proper spirit, and spotting the neighborhood barber nearby,
I work hard to convince Bob that he is in serious need of
a trim.
But convincing him to be dressed in a pink sheet is a bigger problem - and one
not helped by the amusement of the neighbors... |
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So here we are,
just a stone's throw from the Tennis Stadium but on the edge of
a new and totally unknown world.
Bob fears for his feet every time a 'heavy vehicle' pedals by a little
too closely. |
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| But at least he comes to appreciate the usefulness of the
luminous pink sheet
in warning traffic of his presence... |
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The haircut is
approved by the spectators - and costs 50 cents.
The expert removal of a couple of stray ear hairs with a
cut-throat razor is included at no extra charge.
Bob saves $19.50 - and is relieved that his feet survive the
ordeal... |
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After an examination of the barber's bicycle-cart and equipment, Bob figures that
he could probably set up shop in competition
for less than he would spend on a regular haircut back home in Belgium. |
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| So, suitably
prepared, we follow the traffic and plunge into the heart of the neighborhood.... |
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