Love Game - Season 2011 (21 page)

“Isn’t it just unfair that we cannot spend more time together. These stupid rivalries. Maybe we can make up for it. After the match,” Gaga continued in a sing-song voice. She watched Sasha hurry even more, stuffing her belongings into a top locker. Shouldering her racquet bag, Sasha finally turned around to face Gabriella.

“Luella,” she said, her voice shaking. “I don’t know what you are up to. And I certainly don’t know what you are implying.”

She rushed out of the room leaving Gaga alone in the stillness. The twin sat down and like stripping off the fake identity she had taken on, she took off her clothes one by one. She really had startled Sasha. But she had got no further than before. Sasha hadn’t played along and Gabriella still didn’t know why Sasha was following the twins or if the Czech player had a secret crush on her twin sister. She didn’t know anything about Sasha, to be honest. But there was one thing she knew now.

“I can be one badass motherfucker if I want to be,” she said quietly to herself. She picked up her racquet bag and headed out to the court.

***

The only thing that mattered, Sasha told herself, was the fact that she had won the match. It had not been easy though. She really had to fight against Luella. Or had it been Gabriella? Her opponents playing style had reminded her of the match in Indian Wells. Back then she had figured that it had been Gaga who had beaten her. Given the first service percentage, her forehand and her movement today this had been Gabriella, too. Sasha had studied the twins long enough now to recognize little details that allowed her to tell them apart.

              At least that was what she had thought. It was impossible for the brazen, shameless girl in the locker room to have been Gabriella. Even though the twins had adapted each others’ behavior, at least for a bit, it was impossible for Gaga to have pulled such a stunt. Sasha had been so taken aback that her opponent – whomever of these two it was – had hit on her that she lost the first three games, being broken in two of them.

              However, that had only turned her confusion into anger. She wouldn’t allow these little brats to irritate her. They must have noticed that she was following them and now played a trick on her. The thought had made her so angry that she had been able to turn her fate around. She had fought back rigorously and finally won the first set in a lengthy tiebreak. Her opponent must have sensed the will Sasha had regained for she faltered in the second set and in the end it was easy. The Galloway on the other side of the net was broken when she served to stay in the match and when they approached the net to shake hands, Sasha was sure she had seen embarrassment in the twin’s eyes. The Galloway had nodded politely and had gone to her chair immediately, packed her bag and left the court without looking at Sasha again.

              Now Sasha sat in the empty locker room staring at the wall. She hadn’t changed or taken a shower yet. She had to figure this out, she said to herself moving her lips silently. It was Luella in the locker room hitting on her. Sasha was absolutely sure of it. But then it looked like it had been Gabriella on the court. The twins must have changed place in those two minutes when a surprised Sasha had been heading to the court leaving Luella in the locker room. Why would they do it like this, Sasha wondered. It would have been so much easier, if Gaga had entered the locker room and had not said a word. That’s how they usually did it. None of their opponents ever suspected this.

              They must have realized that Sasha was spying on them. That was the reason they put on this show, trying to convince her that this time Luella was playing for herself. But wasn’t that a bit risky to openly hit on Sasha? They couldn’t possibly know that she was gay. Sasha buried her head in her arms. Why did she have to mention
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to the Galloway twin in the bathroom? How could she have possibly been so stupid after working so hard to make the sham with Jaro believable?

              Going once again through the incidents she had witnessed with the twins, Sasha thought about the moment when she was hiding in the toilet booth. Outside at the basins one of the Galloways had talked to Elise Renard about the
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novels. At first she was convinced that it had been Gaga but then Sasha had reassessed her conclusion based on Gaga’s obvious ignorance of the novel series. Or had that been Luella? It would make sense that it had been Luella being impolite and loud-mouthed after a lost match. And yet, nothing made sense in this mystery. The only thing Sasha knew was that the twins switched matches, that one of them read
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and that Luella was having an affair with the fitness trainer, if Morgana was right. However, this didn’t disqualify her from reading the novels and hitting on other women. Perhaps Luella was a bisexual nymphomaniac. Or perhaps Gabriella was? Sasha let out a frustrated and loud groan. The more she got absorbed into the Galloway mystery the more she was unable to solve it. These twins were just killing her. She gave her racquet bag a hard kick when all of a sudden the door opened and Amanda Auster stepped in.

              Sasha got up immediately and steadied herself. She needed to hurry and get ready for her press conference. She said hello to Amanda noticing that the redhead seemed completely absentminded. The Australian was due on court next, playing her third round against Ivana Katina and she was nervously fiddling with a blue bracelet while taking off her street shoes. Sasha took her towel and quickly headed to the shower.

Paris, France

“We don’t have to meet tonight. We can meet another time,” Elise said into her phone, knowing very well that there might not be time at all, at least not here in Paris.

              It was only twenty minutes after Amanda had finished her press conference for her third round match. She had lost to Ivana Katina in three tough sets. For last year’s finalist this was a devastating and embarrassing result. Amanda wouldn’t feel like having a nice evening with her, Elise had figured. Amanda probably would like to be alone or with her team to process the loss.

              “Yes, another time maybe,” Amanda answered meekly.

              It was the answer Elise had expected. She normally liked to have some time to herself after a bad result. However, she secretly had hoped for a different answer. She sure would have done everything possible to cheer Amanda up.

              “That’s ok. I understand that.” She tried not to sound too disappointed.

              “Thank you, Elise. I’ll call you, ok?”

              “Of course,” Elise answered. She guessed that Amanda had probably booked her hotel for a week at least. It might be possible that she would be around for another two or three days. If Elise could win her next match, she herself would have to stay for at least another two days and there was perhaps a chance that they could have dinner at the end of the week before Amanda left Paris.

              But would Amanda really call Elise? The young German doubted it. The dinner invitation seemed to have been Dan Metic’s idea anyway. Amanda’s coach probably just wanted to be polite after Amanda and Elise had played doubles together so successfully in Stuttgart. It had been a nice gesture and Elise had been happy to spend some time with Amanda. After their practice Elise had been so delighted about the invitation that she had given Amanda the little bracelet in the locker room wishing her luck for the third round and Amanda had in fact been wearing it during the match against Ivana. It had not brought her luck at all. Elise wondered if Amanda had taken it off already or even thrown it away.

              “Just give me a call whenever you feel like it,” Elise said. She just knew Amanda wouldn’t call.

              “Yes, sure,” the Australian replied. “Good luck to you today.”

              Elise felt the lump in her throat and swallowed hard. She herself had to play her third round match today. It wouldn’t be easy. She had to play Tamara Parova, a Top 10 player, she had played twice before but never beaten. Elise thanked Amanda and hung up. She sat in the buzzing players’ lounge checking on the court where she was due to play. The ongoing match was still in the first set. She’d probably had to wait another hour or two. A lot of time to think about Amanda, she realized and sighed.

***

Tamara looked up to her box into the stern faces watching her. Again she had been broken by the young German opponent. German-French she should say. The loud support Elise Renard was receiving from the crowd had helped her overcome the abysmal performance she had put on display in the first set. Buoyed by overwhelming applause Elise had fought back like a tigress and had clinched the second set 6-4 against Tamara.

              Heading into the decider the young German had a good start as Tamara’s racquet string broke on a crucial point giving Elise an advantage and an important game. From then on the young girl on the other side of the net seemed to be on fire. She had already hit seven aces, each one cheered by her French supporters and Elise’s horrendous number of unforced errors she had hit in the first set now seemed a lifetime away. As if she was mocking Tamara now, she hit winner after winner, giving the Russian the runaround.

              Tamara got up and walked over to the opposite baseline. It was a interesting mixture of agitation and anger Tamara sensed in her young opponent whenever they passed each other at the change of ends. Tamara figured that if she accidentally ran into the German Elise would probably punch her out of unspecified frustration but would still feel excited about the attention she’d received from the audience for it. Like a prizefighter, Tamara thought stepping up to the baseline to serve. But then she shook her head. There was no time to think about Elise’s personality. She was trailing 2-4 in the third set and she needed to hold. A loss in the third round of a Grand Slam would have been a bad result. Moreover, to someone ranked outside the Top 100. Elise Renard was a qualifier, Tamara thought grimply. Well, to be honest, she was playing like a Top 20 player now. At least Top 20, Tamara had to admit.

              Besides that, Elise had grown up on clay, whereas Tamara had never liked the red surface. It was a remarkable comeback for the young player after she had been sidelined almost the entire summer in the previous season.

              Tamara tucked the second ball under her skirt and got ready to serve. Nothing but a qualifier, she thought and tossed the ball up.

              Her first serve went out wide but a deep second serve induced Elise to hit a forehand return long.

              “15 – Love,” the chair umpire announced.

              Tamara tossed the ball high into the air and sent a good shot down the T, but Elise’s return clipped the net cord and dropped dead for a winner. The French crowd cheered in unison for Elise.

              In the next rally the German player forced Tamara to hit a short ball, and routinely dispatched it with an drive volley

              15 – 30.

              Suddenly Tamara was on the back foot again. Tamara needed to hold, she knew it, but the double fault she produced for 15 – 40 certainly did not help. In frustration she let out a loud wail. With a bang her racquet hit the clay, but she refrained from kicking it with her foot to avoid a warning by the umpire.

              The Parisian crowd had begun to cheer for Elise again, some of the spectators booed Tamara’s outburst. The Russian breathed in deeply before picking up her racquet and turning around to accept new balls from the ball girl.

              After her first service went wide, Tamara opted for a safe shot on her second service. It went into the service box but was punished by Elise with a pinpoint down-the-line winner right on the baseline. Still looking at the spot where the ball had hit the clay, Tamara could hear her opponent’s loud “C’mon” from the other side of the court.

              Elise would serve for the match.

***

“There is no question that Renard has the game to get back to the top,” Samantha Watts said into her microphone while looking down upon the court. “She has the big serve that helps her set up easy winners but also terrific variation on that serve. She can shorten up the power and find angles in the service box.”

              “She really has all the serves in the bag,” Hugh Andrews agreed. “It makes it very tough for the returner to know which one to cover, and how fast it’s going to come at them.”

              “On the other hand she has great touch throwing in nifty drop shots after she has opened the front of the court with her big ground strokes. Starting with the second set she really worked herself into this match and now has the upper hand.”