Double Fault at Roland Garros
Page 37
Pete earned ranking points in Australia, but not nearly enough to obtain direct entry into the main draw of ATP Tournaments. The Chennai Open was a Tier III event that earned Pete 103 points for reaching the finals. He also earned 90 points for his two wins at the Australian Open where points are doubled. Combined with the 26 points he had earned in Challenger events, Pete had a total of 219 ranking points in the past 12 months, good enough for a world ranking of 177. Roger Federer current point total is 7,275.
Pete needed to play more tournaments, but first he had to get into these tournaments. A 32-man draw is made up of 24 players that qualify based upon a sophisticated ranking system, the higher your ranking, the better chance you will be accepted into the draw. Four entries are reserved for wild cards or sponsor exemptions. The final four spots are earned through qualifier tournaments conducted the week prior to the tournament. Ambre helped Pete get sponsor exemptions in Australia, but he was now on his own. Pete’s ranking of 177 was not enough to automatically get into a tournament. He would need to qualify. Pete pointed to the French Open where a ranking in the top 100 would be needed to avoid the strong competition for the sixteen spots reserved for qualifiers. The #99 ranked player, Potito Starace of Italy, currently had 403 points. Pete had a long way to go.
Pete decided to skip the rest of the hard court season and start honing his game for the slow red clay of Roland Garros. The first stop was Buenas Aires where he qualified, but lost in the second round to Guillermo Canas of Argentina. It was a lesson on how to play clay court tennis. Canas was in excellent condition and returned everything. By the end of the match Pete had 36 unforced errors and only five winners, and was worn down mentally and physically. He must be more patient and get into better shape.
His next stop was Costa do Sauipe, Brazil where he failed to qualify for the $380,000 Brazil Open. Pete was finding out first hand what everyone in tennis already knew, South Americans know how to play on the clay. Pete’s first taste of success came in Acapulco where he reached the semi finals before losing to Gastin Gaudio in three sets.
The South American clay court swing was over and Pete’s ranking had climbed to #125. He had four weeks off before heading to Europe still needing a good tournament result to crack the top 100. Pete returned to Saddlebrook and began training in earnest. The South Americans had taught him the importance of conditioning.
The breakthrough came three weeks later in Valencia, Spain where Pete beat Gonzalez in the finals to win his first tournament; the $340,000 Open de Tenis Comunidad Valenciana. Pete was lucky because for many players, this was their first clay court tournament of the year, choosing to play the Nasdaq-100 Open hard court tournament in Miami the previous week. Pete didn’t care, the victory was worth 145 points and jumped his ranking to #85 in the world, more than enough to get an invitation to Roland Garros.
The project was back on schedule and everything was falling into place. A major milestone was reached in January when the two domes were rotated into place using a jack and mast system, and held secure with temporary cables. Raising of the domes allowed the work to be completed on the outside of the stadium and the electrical and mechanical systems to be installed This was the site’s busiest time with approximately 1,500 people working simultaneously on different tasks.
Enclosed athletic stadiums are a modern development, but the idea for it may be traceable back to ancient Rome. It is said that a Roman noble was watching an event in the Coliseum, the father of all modern stadiums, and ordered his slaves to raise something akin to a rain tent over him to keep out the elements. The result was an egg-shaped structure. An American architect adapted this idea and the design for the domed stadium was born.
The Roland Garros retractable roof is designed to cover, but not enclose the stadium, preserving an open-air environment. The structure covers nearly nine acres, weighs 22 million pounds, and contains enough steel to build a 55-story skyscraper. The three movable panels glide on 128 steel wheels powered by 96, ten horsepower electric motors. A push of a button closes or opens the roof in an average of 15-25 minutes depending on wind and other weather conditions. The roof is self-grounded in the event of lightning strikes and is designed to withstand 6-7 ft. of snow and sustained winds of up to 70 mph.
Erection of the domes over the two stadium courts was a morale boost for everyone. We were on the downhill side of the project and the end was in sight. The next three months saw work progress in many areas:
Drywall partitions are completed that enclose the mechanical systems and provide a vehicle for air movement and ventilation, thereby eliminating the need to install metal ducts, similar to the system that Clark first used for the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis;
State of the art sound systems and scoreboards are installed;
Club seating is installed above the lower deck in Philippe Chatrier stadium;
Work on the Tenniseum Museum located under Court #3 is completed and the museum is restocked with exhibits and inter-active activities for children and adults;
The outside of the Roland Garros is finished together with statues of past French Open Champions and French Tennis greats;
Bouygues completes the final leg of the new Marta subway system that will drop subway patrons less than 100 yards from the stadium;
Landscaping around the stadium is nearing completion, providing an effective visual relief from the security barriers that had been installed.
I attended a project steering committee meeting in mid-April, only five weeks before the grand opening. The mood of all three contractors was upbeat. Everything was on schedule.
Lisa’s challenger event win in Tampa earned her a WTA ranking of 295, enough to get her direct entry into the main draw of most Challenger Events. She won another $10,000 challenger tournament in Clearwater, Florida and her ranking jumped to 268. It was time to see if she could play in the A-league. Unlike her brother, she could not afford to skip the hard court season until her tennis ranking improved. Most of the tournaments in February and March were played on hard courts.
Lisa qualified for the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, and won two matches before losing to Meghann Shaughnessy in the quarterfinals. There was a three-week break before the next U.S. tournament, the Pacific Life Open in California. Mary and Lisa flew down to Bogotá, Columbia, to get a taste of clay court tennis. Lisa did well to win two qualifying matches before getting hammered 2-6, 1-6 in the third round. The next stop was Acapulco where Pete was also playing.
Lisa and Pete had two days to practice and talk about the subtle differences between playing on red clay, and the synthetic har-tru clay they were accustomed to in the United States. “Patience, Lisa,” Pete advised. “You need to understand it takes two or three winners to win a point on red clay.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Pete. A winner is a winner.”
“Not on red clay, Lisa.”
It must have sunk in because Lisa won her first two matches. Pete lost in the third round, but stayed to watch Lisa make it to the finals before losing to Gisela Dulko of Argentina. Her ranking jumped to #176.
Lisa still needed the ranking points and decided to try and qualify for the two-week tournaments at Indian Wells, CA and the Nasdaq-100 in Miami. It was a tough schedule, but Lisa was determined. She had only a week to acclimate her game to hard courts before qualifying began in Indian Wells. It wasn’t enough, as she lost her second round qualifying match to a UCLA alumnus.
Lisa was disappointed, but I had good news for her when she got back to Tampa.
“How would you like a pass into the main draw in Miami next week?” I asked.
“Dad, you shouldn’t have,” she said as she gave me a hug.
“Are those tears I see in my baby’s eyes?” I asked.
“Dad, you don’t know what a grind it is to play these qualifying matches. Everyone is competing for a few spots and the competition is cutthroat. I swear it’s tougher than playing in the main draw.”
“Well, let’s pr
ove it next week. Mom and I will be there to watch, unless you think that would put too much pressure on you.”
“No, that will be great. You are my good luck charms. But can you really be away from Paris for that long?”
“I’ll make the time. Besides, I want to see you in Paris with me when we open the stadium, as a player I mean.”
“Me too, Dad. I’ve been dreaming of nothing else for the last six months.”
The next weekend Lisa took a major step towards realizing her dream, winning three rounds before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals. The Nasdeq-100 was a Tier I tournament and her ranking climbed to #125, but she only had six weeks to crack the top 100 and was running out of time.
“Dad, I need to do this on my own,” she told me as we drove back to Tampa. “I don’t want you trying to get me a wild card into the French Open.”
She had read my mind, and I must have blushed. Did she know that Georges Hewes had already promised a wild card for Lisa and Pete if they needed it? “Why would I try to do that?” I responded without conviction.
“Dad, I mean it, and I know Pete feels the same way. We want to do this on our own.”
Three weeks later she did, finishing runner-up to Henin-Hardenne in the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. The previous week she had won two rounds in Amelia Island, FL. Lisa was now ranked #93 in the world and had earned her a spot in the French Open.
Agbu spent hours with Bruno going over the drawings to identify weak points in the design of the domes covering the two stadium courts. They were looking for weight bearing supports and stress points. “Here’s something,” Bruno said as he pointed towards the drawings. “Theses eight girders support the dome. If two or three are gone, the domes will cave in under their own weight.”
“Are they concrete or steel?” Agbu asked. “What would it take to blow them?”
The footings are three feet of concrete and the pillars are reinforced steel designed to withstand a significant external force. I don’t think a cement truck could knock them over.”
“So, what good does this do us?” Agbu replied, obviously disappointed.
“They are hollow,” Bruno replied with a humorless grin, knowing he had discovered a way to bring the roof down. “Each pillar houses electrical and plumbing conduits used for the overhead lighting and sprinkler systems. The pillars aren’t designed to withstand an explosion from within. Put a small charge of Semtex about ten meters up and they would buckle like an accordion.”
“How can we get access to them?” Agbu asked as his mind mulled over the possibilities.
“Each pillar has a one square meter panel two feet above ground level. You can also get into them from the top. There is an access panel just beneath where they are bolted into the stationary part of the sliding roof.”
Agbu studied the drawings where the pillars connected to the roof and his attention was drawn to the leading edge of the retractable roof.
“What are these contraptions?” he asked, pointing to devices that protruded from the roof.
“Those are basically locks that insert into the other edge of the roof as it closes, and transmit an electrical charge that shuts off the motors when the roof is sealed.”
Agbu smiled. He had found a way to automatically detonate the explosives when the dome closed.
Ambre and Carlos had no problem qualifying for the French Open. Ambre followed up her semi-final performance at the Australian Open with wins in Japan, Indian Wells and Monte Carlo. Her ranking had jumped to #11 and many pundits believed she was the woman to beat at the French Open. She had never played better and was in the best shape of her life. More importantly, she was happy.
Carlos was ranked #2 in the world and was cruising through the clay court season with wins at Brazil, Acapulco, Monte-Carlo and Rome. He was finally healthy and looking forward to defending his French Open title and dethroning Roger Federer as the #1 player in the world. He was the favorite to win at Roland Garros.
Al-Qaeda had its own plan to disrupt the tournament. Their intent was to create chaos in order to undermine the stability of the French and Spanish governments. Destroying Roland Garros was only secondary to their plans.
The original Al-Qaeda plan was to recruit suicide bombers to drive trucks directly into the stadium entrances. Agbu studied the detail plans and it soon became apparent that a frontal assault would not succeed; the concrete and steel barriers that had been installed were too strong. They considered and later rejected the use of chemical or biological weapons. Most of the Roland Garros grounds were open air. Not even the domes were airtight, as they only provided a roof, not an enclosed environment. Chemicals would disperse too rapidly with any kind of wind.
They finally settled on a plan that relied upon a basic principle of war; if you can’t attack the enemy, get the enemy to come to you. Muhammad outlined his idea. “We need to create chaos in the stadium that will cause the people to panic and exit the stadium and get outside the security perimeter. We will be waiting for them at the Marta subway terminal, train station and parking lots.”
“What about blowing up the stadium?” someone asked.
“Let Agbu and his Basque friends worry about that,” Muhammad replied. “Our goal is to kill as many people as we can and to create instability in Western Europe. I don’t care about buildings.”
“How are we going to get the people out of the stadium?” another Al-Qaeda member asked.
“That’s the beauty of my plan,” Muhammad replied with an evil smile. “Agbu and his friends will do that for us. Let me tell you what I have in mind.”
Twenty minutes later Muhammad finished by saying, “Agbu and the Basque will receive all the credit for this revolting act.”
Chapter 35
Final Inspection