Word: navratilova
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Martina Navratilova was pissed...
...doubles team of Navratilova and Bill Scanlon, a young, scruffy competitor with a hot topspin forehand, had blown a big lead and trailed a pair of unknowns in the deciding set. The DC-9's and the 727's continued to thunder overhead, a loudspeaker bellowed incessantly ("The front exit is the ohnly exit available: please leave immediately"), and now they had run out of tennis balls. It was the end of a long day at U.S. Open. How dare they run out of balls on the two-time defending Wimbledon champion...
Most of all, you're limited by that camera. A day at the Open does not consist of walking to the seat (or number on a bench) listed on your ticket and witnessing every point of every stadium match, unless the match is Connors-Borg or Evert-Navratilova or Nastase-anyone. The real action can be anywhere--the 19,000 seat stadium, the 6,000 seat grandstand or one of the numerous side courts...
Which is what happened to Scanlon and Navratilova. They were minding their own business on a side court, methodically overcoming the less-than-dynamic duo of Van Winitsky and Rayni Fox before a few bored passers-by. Then the crowd started pouring out of the stadium when the final featured match of the day ended. It was time to leave--the night session would start in little more than an hour...
...after seven hours of mind-zapping tennis, were the thousands satisfied? Shit, no! So they descended on this doubles match, rooting for the underdogs so the match could go 3 sets, hoping for an upset, minor as it might be. Winitsky and Fox enjoyed this unexpected support. Was Navratilova amused? No way. A bit unnerved, she and Scanlon did manage to eke out a third-set tiebreaker...