Love Game - Season 2011 Read Online Free PDF Page A

new status as the queen of the WTA.
     
     
    ***
     
     
     
    Candice Crantz closed the door of the bleak room she was using as a temporary office at the Brisbane tournament and walked over to open the window to the backside of the tournament buildings. The regular announcements of scores  by the chair umpires drifted over from the outside courts and mingled with the humming sound of the ventilation system. A few players were sitting in the sun behind the players’ lounge and chatted while waiting for their matches.
    With a loud sigh Candice turned away from the window and sat down in her office chair. Her day had been stressful and hectic so far and it was far from over. In the morning she had one by one handled journalists’ requests about the exchange of the French players with Elise Renard. She had then picked up Elise and her father from the airport to give them a briefing and conduct a little interview with the young German for the website, before overseeing Elise’s short one-on-one interviews with a few selected journalists and TV channels.
    She then had time to get back to one of her freelancers who had tried to reach her all morning. Archie was scheduled to join them in a week in Sydney and then travel with the tour for most of the year doing short video tidbits and fun interviews with the players. But what he had to say wasn’t making Candice’s day any better.
    “I’ll be a dad!” he had blurted into the phone. Dutifully, Candice had congratulated the enthusiastic video producer but anticipated the bad news that followed on the spot.
    “I can’t possibly go on with the tour,” Archie had explained.
    And that was that. Now Candice had to find another adventurer who was willing to join the erratic tour life between tournament sites, hotel rooms and airports. She picked up her phone and began to dial the number of her colleague at the Hopman Cup to finalize the PR work on the players’ exchange. Perhaps he would know someone who would be available on short notice until Sydney.
     
                 
    ***
     
     
     
    “Here are the facts. We have never played her, so we don’t know who might do better against her. But she is a tall Russian who hits the ball flat and hard. She is basically a ball basher like me. Moreover, she hates coming to the net. So you will play her.”
    Luella and Gabriella Galloway were sitting in the shadow of two large trees behind the practice courts. Only the sound of smacked balls and occasional shouts from the players disturbed the silence of the sweltering afternoon. A sheet with the tournament’s draw was spread before them.
    Since they were ten years old, the American twins had worked their way through tournaments by choosing beforehand which sister would play which opponent, depending on game style and preference. What had started as a dare among the twins, had become a very successful, very elaborate habit. In the last two years Gaga and Lulu, as they were called, had worked their way up the rankings and both had entered the Top 20 a few months ago.
    It was a highly illegal team effort that had forced them to adopt several precautionary measures. The sisters spent whole evenings matching their appearances and even more time on their motions. Their game styles naturally differed and four years ago, before their first professional season, they had molded their game styles at their parents’ private tennis court to suit the overall game plan. Gaga had spent a whole summer acquiring Lulu’s powerful, dashing serve, while Lulu got some lessons in Gaga’s agile, versatile all-court game.
    Since they started on the tour, their coaches were routinely ousted every six months before they had a chance to understand the nature of the twins’ elusiveness and unteachability. Not even their parents, while assuming that their daughters took turns sometimes, seemed to grasp the extent of their mischief. Their behavior was attributed to their exclusive twin status. All in