Showing Off: The MSG Exo

Yesterday was one of those nexuses of malfunction that challenge your idea of yourself, your own efficacy and your place in the universe. Other than that, it was a nice day. Naw, kidding. It wasn’t nice in any way, from the carsickness that swamped me on a Greyhound bus from Vermont, which left White River Junction at 8:30 am, which meant I’d been up since 6, to the discovery that I’d left my ticket to the exhibition in VT and also my cell phone charger. I couldn’t print out another copy of the ticket from my email because my printer hasn’t had a working cartridge for months. No neighbors were home. I ended up schlepping to Kinko’s and being told after pointless fuming at one of their rental computers that Kinko’s “doesn’t get Yahoo” anymore. Nope. They don’t have access to one of the most widely used email sites in the world. They only tell you after you’ve inserted your debit card and been charged, too, by the way. Fun times. I finally lugged my laptop into the city thinking I’d just show the MSG guys the page where I had my ticket. Crazy, upset thinking. MSG guys don’t want to look at a page on your laptop. But luckily they found the ticket with my debit card.

I got to my seat in time to see Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki break from fiercely dueling and start dancing with members of the audience on the court. First Caroline ran out and danced to the between-sets music in the middle of the court in a brave but slightly cringe-making way. She has a lot of guts/foolishness. Then she ran over to the sidelines and pulled a little blond girl out of the stands – the two of them danced together, which was cute. The audience roared approval. Maria S. looked askance at the display, and turned to her own end of the audience with her hands leveled outward, seeming to ask, “how am I supposed to deal with that?” She boogied a little bit, sarcastically, on her own, and then she pulled a bald gent out of the crowd and danced with him. The whole thing felt like a sardonic parody of Wozniacki, not a friendly gesture to equal the Danish girl’s high spirits.

Maria’s snarkiness was confirmed at the end. She icily commented to Mary Jo Fernandez that she and Caroline “didn’t get much time to hit out there.” This was a not-too-subtle dig at her opponent, whose game fell to pieces after the raillery with golfer Rory McIlroy (Wozniacki pulled him on court and made him play a point against Sharapova). The steely Sharapova was evidently hoping for a longer clash, given that her winning seemed fairly certain. But Sharapova really dug the knife in a moment later. Asked about Rory M’s play against her, she said, “He won more points than Caroline did.” The crowd roared at this trash talk; Wozniacki seemed genuinely hurt. “That was not very nice,” she gasped to Maria. And it wasn’t. Sharapova’s tomfoolery had a real edge to it.

For a lesson in how to be jokingly insulting without a trace of real sting, Maria, see Andy Roddick. “I’m so sick of you it’s unbelievable” he shouted at Federer after one of the Legend’s net cords dropped over for a winner. Federer grinned, as well he should at the veiled compliment. “You make 95% of those net cords,” Roddick went on. “It’s not fair.” See, that’s how it’s done – while crabby, he pays tribute.

Andy and Roger were a study in contrasting humor styles -- i.e., Roddick had one, and Federer didn’t really go there. From the start, it was clear the American had decided he’d be the clown if not the winner. Federer? He didn’t have anything to prove either way, and the truth is, tennis is pretty serious to Federer even in an exhibition. So it was Roddick who worked the crowd, like the alpha male at a barbecue, but it was Federer who drew the loudest cheers. Yes, oddly enough, Andy wasn’t the crowd favorite. There were too many sports fans and internationalists present for the native son aspect to matter.

At first, Roddick seemed content to play the fool while Federer glided around like the Velvet Fog. Then he, Andy, eked out the first set, and the prospect of a competitive match reared a tentative head. If Federer’s shots cracked like whips, Andy’s started to too. The men played crisp, authoritative tennis, mostly using corner-to-corner style rather than serve and volleying. But, uh, I’m not actually sure how Roddick managed to beat Roger. I always lose track of critical matters like this. I think “it just came down to a point or two” applies here, since they finished the match with a tiebreak.

Mostly I enjoy watching their dynamic, which I found most tellingly on display during the warm-up. At one point Roddick was feeding high balls for Roger to volley, and doing it perfectly – the ball went seamlessly back and forth as Andy looped balls upward and Roger chopped them back. It started to look like a choreographed circus routine – a perfect circuit of a lofted ball angled back with a crisp cut. I marveled at how well these players worked together – they seemed almost like an old married couple, deeply familiar with each other's moves and instincts. Then the shoe was on the other foot, or was it? Roger kind of shafted some high-ish balls back for Roddick and Andy volleyed a few of them, but the seamlessness was gone. As in many matters with these two, Roger seemed a trifle above the whole thing – he lacks Roddick’s perfectly honed sporting instincts. He carelessly hit some of his feeding balls into the net, so Roddick didn’t get the volleying practice he’d had. Then it was over. They were ready to compete.