By Alex Waske
(1998-2000)
Aztec Waske emailed his ATP tour diary to Aztec Tennis Reporter from the road. This episode took place in 2002.
ADELAIDE, Australia —
Dear Diary: We went to book flights to Auckland and a friend was supposed to get somebody to hit with me at noon.
The travel agent took a little longer than expected. I got to the courts at 11:55. I went to the office to check which court I am on and who I hit with: Court 4 Sampras + Waske.
Yeah, right! I thought it was a joke my buddy made and was expecting him to show at 12 with a grin on his face but the lady in the office told me that Pete was looking for a right-hander to hit with before his match against Todd Martin.
So I took my stuff and ran to the courts where Pete was already stretching and waiting for me! I introduced myself, had a pulse of 220, and went on the court.
It was very windy. He took the side against the wind, and I had a hard time against his flat, hard strokes to get under the ball. I was on my toes, ran after ball; he was on the back of his feet, didn’t make a step, but still did not miss a shot.
It was a good hit. I was satisfied, and when it came to serves, I shot some bullets over (still the wind at my back) and Pete just stepped aside. He wanted no business trying to return those. He was laughing about how hard I hit them.
His coach tried to walk towards the area I was hitting them. I don’t know why, but I hit him really hard. Pete laughed even harder. His coach mumbled something about World
War III.
It started raining and we stopped. I would have loved to play a couple of points, but…
They thanked me for my time (like I wouldn’t get up at 4 a.m. to hit with him). So I replied, “My pleasure.” and left.
I had a flight to catch!