Marsha's Lipton Diary: The "Qualies" Wednesday, March 18 By Marsha Strong

  I have arrived. As I set foot on the sacred ground of the venue known as Lipton, the words of Stevie Nick's song "Gypsy" seem to reach me: "So I'm back / To a place that I love / To the gypsy that I was."

  My last year's experience at Lipton was a near-perfect one. Can this year possibly match up? I think that must be unlikely. Already, things have started out not-so-well.

  And yet... here I am and already I can feel my tennis-self taking over. Why do we, the die-hards of tennis fanship, have this fascination for spending hours in the burning sun to watch two (or four) people batting a fuzzy yellow ball between them? I wonde

  I head to the Guest Services booth to get a schedule of play. It is the last day of women's qualifying, with some men's doubles qualifying thrown in for good measure. I found myself attracted to a rematch from last year's main draw. Lindsay Lee is a young

  The match, first up on Court 3, was nearly over before I got there. Dechy, younger but more poised, was very much in control of the match, allowing Lindsay very few openings of any kind. The disappointingly lopsided match ended at 6-1, 6-1.

  As usual, while watching the match I also took note of who "of interest" might show up in the stands. I happened to spy Alexandra Fusai, accompanied by her mom and an older gentleman I didn't recognize. At first I thought she was probably there to support

  I wandered "next door" to Court 4 to watch the match between Tatiana Panova of Russia and Mariana Díaz Oliva of Argentina. This was an exciting, much closer match than the Lee-Dechy match had been, although Mariana prevailed in straight sets. Both of thes

  However, Díaz Oliva seems less in the "Argentinian mold" than her countrywomen Labat, Gorrochategui or Paz, who all seem to more or less follow the Gaby form. Díaz Oliva's strokes are much less loopy and she has a kind of sparkle when she plays. And unlik

  Her opponent looked much less enthusiastic. Granted, she was behind for the entire match, so perhaps that's a reason. But I've seen Tatiana play several times: she almost never smiles. Being only 5'3" tall, of course she plays at a distinct disadvantage.

  Looking around the stands, again I see Alexandra Fusai (with just her mom now!), still scribbling away. I would see her again at every qualie match I attended. Apparently she was scouting them all out, risking no surprise in her first round. For this disp
 

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