1998 Lipton: Korda Takes On the Paraguayan Nation Marsha's Lipton Diary, Saturday, March 21 By Marsha Strong

    Today it is off to my favorite court, the Grandstand, for a delightful match between Petr Korda and Ramon Delgado of Paraguay.

    My side of the the Grandstand, the East side, is packed with very vocal Paraguayans and several national flags. I thought, "Geez, poor Ramon! He has to play not just to do himself proud, but on him rests the honor of an entire country!" He's a kinda little guy: that sort of pressure seems unfair to me.

    The first set went pretty much Korda's way, with Delgado only able to hold his serve twice. In the second set, however, the Paraguayan was much more able to find his range and broke Korda to force a second-set tie-break. With each successive game, the already vocal pro-Ramon crowd got louder and louder, urging the Paraguayan to play his best. But the tennis gods and goddesses -- with the help of some at least questionable line calls -- had other ideas. The tie-break, and the match, went to "Woodstock".

    Now the crowd has come to expect a little post-match "show" from Petr, and it almost looked as if this crowd was going to be disappointed. But no! Just as he reached the last step before exiting the Grandstand, out came the patented Korda scissor-kick! The fans expressed their approval with thunderous applause. All in all, a very satisfying end to a lovely match.
 

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