Our Research Project - Experiment Reports

At The
U.S. Open
(Page 9)

11 Days at the Open

For the next 11 days, the team dedicated itself to filming a digital video archive of the world's best players. The team began with the first match ever filmed on the new stadium, filming the young American star Venus Williams. Through the course of our stay we were able to film virtually all the top players who played at least one match on center court. A partial list includes: Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Tomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera, Monica Seles, Mary Pierce, Marcelo Rios, Tim Henman, Patrick Rafter, Mary Jo Fernandez and Lindsay Davenport.

The days began with the team arriving at 9am to set up for the first match at 10am, and then usually filming 3-4 additional matches, sometimes ending well after midnight. Many nights after staying to label and catalogue the day's data, John took the #7 subway train back to Manhattan where the team was staying at 2am or later--although he was occasionally able to catch a ride in John McEnroe's car when their schedules coincided. After arriving back in the city, most nights he then spent a half hour or more reporting the day's events to Principal Investigator Jani Macari Pallis in California. No doubt the days were very long--but the excitement of doing groundbreaking research at the Open kept the team happy and motivated. Arriving on the grounds John found that, no matter how tired he felt, the tournament provided an unlimited source of fresh adrenaline to keep things moving.

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