Important people in the background

14th August 2020

Prague Open 2020 is slowly coming to an end and we wanted to pay at least some attention to the tournament staff who are crucial for the tournament even though they are in the background

First up are our hitting partners who aid the players with warm-ups before matches or during their training. A 22 years old Antonin Bolardt, who is one of them, knows TK Sparta Praha very well as he has been a member since he was 15 years old. When the club management asked him to do this he firstly wanted to refuse as he wanted to focus on himself before nationals which will take place next week in Ostrava. “I originally promised only one or two days but I kind of start liking it and today is my 10th day over here. It’s usually two or three of us so we usually rotate but I was here by myself the first three days which was tough. I am hitting partner for the first time, but I know what I signed up for,” said Antonin who has played with at least 15 players during the tournament.

At first, he was assigned to the players depending on his schedule but then the players started requesting him by personally, especially to help them to warm-up before a match. One of the regular "customers" was Genie Bouchard who "seemed a bit tired at the beginning but as the days went by she started to improve so I had to play better tennis as well," he described the practices. And who was the hardest player to play with? “Definitely Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. “She can hit the ball really hard. It was really tough to return the balls and don’t make any mistakes at the same time. I also had quite interesting training with Camila Giorgi who wanted to focus on a netplay so I was just feeding her balls. On the other hand, Marta Kostyuk’s training was more about fitness, running, and working out. We even used a drag broom that we leaned against the net so the net was higher and Marta could play higher balls," young tennis player described the training tactic.

He spends up to 5 hours a day on the courts and when he gets home he has to restring his rackets so that everything is ready for the following day. As a reward, he has received lots of positive praise and thanks from the players. The hard work has been probably paying off as every player who he has been playing with has won afterwards. He also had a chance to hit with several Czech players such as Katerina Siniakova, Barbora Krejcikova, or doubles pair Miriam Kolodziejova and Jesika Maleckova who did not make it easy for him. “I was just having lunch when they rang me that the girls need help with the warm-up before their match. So I had to rush to the courts with a full stomach and let me tell you, I wasn’t feeling very well,” he laughed. His last Czech player was Kristyna Pliskova. “I wasn’t supposed to be here as I was meant to focus on the nationals but then Kristyna asked me personally to prepare her and I couldn’t say no obviously,” said Antonin with a smile.

Another important part of tennis matches are ball guys. We can usually see children in this role, however, according to the current rule of WTA, the ball persons have to be 18 or over. Due to this, you could have noticed 47 years old lva Kodesova among them. She always arrives at the complex an hour before the first match and leaves after the last match of the day. "I'm a big fan of tennis and I also play it recreationally so I contacted the organisers to take upon this role. I wouldn't normally get the opportunity to do this with my age so I've been really enjoying it. The job is really tough, especially in the heat, as we spend 45 minutes on the courts with a face mask on, and only after that we can rotate. I probably drink 5 liters of water a day," described the role Iva Kodesova who is here with 2 other family members. “It’s funny as my 19 years old daughter Michala and 21 years old son Jiri are here as well so I always meet them on the court but there’s no doubt that I’m the oldest here though,” she added with a smile.

And finally, there is also an AntiCovid team that is responsible for cleaning the courts before and after every match. Among their regular duties such as providing clean towels, fresh drinks, and ice, they also have to sanitize benches, a refrigerator with drinks, umpire seats with the microphone, hangers for the towels, or door handles from the entrance doors of the courts.

photo: TK SPARTA PRAHA/Pavel Lebeda (sport-pics.cz)