The French Open is coming upon us, and that is a beautiful thing. I think it is the second hardest major tournament to win after the US Open – being in shape is a must.
The player’s receive a per diem, so many stay in various hotels or apartments around the city, instead of the usual main player residence. I played doubles a few times there, and just like my career, had mediocre results. In ’92 and ’93, I partnered with Dave Randall – the best player ever to come out of Missisippi.
He used to play the deuce side with me, and he would return serve by holding the racket like he was riding a motorcycle, the racket being parallel to the net. He was a nice church going fella, and we broke into the doubles ranks together. Unlike now, where a player’s singles ranking can be used to gain entry into the 64 team draw, it was strictly done by a player’s individual doubles ranking. While Dave was going to bed early, you could catch me a few times at the La Banduche nightclub some evenings.
It was a fun place to go, always packed with girls who were in magazines around the world.
The Saturday before the tourney would start, they would use to have the Bennie Berthet Day. This was when players would play a practice set against each other, to get used to the courts. It was free of charge, and a lot of kids would show up and watch the pros play. I use to play the legendary Mansour Bahrami in an exhibition. When I played him, I always felt like I was the Washington Generals playing against the Harlem Globetrotters.
The tournament used to have a great deal for the players, where we could eat for free at the Hard Rock Cafe by showing our player badge. I must admit I ate a lot of burger’s that week.
The first week of a Grand Slam is always packed with people – I rarely made it to the second week so I wouldn’t know what the feeling was like being in an empty lockerroom. We would tune up our games before our matches at the Racing Club of Paris – a beautiful club nestled in the heart of the city. The locker room was cool in that they had a loft where they have TVs lined up next to each other showing the matches on every court. It was great to sit there and watch the action, but it could be very draining. Roland Garros is a historic tennis palace, and I miss playing there tremendously.
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