Love Game - Season 2012 Read Online Free Page B

December she had been
crowned Queen of the Love Game, a game all the chair umpires played. Every
umpire had four guesses at which players would come together as a couple. At
the end of the season, during the Year End Championships, the umpire who had
guessed right won a prize. It was always a potted plant. Lynn had won it the
previous year and the year before. All in all she had won it many times. She
simply was the best at spotting prospective love birds.
    “I usually give them away for Christmas,”
she admitted. Alice nodded. Life on the tour never really allowed for making a
home with a garden or pets. Or relationships.
    “How do you plan to defend your title?”
Alice asked and Lynn smiled at her use of tennis terminology.
    “I’ll keep my eyes open,” she said. “We
still have until the Australian Open to place our bets.”
    The screech of a moving chair made them
look up. Anastasia Stea, another chair umpire, made her way through the table
rows and waved to them. Lynn checked her watch. Anastasia had umpired the
evening match between the top seed, Natsumi Takashima, and the Canadian, Polly
Duke. It had started only about an hour ago.
    “That was quick,” Lynn stated when
Anastasia sat down with them. She would have expected a closer match, but one
hour suggested a very fast dispatch of the Canadian. “Natsumi must have been on
fire.”
    “Nope,” Anastasia sighed. “She got bageled
in the first set and lost the second 3-6. It was pretty horrible to watch.”
    “Oh dear,” Alice said. “Hope she will do
better in Sydney.”
    Even though the players trained hard in the
off-season to stay fit, it wasn’t uncommon for them to have a slow start.
Upsets were characteristic of the first tournaments of the year.
    “So, where were we?” Alice turned back to
Lynn. “Who do you have in mind for the Love Game?”
    “Yes,” Anastasia threw in. “Give me a hint
so I have a fighting chance.”
    Lynn grinned smugly. “I really don’t know
yet. But I have an eye on Sasha.”
    “Sasha?” Alice frowned. “Certainly her
engagement disqualifies her.” Lynn bit her lip. Of course, Alice was unaware of
Sasha’s preferences. Only a few people knew about the player’s interest in women
let alone Anastasia’s intermezzo with Sasha half a year ago. Anastasia moved
uncomfortably in her chair.
    “You’re right,” Lynn said quickly. “I just
tried to fool Anastasia.”
    Both Alice and Anastasia chuckled and Lynn
relaxed, while her thoughts wandered back two months to an evening in Istanbul
during the Year End Championships. Sasha had stormed through the full room,
throwing herself on Candice’s apprentice, Tom Richardson, and had screamed
wildly about pictures. Her fiancé, Jaroslav Bradka, a defensive football player
for a British premier league team, had run after her, slipped on the spilled
fruit punch – and had knocked out his soon-to-be wife with a kick in the nose.
After that they had rushed Sasha to the hospital, and the Czech player hadn’t been
seen for the rest of the off-season.
    Lynn wasn’t sure what she was looking for.
She wasn’t sure what was going on. But something was. She just had to keep her
eyes open.
     
    ***
     
     
    Heavily, Gabriella sat down on the locker
room bench. The metal of the locker door was cold on her back but she
was too disappointed and exhausted to move away from it. This hadn't
happened in months, if not years! Ousted from a tournament in the first round.
By an aging player ranked way below her. Moreover, Sofia Thrassa had sustained
an ankle injury in the Asian swing three months back and word had it that she
hadn’t started training until mid-December. Gabriella on the other hand had
begun her off-season training as soon as she had moved to Florida, first
hitting with Elise and Amanda, then working scrupulously with Fredrik Nordström
on a few things to improve her game.
    She had felt fantastic upon coming to New
Zealand.
    But now she sat in the locker room