Wednesday October 14, 2009
Tsonga and Verdasco play match on high speed train
SHANGHAI: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Verdasco, acclaimed for their speed around the court, admitted to feeling a little nervous themselves as they played a modified exhibition match while hurtling around Shanghai in one of the world’s fastest commercial high-speed trains.
Billed as the “fastest tennis in the world,” seventh-ranked Tsonga of France took on ninth-ranked Spaniard Verdasco on a mini-tennis court laid down in one of Shanghai’s high-speed Maglev trains yesterday as it reached a cruising speed of 431kph (268mph) during the seven minutes and 20 seconds it took to make the 30km trip from Longyard Rail Road station in Pudong to the Pudong International Airport.
“The feeling is special because we are going faster than our serve and it’s crazy,” said Tsonga, who along with Verdasco is in Shanghai for the Shanghai Masters. “You are a little bit nervous when it’s really fast.”
While Verdasco enjoyed the train ride, he wasn’t so sure about the standard of tennis on board.
High-speed tennis: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (left) of France and Fernando Verdasco of Spain play on a miniature tennis court inside a Maglev (magnetic levitation) train in Shanghai yesterday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament. — AFP “For the first time in tennis, nobody won,” Verdasco joked. “For me, it was the first time to be (travelling in a train) over 400 (kph). If we don’t crash I’m not afraid.”
At the Shanghai Masters, Verdasco and Tsonga are vying to qualify for a berth at the year-end ATP World Tour Finals starting on Nov 22 in London.
Verdasco, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals in January, is currently in seventh place on the list of potential candidates to take the final three spots in the exclusive eight-man tournament.
Tsonga, who helped his cause last week when he won the Japan Open, is sitting in 10th place on the list. Other likely candidates to score one of the three remaining spots are Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko, Gilles Simon and Robin Soderling. — AP
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