Australian umpire John Blom has been in the midst of the loudest of tennis crowds and enjoyed every moment of it. But the ongoing WTA Hyderabad Open is an altogether different experience for him.
Accustomed to the incessant shouting at cricket matches, the Hyderabad crowds have abandoned the accepted orderly behaviour at tennis matches and turned on the setting by a few decibels.
"The people are so enthusiastic. It's amazing how they get behind the local girl Sania [Mirza]," said Blom, after the Indian teenager's first round game against Delia Sescioreanu on Tuesday.
It was the second day in a row that Blom had to officiate a match involving Sania. He was also the umpire for her doubles match, where she teamed up with Shikha Uberoi on Monday to beat Na Li and Chin-Wei Chan.
So annoyed was he by the unruly crowd that he quipped: "I'll just ask for a game on court number four and relax tomorrow."
The Australian, who pursues umpiring as a hobby in between Political Science lessons at university, has officiated in India before. He was one of the chair umpires during India's Davis Cup tie against South Korea in New Delhi in 2000.
"I understand the crowd really wants to support their local player and the atmosphere is really good. But the only thing, I think, inappropriate is the spectators whistling. They do it without realizing that it is offensive. When they shout it is distracting for both the players, and even Sania can lose out because of that.
"You can't do much in these situations. Even holding the game up could only be in extreme cases. Basically, I told the players before the game that there will be a lot of noise and you just have to bock it up.
"But this is India. You expect people to come out in huge numbers."
Indeed, people are thronging the SAAP stadium. The capacity of the stadium is 3,500, but on the first two days around 6,000 people filled in.
"Last year we had around 3,000 people for the final of the Open but this year the record has been broken on the very first day," informed tournament director Krishna Bhupathi.
People are falling over each other to catch a glimpse of Sania Mirza. Even when all of Sania's matches are scheduled in the evening, quite a number trudge in before noon to see their superstar. Everyone with pen, paper and accreditation badge of any sort is asked the same question: 'When is Sania going to play?'
And though the crowd is unruly at times, cheering even when play is on, the players are not unduly bothered.
"I know they are all there for me," said Sania.
The other players too are lapping the atmosphere.
Alyona Bondarenko, who beat India's Ankita Bhambri on day one of the tournament, said the crowd was loud but the atmosphere electric.
Tatiana Panova of Russia lost to Shahar Peer in a first round match that was also punctuated by unrestrained clapping and shouting. But she too confessed later that she loved every moment playing on centre court.
Once play begins, she felt, "it is the player's job to shut out the distractions".
On Tuesday, tennis legend Martina Navratilova was supposed to conduct a tennis clinic for kids on the outside courts. The children started lining up from five in the evening to meet the lady.
Moments with Martina
Navratilova had to first complete a practice session while the kids watched her from the sidelines. A while later, the 48-year-old played some courtesy points with a few important men from Hyderabad. They were Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Mohan Kanda, Additional Chief Secretary Raghottam Rao and the DGP Swaranjit Sen.
Eventually, the coaching clinic ended up being another autograph session. The children gathered anything at hand, from scraps of paper to racquet covers, to get the signature of the winner of a record number of 18 singles, 31 doubles and nine mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. As time did not permit, the clinic was called closed after a photo session.
"No one got to play," said a disappointed participant.
Doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi, the managing director of organizers Globosport, played with the kids for a while and did well in maintaining order at the proceedings.
He summed up the evening best: "It was a meet and greet session for Navratilova; I'm sure the kids enjoyed it."
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