Jul 19, 2008

Bank of the West Classic notes

Quick-shot artists gear up for a test

By John Reid / Daily News Staff Writer

The Bank of the West's main interactive booth is where one can test how fast one can serve a tennis ball. A radar gun gives an mph rating. The booth is sponsored by the USTA Northern California chapter to raise money for a local charities. Xavier Manalo, a resident of Glendale who works for the USTA/NorCal, runs the booth.

"Among the charities we have are the Youth Tennis Advantage, A New America, the Renassance Entrepreneurship Center," Manalo said. "We're working on helping the inner-city children get into tennis and helping low-income families."

Manalo is more than happy to give a demonstration, and he's very good at it.

"On Tuesday, I hit 120 mph," Manalo said. "That's the fastest I have ever hit it before. I'm not a pro. Pros will traditionally hit 125 mph for the entire match."

On Thursday night, one participant hit 125 mph.



"I can't remember his name, but he is 36 years old," Manalo said. "That's really impressive."

One resident of San Francisco, who used to play tennis at Lowell High, clocked 113 mph, a more than respectable mark.

Manalo's booth has been busy, averaging 40 to 50 sign-ups a day to show what they can do on the service line.
"We expect it to pick up this weekend," Manalo said.



QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I'm a professional time-killer. I can kill time for three hours and not even know what I did. If killing time were in the Olympics, I'd have about 20 gold medals." - Serena Williams, when asked how she killed time before her match with Patty Schnyder.



RUNNER-UP QUOTE OF THE DAY: "My experience on the runway and working with other models. Uhhmmmmmmm ... " - A fashion show model who was inadvertently heard over the Taube Family Tennis Stadium sound system during the Ai Sugiyama-Dominika Cibulkova match.

The question: "What do you enjoy most about modeling?"